My uncle worked at Wallsend shipyard during and after the war. Those men were highly skilled. The job sadly killed him early, dead at 66 like many others.

@jonka1

3 жыл бұрын

Sorry to hear that. My father like many of his generation never made it to retirement.

@vulgivagu

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonka1 My Uncle , like your Father, were from a hard working generation of men who proudly worked for very little. Modern methods of production mean an easier life now but how many 15 year olds today would want an apprenticeship in cold, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions. Everything changes but we must always remember our relatives from those difficult times.

@mavisemberson8737

3 жыл бұрын

My father worked there too

@vulgivagu

3 жыл бұрын

@@mavisemberson8737 It was an amazing place, my Uncle took me in there once. Do you have any idea when the yards closed, there were several of them. If your Father was of my Uncles generation they might have known each other, he died in 1968.

@mightymcduff2056

10 ай бұрын

Hitler is a B.......?

We Were all in the same boat then...................Hard times but hey i wish we were back there now.......loads of respect and very few odd balls. Great archive

What a very old fashioned yard even for the 1940's. I would have thought that most British yards by that point in the war, with labour shortages, would have gone to pneumatic riveters and welded hulls. The processes shown here, were close to 50 years out of date, I assume due to lack of investment.

Steam powered cranes, hand hammering rivets, and OSHA nowhere in sight... F’ing Awesome!

@oh_crumpets

2 жыл бұрын

OSHA? This is britain and HSE wasn’t around yet

@asimali7550

Жыл бұрын

​@c h

I came from a family of ship builders , some killed in that chaos, it was the liberty ships that showed the way.

After watching this film look at Stanley Spencer's series of paintings called collectively: 'Ship Building on the Clyde' painted during the war. Quite extraordinary and incredibly accurate.

Gotta love the British sense of humour in those dark days. Wonderful film. I WONDER HOW MANY OF THE WORKERS WENT D...sorry, I wonder how many of the workers went deaf quickly?

@carlsimpson4875

3 жыл бұрын

I would say 85% went deaf my father was one of them, i followed in his trade but got out of it in my early 20's there by saving my hearing.

@kenthepen4857

3 жыл бұрын

Apparently boiler makers, an other ship yard trade, also went deaf very quickly for the same reason.

Mesmerising ... .thanks for posting!

Absolutely wonderful!

Did my apprenticeship in such a steel mill in the 60’s. It’s a pounstretcher warehouse now. It’ll never be replaced , we’ll simply buy heavy stuff from other countries. It’s been sad to whitness our reliance on others and the demise of the manufacturing politics.

@davidanalyst671

3 жыл бұрын

You have more money to buy more things tho... manufacturing went overseas, and now you have the money to buy more stuff because they build it cheaper.

@ferrallderrall6588

3 жыл бұрын

@@davidanalyst671 so if things that used to last half a lifetime burn out in a few short years and there's no replacement parts its another pos to the landfill and we are shelling out again,feeding cheap ass Walmart filling the landfills over capacity and that's s good thing,

@lewisner

Жыл бұрын

​@David Analyst but the money for building the ships goes to foreign companies and governments plus the jobs.

AMAZING VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At 1:15 I have one of those hammers. I always find it laying around when I don't have my other hammer

It’s 1:53AM how did I get here

Splendid stuff!

All that skill gone in a timespan of about 10 years. Along with the Merchant Navy as well. Mid 70's the third biggest in the world, ten years later it was going, by 1990 it had gone.

@rihosims

3 жыл бұрын

5 years to learn to swing a hammer just to go deaf or die/get maimed in an unsafe work environment. Good riddance.

@snowflakemelter1172

3 жыл бұрын

@@rihosims they didn't just " swing hammers" they were skilled workers.

@alfredneuman6488

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, the communists got hold of union management and priced the ordinary shipbuilders out of the market with excessive demands for ever increasing higher wages.

@petertyson1112

3 жыл бұрын

@@alfredneuman6488 any evidence for that beyond your imagination?.... No? I thought not.

@rastislavstanik

3 жыл бұрын

good

Fantastic.... I never knew.

Fascinating insight in to the societal side of life, as well as boat building. Thanks for the upload. Subbed!

2:54 holy crap the entire floor is one giant fixture tool

@IamYwain

2 жыл бұрын

I build Navy Ships. We still have Pin floors by our heat ovens for pressing steel.

@hmw-ms3tx

Жыл бұрын

I believe in Britain they were called a 'mould loft'.

