Interlinear glossed textmc_english_london01_a| Recording date | 1985 |
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| Speaker age | 61 |
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| Speaker sex | m |
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| Text genre | personal narrative |
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| Extended corpus | yes |
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| Lochnagarrn_pn_np
|
|
| Lochnagar | Street | | Lochnagar | Street |
| | Translation | I was born in Poplar, and I was born in my parents' house in Lochnagar Street. |
| | | Translation | There came no nurse, at that time there were still old women who followed doctors, and the one who attended my mother was old Mrs Porridge, who lived near my grandmother, a few streets away. |
| | | Translation | And what they'd do, the doctor would recommend they followed certain doctors and then the person who was being attended to would pay the woman who followed. |
| | | Translation | Now, my father came from a family of lightermen -- he himself was a lighterman. |
| Kingpn_np:l
|
|
| King | and | Queen | Road | | King | and | Queen | Road |
atpn_np:l
|
|
| Bellamy's | Wharf | | Bellamy's | Wharf |
twonp.h:pred
|
|
| schoolchildren | | schoolchild.PL |
| | Translation | And his father was drowned along with two other men at King and Queen Road, over at Rotherhithe by Bellamy's Wharf, when my father and his two sisters were still schoolchildren. |
| | | Translation | I don't know the age they were. |
| | | Translation | And the three children, my father and his two sisters, were put into an orphanage. |
| | | Translation | And, my grandmother went to Clacton, I think it was, and she was in some place with nuns, although she wasn't a catholic; but it was a sort of charity place, she didn't like it, and then she came home and got the children out of the orphanage. |
| | | Translation | And, she set up home in Cloden Street in Poplar. |
| innp:other
|
|
| eighteen | fourties | | eighteen | fourty.PL |
| | Translation | My mother's family were stevedores and, like a lot of the stevedores, their roots were in Ireland, and the family came over -- the Orwells -- in the famine in the eighteen fourties, and settled in Poplar. |
| Lochnagarrn_pn_np
|
|
| Lochnagar | Street | | Lochnagar | Street |
| | Translation | And they had three rooms, it was the upstairs house in Lochnagar Street, which cost seven shillings a week at the time. |
| | | Translation | And my brother Terry was born two years after I was, almost to the day. |
| | | Translation | And shortly afterwards, my father had an accident, when at one of the wharves, mother thinks it was up Wapping Way, he was laying the gratings in the barge, ready to receive cargo, and he was laying outside a barge that was being worked. |
| | | Translation | And the crane driver made a mistake and he went and landed the set of cargo on top of my father laying the barge, and his back was damaged. |
| | | Translation | And I remember as a child -- after he'd got better -- seeing this compressed fibre jacket like a tailor's dummy in the cupboard, which Mother used to strap him in; and so, she had two young children to look after and my father to dress. |
| | | Translation | And he was out of work for about eighteen months. |
| Londonpn_np:pred_l
|
|
| London | hospital | | London | hospital |
| | Translation | For thirteen weeks he was in the London hospital, and Mother was telling me that she paid a pound a week to the hospital, because otherwise, when and if he got compensation, they would come after her for more money, that was sort of a bit of the folklore that was passed around. |
| | | Translation | So, she was advised to do that, which she did do. |
| | | Translation | And the hospital asked her how much she was coming in, and she said, Thirty shillings a week. |
| industrialrn_np
|
|
| industrial | injury | benefit | | industrial | injury | benefit |
| | Translation | It's fifteen shillings from the industrial injury benefit and the remainder from sick clubs. |
| | | Translation | So they asked Mother how she could manage, and so she said, she was getting help from the family -- which she was. |
| | | Translation | And whether she got any more money, whether she did outdoor work, I don't know, because she was a seamstress. |
| | | Translation | But the father was out of work for eighteen months, and when he went back, I think he went to court, and they said that he had suffered neural damage, he had neurasthenia. |
| six-hundred-and-seventy-twoln_num
|
|
