.Now here is a thing which if you ever had it done to you must be imprinted forever in the back of your brain and never to be forgotten. The much dreaded Initiation which every apprentice went through as part of "doing your time ". My old firm went back to about 1848 and as such initiated hundreds of apprentices from thence on. Senior apprentices would knowingly and seriously inform you when you started that there were only three things that you knew for certain in this life and they were that you would pay taxes, that you would die, and that you would be initiated. You knew not the time, nor the place, sometimes it would be within months and sometimes two years according to how cheeky/ answer back you were and of course the right moment had to be arrived at when management was not around. For those of you out there who perhaps had, how can I say, a possible sheltered induction into the world of Marine Engineering I will attempt to expand on the phrase " initiated " . Black oil and graphite mixed with Wellseal, Stag, Hylamar, Redlead, Shellac, coarse grinding paste and anything else that had glue like properties would be energetically mixed up, sometimes hot and the candidate to be would, without warning be seized, stripped and with a four inch brush or similar painted vigorously throught all of the working parts. He would then be trussed up somewhere prominent and exhibited so as to provide the maximum embarrassment . Vessels alongside for major re fits with lifeboats removed were used a lot. Slung between the fall ropes the apprentice would be subject to the falling tides whereby the houses opposite could have their view enhanced by the gradual appearance of a completely naked and sometimes screaming apprentice. It was rumoured that there are still in existence some old brownie box camera photos perhaps hidden in the back of the old long forgotten photo albums of several locals who lived opposite the quay. Mine was strung up on the guard rails of two scotch boilers walkways whilst raising steam for all the crew to view including stewardesses or indeed anyone else whom the senior apprentices had told and spread the word. One of the main embarrassment features for future wind ups which would go on for years was of size. You're no threat as we all know too well was a favourite windup speech. Not much chance of him getting a girl into trouble there, tell his girlfriend she's safe, no problem, or to a girl you might be talking to on a Saturday night dance " don't waste your time there love we've seen all the working parts " would be bandied around, all at your expense and embarrassment. So it went on and on and on. Should your parents complain about your underwear being ruined or should they been seen on works premises shortly after your initiation then they would make your life hell. However there was one apprentice who had already been done who was classed as " Gobby " and just would not learn and kept answering back continually and was a bit of a know all. It was decided by the seniors that, and this was always the speech, I can hear them now "So and So's got to be taught a lesson, he's got to be shown who's boss " .One day one of the seniors asked me if my dad still worked at our local torpedo factory firing the torpedoes out to sea. I replied he did and he asked me if I could get him a small tin of the bright orange paint the dummy war heads were always painted with to facilitate recovery at the end of its run via its eyebolt. Never forgot it, day glow orange it was called, really bright to the eye. Trying to keep in with him and be "one of the gang " I duly obtained a tin and into his tool cupboard on the wall in the workshop it went. Several weeks later a large number of us were working in the workshop and the workshop manager was off and the charge hand was out on a ship assessing a job. Now outside our workshops on the quay there ran, twice a day the boat train with about eight plus carriages in tow. This train started out in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, London and other mainline stations and came down to the South Coast railway station whereby the train then ran at tickover all the way down to the quay where cross channel steamers were waiting to take the passengers to the channel islands, every day of the week. These trains were always full to bursting and when the train started on its long journey to the quay the view opened up to first the inner harbour and thence the bigger outer harbour and immediately hundreds of passengers crammed all the windows and doors to get their sometimes first view of ships, cranes and all the other stuff that makes up a busy harbour. These holiday makers were know to all as " Grockles " by all the locals. If you were stood nearby you could tell from whence these people came by the dialect , their accent. Liverpool was so diffent to Birmingham as was London to Wales. This train came down to the quay same times every day, 10 o'clock in the morning on the way out and 4 o'clock in the afternoon to bring people back to the mainline station to commence their journey back up country. One afternoon the Gobby apprentice was without warning seized with force, the more you struggled the more pain you were in for. We had several old fashioned four wheeled large handcarts for transporting Cylinder heads, Pistons, liners and castings etc from trucks by the workshop doors to various machines etc and it was onto one of these that the hapless wrench was