Great film! Thank you! Let us say that this kid was born in late 20s. I do not think he even made it to retirement age in a shipyard. Most of them had been shut down by the late 70s. He would be 90 now...

@jonka1

3 жыл бұрын

That generation of men tended to have short lives. Many I knew as a boy were dead in middle age or shortly after retirement. They had little understanding of health and most succumbed to work/environment, diet or tobacco. I cringed when the lad took that weight on his shoulders and leaned forward. His young vertebrae would not respond well in the years to come.

Superb video

Plenty of skilled trade jobs available at the time. Britain is now is just service industries Perhaps there are many that think dirtying their hands is just for the proletariat!

@MrDorbel

3 жыл бұрын

No, the jobs got exported. A Korean shipyard can build at half the price of a British shipyard.

The 5 dislikes are from 5 U boat captains

@kstreet7438

3 жыл бұрын

Agree.

@dannoh106

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah most of those u boats had pretty good wifi

If David and his fellow apprentice are still alive they'll be in their 90s.

Fascinating channel

I couldn't help but notice that they all wore hearing protection!

@ReevansElectro

3 жыл бұрын

@Jay Smith Rated by OSHA for keeping flies out of their ears.

One of David's jobs is to keep his father supplied with tea... :D

I wonder why they're riveting by hand? The pneumatic riveter had been around for donkeys years by the 40's.

@chrisyboy666

5 жыл бұрын

Johnny Solipsis s.

@user-pv4hx8hs3f

4 жыл бұрын

Quicker , cheaper.

@jonka1

3 жыл бұрын

They cost money and men were cheap. I suspect the unions were more than happy with this full employment.

@rosewhite---

3 жыл бұрын

@SteelRodent I worked in mills and factories with worn out machines from the 1920's. One mill boss told me thebasic machines have been installed in 1925 and 50 years later were still OK! One place we worked such ancient machines but boss had been to a war factory auction and bought super American machines - then put them in a basement to get rusty! One place I worked a new machine had replaced old and could do the job in quarter of time but unions refused to use it unless they could have the old time! I used to tell the men taht they shouidl work faster because we were competing with German,Japanese etc but they just laughed. It's impossible to prosper when UK is plagued with stupid bosses and stupid unions. I wouldn't employ 50% of the people I worked with. And needless to say practically every mill and factory I worked at has closed down or downsized!

@pauljapan6822

3 жыл бұрын

I wondered the same thing I was apprentice in a shipyard 1in 1973 riveting had mostly been replaced by welding but some joints were still riveted. Fascinating to watch the old boys throwing red hot rivets to catcher.

Great place for a 10 year old to be running around and playing, railways, cranes, heavy plates and beams, red hot steel, incessant noise, and so on. Yes I know they started them young in those days.

Rare view of framing

Anyone know which shipyard this was filmed at, definitely not Camel Lairds.

Caulking by hand,proper hard graft,its bad enough doing it with a pneumatic caulking machine

@johnstudd4245

3 жыл бұрын

What did they caulk steel plates with? I know oakum was used with wood construction.

@carlstewart2442

3 жыл бұрын

you would use felt paper inbetween the plates or oil paper if it was an oil tank

good job

exciting!

It's a good movie. It's good if the plant is operational. People can get paid.

That kid was lucky to have an apple during wartime rationing.

@stevetaylor8698

3 жыл бұрын

Apples were never actually subject to formal rationing. However, their scarcity made them difficult to get hold of.

The only guarantees these men had were deafness for the rest of their hardworking lives.

This looks like the Bangladesh shipbreakers yards, noise, hammering, bits and piecies everywhere, kids running around, bells, whistles etc.

@johnstudd4245

3 жыл бұрын

At least these guys wore shoes, although not a glove in sight, while handling all that steel plate and beams and riveting. I work with raw steel I know what it is like.

No work gloves and not a safety helmet in sight!

@mohabatkhanmalak1161

3 жыл бұрын

.....and kids running around the shipyard. Lol

@jakubportka453

Жыл бұрын

Bud it’s 1940’s no one wore PPE

Either ship sunk ,that puts things in perspective,a bit of cold weather and I have no doubt people are suffering but at least we are not in a life boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean ,cold,wet,hungry ,very exposed to the elements ,45000+ merchant navy personnel list their lives in world war 2

использование таких примитивных технологий позволило создать такие сложные механизмы. Потрясающе

J'ai une question pour vous les bateaux encien sont construi en rivé pas en sedure pour quoi l'eau ne pénétré pas à l'intérieur du bateaux j'attends votre réponse merci

@georgerogers2681

3 жыл бұрын

When the rivets cool down after they have been hammered into place they contract and pull the plates together making the joints watertight

@ademali9720

3 жыл бұрын

@@georgerogers2681 thank you

Sad most of these jobs have moved to asia/china. wonder if that little apprentice kid is still alive..

