Derek Denny
Derek belongs to: The Doxford Engine Friends Association
Derek served an apprenticeship at North East Marine before going to sea. He returned to work in the Doxford Drawing Office then transferred to the Technical Office. He worked there until engine building stopped and moved to the Installation Drawing Office in the shipyard until it closed.
Derek was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 26 January 2005. The interview took place at Sunderland Museum and lasted 24 minutes and 47 seconds.
Working conditions at sea
"Generally alright. Hard, heavy work and of course sometimes they’d break down and they would break down in the most unlikely places"
Generally alright. Hard, heavy work and of course sometimes they’d break down and they would break down in the most unlikely places. Nothing worse than a break down in the Red Sea where the engine room temperature is bordering on 110. That was before they had the air conditioned control rooms and all that sort of thing. And it was hard work, very, very hot work and tiring, and as a result of which, when you went for your meals in the saloon on the table was a big jar of, no, no they weren’t sweeties, they were salt tablets which were rather like cocodamol, coproxamol- you had to take these to keep up your salt level in your system, otherwise, as I did once, I collapsed in the engine room and I was carried out.
Derek has 10 memories in the memorynet:
Working conditions at sea
- The Doxford drawing office
- Equipment in the drawing office
- The Doxford's technical office and sea trials
- Moving to Doxford installation office
- The closure of Doxford's
- Sound of the Doxford engine
- The sound of a Doxford engine at sea
Visit to the Doxford yard- Main gates to the Doxford Engine Works
This memory has these themes:
Change | The North East | Work
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