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.
Going to sea
"And I went to Newcastle and went to what’s called the pool, which is where jobs were dished out, and they didn’t want to know me"
And I went to Newcastle and went to what’s called the pool, which is where jobs were dished out, and they didn’t want to know me, they said, “no, if you’ve going to put a condition on, or you only going to go to sea for three months, there’s the door.” And I was very disappointed because I felt that I wasn’t wanted and I was walking back very despondent along Collingwood Street to Central Station, Newcastle and I saw this brass plate which was Stephenson Clarke Ltd, coal, coal dealers, coasters and things and I went and I thought I’ll take a chance and I went in and I said, “look, any chance of a job as an engineer for the summer?” And they more or less shut the door behind me and wouldn’t late me out and said, “Yes, absolutely!” Because all the men on the coast, they wanted, they were family men and they wanted to have holidays during the school holidays, you see, and they said, “right, we’ll give you a job as third engineer,”- all these colliers only have three engineers, “so you’ll be third engineer but you’ll have to go from ship to ship to ship,” and I said, “that’s OK by me, I don’t give a, you know, I don’t care.” But as it worked out, they put me on one ship and they kept, for some reason, they kept me on the same ship for 14 voyages I think. I was also chief electrician- ships didn’t carry electricians so the third engineer was also electrician.
David has 17 memories in the memorynet:
David's memories with a Roles and Routines theme:
Apprenticeship at North East Marine- Returning to the North East and Doxford's
- Role at Doxford’s
- Going on sea trials
David's other memories:
- Father’s time at sea
- Going to sea
- Swimming in ballast tanks on the tankers
- Safety and dangers at sea
- Industrial action at Doxford's
- 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
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