lashed and bound. Out with the black oil/ graphite etc hot mix, out with the 4 inch brush and all the working parts liberally painted. Now my dayglow came to the fore. His " lighthouse " as it was referred to was painted bright orange and apon a signal from an apprentice stationed outside on the railway track denoting the train was just around the bend the cart and its cargo was briskly wheeled out into the path of the approaching and as yet round the corner train and left there straddling the track. Orange lights flashing, blue lights from the police car preceeding the train and about five railway employees appeared from round the bend only to be confronted by the cart and its cargo blocking the path of the train. The train at this point has to stop and this act ensures that the audience of lookers on the train increases to bursting point. As the shout goes up that there is someone possibly injured and on a large cart in front of the train sure enough our British public comes to the fore, as there is no station here several passengers leave the stationary train to "offer assistance " The next shout goes up " pass me the camera Ethel " and numerous old Brownie Box cameras appear and dozens of photos taken of the "injured " party. Some people were so taken with it all that most of the holiday film was used in one hit. Over to our workshop come the Police, this anything to do with you lot? Apprentices who have arranged it all appear and tell the Police that they have never seen him before and don't recognise him adding that with a lighthouse of that size they wouldn't want to be associated with him anyway. Laughter all round and sniggering but this is the sort of thing they specialised in at someone else's expense. Much head scratching but a ship is waiting so the cart is pushed to one side by the police thereby offering any of those who had not had the fortune to view the blockage a full side elevation of the cart and its contents as the train trundles slowly by. At this point I digress as remembering back I recall a Birmingham accent stating " hims hurt, hims over there " being predominant and recalling BP's Lat/long I am thinking to myself, my mind racing away after all these years and seeing his hour meter and then mine and the difference between the two. As I don't have to take my shoes and socks off to do the calculation I instantly work out the difference -- - - nine years. Could it possibly be that after all these years that the young lad vigorously waving his yellow and orange bucket and spade at me be a young BP? I was sixteen so BP would be about seven. Did he ever holiday with his parents on the South Coast UK when he was a lad? Could the sight of all our workshops and the wretch on the cart have influenced his future career ? Did he there and then tell his dad, that's for me, that's what I want to do. Never been a do Gooder but could I have had some input in his future career ? Be nice to think so. Would he place me on his Xmas card list or would he come looking for me? He might wish to dig out his parents old photo albums perhaps as who knows he might have buried deep in the archives an old Brownie Box cameras photo of this memorable event. No doubt the apprentice concerned would pay him a lot of money for it perhaps? The mind races away, springs detached from the bob weights on the governor in my brain. I have to be a little diplomatic here as the apprentice concerned here is still about although he is about two years older than me so I wonder if he or any other of our old hands recall this because it only happened the once in my time and should anyone from our old firm be reading this they will undoubtably know myself and certainly the name of the apprentice concerned even after all these years. and can surely never be forgotten. It shut him up for quite a few months but as time when by he was again the target for more abuse throught the ensuing years. For example helping out a fitter doing a bench job he would be asked innocently to " pass me the pliers " Now these pliers had just been cherry redded by another apprentice and cooling placed on the bench with a pair of tongs, out would go the apprentices pinkies and scream, smoke and much cursing would fill the air. What's up the fitter would ask? What's all the noise about, ( knowing full well what the score was having had it done to him way back when ) And so the wind ups went on and on throught the the five years and looking back on it all and never ever having related any of it all before I now realise what golden days they were, I suppose it's the old adage here, you never know what you have missed til it's gone. Days seemed longer, summers went on forever, work was much more fun than today's pressurised cut backs world. See what all of those of you who trod the Cadet path have missed out on? Got more wind up memories to download but hey, what about you folk out there, you must recall some interesting times ? In conclusion it was agreed that we had indeed done yet another "first " here as when you had done your time and gone to sea you would never, ever see an orange lighthouse no matter where in the world you could be. And as one wag pointed out even if you did see one it would not be at half mast as this one was on that fateful day in 1961 ish Great days indeed.Initiation, The Second Time Around
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Merlyn
- Fleet Engineer
- Posts: 1024
- Joined: Wed Dec 25, 2013 7:19 am