| six | hundred | and | seventy | two | | six | hundred | and | seventy | two |
| | Translation | So, he got compensation from loss of wages, six-hundred-and-seventy-two pounds, and the injury itself, seventy-eight pounds. |
| seven-hundred-and-fiftyln_num
|
|
| seven | hundred | and | fifty | | seven | hundred | and | fifty |
| | Translation | So, he got a total of seven-hundred-and-fifty pounds. |
| | | Translation | And he started work again. |
| | | Translation | And, he kept work, from work he got money from sick clubs, as I said, and then the men would put on the benefit from it. |
| | | Translation | Not necessarily officially from the union, but there'd be people from the branch, the branch's official group. |
| branchnp.h:pred
|
|
| branch | secretary | | branch | secretary |
ofrn_np
|
|
| number | two | branch | | number | two | branch |
branchln
|
|
| Watermen | and | Lightermen | Tugmen | and | Bargemen | ='s | | Watermen | and | Lightermen | Tugmen | and | Bargemen | =POSS |
Uzh-pn_np:l
|
|
| Poplar | High | Street | | Poplar | High | Street |
| | Translation | Father was branch secretary of number two branch in the Watermen and Lightermen, Tugmen, and Bargemen's Union, which met in the Ship, public-house in Poplar High Street. |
| heardvother:pred
|
|
| criticising | | criticise.PTCP.PRS |
| | Translation | And after he went back to work, I remember he's quite proud -- and I won't say immediately after he went back to work -- he heard someone criticising the foreman, because they weren't sending my father packing. |
| thenp.h:obl
|
|
| corn | porter | -s | | corn | porter | -PL |
| | Translation | Now, the lightermen made up one in the barge loading when they loaded grain, with the corn porters. |
| thenp.h:a
|
|
| railway | worker | | railway | worker |
thevother:pred
|
|
| belong | -ing | | belong | -PTCP.PRS |
| | Translation | And when they went to a railway wharf, the lightermen, two lightermen went in the barge and stowed the cargo and the railway worker just unhooked the slings belonging to the railway. |
| hundredweightnp:pred
|
|
| hundredweight | | hundredweight |
| | Translation | And it was packing quartern sacks of wheat, which is about two hundredweight. |
| | | Translation | And so, my father just went back into the packing, and they got sixpence a day extra on top of their pay when they backed, the lightermen, and that was that. |
| | | Translation | And he -- like a lot of people in the docks, there were a lot of working-class people -- did not want his children to follow him. |
| | | Translation | Because it was a hard life. |
| | | Translation | I mean, I can remember of just two incidents, one when he'd been working on copra, and they got the copra bug. |
| | | Translation | And he's very particular, you know, taking his clothes off and looking for the copra bug. |
| That'sdem_pro:s=cop
|
|
| that | ='s | | DIST.SG | =be.PST.3SG |
| | Translation | That's the one thing that was itchy. And, ehm... |
| | | Translation | [INTERVIEWER] What sort of a bug was this bug? |
| | | Translation | It's a bug, it's bigger than a house bug. |
| | | Translation | And I think it's darker than a house bug, but the house bug was brown. This was dark. |
| describedvother:pred
|
|
| described | | describe.PTCP.PST |
| | Translation | I never saw one miself, I just had it described. |
| fromnp:other
|
|
| shovelling | | shovel.PTCP.PRS |
| | Translation | But it used to get in the copra and, of course, the dockers and stevedores working that from shovelling would get it, and of course the lightermen covering up the craft would get it as well. |
| | | Translation | And another time I remember, I was very young. |
| | | Translation | I never saw my father, though he saw me, for about three weeks, because they worked and, if you wanted time off and the foreman asks you, What's wrong with you? You say you were tired, he'd say, Well, Come have a sleep for two weeks, and things like that. |
| | | Translation | So, men just worked literally until they dropped. |
| lighteragern_np
|
|
| lighterage | firm | -s | | lighterage | firm | -PL |
thatvother:pred=pro:p
|
|
| row | -ing | ='em | | row | -PTCP.PRS | =3PL.OBL |
| | Translation | And in some of the lighterage firms, they would put a chap that they've newly picked up on the driving craft, that is rowing them under oars. Job upon job. |
| | | Translation | And after a few days their hands were bleeding, to sort of prove that they were good. |
| that'sdem_pro:s=cop
|
|
| that | ='s | | DIST.SG | =be.PST.3SG |
| | Translation | And if they stuck it, that's fair enough. |
| that'sdem_pro:s=cop
|
|
