大象传媒

CHATHAM DOCKYARD REVISITED

Chatham Docks - a rich history of naval work

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The ship on which Admiral Nelson won the battle and lost his life 200 years ago, HMS Victory, was built at Chatham Dockyard.

The dockyard was the original home of the Royal Navy, and it helped Britain to dominate the seas for more than 300 years.

Chatham always had a great reputation for its ships.

At its peak the yard was even building nuclear submarines including HM Submarine Ocelot, the last warship built for the Royal Navy and launched in 1962.

Inside Out looks back at the historic Chatham Dockyard and meets some of its former workers.

Closure

When Chatham Dockyard was closed down in 1984, it ripped the heart out of the Medway Towns.

Inside Out talks to the former workers about what life used to be like in the dockyard.

The usual story you usually hear is about the talents of the Chatham workers helping Britannia to rule the waves.

But we about to meet the Chatham workers who waived the rules.

Inside the dockyard

"Dockyard matey's sing their song - doo da doo da. Don't do a damn thing all day long - oh doo da dey."

Chatham workers' song

Former electrician Brian Carter recalls some of the goings-on in the yard, "We used to go fishing out of the portholes. We caught one or two. But we had very basic equipment, but we managed to catch a few mullet from time to time".

Storeman Rob Shaw also remembers trying to get off the hook when it came to working hard, "If we could get away with skiving then we would do it".

Robin Fleckney, a fitter and turner at the yard, says, "For the most part, there was a lot of lazing about".

And Paul Shrubsall, a health physics monitor, agrees with their recollections.

"If you wanted an easy life, it was the place to be," he recalls.

There's no doubt that the dockyard workers had a long and proud tradition, but this is a side of life at the yard that nobody talks about.

Skivers or skilled workers?

Inside Out takes the men back to former docks site where the memories come flooding back.

They remember the NAAFI shop where they used to sit for hours in the afternoon.

"I think it could be said that we were all professional skivers," says Rob Shaw.

"We used to have our own little places where we could hide up for as long as we wanted to really."

Robin Fleckney agrees with the sentiments, "I was bored senseless. I was getting to grips with keyboard instruments, learning keyboards.

Pride in the job but were the workers slackers?

"And I had my own little hideaway at the end of a workshop with an electric keyboard, electric fire and a couch - whereby I could practice pieces during work time because there was so little to do."

He continues, "And to save being bored out of my skull, I would practice my pieces during the daytime hours. After a lengthy practice session, after I'd finished keyboard playing, to rest up I would lie on top of the couch and have a kip for an hour".

Obviously there were some men on the site who weren't pulling their weight and something had to be done.

In the early 80's the Government had Chatham in its sights. The man who was responsible for closing the dockyard in 1984 says Chatham wasn't exactly shipshape.

John Nott, the Government's Defence Secretary at the time, remembers what happened.

"I was aware that the dockyards which were then run by the Royal Navy were very inefficient institutions. There was a sort of public sector pace. Do you know what I mean? Everything in the public sector always works much more inefficiently than in the private sector."

But the unions had a strong grip on the dockyard at the time and denied that the Chatham workers were lazy.

Barry Archer, from the Transport and General Workers' Union, has rather different memories of the dockers:

"I would say the vast majority of them were very conscientious workers. They wanted to turn out good quality work and they did turn out good quality work."

Even if there were a lot of workers idling about, others also argued that Britain needed to be ready for national emergencies.

In times of peace, there were some long, slow periods, perhaps. But the men were always there to enable the navy to shift up a gear, and ratchet up operations in time of war

War and waste

The last time Chatham Dockyard shifted up a gear was in 1982 when they worked around the clock to refit ships and submarines for the Falklands war.

But in the years before the Falklands smartened up their act, the ex-dockyard workers say that there was an enormous amount of wastage in Chatham.

The stories are numerous and some have become legendary.

Former storeman Rob Shaw recalls one incident as he looks out over the former docks, "The amount of waste that's in this water under this boat right now, which was thrown in off the boats in the dockside...".

Robin Fleckney remembers it well, "It was easier to chuck it in than to trudge back to the stores and try to return it. It was all classed as consumable - stud bolts, welding rods, light bulbs. During the summer it was welding rods aiming at the jelly fish".

