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www.celtic-connection.com
MAY 2010
The Apprentice: My Years at Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast
By ERIC KITSON
[This is a follow up to my last story "My War Years" published in the March 2010 issue of The Celtic Connection.}
The period 1944 to 1951 was one of the busiest at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
Shipping companies were rebuilding their fleets to replace those sunk in the war and all 17 slipways were continually occupied. The company employed over 30,000 men.
In 1944 I was 14 and prior to my apprenticeship, H & W employed me as a messenger boy.
I started work not in the shipyard, but in a large mansion, Rathmore House, near Dunmurry, Co. Antrim where H & W had their engine offices.
My job was to take care of inter-office mail, I also filled in on the telephone switchboard.
I had a little milk delivery business going for which I got tips, which helped supplement my meagre 10 shillings a week.
Early in 1946, we all moved to newly built offices in theshipyardjustintime for me to see the launching of HMS Eagle by Princess Elizabeth in March.
The new offices were modern and bright and included the tracing office, full of beautiful young ladies which was an added bonus.
Finally, in June I started my apprenticeship. H & W operated a school where apprentices were given three months training in basic wiring.
They had a large steel plate representing a ship's bulkhead (wall), where you welded brass studs to mount electrical equipment. When completed it was all chiselled off again for the next lesson.
I was doing just that when a heavy unsecured electrical box fell on my head giving me a nasty gash. You can imagine how my mother felt, me injured the first week on the job.
When our initial schooling was over we were all transferred to the shop where we made up temporary lights for the ships.
For time-keeping purposes, everyone was given a "board," a piece of wood about 2 "x3" with a number on it.
You picked it up in the morning and dropped it off at the end of your shift.
It was also used for borrowing tools and when you went to the toilet. The toilets were nicknamed "the seven minutes" as that was all the time you were allotted.
On our next move, we were split up and were sent to different ships being outfitted around the yard.
I went to the Loch Garth, a cargo/ passenger ship just newly launched, which meant it was completely bare inside - just steel.
I was assigned to an electrician and became his helper. I worked on this ship
until its completion six months later and was then transferred to her sister ship the Loch Avon.
I was just there a short time when they sent me to a maintenance squad in the "Main Yard." The squad's responsibility was the main yard gantry (where Titanic was built), the Abercorn yard tower cranes and the plating shops etc.
In the morning, I would accompany one of the electricians (Bill) on his rounds. If things were slow, Bill would tell me to "get lost," so I would climb up to the cabin of one of the tower cranes where Jack the operator always liked a bit of company.
Jack had been in the air force during the war and had been the tail gunner of a Wellington bomber. I asked him if he had ever shot down any German
fighters. He said, "no, the b-s were
too fast."
Moving again. This time it was a cushy job in a sub station. Picture a large room with two motor generators, a switchboard with meters and circuit breakers, and a polished tile floor with only another apprentice and myself occupying it.
Our job was to take meter readings and make sure power to the ships on the stocks was uninterrupted, also keep everything polished and clean.
At that time I was learning to ballroom dance and I would practice my steps waltzing round the generators.
After two months, the other apprentice was transferred and I became "head boy."
My replacement was extremely thin, which earned him the nickname Belsen. One day I skipped out to go to the toilets which were nearby.
I was just slipping off my pants when Belsen came dashing in. A circuit breaker had tripped and wouldn't close again. I had learned a trick or two and soon had things back to normal.
Back to the ships again, this time to a whale factory ship, the Thorshavet. At that time there was a flurry of whaling ships, two small French warships converted with harpoon guns on the forecastle and another new factory ship the Juan Peron.
While working on the Thorshavet, another factory ship came in for renovations, the Baleana, she was just back from whaling and stunk. Unfortunately, the squad I was in was sent over for a week to do some work.
Because I was going to night school, I was given a trade scholarship in electrical engineering at Belfast's College of Technology.
The course had apprentices from all over Ulster. There were two ex-servicemen in the class, one had been in the RAF, the other, surprisingly was an American and had chosen to take his ex GI education grant in Belfast.
All too soon, I was back in overalls and transferred to the Alexander yard maintenance squad.
The area covered was the building slipways and the dry dock. As the ships then were all DC current, we had
ERIC KITSON is shown above working at the Burrard Shipyards following his arrival in Vancouver.
lubricating oil pipe broke and the electrician and I were drenched in oil. Luckily it hadn't been running too long so it was just warm, not hot.
We dried off as much as we could and were allowed to go home but mother had to do the laundry. As I was doing well at night school, I was offered the chance to finish the last six months of my time in the electrical drawing office.