| that | ='s | | DIST.SG | =be.PST.3SG |
| | Translation | So, but that's the sort of things that the men had in mind, and they didn't want their children to follow. |
| followingv:pred
|
|
| follow | -ing | | follow | -PTCP.PRS |
somethingindef_other:other
| | Translation | And yet, when you did, they were still proud of the fact that you were following the family, but they'd rather you became something else. |
| | | Translation | So, that was that. |
| followingvother:pred
|
|
| follow | -ing | | follow | -PTCP.PRS |
centralnp:pred
|
|
| central | school | | central | school |
| | Translation | Anyhow, following that vein, I won a scholarship, first of all it was the central school. |
| elementarynp:p
|
|
| elementary | school | | elementary | school |
thenp:other
|
|
| central | school | | central | school |
schoolnp:other
|
|
| grammar | school | -s | | grammar | school | -PL |
| | Translation | The school in that time, you had the elementary school, then the central school, then grammar schools. |
| Saintnp:appos
|
|
| Saint | Bernard's | Central | School | | Saint | Bernard | Central | School |
andpn_np:g
|
|
| Saint | Ignatius | College | | Saint | Ignatius | College |
Collegenp:pred
|
|
| grammar | school | | grammar | school |
| | Translation | And I won the scholarship to a place, Saint Bernard's Central School at Stepney -- I tramped to work and there I won another scholarship and I went to Saint Ignatius College at Stamford Hill, which was a grammar school. |
| nineteennp:other
|
|
| nineteen | thirty | seven | | nineteen | thirty | seven |
innp:other
|
|
| nineteen | thirty | nine | | nineteen | thirty | nine |
| | Translation | And I was there until the third year, I went in nineteen thirty-seven, and in nineteen thirty-nine, of course the war broke out. |
| evacuatedv:pred
|
|
| evacuate | -d | | evacuate | -PTCP.PST |
evacuatedv:pred
|
|
| evacuate | -d | | evacuate | -PTCP.PST |
| | Translation | And schools were evacuated, and I wouldn't be evacuated, and because I wouldn't, neither would my other two brothers. |
| there'sother=other:predex
| | Translation | By that time there were my second brother Terry, as I mentioned, and the third brother, Fredrick, who's six years younger than me. |
| | | Translation | And then the daughter -- my sister Iris was born in more or less the week the war broke out, September. |
| | | Translation | And I don't think Fred and Iris were planned, because in families, you pass things on. |
| | | Translation | Cots were passed on, and my grandfather, my mother's father used to pass his trousers down, my mother would cut them up, being a seamstress, and make trousers for us. |
| | | Translation | And so they had been passed on to mother's sister. |
| byv:pred
|
|
| sandpaper | -ed | | sandpaper | -PTCP.PST |
| | Translation | But when Fred was born and Iris -- now, I forget which was which -- I remember one had an egg box and the other one an orange box as a crib, but by the time Dad had sandpapered it and Mother had padded out and lined it, you couldn't tell the difference from a real cot. |
| | | Translation | But that was what they did at the time. |
| evacuatedv:pred
|
|
| evacuate | -d | | evacuate | -PTCP.PST |
recruitingnp:s
|
|
| recruiting | film | | recruiting | film |
| | Translation | And because I wouldn't be evacuated, and neither would the other two, and the sort of thing that turned me in a sense was that, there was a recruiting film with ARP, in the cinema and when we saw this and you could see, the rooftops of a town. |
| Gpn_np:p
|
|
| War | of | the | Worlds | | War | of | the | Worlds |
likevother:pred
|
|
| listen | -ing | | listen | -PTCP.PRS |
| | Translation | And the planes were coming in, and the spurts were coming up and that, and I'd also seen H. G. Wells, War of the Worlds and Things to Come, films like that; and I was sitting there listening to Mother and Father talking, -- they had a little general shop over, which mi mother ran, which they'd bought from Dad's compensation, in case, he couldn't work, but which he could do. |
| thatv:pred
|
|
| wallpaper | ed | | wallpaper | PTCP.PS |
| | Translation | So, Mother ran the little general shop, and there was what they called a back parlour, which fronted onto the shop, and it was just wooden partition, that was wallpapered, with a window, so you could see into the shop, see anybody coming in. And the glass door. |
| | | Translation | Then the other side of the counter was the shop window again, so it was just glass. |
| | | Translation | And they were talking about putting sandbags up, and I can visualise someone coming in with a bomb and then being killed. |
