Did the yards work night shift?

Dave Herbal said:
I have memories of lying in bed as a kid in seaburn dene, with the window open, and hearing distant industrial clanging noises. Would it have been the yards, or the maybe the railways?
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My biggest memory of living in Seaburn Dene as a kid was the sound of the Class 37 hauled coal trains from Wearmouth Pit during the night.

 


molthemackem said:
Deptford worked n/s as did Pallion and Northsands. I worked a few fittings out at Northsands at the quayside. The fab sheds worked on sections to ready for the beth/slipway. Some great times, warm nights and freezing alike in fact one year in the early 80's ,winter time, I recall the side shell of the ship berthed at Manor Quay froze up as did the river, the only time I have seen ice floes in the Wear. At Deptford they used to send a lad up, on a Friday night, to the Earl Percy where I used to drink , with Billy fans to fill with beer as did the lads who worked at Pyrex on N/S. Grand days and loads of memories.
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Winter 85 iirc. Ice floes in the wear. Front page of the echo said the govt weather station on top of the polytechnic roof registered as the coldest place in Europe or northern hemisphere that night. I can’t remember which it was.
 
Aye, th
riffraff said:
Winter 85 iirc. Ice floes in the wear. Front page of the echo said the govt weather station on top of the polytechnic roof registered as the coldest place in Europe or northern hemisphere that night. I can’t remember which it was.
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are right. -14........happy days down the yards
 
Dave Herbal said:
I have memories of lying in bed as a kid in seaburn dene, with the window open, and hearing distant industrial clanging noises. Would it have been the yards, or the maybe the railways?
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They did. My dad said when he did it for the first time everyone couldn't believe he hadn't brought his sleeping bag in. He said until then he had thought the night shift had built all the ships because nowt was done on day shift either.
 
Funny how Pickies put a ship in the water every 6 weeks or so if no fucker was doing any graft like.
riffraff said:
Winter 85 iirc. Ice floes in the wear. Front page of the echo said the govt weather station on top of the polytechnic roof registered as the coldest place in Europe or northern hemisphere that night. I can’t remember which it was.
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I was in Bremerhaven, the old West Germany during the winter of 81/82.
It went down to minus 25 one night.
 
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Butcher's Coat said:
Funny how Pickies put a ship in the water every 6 weeks or so if no fucker was doing any graft like.

I was in Bremerhaven, the old West Germany during the winter of 81/82.
It went down to minus 25 one night.
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Oof. I’ve been on top of a mountain when your hair was frozen and it was only -18.
 
Butcher's Coat said:
Funny how Pickies put a ship in the water every 6 weeks or so if no fucker was doing any graft like.

I was in Bremerhaven, the old West Germany during the winter of 81/82.
It went down to minus 25 one night.
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Built themselves, mate, earliest form of automation. Sleeping nightshifts, strikes, lazy workforce, catching fish, drinking beer, no actual work done. 12/14 ships annually launched at Pickies peak was down to Harry Potter type magic, not graft!
 
riffraff said:
Winter 85 iirc. Ice floes in the wear. Front page of the echo said the govt weather station on top of the polytechnic roof registered as the coldest place in Europe or northern hemisphere that night. I can’t remember which it was.
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This was when i started, 16 years old i thought W.T.F!!
 
Pickys definitely did, lived on the slope, can remember me Mam putting extra curtains up to block out the noise and flashing from the welding.
 
c032745y said:
Built themselves, mate, earliest form of automation. Sleeping nightshifts, strikes, lazy workforce, catching fish, drinking beer, no actual work done. 12/14 ships annually launched at Pickies peak was down to Harry Potter type magic, not graft!
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:lol:
No-one said the graft didn't get done.
The real magic involved was managing to be one of the biggest shipbuilding rivers in the World whilst also not letting it get in the way of a good night out/good night's sleep.
 
ravydavygravy said:
There was bother at OGN (was Amec, now Smulders) a few years back over some unwritten rule that if someone died everyone got the day off? Pretty sure it led to a strike.

Nee hiding over there now like. The Belgium's have them riding around on bicycles lol.
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When I was working at AMEC through the Tyne..it was just before the 1994 World Cup Finals..i went in one morning to find out a lad had been killed during the night on one of the barges..a mooring rope had given way and the recoil killed him..all the workers had gone home by the time I got there..the way I've been taught is if someone dies then you go home..a mark of respect..plus the HSE and an investigation will be going on..our gaffer and manager told us it was up to us if we went home but we wouldn't be getting paid..out of about 20 of us about 15 went home..we came in the next morning to find out we'd been sacked..we went to see the manager and he said we were in violation of our contracts.
 
Cheesy Feet said:
When I was working at AMEC through the Tyne..it was just before the 1994 World Cup Finals..i went in one morning to find out a lad had been killed during the night on one of the barges..a mooring rope had given way and the recoil killed him..all the workers had gone home by the time I got there..the way I've been taught is if someone dies then you go home..a mark of respect..plus the HSE and an investigation will be going on..our gaffer and manager told us it was up to us if we went home but we wouldn't be getting paid..out of about 20 of us about 15 went home..we came in the next morning to find out we'd been sacked..we went to see the manager and he said we were in violation of our contracts.
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Do you wish you had stayed cheesy lad.
 
the boot said:
Do you wish you had stayed cheesy lad.
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No not at all..us lot who'd been sacked,we knew that they couldn't sack us all because AMEC at that time was busy and they'd have no one to do all the inspecting..i remember we got told to go home the day we were sacked..there wasn't a lot going on in the yard anyway as the HSE were still there..i got a phone call on the afternoon telling me to report to the managers office the next morning..me and the sacked lot were all there the next morning and he gave us a lecture there was a bit shouting back and forth and he gave us our jobs back..if god forbid someone had been killed the week after i'd have done exactly the same again.
 

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