by fitter » Mon Oct 17, 2022 6:44 pm
The loss of Rodger and so many "old hands" that I've had the privilege of knowing, with the the loss of their mountains and decades of experience and knowledge and their manifold sufferings during war but also conditions in peacetime that would never be tolerated now, are impossible to measure or express. I have a list of all the shipyard fitters I can remember working with and a mental image of many outstanding skilled, semi skilled and unskilled men that made shipbuilding such a tremendous experience. Other industries too can make the same claims but I only knew shipbuilding and marine engineering personally. I feel very sad when I see an obituary notice of those whose lives I shared. Their faces, their voices, their skills, the bait times, the sea trials, the places we shared, the rough, the polite, the capable, the "daresents and cannots," the grafters the shirkers, the arguments that all contributed to the phenomena, largely taken for granted, that we called shipbuilding and marine engineering. Not forgetting the millions that worked at sea under the red and also the white ensigns in tugs, tankers, cargo ships, bulkers, passenger ships, coasters, warships for we all played an enormous part in the development of this outstanding country that so many want to deprecate. we were a "band of brothers" (and sisters) like no other and our likes will probably never be seen again.