| f-ncncv:pred
|
|
| f | f | separate | -d | | NC | NC | separate | -PTCP.PST |
separatedln_gen_pro.2:poss
notv:pred
|
|
| evacuate | -d | | evacuate | -PTCP.PST |
| | Translation | So, it was really, I mean, nothing courageous on my part, but being frightened of being separated from your parents, so, I said, I'm not being evacuated and they didn't need much persuading. |
| That'sdem_pro:s=cop
|
|
| that | ='s | | DIST.SG | =be.PST.3SG |
| | Translation | They said, Oh, Okay, That's it. |
| | | Translation | So, we stayed, and of course, all the schools shut down and that was it. |
| | | Translation | So, my father said to me, We'll do something, I said, Well, I want to become a lighterman. |
| Saturdaynp:other
|
|
| Saturday | afternoon | | Saturday | afternoon |
| | Translation | And in the end he came home on a Saturday afternoon a little bit winey, because they finished early Saturday -- Saturday, by the way, was a normal day for a lighterman. |
| | | Translation | If they finished in half a day, fair enough, they got a day's pay, but otherwise worked until five and that. |
| apprenticedvother:pred
|
|
| apprentice | -d | | apprentice | -PTCP.PST |
| | Translation | So, if they finished early, they'd have a drink in the pub, and he came home, he said, Right, You want to be apprenticed, I'll apprentice you. |
| apprenticedv:pred
|
|
| apprentice | -d | | apprentice | -PST |
| | Translation | So, in December of thirty-nine, he apprenticed me to lighterage and I started; work had got busy, because, you remember, they were coming out of depression. |
| | | Translation | And I started for Volkins -- they had a motor tug, the Vaneck, and my father at that time was mate on the Vaneck. |
| Eastpn_np:l
|
|
| East | India | Dock | | East | India | Dock |
| | Translation | And they brought the Vigilant back into commission, she'd be laid up in the East India Dock because there's no work for her. She was a steamboat. |
| | | Translation | And I went boy... [GAP IN RECORDING] ...was the mate, a young mate. |
| | | Translation | And the engineer had a rather biblical name, Garney Bruiss. |
| | | Translation | And the fireman or stoker was Ike Emms. |
| charac-ncpn_np.h:s
|
|
| charac | Garney | Bruiss | | NC | Garney | Bruiss |
| | Translation | Garney Bruiss was a very much a character, playing practical jokes. |
| | | Translation | And the firemen would get there early, we'd get an hour's overtime to raise steam, so it then get away. |
| | | Translation | And it was a day-boat, which meant that you worked an eight-hour day, but the commencement could be between six a.m. and twelve noon, according to the tide. |
| | | Translation | So, the tide started, you started at six o'clock, next morning perhaps at seven o'clock, next morning at eight o'clock, right through to midday, and then you went back to six o'clock again. |
| apprenticedv:pred
|
|
| apprentice | -d | | apprentice | -PTCP.PST |
seven-yearnp:pred
|
|
| apprenticeship | | apprenticeship |
| | Translation | And the first day I started work was a Saturday; I was fifteen then, I mean, and so, I was apprenticed for six years; if you started at fourteen, it was a seven-year apprenticeship, six years at fifteen, and five years if you were sixteen. |
| thenp:other
|
|
| First | World | War | | First | World | War |
| | Translation | Then after that was what they called a dog licence, which originated in the First World War. |
| apprenticedv:pred
|
|
| apprentice | -d | | apprentice | -PTCP.PST |
automaticallyother
|
|
| automatically | | automatically |
| | Translation | An adult could come and be apprenticed for two years, and automatically become a freeman afterwards. |
| | | Translation | They worked on boys' pays after six-year apprentice. |
| | | Translation | And the first day was a Saturday. |
| | | Translation | And it was a three o'clock start, we were up half past four. |
| topn_np:g
|
|
| Blackwall | Pier | | Blackwall | Pier |
| | Translation | My father was on the shift boat, a sixteen-hour boat, we walked down to Blackwall Pier, which was about fifteen minutes walk. |
| | | Translation | And we started work at six o'clock. |
| | | Translation | And the first day's work was fourteen hours, eight o'clock at night, I did. |
| | | Translation | And was was so proud, I wouldn't wash my face, I wanted my mother see me dirty the water then. |
| | | Translation | And of course she was about, because the shops were open until late Saturday, because living was hard. |
| | | Translation | We never had any electric bulb in a room with more than sixty watts, so if you went from one room to the other you turned the lights out. |
