Chatham Dockyard

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.

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once I and many thousands of other men and women worked for wages, saw a navy that steadily was eroded and finally outdated is quite odd.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.

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.