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| Typical quiet spot |
Visiting the Historic Dockyard at Chatham was a combination of nostalgia and a glimpse in to Maritime history. The ghastly thought about the whole experience was that I was part of that history having been an employee there on and off from 1957 to 1966 - eek! Who would have thought that so little of the place would be left and so many memories would come rushing back. The places I worked are no longer there; the basins are subsumed by the civil docks and fill for Saint Mary's Island. The 200 Ton crane is gone and the only Destroyer left is a world war two veteran. The site of the old number one slip has been lost in obscurity and much of the old yard is merely a ghost of what it was; much of the workshops taken up with shopping malls, entertainment centres, roads and buildings and the old Naval Barracks now part of Greenwich University.
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| View of the slip |
However, there is enough to make it interesting. The idea that people can walk around and play in a place where once I and many thousands of other men and women worked for wages, saw a navy that steadily was eroded and finally outdated is quite odd. I recall being the first tradesman to work on the preparation of the atomic powered submarine re-fueling station assembling valves in a dust free room after completing machining operations on them. We were apprehensive then about the viability of the unit and when I heard a few years later that the nuclear facility had closed and later so had the dockyard I was quite sad. Unfortunately that is what happens.
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| Bob taking a rest |
To more cheerful things; the trips into the yard have proved to be good fun. I have met and talked with re-enactors, steam men, fellow workers and a lad from the school where I work who is now a security guy and looking to go to university. It appears he has better prospects than I but he also shares the enthusiasm for the dockyard. A reward.