@Makeyourselfbig

5 жыл бұрын

Nah. A ton of sheet steel probably fell on him. Health and safety wasn't a big priority in those days. Not to worry he was only working class.

@hypercomms2001

5 жыл бұрын

I would suggest that one should be better informed before making such statements. The UK ship building industry died because: "..The reality is that British shipbuilding has been in trouble since after the Second World War. Some say it was industrial strife between management and unions. Others blame lack of investment in new equipment and cost effective manufacturing techniques. But the general consensus is that Britain's ships were too expensive and that huge new shipyards in the emerging economies of Japan and South Korea, were simply producing cheaper ships by the 1970s. AND.. The battle between disruptive unionisism and Margaret Thatcher's Tory Government didn't help. The labour party was determined to cripple the profits of business by any means and their method was to disrupt every possible enterprise involving mass labour through disruptive unionisation. The Thatcher Government was equally determined to crush the power of the unions, and their battle resulted in the destruction of the marine industry among others. Mass labour businesses nearly all vanished, shipbuilding among them. Anybody wanting to run anything involving thousands of people even today is still faced with the hostility of unions who appear to have learnt nothing. The final nail in the Coffin of ship building and repairing in the UK was the stopped of the subsidy of the ship building industry by the Thatcher government (this subsidy also gave the right for government to use those ships in times of war). Other countries that build ships still give there shipbuilding industry subsidies, which gives them the legal right to call on the ships use if they are in a war. Ironiclly, the UK is a world leader in ship design and technology, its new RFA ships were designed there. Cunard's Quen Mary 2 was designed there and is packed with British technology and craftsmanship. But leading shipbuilding expert Dr Martin Stopford, who worked in the industry for decades, says the opportunity for Britain to build ships again has probably gone forever: "The price we could sell a bulk carrier for would just buy the materials to build it." While strict European Union subsidy rules for shipbuilding were observed in the UK, he says other countries were less transparent than Britain and a little cleverer at funnelling subsidies into their yards. Meanwhile he said countries such as Germany, France and Italy had made a strategic decision to build cruise ships which is something their Asian counterparts were unable to do. As the cruise ship industry boomed they (the European shipyards) could supply the vessels, while Britain's yards had missed the boat. After shipbuilding in Portsmouth stops next year, just two BAE systems shipyards in Glasgow and one submarine builder in Barrow in Furness will be holding the flame of a once mighty industry. They will continue to build cutting-edge warships into the next decade but represent a tiny fraction of what once was. The irony for British shipbuilding is that while Britain's industry has fallen behind, we are entering a golden age of shipping with tens of thousands of vast container ships criss-crossing the globe carrying goods between continents." www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/trips/uk-shipbuilding.html You have to remember that the Queen Mary 2 was built in France... by ...STX Europe Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Saint-Nazaire, France.. kzread.info/dash/bejne/n6B62cVmec27eKw.html The RMS Queen Elizabeth was built in Italy... by ... Fincantieri Monfalcone Shipyard, Italy kzread.info/dash/bejne/hZltsrSLZdHQoco.html OF COURSE THE UK IS GOING TO REALLY SCREW ITSELF WITH BREXIT.... AS ONE DAY A COMMENTATOR LOOKING AT THE WINGS OF AN AIRBUS AS THESE ARE BEING AT THAT TIME IN CHINA OR INDIA, AND SAY WE USED TO BUILD THOSE IN BRISTOL...! BREXIT IS GOING TO BE THE END OF MANY INDUSTRIES THAT THE UK ONCE LED AND CONTROLLED.. AND WHAT FOR? BLOODY BLUE PASSPORTS!

@tmb09177

4 жыл бұрын

Just moved to where it was all stolen from in the first place. Britain captured India, the largest and best shipbuilder at the time and embargoed any Indian made vessels to enter British water, simply forcing this industry to prop up in Britain at the time.