| | | Translation | If milk was going off in the summer, it was not to be sold, Mother'd boil it -- we had that -- no, I don't mean to say we had it all the time, only it was there. |
| | | Translation | If cake was going stale, we had that, and things like that to, to make it pay, because it was a hard living. |
| | | Translation | And, for instance, you'd get knocks after you'd closed eight o'clock at night, people would be at the door, and you couldn't turn them away. |
| | | Translation | And you'd get some improvident families, you get one child come and knock for a penny candle, or half penny candle, and then about five minutes later another one'd come for a penny box of matches to light the candle. |
| | | Translation | This is the sort of thing, and still at that time, there were penny packets of tea, there were five cigarettes for two pence, and there was one brand you could get two for one p. One pence, rather. |
| | | Translation | The salt came in large blocks, and it had to be sawn up. |
| two-hundredweightrn_adj
|
|
| two | hundredweight | | two | hundredweight |
| | Translation | Sugar, in two-hundredweight sacks, had to be banged up. |
| | | Translation | Biscuits in tins, and the sweets, of course, in jars. |
| | | Translation | And I can vaguely remember, because I was a child in the thirties there, it was the depression. |
| | | Translation | Young chaps out of work, would come, and Mum would sell them a cigarette for a half penny. |
| | | Translation | And five of them would be passing it from one to another. |
| | | Translation | And children not being able to go to school, because their one pair of boots was at the snobs. |
| | | Translation | So, that was the sort of clientele that the shop was on. |
| that'sdem_pro:s=cop
|
|
| that | ='s | | DIST.SG | =be.PRS.3SG |
| | Translation | And, so, that's what I remember of the childhood in the shop there. And, ehm... |
| | | Translation | [INTERVIEWER] Tell me about your first day as an apprentice. |
| | | Translation | First day as apprentice? On the boat, as I was young George's boy, my father was young George Adams, and when I started with him he became old George and I became young George. |
| | | Translation | Now, Jim Chew, I called Uncle Jim, because his wife was my mother's best friend. Edie Chew. |
| | | Translation | So, Jim Chew was the skipper, and he lived a few streets away from us. |
| | | Translation | And my duties on the first day consisted of making tea mainly and warming up their food -- they used to fetch pre-cooked food to warm up. |
| borrowingv:pred
|
|
| borrow | -ing | | borrow | -PTCP.PRS |
| | Translation | Not only for the crew, but for the lightermen who towed behind the tug, they would come borrowing from you a cup of tea for a penny. |
| | | Translation | And, then, you should help on the deck, but they only let me help from the first week on the deck in the hours of daylight, because it was dark by about five o'clock, being December. |
| | | Translation | But they would've never forgiven themself for allowing me out on the deck in the dark as a newie, knowing my father. |
| | | Translation | So, as soon as it became dark, I sat down below, and I can remember sitting down in the forward cabin, because in the tugs, there are two cabins. |
| feetnp.h:s=lv_aux
|
|
| lightermen | ='d | | lighterman.PL | =would |
lightermen'dln_pro.h:poss
| | Translation | There was one forward cabin, that was for the mate and the skipper -- and no lightermen were allowed down there -- and aft was the general duty cabin with the galley, which gave access to the engine room, and, of course, they would come in, by their feet, and then the lightermen would come down for their tea; they sat aft. |
| whatv:pred
|
|
| happen | -ing | | happen | -PTCP.PRS |
| | Translation | So, they sent me down the forecabin, and the Vigilant had a wooden forepost, which we would use, if they were dragging craft out from the shore, with a long line, and I could hear this creaking; I didn't know what was happening, because I'd not seen it. |
| | | Translation | Just imagine all this creaking and bumping and banging along the side, and I was sitting there, say, from about five until we finished at eight o'clock. |
| | | Translation | But once I was up on deck, and in the hours of daylight, and afterwards, when it got dark, when, after the first week, you would assist the mate, and your main duty would be putting the fender in, when you came alongside. |
| day-worknp:pred
|
|
| day | work | boat | -s | | day | work | boat | -PL |
