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mc_english_london01_b

Recording date1985
Speaker age61
Speaker sexm
Text genrepersonal narrative
Extended corpusyes
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**** And then there was ex--, a great big spurt and a bang in the **** And the pierman, **** who was employed by the PLA, **** he said, **** Well, oh, it's a lot of things **** dropped in there. **** Oh, crumbs, what's this? Mind of it. **** Then, once again, the, as, as I, as I said with the, the skipper, I was shocked, **** because he didn't go after the barges. **** But **** when the safety of their boat was concerned, **** and he'd say, **** Alright, we can't lay here, **** we can't leave the boat **** -- which they could've done **** -- no-one to **** So, we upped, **** we all cast off, **** and we all went our ways. **** Or our other boat was there by that time, the Vanuk, **** and Percy Green was the **** Eh no, no, Percy Green was the mate still **** then, and Stan Terson was **** And we ran down to Knights **** Roads, which was abreast of **** Lyalls, where the Victoria **** And, uh, I say, and the Germans came back. **** And, uh, we was in a silly position really, **** but, ehm, they hung on there, **** and the bombs were dropping close, **** and we could see the dock, **** a absolute ball of flame silhouetted against the air. **** And, uh, and there's, on our boat, we had the scuttle open, the scuttle, **** which was the sliding hatchway to the after-cabin, **** and there was the Scotsman **** sitting there **** rocking back and forwards with his son in the dark, **** wouldn't have the light on, **** and the mate and the skipper was sitting up on the wheelbox and that, **** and, uh, we knew **** we had no water, **** so I said, **** Well, I'm going across on the other boat, for water, **** which I did do. **** And I looked up at the skipper, Uncle **** Jim Chew, and he could see the gasometers **** in Levens Road gasworks silhouetted by a ball **** of flame behind them, and his house was a couple **** I could see him now, **** and I really, you know, admired the man there, you know, **** sitting there. **** I mean, his wife was there and his child. **** And I went over in the other boat, **** and, ehm, down below they're playing card, **** they was all cockneys, **** and they had the light on, **** they're playing cards and all the rest of it **** and they couldn't care less. **** So, I stayed there. **** It was a bit more cheerful, **** and in the end, uh, Fred Smith come **** over, got **** me, I thought, **** thought something happened to **** me, 'cause I was so **** long; so, we took the water **** back, made **** tea, and it, we'd got too bad **** then, so, I forgot the time of the **** night it **** was, but we cut and **** run, and we went down below to **** Plumstead, **** and moored up **** And next day, 'e came in up, **** which was the Sunday; **** it was, ehm, like a scene from H. G. Wells', uh, Things to **** You couldn't see any sign of life on the shore; **** I mean, **** as far as we're concerned, **** we were the only people alive. **** And smoke and barges drifting about everywhere. **** And, uh, then, **** as we passed Woolwich, **** we'd just see a lorry **** going on, **** 'cause, I think **** it's Church **** It's up high at Woolwich. **** And we went back to Blackwall **** Pier, and we tied **** And then, we walked home, **** 'cause Jim Chew lived in this general **** direction which I **** did and, uh, we **** parted, **** and as I walked down **** Slimmer's Road, and at the bottom, mi grandmother's turning, there's Rosenblatt's, uh, **** Jewish bakers -- **** And, uh, **** walked 'round the corner **** and, **** uh, knocked at my own house, **** and I could hear them **** crying indoors, **** 'cause they didn't know **** what happened to me. **** And, uh, that was it. **** But mi grandmother was there -- mi father's **** mother -- she'd been bombed out **** And, ehm, that was the start of the blitz. **** And, ehm, 'course of a night-time, we, ehm, we had no shelter; **** we were privileged in the sense **** that my father had bought a second-hand Ford car before the war. **** I forget **** what one it was -- the old straight-backed **** I think **** sixty pound it cost. **** And the milkman taught him **** how **** to drive, **** and there was no driving test at the **** time, and, uh, mi father used to get very aerated if you, **** ag--, agitated and, uh, **** first day we **** went out, he used to wear his stiff **** Uh, he didn't have a bowler hat, no or nothing, but the stiff celluloid **** And all the neighbours'd stand out **** and the milkman with his wife and mother and four