@kenb7051

3 жыл бұрын

The film is misleading on purpose. The riveting of ships was old technology by this time. But the British ship industry already had all the tools and skills for rivets so they continued to rivet. Welding was how the Americans and even Germans did everything (mostly) it was the newer way. Saved time and material. The problem is capital investment. Without using the newer faster methods the British industry could not keep up with production after the war. In reality the UK was bankrupt after WW1 and WW2 All industry stagnated and lagged behind america and there partners (germany and japan) If the USA had not invested in Germany and only the UK then i think Uk would look like Germany from a manufacturing point of view today.

@lumpyfishgravy

3 жыл бұрын

@@hypercomms2001 Thanks for a longform comment. I disagree about Brexit - I see your comment is a year old now. We remain capable of building warships as the HMS Queen Elizabeth class shows; and free of EU red tape can once more subsidize industry without having to lie about it like the French.

Whoever forgot the propeller is in big trouble.

After watching this video i suppose electric welding is great things in shipbuilding!

@alanwann9318

Жыл бұрын

My father was an early electric welder at Swans

this ship collided with another ship during sea trials and sunk

@johnstudd4245

3 жыл бұрын

Seriously?

I bet they were on schedule and on budget.

How could all this disappear in the space of 60 years?

@GOLDSMITHEXILE

5 жыл бұрын

because the internationalist 5th column active in Britain decided amongst themselves they would specialise ONLY in banking and finance, hence why mining/steelworks/fishing/shipbuilding/textiles was no longer supported and was allowed to decline-regardless of the long term effects on the lives of ordinary working people. That t##t hessletstein epitomises that mindset....."I am in awe of the rich and powerful, and what they want is what I will give them"

@oh_crumpets

4 жыл бұрын

GOLDSMITHEXILE 2016 whilst we were greatly successful in the industry, if we didn’t move on then our economy would be no better than the countries we handed the industries to. don’t forget the north sea is empty of fish now but also full of oil and gas rigs which is now a big part in our modern industry

@tandemcompound2

3 жыл бұрын

thank the yanks, they gave cheap money to first Japan then Korea to build up their shipyards to keep them from going Communist. With new machines, huge new yards and low wages, shipbuilding in Britain was finished. Queen Mary 2 was built in France of all places.

@stevetaylor8698

3 жыл бұрын

@@tandemcompound2 Like much of British industry in the 50s/60s/70s it was rooted in the past, with an inflexible, strike ridden workforce, restrictive work practises and refusal to embrace modern technologies. Added to this was poor management and poor government, and unions more interested in formenting revolution rather than caring for workers and their jobs.

@keithstudly6071

3 жыл бұрын

Honestly it was already obsolete when this was filmed. Go and view the films of the Liberty and Victory ships built in the US not much later. Most of the riveting was gone, replaced by electric arc welding. Ribs were formed in rolling mills and the superstructures were built away from the slips and craned on to the ship after the hull was done and with the wiring and other fittings already installed. In all honesty the English had their way of doing things and they were not going to try and stop and retool everything when they were in the middle of a war. There are some advantages in starting from scratch and finding new ways to do things. Also the fact that in the post war years the large numbers of Liberty/Victory ships were a drag on the market for merchant ships for at least a decade, so there was not much demand for merchant ship construction until the 1960's.

How old is little David now

Whistle while you work....

Did anybody see any investor?

Liberty ship?

I wonder whatever became of that young man.

I went to school with a lad who was a multiple punching machine, he was a B just like Hitler.

I'm familiar with some British derogatory slang. Wanker. Pillock. What starts with a B that would have been a proper insult for Ol' Schicklgruber?

@tomwaits9027

3 жыл бұрын

bastard although ol shicklegruber sadly knew he wasnt one.

@curtislowe4577

3 жыл бұрын

@@tomwaits9027 that's disappointing and not a terribly imaginative insult. I hoping for something more uniquely British.

@jonka1

3 жыл бұрын

It's interesting how the film weaves a joke around the boy with his chalk. Sensibilities of the time forbade that we actually see the word. Lord Reith and the board of film censors would not have approved.

@reinhardneumann2658

3 жыл бұрын

Hitler is a Blatherskite. Yeah, it's true. Ask your grandmother.

@curtislowe4577

3 жыл бұрын

@@reinhardneumann2658 I looked it up. Interesting word. Reasonably accurate. But it was listed as North American , not British.

sure most of them were deaf after couple years of that good lord lol

@jonka1

3 жыл бұрын

Welcome to a world where employers were generally not liable for worker's welfare.

Designed and built by craftsmen, and all without the aid of a computer. Yes it was hard work, but there was jobs for everyone, not just one person who can push a button. A great shame it has all gone. Well the big stuff anyway.