Ofcourse,Ijumpedatthechance. The office was quite large with about 20 men, half doing commercial ships, the rest naval ships. I was naval and as Eagle was finishing off I was sent on board for a while, listing equipment and checking drawings.
I finished my apprenticeship in the drawing office and continued working there as an electrical draughtsman for the next two years. In 1953,1 emigrated to Canada.
mercury arc rectifiers to produce DC.
They were large glass bulbs about three-feet high and had about a cupful of mercury at the bottom.
One day one of them broke and the boss had us down on the floor trying to pick it up. It's not called quicksilver for nothing and it was a difficult task. At that time we still hadn't heard of mercury poisoning.
My next move was to the electrical repair shop. Ships that came back for refit, would have their control gear for their winches, compressors, pumps etc. fixed up with new contacts and insulators. This was my first experience of bench work.
Another "plant" job this time to the engine works. H & W built most of the diesel and steam turbine engines that were installed in their ships.
The electrical work involved all the lathes, milling machines, overhead cranes etc., so it was very varied. Some of the engines were two stories high and it used to fascinate me to see them making the huge crankshafts for them.
Back to the ships again, this time to HMS Eagle. There were three other aircraft carriers that were not being worked on at all. One of them, HMS Powerful, was to be completed later for the Canadian navy and renamed HMCS Bonaventure.
The Eagle was one of the biggest carriers of her day, sister ship to the Ark Royal and I kept getting lost on it for the first week or so.
During lunch hour, if you walked along a typical passageway and peeped in the various rooms, there might be a poker game being played, or perhaps a religious group having a prayer meeting.
My next move was to the test house attached to the manufacturing shop, where they built electric motors.
My job was to check the insulation of the coils for faults using high voltage. One day we were sent to the engine works to help test a huge diesel engine.
The engineers had coupled a large generator to it and we loaded it up using a resistor bank.
Everything was going just fine, when a
Portland Prepares
to Welcome the North American Festival of Wales
By EIFION WILLIAMS
The North American Festival of Wales, featuring the 79th Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu, the largest Welsh cultural gathering in North America, will be held this year in Portland, Oregon.
The last time the Festival was held in the Pacific Northwest was in Richmond. B.C.,in2003.
The Festival will run for four days from September 2-5 and will feature musical events, seminars, workshops, local tours and many other activities. The Festival will also feature well-known guest performers from Wales and North America.
The North American Festival of Wales has evolved from the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association's annual hymn-singing gathering, which was first held in Niagara Falls, New York, in 1929. The two-session Sunday Gymanfa Ganu is still the highlight of the four-day festival and invariably attracts a large gathering.
The guest conductor this year is Eirian Owen, musical director of Cor Godre'r Aran, one of Wales' most famous male choirs.
Cor Godre'r Aran will be the guest performers at the Gala Concert on Saturday night. (Following the Festival, the Choir will tour the Pacific Northwest, with concerts planned in Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver).
The evening Gymanfa session will be conducted by Rhiannon Evans Acree from Long Beach, California.
The Festival will also include the NAFOW Eisteddfod, a traditional Welsh musical and literary competition. A major feature of the Eisteddfod is the David G. Morris Award for Semi-Pro fessional Soloists, with the winner receiving a trip to Wales to compete in the 2011 National Eisteddfod.
Among the other planned activities are Welsh language lessons, Cinema Wales - a sample of Welsh films sponsored by the Welsh Assembly - and a Marketplace and Tea Room to sample Welsh products.
Seminar topics will include Welsh Dog Breeds, Welsh Gold Miners and My Favourite 25 Welsh-Americans.
During the Festival, acclaimed author Rhys Bowen plans to launch her latest book in Her Royal Spyness series, entitled Royal Blood. Bowen will also hold a special Meet and Greet Reception at the Festival Hotel on Friday evening.
The Festival opens on Thursday night with a Folk Concert featuring popular Seattle harpist Bronn Journey and soprano Katherine Journey.
The featured soloist at the Annual National Welsh American Foundation (NWAF) Award Banquet on Friday evening will be baritone Glynn Morris from Bangor, North Wales.
Daytime activities will also include folk dancing with Welsh dance instructor Sian Frick and music by popular Northwest trio Beltaine, who specialize in Celtic and traditional music from around the world.
Visitors seeking a break from Festival events can opt to j oin a tour of various locations around Portland or simply appreciate the natural beauty of this most scenic of American states.
Among the tour options offered by Festival organizers are a visit to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, home of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, and a trip to the Columbia River Gorge, a U.S. federally designated National Scenic Area.
Further information on the North American Festival of Wales can be found online at: www.nafow.org.