Ernie Keedy

Passenger ferries on the Tyne. The Kelly, Mountbatten kept crashing it. Not many sailing boats left. Launching of ships a nuisance, had to stop working on the river. Launch of battleship George V - propellers weren’t attached until after, was involved in removing protective coverings from propeller shafts. Learning to swim and life saving lessons in local pool; playing in sea as a small child. River police didn't have much to do. During world war two worked as a special, checking where bombs had landed and guiding fire brigades in; blackout. Only got pocket money not wages because working for family. Cleaning up appearance in mixed gender school. Speedboat trips on the river. Father got him a motorbike, joined motor club. Lake district in wartime - tandem, walking, youth hostels - no maps or signs. Army trained in Lake district. Screw (coal engine powered) and dumb wherries. Fenders (bumpers) and asbestos. Tug boats. Depth of the river. Thick ice at Newburn bridge; laying a pipe there during the war. Getting rid of old wherries by sinking them in the sea, technique. Fishing boats going to Iceland, fish different now, herring lasses "hard cases". Foy boat men competing to pick up trade.

Location: South Shields, Newcastle
County: Tyne and Wear
AUD2005-127

---

Transcript of audio:
When you were carrying a lead cargo on a wherry, lead was so deadweight that, you've got to stack it stacked, like that, spread to even the bottom of the weight on the floor of the hold, shuts we called them. Where that word come from I don't know. So they were stacked about that high, a lead ingot was like a gold bar about that size, spread over the floor, with timbers underneath from the kelsons - the keels, the side keels, we called kelsons - right? Right. So when a wherry sank, she finished up with a list, and these columns of lead ingots had collapsed, now like a pack of cards, one was lying on top of another. And don't forget, all the stories I'm tell you about the Tyne and diving, you cannot see. Always bear in mind - at you house, when you go home, close all the curtain, black the windows out, put the lights out - and you know where everything is, in your house! - and you try and do all your jobs in the dark ...
(pitch black down there)
Pitch black, unless you're working in the harbour, and you're working on the flood, and you've got the cleaner water coming in, and the sun's shining, and you could probably see from here to this area [a few feet], see the starfish, you know. Never mind.
These ingots had fallen over like a pack of cards, so I didn't know, there was me and another fellow, Tommy Stoker, he's dead now, used to take turns in diving, and you could only work - if I say to you slack water - when the tide was quiet, on the change, between the ebb and the flood, it's a river term, you can only work in slack water, which is an hour, an hour and a half either side of the tide - and if the tide got too strong, if you're underneath the bottom of a ship - I've been fastened under a ship - you finished up, your legs got washed away, you finished up like that, the tide was washing you in
Getting back to the lead, you're fiddling about, the thing you see there is one of Cookson's wherries with a crane on, and there's a little basket, you would go down, probably put a dozen ingots in the basket, all working like that, you know, on a list. And "what have I done here? I've done something here, to my hand". And of course under the water, you don't feel anything, well I didn't anyway! Unless I didn't have any blood, or what, I don't know... When I came back, came out of the water, I knew I'd done something but it didn't hurt, lets put it like that. I'd dropped one of the ingots - pulled one out, and another one had dropped of the top, and sliced all my finger ends off, no, it didn't slice them off, it burst them, that hand, burst them there, there, there, it was like an envelope flap. As soon as you got to the air, then I, oh, aye, oh, "what have I done?" - you couldn't see for - "Bloody hell!" So that was my finish for the day, then the next day we went back.
Q: You didn't rush to hospital?
Why, no, hospital ... and you didn't carry first aid kits, or life belts, you just worked on the river and that was it, you know?

• Add a comment