And they got paid a pittance

Why wasn't David in school?

@stevetaylor8698

3 жыл бұрын

He would be 14, which was the school leaving age until it was raised to 15 in 1947.

@DMBall

3 жыл бұрын

@@stevetaylor8698 That kid was 14? I think somebody snuck him onto the payroll.

@johnstudd4245

3 жыл бұрын

@@stevetaylor8698 If he was 14 he would be apprenticed, wouldn't he? He looked younger.

Without a screw, that ship won't go too far!

@FrisiaBonn

6 жыл бұрын

M3 Assets, LLC they were launched like that. Olympic, Titanic etc. Were launched without screws. They dry dock them and start fitting work. :)

@kenwheeler6150

3 жыл бұрын

If you look closely you will see it is actually the nozzle for a water jet.

The ship that was launched looked more welded than riveted to me.

Shame, all that hard work just to be blown up and sunk by a U boat while crossing the Atlantic.😞

@ferrallderrall6588

3 жыл бұрын

Merchant shipping was a huge part of the allied war effort,ever looked out at the cold Atlantic and wonder how it might feel to soon be having a slash in there?balls like iron those men

They musta gone deaf after ten years

Lolz. The description says that both of the boats, the one made and the one whos keel was being laid, both were sunk by the germans. hahaha!!!! Different times, man.

@vonbrockone

3 жыл бұрын

Did anyone catch in the comments, the name of this ship 242. Prob not known because of wartime & not wanting to give any info away to the enemy ! Great propaganda & stiring stuff for cinemas 👍👍👍

No wonder British ship building ended

Hitler is a B..... let's see....in British terms....a bugger? I learned in the '70's that bugger was a British curse word. Or maybe Bastard? Hello from sunny and warm St. Petersburg Fl.

My ears hurt from here.

Who was Hitler?

@albionjq

3 жыл бұрын

the pay Clark

And all it took was one German torpedo.......

"Hitler is a B" 😂

so many British workers had a flabby lined face from a diet of cheap white bread and fatty food.

@GOLDSMITHEXILE

5 жыл бұрын

oh not you again you sanctimonious bore. You only need look around at modern British people to see that a modern diet has produced an army of obese slobs, who wouldn't last 1 minute in a proper manual job. LOL people STILL eat a high fat diet. 70 years ago people knew how to burn it off by working hard

@hoofie2002

3 жыл бұрын

Not in wartime they didnt when this was made. Very few fat men in a shipyard believe me.

@rosewhite---

3 жыл бұрын

@@GOLDSMITHEXILE Oh not not another fool with a silly childishly pretentious name and no knowledge of reality. Go back under your damp stone and watch your Crissrads videos.

@johnwood1948

3 жыл бұрын

Less of this slanging Thatcher. The last British passenger liner rolled down the ways almost 10 years before she even came into power.

@marks.c4753

3 жыл бұрын

@@rosewhite--- passanger liners are owned by muriacans.

He hehehe... All that and then a floating mine sinks it. What a waste of human endeavor.

@kenwheeler6150

3 жыл бұрын

Was it really a waste of human endeavour?? These ships were feeding and supplying a country at war. For every one lost five or ten will get through and our country and way of life will survive. Tell the USA| they were wasting their endeavour, the amount of liberty ships that were lost on their maiden voyage was incredible yet they kept on going. Your remark was thoughtless and crass. Thank you USA .

@faharoon357

3 жыл бұрын

@@kenwheeler6150 . I still stand by my assertion. Knowledge of history in the popular culture is nothing more than "feel good fiction" Getting into the real aspects of wars by reading actual records and over time shows how crass (to use your word) the war makers are and how foolish the people who fight the wars are. I know these paper are not sought after the public because of time and money but if you find the time try to get your hands on some of the WWI documents that were release last year. In particular, the ones relating to rubber being sold to the Germany by the Brits and the optics being sold to the British by Germans. Each transaction benefited the other in extending the war. And also documents on Standard Oil selling fuel additives to Germany by the Americans and wrought iron being sold to the Japanese by the Americans for their ships and planes. And don't forget how American Standard sold the blueprints and the castings and dies for their propellers to the Japanese to extend the war.

All that male privilege and toxic masculinity on show. Sickening to think of all the women who were prevented from working in the yards.

All that work for such an unattractive boat.

@johnstudd4245

3 жыл бұрын

They were not built to be attractive, just to work.