Talking Pictures C. 81

[vic mcclymont]

Tonight at 17.15 on the above Channel there is a programme, BERTH 24.
Its a British Transport film about Hull Docks.
Vic

[Bill Morrison]

Vic, They show it from time to time, always mean to record it.

[j.sabourn]

Keith if I remember correctly there is/was a King George V dock in Hull. The last time I can remember being there was in 1965, when I was mate on the Warkworth. they had some antiquated port laws even then. I had my wife down to the ship as was not too far to drive from Newcastle. But she like any other female had to be off the vessel by sunset. At the time I had been told by the company that if I applied to them for permission to carry my wife to sea with me, it would be looked on favourably. That alone would have put me off applying , just as well I had other family commitments so didnt even bother to consider it in any case . It must have been about that time it was the start of the new era of wife carrying and in a lot of cases domestic strife.
As said once before I preferred not to see women onboard as supernumeraries. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Kingston upon Hull was the correct name at one time I was told.

It was the only part of UK, back then in the 60's, that had it's own phone service, did not use the national one run by the Post office then.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Kingston upon Hull was the correct name at one time I was told.

It was the only part of UK, back then in the 60's, that had it's own phone service, did not use the national one run by the Post office then.

Still is the correct title Kingston upon Hull changed from Kingstown upon the Hull in the 1700's

The telephone company ran into the 1980s, all the phone boxes were painted green and cream, the cheapest service in the UK and also the cheapest for international calls. Aso a lot of the double decker buses had coned/conical roofs so that they could pass through Beverley Gate to reach other parts of East Yorkshire on the most direct routes, normal double decker buses could not get through the gate.

The Docks were King George V. Alexandra,Royal Albert, St.Andrews, Humber Dock, Drypool,Princes Dock (where I went to school), that's all I remember

[j.sabourn]

Remember that Arch from more recent times Ivan , as visited someone in Beverley who I sailed with for a number of years , when we paid a visit back to the uk. For those who remember him from Seaforth Maritime , he was Albert Whittles also sometimes referred to as Albert R.N. Passed away well before his time. Cheers JS.

[Bill Morrison]

Remember that Arch from more recent times Ivan , as visited someone in Beverley who I sailed with for a number of years , when we paid a visit back to the uk. For those who remember him from Seaforth Maritime , he was Albert Whittles also sometimes referred to as Albert R.N. Passed away well before his time. Cheers JS.

Hi John S. I have found this photo from1978 with Albert in the back ground. Have managed to blow up the section with him and the lads you may recognize some of them.
Bill

[j.sabourn]

Thanks Bill, one thing about Albert , don’t know about other ships he was on , but he was or seemed to be always in a clean boiler suit , Queen or not being there. Any survey work on the main engine or auxiliary’s where parts had to be taken adrift for an inspection by a surveyor he used to have them laid out on a clean starched white sheet for display. He got away with it on a navy charter as that is the way of the navy also, as had the manpower
to do it. When thinking back to those days try to forget the North Sea part and think of sublimely sailing down the meddy bound for Italy. Don’t anyone think jolly jack the matelot was an angel , they got into trouble as well, but the diving branch seemed to get away with murder , the merchant side was more severe in discipline with harsher penalties . 0ne of the divers went adrift in Marseilles and missed the ship , on getting back to Portsmouth his penalty given by the ships diving officer was a case of beer for the POs bar. Someone must have let the cat out of the bag of what a good job it was, I got turfed out after 4 years to go back into the North Sea, and I tried my best to be a good boy. Some of the other faces look familiar will maybe come back to me like Archimedes said howzat or something similar. Cheers JS

PS the one coming down behind the Queen isn’t he James Hahn the Director , who had a liking for the pub surrounds in the boozer behind the office on Waterloo Quay ? Further to the Queen paying a visit to the Seaforth Conqueror in 1978 makes things a bit clearer, as you know I met her in 1991 and during the conversation she asked what I was doing then as regards work. She seemed very knowledgeable about a few things I found it hard to believe she would of had. Maybe this getting around as she does must increase her knowledge daily. Wonder what Albert told her ? Bet it was about his bits and pieces on his white sheet. Cheers again JS

[Bill Morrison]

With apologies to Vic for hi-jacking his thread.
John S. I was never a "Bosses" man but James Hann was something unusual for one. He was responsible for building up Seaforth from scratch and tried to keep it in the front of an ever changing business. When along side Sea-Base on a Sunday, he would drop into the E.R. for a cup of tea and a chat, I never ventured to express my thoughts other than the running of the vessel.
He resigned from Seaforth not long after the company was taken over by the Norwegians, disagreeing with their policies for the company.

When the Tories privatised electricity, no one would take over the Nuclear Power side of it. In 1990 James Hann was appointed chairman of Scottish Nuclear still state owned and had just reported a loss of £190 million. With his style of management by 1993 it was in profit by £65 million. In 1996 in became part of British Energy and was sold off.
He went on to manage other companies in difficulties and return them to profit. He was given a knighthood in 1996.
In February 2004 he pass away at 71 years of age. In my book one of the few I had respect for.
Bill

[j.sabourn]

Met him a few times ,think he was responsible for the Stadive, ? Also started up a plan to buy the Ark Royal for manning purposes with short winged aircraft and accomodation for workers , but couldn’t raise the money. Don’t know too much about Farstad and what they did with the ships. Just know I was made redundant after 8 years and the top up mnopf disappeared in my case. Sorry to hear of his death in 2004, in that year I was 67, and still here to talk about it, so maybe the air down here is fresher and cleaner and hastens longevity hopefully. Here’s hoping . Cheers JS.