- Currently located: South Coast UK
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Initiation, The Second Time Around
.Now here is a thing which if you ever had it done to you must be imprinted forever in the back of your brain and never to be forgotten. The much dreaded Initiation which every apprentice went through as part of "doing your time ". My old firm went back to about 1848 and as such initiated hundreds of apprentices from thence on. Senior apprentices would knowingly and seriously inform you when you started that there were only three things that you knew for certain in this life and they were that you would pay taxes, that you would die, and that you would be initiated. You knew not the time, nor the place, sometimes it would be within months and sometimes two years according to how cheeky/ answer back you were and of course the right moment had to be arrived at when management was not around. For those of you out there who perhaps had, how can I say, a possible sheltered induction into the world of Marine Engineering I will attempt to expand on the phrase " initiated " . Black oil and graphite mixed with Wellseal, Stag, Hylamar, Redlead, Shellac, coarse grinding paste and anything else that had glue like properties would be energetically mixed up, sometimes hot and the candidate to be would, without warning be seized, stripped and with a four inch brush or similar painted vigorously throught all of the working parts. He would then be trussed up somewhere prominent and exhibited so as to provide the maximum embarrassment . Vessels alongside for major re fits with lifeboats removed were used a lot. Slung between the fall ropes the apprentice would be subject to the falling tides whereby the houses opposite could have their view enhanced by the gradual appearance of a completely naked and sometimes screaming apprentice. It was rumoured that there are still in existence some old brownie box camera photos perhaps hidden in the back of the old long forgotten photo albums of several locals who lived opposite the quay. Mine was strung up on the guard rails of two scotch boilers walkways whilst raising steam for all the crew to view including stewardesses or indeed anyone else whom the senior apprentices had told and spread the word. One of the main embarrassment features for future wind ups which would go on for years was of size. You're no threat as we all know too well was a favourite windup speech. Not much chance of him getting a girl into trouble there, tell his girlfriend she's safe, no problem, or to a girl you might be talking to on a Saturday night dance " don't waste your time there love we've seen all the working parts " would be bandied around, all at your expense and embarrassment. So it went on and on and on. Should your parents complain about your underwear being ruined or should they been seen on works premises shortly after your initiation then they would make your life hell. However there was one apprentice who had already been done who was classed as " Gobby " and just would not learn and kept answering back continually and was a bit of a know all. It was decided by the seniors that, and this was always the speech, I can hear them now "So and So's got to be taught a lesson, he's got to be shown who's boss " .One day one of the seniors asked me if my dad still worked at our local torpedo factory firing the torpedoes out to sea. I replied he did and he asked me if I could get him a small tin of the bright orange paint the dummy war heads were always painted with to facilitate recovery at the end of its run via its eyebolt. Never forgot it, day glow orange it was called, really bright to the eye. Trying to keep in with him and be "one of the gang " I duly obtained a tin and into his tool cupboard on the wall in the workshop it went. Several weeks later a large number of us were working in the workshop and the workshop manager was off and the charge hand was out on a ship assessing a job. Now outside our workshops on the quay there ran, twice a day the boat train with about eight plus carriages in tow. This train started out in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, London and other mainline stations and came down to the South Coast railway station whereby the train then ran at tickover all the way down to the quay where cross channel steamers were waiting to take the passengers to the channel islands, every day of the week. These trains were always full to bursting and when the train started on its long journey to the quay the view opened up to first the inner harbour and thence the bigger outer harbour and immediately hundreds of passengers crammed all the windows and doors to get their sometimes first view of ships, cranes and all the other stuff that makes up a busy harbour. These holiday makers were know to all as " Grockles " by all the locals. If you were stood nearby you could tell from whence these people came by the dialect , their accent. Liverpool was so diffent to Birmingham as was London to Wales. This train came down to the quay same times every day, 10 o'clock in the morning on the way out and 4 o'clock in the afternoon to bring people back to the mainline station to commence their journey back up country. One afternoon the Gobby apprentice was without warning seized with force, the more you struggled the more pain you were in for. We had several old fashioned four wheeled large handcarts for transporting Cylinder heads, Pistons, liners and castings