children in the car. **** And, 'course, he didn't give it enough throttle **** and he kept -- CHUNK! along **** the street he was getting more and more agitated along **** Then because of the car, we had a side entry down the **** bottom, and he built a bit of a **** lean-to, that was a **** garage; so we had no **** room, to put an **** At that time, there were no, they did have shelters **** you could put inside underneath the table, steel, steel **** So, we was all in the family shelter next door, the So, husband and wife, **** and he hadn't worked for years; **** he was gassed in the First **** World War, and who-- had sort of **** form of palsy, and we could hear this ratting his, **** And, yes, **** after he came out of the war, Loveland, after the First **** World War, and **** he **** started deteriorating, 'cause he **** was gassed; the men **** carried him for as long as **** they could -- they carried **** He was a stoker, in the gasworks **** till they couldn't cover him anymore. **** And 'course, **** never worked after that. **** He had two children, two boys and a, a girl. **** And 'course, we were all stuck in this Anderson **** And Iris was a baby, in arms **** and that was it. **** And, uh, then **** when things got bad, **** uh, my aunt, her nerve went, **** and she went down to Woodford, **** which is only a part of London, **** but there was no bombing there at Woodford. **** And, uh, they used to go down there every night, **** and then mi mother went there, **** and uh, I started **** going down there, **** but then you sort of got immune to it **** and, uh, we went into the shelter **** belonging to a family, the Stamps. **** In fact, th--, th--, the grandson was Terence **** If you'd like **** to hear about that family... [INT] **** Let's leave that for another occasion, shall **** we? **** **** Yeah. Anyway, we're in Stamps', **** there's Bobby **** Stamp, he had one **** eye, uh, and Johnny Stamp and **** His father was a donkeyman, **** he went to sea. **** And, uh, so there was room in this shelter, **** and we used to go over there. **** And, uh, then, **** when the intensity of the bombing declined, **** we, uh, just used to stay in bed and in, **** and then you just wouldn't, uh, take notice of it; **** you just got immune to it. But the beginning... [INT] **** What, what sort of work were you doing through this period? **** Well, **** just doing mi normal work. **** But also, ehm, we did a night m--, mine patrol once **** Various lighterage firms shared **** it, and we got paid a payment, but an **** overtime payment, but it **** was compulsory so **** that ehm, as **** they started dropping mines, like the acoustic mines, there up **** the river, **** you had the, uh, minesweepers used to go up **** H. P. Herbert used to serve on those, on **** But the lighterage tug used to patrol the sections of the river v--, to **** stop **** them landing, coming down **** on **** parachute and **** And you weren't allowed any navigation **** lights, which a bit **** Except when there's full moon, **** when you could see well, **** and then they would allow you little navigation **** lights, but they were, were **** And similarly, with the bridges, the bridges of a night-time they're got two orange lights, **** which'd signify the middle of the working arch. **** So, there might be two or three arches like that. **** But 'course, they were eh hooded, **** and they were very hard **** to see. **** And, uh, so, everybody just did their normal work, in, in the blitz. **** You went to work, **** and you came home, **** and **** if it's firefighting, **** that'd be on, **** go up to the roof, incendiary bombs along the street, **** uh, because they couldn't get to it. **** And, ehm, that was **** until they m--, made explosive **** incendiaries, and then of course it was **** They're more dangerous then. **** When you went **** to tackle incendiary bomb, **** it'd explode. **** But in the first instance, they'd just come down in clusters, **** and you could ehr, get a stirrup **** pump **** or dowse them with sand with the **** And then the s--, the street itself, we organise our own voluntary, uh, watch of a night-time, a **** fire-watch, and we did two **** hours, and I used to go with mi **** And then, someone else would come along **** and **** relieve you **** and then we'd go through the night like that. **** They did try and f--, they, they did fetch in compulsory fire-watching at **** factories, but my father was a, a **** socialist, and also he detested **** Morrison, because Morrison was a conch in the **** First World **** War, and, ehm, **** when they said, he had to go and fire-watch at a factory over **** in