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This contribution is taken from the collections of the McLean Museum and Art Gallery Greenock. Greenock May 1941

"Well I left the house, my house in Eldon Street, just opposite the Torpedo Factory. Of course there were no buses and we had to walk and by the time we got along to Grey Place the place was covered, it was in shambles…. the place was covered - the road was covered with glass which was being swept up by the Royal Navy personnel. It was a case of crunching through the glass until you got to Scott’s. When we got there the drawing office was no longer there - it had been burned down and quite a number of places in the works had been bombed - no roofs in them the roofs all blown away.

And we just set to and tried to sort things out. The first thing we did was open the drawings safe in the drawing office and found that apart from some water damage most of the drawings were in good order. The drawings, of course, were saved because there was a very strict procedure that you rolled up the drawings before you left the night before and they were put in the safe and lifted out of the safe first thing in the morning.

'They were found temporary accommodation in the shipyard in the old drawing office which we worked there for about 3 or 4 weeks while the school, St Lawrence School which the Admiralty had requisitioned was being prepared for us.

Earlier you said that parts of the machine works had been badly damaged - how long did it take to repair and who did it?

"Well it took about 6 months to get the place back into full working order but the tradesmen working in the firm did all - most - of the repair work under the supervision of a Glasgow firm of steelworkers. But the turners and fitters were working on buildings."

"There was no problem with demarcation agreements?"

No problems at all. All the men who were working there were anxious to get back to their own trades so they very quickly got the place back again into working order.

My part in the operation of getting the place back - was to send to all our suppliers and ask them to send copies of our orders - send copies back to us so that we could get things into ship shape again.

We must have sent out hundreds of letters to suppliers and the majority of them were very good and sent back by return of post copies of the orders.

My own personal difficulty at the blitz was that I lost all my drawing instruments. After getting compensation for the loss we couldn't buy them locally because other shipyards on the Clyde had been 'blitzed' and all the instruments had been bought up in Glasgow. I was fortunate I was spending a holiday in Inverness, shortly - the following Summer - and I just happened to look into a shop up there and saw instruments, went in, and got some instruments for myself and shop man was very good. He gave me a catalogue with prices which I brought back to Greenock and gave to some of my friends, who were able to get instruments."

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