Brian Carter remembers it too, "Yeah we'd spend the whole afternoon doing something like that.

The men recall that they once had a huge reel of cable that they were supposed to be delivering to a ship.

Rob Shaw continues the story, "It was getting very near to knock off time, and we got halfway down to the ship and the hooter went.

"We thought crikey we're late, we're going home. Drivers never worked late, so the driver said, 'I'll take you back to the store and we'll unload this tomorrow'.

"And he turned around by the mast pond and the whole reel took the side of the lorry out and rolled straight into the mast pond. And as far as I know, it's still there to this day.... about an eight feet tall reel of cable.

"And I don't remember hearing any comebacks from it. I think we told someone that it came off the lorry. But I don't think the driver got into any trouble and I don't remember hearing anything about it. It must have been worth thousands even in the 60's mustn't it?"

Back in 1969, a young Brian Carter was delivering some fluorescent tubes.

"I was actually asked to change all the light bulbs in the dockyard and the fluorescent tubes. Whether they needed changing or not," Brian remembers.

"I said, what the dud ones? They said, no all the light bulbs whether they are alight or not, just change them. I spent an awful lot of time doing that."

Lights out

So did John Knott see the light and close down Chatham Dockyard simply because it was wasteful?

"I was aware of it. But it was not the reason for the closure of Chatham. The fact was that it was very very inadequate for the cold war.

First of all you couldn't get the ships very easily in or out on the tides. Secondly it was very vulnerable to air attack because it was in the South East near London.

And for all those reasons the Navy's first choice of closure, if something had to be closed was Chatham."

Bill Higgins, known as "The Hangman", was called in to do the dirty work.

He was the last Port Admiral of the dockyard and he was sent to Chatham to close it down.

When he got there he had a look at the local paper which had a picture of himself and the headline - "The Hangman Arrives".

But as the representative of the Navy on the site, he had no complaints about the standard of the workers, as he recalls:

"They were perfectly cheerful and happy. They got on extremely loyally with the work involved."

Higgins remembers that the ships were always fitted out on time, and the work was of great quality. "Everyone knew that Chatham Dockyard turned out good work," he recalls.

Missing parts

The ex dockyard workers told Inside Out about the laziness and wastage, but there was also materials that got stolen or disappeared mysteriously.

Robin Fleckney explains how easy it was, "Everything was sealable or theftable wasn't it? If you tried hard enough and had enough neck you could carry it out".

Her majesty's service - Chatham built many historic ships

Paul Shrubsole remembers one instance, "This guy came in and he said I've got this latest article. It's going to heat all your food up in two minutes. It's called a microwave.

"He said, 'right I'll just go and get a plug for it and show you how it works'. He came back with a plug and it had gone. No microwave, it had disappeared."

And it wasn't just small, portable items that went missing. One of the chargemen managed to lose two prop nuts which weigh about three and a half tonnes each off HMS Plymouth.

Robin remembers that, "a couple of boys nicked them, lobbed them on a lorry and drove out of the gate with them. They must have cost a fortune.

"They must have got a fortune for them from the scrap yard."

There's also some funny stories about missing equipment. Rob Shaw remembers the police going to one worker's house and finding 23 wheelbarrows in his shed and garage.

Barry Archer thinks that some of the theft has been exaggerated, "People did take things out of the dockyard. The police could only stop so many people. But I think that's a bit of an urban myth".

Last days

Chatham Dockyard was closed for good in 1984.

Chatham Docks in the 1980s before closure

It was split it into three parts - a commercial dockyard, a housing area, with 900 homes, and the Historic Dockyard with a museum and residential community.

The Historic Dockyard is now a thriving community and part of the Medway Towns.

Richard Holdsworth from the Historic Dockyard believes that the future is bright for the former dock:

"We have a hundred buildings and structures far too big to become just a museum. We have people who live here, a thriving residential community, people who work here - a hundred or so organisations. And of course museums and three historic ships."

Despite stories of waste and inefficiency, today there's no shortage of people who say that Chatham had the best workers in the world.

One of the stereotypical visions of a dockyard matey is that of a chap not doing very much.

But many people that Inside Out has spoken to suggest that they actually worked very hard at Chatham, despite the memories of our four mateys.