Mile **** End somewhere, **** he said, **** I'm not! He **** He said, **** No conchy's gonna tell me **** what **** to do! **** That's it **** and he wouldn't. **** But we did the fire-watching in the street. **** So that, ehm, life carried on more or less as normal. **** You just did your work, **** and, uh, **** if there's an air **** raid, you was disturbed at **** That was it **** and you went to work next morning **** -- wherever it **** Uh, by that time there was very little work in the docks for dockers and stevedores; **** my mother's brothers were gone lorry-driving and things like that. **** And then later on, of course, **** when they got the emergency ports of eh Mersea and, ehm, Loch Ryan **** and Gurrock, they ehm asked **** for them **** to volunteer to go and work in **** these ports, and they went to **** My uncle John went down to Cardiff, I know, down there, **** working as a stevedore. **** But, uh, there was still a bit of lighterage, **** uh, although in the first incident **** when the ships couldn't get through E-boat **** alley, 'cause it's much, too much too dangerous on the **** Ehm, they started **** making the tug crews a week on the labour, a week **** So you was a week on labour, a week off. **** And, ehm, the, the lightermen, of course, they was on the eh labour all the time. **** Excuse me. It was still a reserved **** And, ehm, then a few ships started **** coming through, **** and then they started **** fetching stuff through Bristol, **** and **** piping oil up across to, to Windsor and place like that. **** So, uh, our small tug, **** 'cause there was two st--, what they call **** dock tugs -- the varlet **** and **** the vassal, uh, colloquially **** Not those two but that type of tug up to eighty horsepower was called a tosher, its nickname. **** Just a two-man crew, a skipper and a mate. **** Uh, and they would do the work **** when they're not towing in the dock, **** and **** perhaps come out **** and **** tow up the creek and back in the dock again. **** But one of those went on the long run and that, from upriver down to Teddington **** and we did go up **** and **** pick craft up from Teddington **** and **** work. **** So there was, the work did spring up again **** as far as lighterage was concerned, **** but not to the same extent. **** And, ehm, **** getting towards the end of my two years, **** when you are an unlicenced apprentice, **** the, ehm, labour master, Sid Stayden, old Sid **** Stayden, ehm, said, Right, we'll have **** to **** get you driving, because you're supposed **** to have experience **** driving under oars, when you went up **** And, uh, so there weren't many driving **** jobs, he give us, he gave us, gave me **** I went with a chap, **** and we was gonna drive out of Chelsea **** Creek **** and go up to **** But by the time **** we go outside, **** the boat was waiting for us. **** And there's another one, **** where we was going to drive up to the Victoria **** Dock, up along to **** Rotherhithe, but once again we was only gone f--, f--, about **** half a mile, and the tug **** But, of course, **** when you went up for your twos, **** you had to say **** that, ehm, you had experience **** of **** driving under oars. **** I had, **** but not enough. **** But then, of course, they asked you questions about sets of tides and things like that **** and, uh, it was quite eh awe-inspiring, the, uh, Watermen's **** Hall; it's very old **** hall, and all the court would be sit **** A little high table in front of the window **** and you'd go in with your master, in this instance my father, **** apprenticed to mi father, **** and, ehm, then the boy had to step forward, **** and they'd address you as the boy. **** And various members of the court asked you questions. **** If you, you failed the test, **** your master could ask f--, for **** them to get a **** barge, whether they did it in **** wartime, I don't know, but **** pre-war, and you would drive the barge under oars, with the beadle of the **** company rowing **** behind to observe your **** But, uh, it never came to that. **** I got my two-year licence. **** Uh, and then, I went as a lighterman on the craft then. **** The last part of my first two years, ehm, I went 'round to **** what they called the New **** Wharf, it was a railway wharf up Bow **** Creek, by Canning Town Bridge, which, ehm, was **** the headquarters if you like, it was our reporting **** place for the lightermen of Volkins, **** 'cause we contracted for the **** And, ehm, so the boy would be there, **** and you'd get sent out **** to assist lightermen, **** but you'd mainly at the wharf, **** sweeping up barges and things like that. **** But **** once