George Cruickshanks
George belongs to: The Doxford Engine Friends Association
George was born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland. His name changed to Geordie Beard when he joined Doxfords in 1957. George describes his time at Doxford's as a pleasure.
George was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 11 January 2006. The interview took place at Beamish Regional Resource Centre and lasted 50 minutes and 52 seconds.
Career in shipbuilding
"And I had nine years in the erecting shop and another nine years in the, in the inspection department"
And I had nine years in the erecting shop and another nine years in the, in the inspection department, but during the nine years in the erecting shop I was transferred to different departments to help out from time to time; marking off table, lining bay, the crank shop, so I covered most of the, the areas in the, in the engine works, and did get outside jobs.
The inspection department was not just a question of measuring things, but we did a lot of non-destructive flaw detection in components. When I say components, not little mincey things like this, huge steel plates, you know, we would find laminations in them, you know, which point is going, setting them up on the burning machines and finding out when you get to the end that they’re cracked, they’re parted. So we did, we did quite a lot of decent work, you know. Saved the company a lot of money I suppose.
But from the inspection department I went into the, back to the Pit as foreman. Spent some time down there, and then in 1980 I was transferred pro tempus, so they said, down to the Doxford dry dock because they had been fitting engines into the ships down there, you know. Popping down to see if they were doing things right, because they knew as much about the Doxford engines as I did, I mean, they had been fitting them for years.
But the temporary job turned out to be a permanent job and I spent three years in the Doxford ship yard and then I spent another three years down in the Laing’s yard working on Sulzer’s, as foreman.
And then I transferred to the, the North Sands yard, and then after a hip operation in ’87, which was when the North Sands yard closed, having built the last ship, the Challenger, I was transferred up to Pickersgill’s. So I had gone from the mouth of the river, up one side and down the other, you know. I had worked in all the ship yards.
George has 12 memories in the memorynet:
George's memories with a Change theme:
Career in shipbuilding
- The insolence of office
George's other memories:
The watch
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