David Aris
David belongs to: The Doxford Engine Friends Association
David was born in Sunderland. He served his apprenticeship at North East Marine shipyards as a fitter. After working at sea David became an Assistant Manager at Doxford's ship yard overseeing the installation and testing of Doxford engines.
David was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 8 November 2005. The interview took place at the Interviewee's living room and lasted 1 hour, 36 minutes and 40 seconds.
Father’s time at sea
"And my father was through both world wars. He was torpedoed in the First World War"
And my father was through both world wars. He was torpedoed in the First World War when it was gentleman’s war and the U Boat caught the ship in the Mediterranean, made sure that all the crew was safely in lifeboats with food and supplies, told which way to sail the lifeboats, and sunk the ship and then my father came back, the whole crew came back, by rail, I suppose through France back to England, went back to Liverpool.
And in those days, if you didn’t have a ship, you didn’t have a job and there was no dole, so you didn’t have any money so the captain, more or less, led his whole crew down to the Board of Trade office demanding another ship. And when it was discovered that the, all the officers, all the engineering offices and the deck officers had had to sign a declaration on the U Boat that they would not go back to sea for what was called the duration of hostilities, so when the British Board of Trade discovered that they had to sign this document under duress they were not allowed to go back to sea otherwise it might not have been good if they were caught a second time.
So my father was ordered you might say to go and work as a foreman fitter in Cammell Laird Shipyard and he spent the rest of the war ‘til 1918 as it was fitting guns onto British merchant ships. Then he went back to sea again, and he went right through the Second World War as well, then he retired just after the Second World War.
David has 17 memories in the memorynet:
David's memories with a Relationships theme:
Father’s time at sea
- Industrial action at Doxford's
David's other memories:
- Apprenticeship at North East Marine
- Going to sea
- Swimming in ballast tanks on the tankers
- Safety and dangers at sea
- Returning to the North East and Doxford's
- Role at Doxford’s
- Going on sea trials
- Accident on sea trials
- Leaving Doxford’s
Workers at Doxford's- Engineer's Certificate
- Continuous Certificate of Discharge
- Swimming pool
- North East Marine Guide for Apprentices
- Sea Trials
This memory has these themes:
Danger | Relationships | Wartime | Work
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