| | Translation | And pass the towropes up to the lighterman, make the tea, scrub the cabin, and quite often that'd take a long time, because, being the day-work boats, we tended to do the short runs, while the shift boat, what my father was on, did the long runs to Brentford and down to Tilbury. |
| ehmpn_np:g
|
|
| Waterloo | Bridge | | Waterloo | Bridge |
| | Translation | Only we did the London run, say, down to the Royal Docks, up through the bridges, perhaps to the wharves, up as far as about Waterloo Bridge. |
| | | Translation | Only occasionally we'd go further. |
| anp:other
|
|
| scrubbing | brush | | scrubbing | brush |
a-linednp:obl
|
|
| battleship | lino | | battleship | lino |
| | Translation | And so you get the bucket with soda and soft soap and make your sugie moodie, as they called it, and a scrubbing brush, and the floor of the cabin was a-lined with battleship lino. Brown, very thick, very durable. |
| | | Translation | But of course, the engineers would be coming in and the stoker with their feet with oil on it and that, so you used to get old sacks and put them down. |
| Eastpn_np:pred_obl
|
|
| East | India | Dock | | East | India | Dock |
Dockpn_np:g
|
|
| West | India | Dock | | West | India | Dock |
| | Translation | But as I say, you start scrubbing the cabin and you'd be what they called jazzing, that was East India Dock to West India Dock -- that was only about a five-minute run. |
| | | Translation | And then as soon as you heard the telegraph go to the engine room, you'd just put the bucket on the stove to keep it hot, and you went up and helped the mate and then down you went and did a bit more scrubbing; it might take you sometime two or three hours to scrub a cabin out. |
| | | Translation | But, of course, if you didn't, they were very particular of their cleanliness then. |
| | | Translation | They weren't bad, but the generation before the war, you'd get a cuff around the ear, if you didn't behave yourself. |
| | | Translation | But they were a bit more civilised by then. |
| | | Translation | So, scrubbing or cleaning the brass. |
| shipnp.h:pred
|
|
| ship | chandler | -s | | ship | chandler | -PL |
inpn_np:l
|
|
| East | India | Dock | Road | | East | India | Dock | Road |
| | Translation | And although Brasso had been in existence for some years, the skipper insisted that it was done the old way, and what I had to do was go to MacWhirters, who were the ship chandlers in East India Dock Road, and you'd get a block of brick dust, and you come back to the boat, and, by this time, you'd have it; you'd punch the lid of, say, a paint can and make a grater. |
| ofrn_np
|
|
| lubrication | oil | | lubrication | oil |
| | Translation | You'd grate your brick dust and mix it up, with a bit of paraffin and a bit of lubrication oil. |
| tovother:pred
|
|
| disintegrate | | disintegrate.INF |
| | Translation | And they'd get the coyar rope from a fender, which was beginning to disintegrate, and you'd go up and clean your steam whistle and the brass with this form of Brasso, where on the other boat, on the other shift there the boy just went to MacWhirters and he drew the Brasso. |
| | | Translation | But not our skipper, he said, I don't want that. |
| | | Translation | So, you assisted the mate, cleaned, washed the deck down, you'd wash the cabin yourself, heated their food, made the tea, made yourself generally useful. |
| navigationnp:p
|
|
| navigation | lamp | -s | | navigation | lamp | -PL |
| | Translation | And then, as it was getting dark, you would prepare your navigation lamps, port, starboard and your two headlamps. |
| | | Translation | One if you were running lights, and two, if you were towing, one above the other. |
| | | Translation | And what they call the chase lamp, which the lighterman would take over on the barge, or the sternmost barge after dark. |
| | | Translation | So, you cleaned the glasses with newspaper, and trimmed your wicks, filled the lamps up and got them lit ready, when it was dark, and then you put them up. |
| | | Translation | Then going up through the bridges, you would stand by the funnel, and as you got near the bridge, if the funnel was hitting, you'd pull it down. |
| | | Translation | Your foremast would be hinged; the mate would have pulled that down and tied that down ready. |
| | | Translation | And you wouldn't be stuck on the funnel all the time on the long run, the mate would give you a blow, but it was generally the boy's job to do this. |
| | | Translation | So, that was the function of the deck boy. |