you got your twos, **** you was out on your own then, **** you were at a lesser rate than the freemen, **** uh, certain restrictions on night **** work, uh, but, ehm, to all intents and purposes you worked as a **** And **** because pre-war they'd tended to use a lot of apprentices, **** 'cause they was cheap, **** as the unions got more power, **** it, it imposed a quota of apprentices to the number of freemen **** a firm could have and... [INT] **** When was that, then, **** that the regulations, specific regulations were brought in? **** Ehm, it was a, I suppose about nineteen thirty-nine, **** nineteen forty, as they's, they was getting **** I couldn't say exactly, **** but, ehm, it started. **** Similarly 'round about that time, they'd got meal **** hours paid **** for, the **** lightermen, because eh lightermen you could say tow **** up and, to the New Wharf, for ...past twelve, **** you've had no lunch, **** and they'll say, **** Right, well, that one's gotta go out! You see? **** And, 'course, it's the tide. **** So, that, ehm, the men, **** when they felt their feet warm, **** I mean, **** they've come out of the depression, **** eh they started **** refusing **** to do that, **** and then they've brought a meal hour **** in, so you could change straight **** over, eh and you'd get paid for an hour's **** And, but **** as soon as you'd finished that second job, **** now you had to have your meal **** Charged for a meal, **** but it didn't work out that way so much. **** Ehm, you could come out the Victoria **** Dock, and you'd missed the **** boat going **** up, and you'd be stuck at out on **** The only way **** to get ashore **** is by watermen. **** The watermen by that time were very few and far between, particularly in the war. **** Or you'd get a police-boat **** to put you ashore. **** And you used to get **** -- I **** think it's half a **** crown -- it was **** And you either gave it to the police-boat or the watermen **** or **** someone stepped you ashore; **** then you just walked in **** and that was yours. **** **** But **** if you couldn't get ashore, **** you're just stuck there. **** Well, **** as far as you was concerned, **** you was coming out, **** you was gonna tow up somewhere **** and you'd get ashore. **** But you would be stuck there. **** And you'd have nothing, nothing **** to eat or drink. **** You might be there for six hours time the boat, **** if he'd gone right up along, **** waited for it **** to come along **** t--, t--, to pick **** I mean, you got paid, didn't you, **** if you did that, **** but you had nothing **** to eat or drink. **** And that was it. And, ehm,... ...a sandwich, **** you'd take a sandwich with you in your pocket, **** and that was it. **** All **** you had in the barge's cabin **** was a stove **** -- and I don't **** know if the museum's got a b-- **** a barge stove -- but they **** are a particular stove; they're peculiar to barges, in **** And the front was open. **** And **** to start the fire, **** you made a blower yourself, out of newspaper, **** so, it was rectangular stove. **** And then, it conical at the top, **** and then your funnel went up, generally to the deck **** Now, this would be inclined to be smoky, **** so, **** if you got a rattan **** mat, you'd make an extension to your funnel with a rattan mat or cardboard anything **** like that, to, to give it sort of a bit **** So, there was the bars at the bottom for the fire, **** and then it was just open at the top, **** and you'd put newspaper around the rim **** and **** get it tight **** and **** make a blower from that, **** and it'd take the smoke away **** and **** get, your, your fire **** going properly. **** Coal was not provided in that instance; **** you used to pinch your coal. **** When you got alongside a coal **** barge, you coaled the barge **** up, then it became a question of, **** And you had the, uh, the stove, the fire in the, the cabin and then the locker, **** which was just a wooden bench. **** Ri--, if you **** visualize that the Huddis plates, the, the configuration of the barge sloped down, forward **** W-, aft, the cabin was always **** And they'd matchline the cabin a bit. **** And then in between the two, if you like, artificial walls, uh, they would be the lockers; **** so there'd be a bench, **** and **** although most of the barges didn't have a locker underneath, **** it st--, carried the name **** on, when it used to be a sort of a cupboard underneath **** And this is **** where you stayed. **** And the lifebelt on the barge was a round, pillow **** shape, and, 'course, you would use that for a **** pillow, if you was sleeping aboard the **** Eh, the cabins weren't