- Contributed by听
- Burnham Library
- Location of story:听
- Burnham
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A3387143
- Contributed on:听
- 09 December 2004
This story was submitted to the Peoples's War site by J. Marshall on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions
When I was 20, I was called up to do war work and was sent to a boat yard at Burnham which fortunately wasn鈥檛 far from where I lived then. My mother was losing her sight so I couldn鈥檛 go far from home.
The yard, King and Sons (no longer in operation) built Motor Torpedo Boats and I did various jobs such as painting and varnishing. Another job I did was to help the riveters by 鈥渉olding on鈥 to one end of the rivet while the riveter hammered it in on the other side of the hull.
We used to have to clear out wood shavings and rubbish out of the bilges. I used to have to go up scaffolding to do some jobs 鈥 the first time I did it I was terrified. But I soon got used to it.
When the boats were finished they were launched and the Royal Navy used to come and collect them and sail them away.
I was there about a year then the work dried up and I went to work for a nursery where we grew tomatoes and beans. It was VERY hot work!
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