| | | Translation | And then, it was -- yeah, just before the fall of France, we got a new boat, the Vista came around from Dunstan's in Yorkshire, and we went on the motorboat then, the Vista. |
| henp.h:pred
|
|
| steam | engineer | | steam | engineer |
| | Translation | And the tank, the tea, there used to be some taste in it; we didn't tumble it, but the engineer, he was a Scotch engineer this, of course being a diesel boat, it was a different type of engineer -- Garney Bruiss stayed with the Vigilant; he was a steam engineer. |
| | | Translation | And you had a greaser boy with the engineer. |
| inspectionnp:p
|
|
| inspection | lid | | inspection | lid |
ournp:obl
|
|
| fresh | water | tank | | fresh | water | tank |
| | Translation | And the Scotsman brought his son, and his son started breaking out in boils, and in the end we took the inspection lid off our fresh water tank, and someone had left a lot of red lead in there. |
| | | Translation | It was lead we were drinking. |
| | | Translation | Of course, we cleaned it out and it was alright, but for weeks it was like that. |
| | | Translation | The other thing... [CUT IN RECORDING] |
| grea-np.h:dt
|
|
| greaser | boy | -s | | greaser | boy | -PL |
| | Translation | The thing I remember about the greaser boy, apart from the fact that this particular one broken out in boils because of the water, the greaser boys in general -- the sort of assistant engineer -- it was a dead-end job really, unless you went on as this young Scots lad would've done; I mean, his father just brought him there to start him off. |
| greasernp.h:obl
|
|
| greaser | boy | -s | | greaser | boy | -PL |
| | Translation | But other lads, local lads, went to become greaser boys, they'll say it was a dead-end job. |
| there'sother=other:predex
| | Translation | When they were about eighteen, there'd no more promotion; they would go. |
| | | Translation | But they were staff, and this thing stuck in my mind. |
| | | Translation | I, although I was regularly employed, was casual. |
| there'sother=other:predex
| | Translation | So, at that time, there was no paid holiday. |
| | | Translation | You know, I could take a week's holiday, but I'd get no pay for it. |
| | | Translation | But the greaser boy, at the same age, on the same boat, he was staff and he got a week's paid holiday. |
| | | Translation | This was the system. |
| | | Translation | And of course, the lightermen, being casual, didn't get a paid holiday, but the skipper, mate and the engineer, they, of course, were staff, they got a week's paid holiday. |
| | | Translation | But that was a distinction there. |
| | | Translation | But not long after we got the Vista, France fell. |
| | | Translation | Because I remember, it was a glorious summer's day and it seemed very quiet. |
| Victoriapn_np:l
|
|
| Victoria | Dock | entrance | | Victoria | Dock | entrance |
| | Translation | We rounded at the Victoria Dock entrance, and Jimmy Smith, one of the lightermen who worked for us, came out, and he said, France has fallen. |
| broomsticksnp:obl
|
|
| broomstick | -s | | broomstick | -PL |
| | Translation | And oh, they were ablaze! I mean, they were going to fight with broomsticks; there was no turning it in; they were really keen to have a go. |
| | | Translation | I remember Fred Smith and them, having a go. |
| | | Translation | But I remember that he just sort of appeared over the top of the brow of the wharf of the Victoria Dock and said France had fallen. |
| | | Translation | And that was it. |
| | | Translation | And then we saw them take the lifeboats, but we didn't know anything about it; the lifeboats being town down, in strings from the ship -- they robbed all the ships in the docks of their lifeboats and took them down below, and the small boats going. |
| | | Translation | But they never asked for us, though I think, some barges were towed across, but we didn't go across with them to the evacuation of Dunkirk. |
| | | Translation | And then of course, the next notable event was the blitz. |
| | | Translation | And we, being the motorboat then, being more powerful, we'd done a run up to Brentford. |
| Saturdaynp:other
|
|
| Saturday | afternoon | | Saturday | afternoon |
| | Translation | We were coming down on the Saturday afternoon, we were just coming down into the upper pool, we'd cleared London Bridge coming down and, and we saw these planes up in the air, and then we saw something which puzzled us at first, and we realised it was bombs dropping. |
| | | Translation | And then, as we were under Tower Bridge, it seemed as though the German planes were turning at the edge of the City and going back over the docks. |