unpleasant, **** except if you got a barge **** that **** was rat-infested. **** Then you could, you could smell them; **** you could hear them. **** [UNCLEAR] you could see the rat **** droppings everywhere, and then you could, uh, **** smell them, and, uh, smells like that you **** You can describe it, **** and it's similar, when **** -- going back to my **** childhood -- when we had **** the shop, and when things were still a **** bit hard, people used to let **** And we had a young couple, **** let a room out to them, **** and, ehm, I don't think **** they was very clean, **** 'cause I remember **** mi father come into our bedroom, once **** looking over the wall **** -- I, I didn't **** know what he was looking **** for -- it **** And, uh, **** when this couple finally moved, **** well, in fact, we wanted the room, **** because we were growing up by then. **** And, uh, we went in, **** and **** where the bed had been on the far window, **** uh, we started **** stripping the wallpaper, **** my brother and I, **** and there was a mess of bugs. **** We was shovelling them up **** and **** running them down, **** and I tell you, **** I know **** what the, a bug smells like, or a bug **** infestation, but I couldn't describe **** Not 'cause it's indescribable; **** it's **** like trying **** to describe, uh, the difference between roast potatoes, uh, roast chicken, and, and, uh, apple **** It, it's difficult, **** so, with a rat-infested barge, you smelt it **** as soon as you went on. **** And some barges -- it don't **** matter how often they were **** fumigated, and they would fumigate **** them, ehm, when they went on the **** Uh, they, they would come back again, the rats. **** And, uh, **** live aboard the barge. **** And that was that. **** So, that was aft; **** your cabin was aft, **** and down forward **** -- because there was no **** toilet **** -- was where you found the **** So, you'd either have a piece of sacking, **** and you went to the toilet there, **** and you would throw it overboard, **** but **** if you didn't have sacking or newspaper, **** then, of course, it was left there and, until such times **** when she went in the barge yard for the **** overhaul, and then the barge repairers and the barge builders, they **** But, uh, that was the forward. **** On the tug they had a toilet, **** but, ehm, you weren't allowed to use it, the lighterman, just for the crew. Yeah. **** And, ehm, **** if you's, ehm, towing up, behind the barge, uh, behind the tug, **** as I say, the lighterman could go aboard for a cup of tea, **** and that was it. **** That was your lot. **** Ehm, so that in lighterage, you learnt, in the first instance, **** by **** being with people **** as a two-year **** boy, and then you were on your **** own, you still **** I, I learnt quite a lot **** by **** sitting **** and **** listening. **** Now, men, eh, eh dockers and stevedores'll say **** that lightermen and, and, and probably working men in general, they always talk about work. **** That was their main topic of conversation. **** Work, then, then women, uh, then betting and sport, and way, way down. **** And **** after television came in, **** television became the prime 'un, **** and, ehm, the work went down one, **** and then everything was downgraded one then in that order of priority. **** But you could sit **** and **** listen, **** and the men'd be describing an experience **** and -- there was a couple **** things I **** learnt which, amongst others, ehm, helped me in later **** And then, **** remember once, one of them **** saying, **** that's **** when he was coming out of Barking **** Creek, the wind into the creek was stronger than the **** tide and the **** barge, being a light barge, empty **** barge, it was catching wind **** more, and, ehm, the lighterman just got some gratings from out of the **** barge, tied them to the **** light **** and dropped them overboard and **** that, few gratings in the tide counterbalanced the **** wind and out she **** And, uh, another one was, another bad place was the eastern basin of the London **** It's the walls, **** the quay walls were **** You'd come into the Shadwell **** entrance, and **** then go through into the **** East India Dock, **** And then you had to shoot across, **** try and get way, with barge. **** Barges used to be equipped with a pair of paddles **** -- that was the **** oars -- and **** a hitcher, which a long, long boat pole, with a **** But, the paddles came from Sweden. **** And of course through the war, they dried up, **** and they were a few and far between, **** so, we was down then **** to what they called fingernail **** You'd use your fingernails. **** So that **** when