etc from trucks by the workshop doors to various machines etc and it was onto one of these that the hapless wrench was lashed and bound. Out with the black oil/ graphite etc hot mix, out with the 4 inch brush and all the working parts liberally painted. Now my dayglow came to the fore. His " lighthouse " as it was referred to was painted bright orange and apon a signal from an apprentice stationed outside on the railway track denoting the train was just around the bend the cart and its cargo was briskly wheeled out into the path of the approaching and as yet round the corner train and left there straddling the track. Orange lights flashing, blue lights from the police car preceeding the train and about five railway employees appeared from round the bend only to be confronted by the cart and its cargo blocking the path of the train. The train at this point has to stop and this act ensures that the audience of lookers on the train increases to bursting point. As the shout goes up that there is someone possibly injured and on a large cart in front of the train sure enough our British public comes to the fore, as there is no station here several passengers leave the stationary train to "offer assistance " The next shout goes up " pass me the camera Ethel " and numerous old Brownie Box cameras appear and dozens of photos taken of the "injured " party. Some people were so taken with it all that most of the holiday film was used in one hit. Over to our workshop come the Police, this anything to do with you lot? Apprentices who have arranged it all appear and tell the Police that they have never seen him before and don't recognise him adding that with a lighthouse of that size they wouldn't want to be associated with him anyway. Laughter all round and sniggering but this is the sort of thing they specialised in at someone else's expense. Much head scratching but a ship is waiting so the cart is pushed to one side by the police thereby offering any of those who had not had the fortune to view the blockage a full side elevation of the cart and its contents as the train trundles slowly by. At this point I digress as remembering back I recall a Birmingham accent stating " hims hurt, hims over there " being predominant and recalling BP's Lat/long I am thinking to myself, my mind racing away after all these years and seeing his hour meter and then mine and the difference between the two. As I don't have to take my shoes and socks off to do the calculation I instantly work out the difference -- - - nine years. Could it possibly be that after all these years that the young lad vigorously waving his yellow and orange bucket and spade at me be a young BP? I was sixteen so BP would be about seven. Did he ever holiday with his parents on the South Coast UK when he was a lad? Could the sight of all our workshops and the wretch on the cart have influenced his future career ? Did he there and then tell his dad, that's for me, that's what I want to do. Never been a do Gooder but could I have had some input in his future career ? Be nice to think so. Would he place me on his Xmas card list or would he come looking for me? He might wish to dig out his parents old photo albums perhaps as who knows he might have buried deep in the archives an old Brownie Box cameras photo of this memorable event. No doubt the apprentice concerned would pay him a lot of money for it perhaps? The mind races away, springs detached from the bob weights on the governor in my brain. I have to be a little diplomatic here as the apprentice concerned here is still about although he is about two years older than me so I wonder if he or any other of our old hands recall this because it only happened the once in my time and should anyone from our old firm be reading this they will undoubtably know myself and certainly the name of the apprentice concerned even after all these years. and can surely never be forgotten. It shut him up for quite a few months but as time when by he was again the target for more abuse throught the ensuing years. For example helping out a fitter doing a bench job he would be asked innocently to " pass me the pliers " Now these pliers had just been cherry redded by another apprentice and cooling placed on the bench with a pair of tongs, out would go the apprentices pinkies and scream, smoke and much cursing would fill the air. What's up the fitter would ask? What's all the noise about, ( knowing full well what the score was having had it done to him way back when ) And so the wind ups went on and on throught the the five years and looking back on it all and never ever having related any of it all before I now realise what golden days they were, I suppose it's the old adage here, you never know what you have missed til it's gone. Days seemed longer, summers went on forever, work was much more fun than today's pressurised cut backs world. See what all of those of you who trod the Cadet path have missed out on? Got more wind up memories to download but hey, what about you folk out there, you must recall some interesting times ? In conclusion it was agreed that we had indeed done yet another "first " here as when you had done your time and gone to sea you would never, ever see an orange lighthouse no matter where in the world you could be. And as one wag pointed out even if you did see one it would not be at half mast as this one was on that fateful day in 1961 ish Great days indeed.Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.