| | | Translation | And we ran downriver, and the Surrey Docks were afire then, and there were barges ablaze, and I remember I was quite shocked because the skipper wouldn't go and take these barges that were ablaze. |
| | | Translation | You know, it seemed, he wasn't taking good care of property, because... [END OF TAPE] |
| | | Translation | With lighterage, if you found a barge adrift from another firm -- not from your own firm -- that was what they called hovel, you got hovel money. |
| lighteragenp:obl
|
|
| lighterage | firm | | lighterage | firm |
| | Translation | If a waterman who didn't work for a lighterage firm got it, he would get salvage money, he'd get far more. |
| Master'srn_pn_np
|
|
| Master's | Association | | Master's | Association |
| | Translation | But there was agreement with the Master's Association to pay hovel money, which was a lesser sum, to the crew that picked up barges adrift. |
| | | Translation | And it shook me, not because of the money, but the fact that it's property, it's stuff ablazing, he wouldn't go around to it. |
| | | Translation | And then, as we ran down, we were, we're going from side to side, because the bombs were dropping close, and we could hear this shrapnel frapping on the side of the boat, as we were going over. |
| that'sdem_pro:s=cop
|
|
| that | ='s | | DIST.SG | =be.PRS.3SG |
Blackwallpn_np:g
|
|
| Blackwall | Pier | | Blackwall | Pier |
| | Translation | And the skipper was up there in the wheelbox, and he didn't come down, he just sat, and we were a lightboat, that means we had no craft; we were running down light to Blackwall Pier. |
| Commercialpn_np:l
|
|
| Commercial | Dock | | Commercial | Dock |
| | Translation | And as we went by the Commercial Dock, a petrol tanker ran up -- one of the small ones -- and they had their gas masks on. |
| | | Translation | And they went, What happened to us? And we've got this acrid smell and that on, Jesus Christ, it was gas! I always brought my gas mask, so did the skipper, so did the mate, but the Scotsman didn't, or his son. |
| | | Translation | So, I said to his son, You'd better put water on your handkerchief, Put it over your mouth. |
| | | Translation | And the two of them were down below crying. |
| Firstpn_np:other
|
|
| First | World | War | | First | World | War |
| | Translation | The Scotsman had been in the trenches in the First World War, so, I can understand his agony. |
| Convoy'spn_np:g
|
|
| Convoy's | Wharf | | Convoy's | Wharf |
Wharfpn_np:g
|
|
| Deptford | Wharf | | Deptford | Wharf |
| | Translation | And we got down to about Convoy's Wharf, Deptford Wharf, before we realised that it wasn't gas, it was ammonia or something from something ablaze, and we took our gas masks off. |
| Westrn_pn_np
|
|
| West | India | Dock | | West | India | Dock |
| | Translation | And we went into the entrance of West India Dock, and we pulled the lock gates to for them, because it was top of the tide, |
| hadn't'velv_aux=lv_aux
|
|
| had | =n't | ='ve | | have.PST | =NEG | =have.PRS |
allownp:obl
|
|
| water | pressure | | water | pressure |
thevother:pred
|
|
| counterbalance | -d | | counterbalance | -PTCP.PST |
behindnp:obl
|
|
| water | pressure | | water | pressure |
thenp:pred
|
|
| water | pressure | | water | pressure |
| | Translation | and the hydraulic power had been cut off because the bombing had cut the pipes, and if they had not closed the gates, the water would have just gushed out, and the dock walls would have collapsed, because when they built them, they allowed for the water pressure behind to be counterbalanced by the water pressure in the dock, and if one goes, which the main one is the water pressure in the dock, and then the dock walls could collapse, especially if it's sudden. |
| Blackwallrn_pn_np
|
|
| Blackwall | Pier | | Blackwall | Pier |
othernp:obl
|
|
| lighterage | firm | -s | | lighterage | firm | -PL |
| | Translation | So, we pulled them to for them, and we went to our base at Blackwall Pier, which we shared with other lighterage firms. |
| | | Translation | There was Knights, who were what they called Sea King Tugs; they did no barges; they just towed other people's craft. |
| Thamespn_np:dt_poss
|
|
| Thames | Steam | Tugs | | Thames | Steam | Tugs |
| | Translation | And Thames Steam Tugs, some of their London boats used to tie up there. |
| | | Translation | And, of course, they were all getting ready to go home, the all-clear had gone by then, the smoke and everything else, and dust was drawing in. |
Text view • Utterance view
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