you came out of that lock, in the Shadwell **** Basin to go past the **** East India Dock, you used to try and get as much **** way across you **** There's peculiarity of the wind there sometimes; **** you get in the middle, **** and you just go 'round and 'round. **** And, ehm, I 'member someone **** telling me once **** that, uh, **** got the funnel from the stove, **** which was cast **** iron, and they were **** chained; they broke the **** chain, tied the end to the **** rope, **** and just **** dropped down the forward and **** And **** pulled it either side, **** and it got a bit of way on the barge again, **** to get that way. **** So, you learnt **** by **** doing things. **** And you learnt **** by **** listening **** and, and **** watching others, **** then you got like a thing like that. **** Oh, another one was **** that, ehm, with a tug sometimes, you got a terrific wind, **** if you had a terrific wind, **** and you would round **** -- you always round into the **** tide, the tide was yo--, act as **** Uh, sometimes you couldn't get downhead to the wind. **** If you went 'round stern first, full speed, **** you could come back **** to where you want **** to. **** But that, that's another thing **** that **** we're in good stead with later on **** when I was in the army. **** And, ehm, so, I got mi twos, **** and then, shortly after that, ehm, I became a registered man, **** because, in the first two years, you were unregistered, **** although the scheme come in nineteen **** So, **** shortly before I got my twos, **** the scheme started **** and I became a registered man. **** And, ehm, I belonged to a yorth, youth **** organisation -- Young Christian Workers **** And, uh, I'd been elected national president **** and then the national secretary -- they couldn't get **** him **** reserved, and he'd gone into the **** Pats, Patrick Keegan, he was a Wiggan **** And, ehm, they asked me **** if I'd go, **** so I went in the June of nineteen forty-two to **** Liverpool, and, uh, I was national **** secretary, used to edit the **** magazine, and, **** uh, deal with the **** correspondence, arrange conferences and whatnot, until **** December, and they couldn't get **** m--, m--, **** me **** reserved also; thought I'd come out **** of reserved occupation, and, uh, I **** was **** called up, and joined the east Lancs for the six weeks initial training at **** It'd been a holiday **** And, uh, once again it was about December, winter, **** and, uh, oh, it was freezing. **** There was no heating in these flimsy chalets. **** And there was, uh, three men to a chalet, **** and we did our initial training there. **** And there was a, a chap there **** who was a bus **** driver, he came out of the backwoods, if you like, in **** Lancashire; and I had to cover for **** I remember **** we, we went to his place, **** and, uh, he kept getting stomach cra--, **** cramp, and we **** thought he was swinging the **** The doctor said **** he was swinging lead. **** But the poor bugger had perforated ulcers. **** He told them **** when he came in the army **** he had ulcers. **** And the doctor gets more towards **** he's swinging lead, **** and, uh, he went one day, **** reported sick, **** and he spewed up black, **** and they rushed him to hospital, **** and he was dead, within about a few hours, in the army. **** And, uh, so that's our six weeks training there at Blundell **** And then, you, you went to the various regiments, according to your trade or your inclination, **** 'cause they had this, uh, psychologist **** did the test. **** And, uh, I went into the Royal Engineers, the **** lighterage, and **** then, went down to Cardiff, just outside [UNCLEAR] Cardiff, by Llandaff Cathedral, for the sapper's training, you know, in demolition and **** And then, from that I went up to the Surrey **** Docks, there was **** Nissen huts put in the Surrey Docks for the IWT, **** And, ehm, from there, after the initial training, **** went up to Cairnryan to the army camps **** there, 'cause that was a military port **** And, ehm, the thing **** I remember from there, may--, more than anything **** else, was the **** fact that the water came out of the taps **** brown; it was **** First I met this. **** And the fact **** that, ehm, **** being Adams, A in the alphabet, **** I always got put first into things. **** And once **** -- and this is no **** exaggeration -- I went to three different units in **** We was with the Engineers, **** and we were sent to an artesian works company, couple of camps **** down before, but that last night I was on fire picket Security duty the next **** night, and then we marched 'round the **** loch to join the **** company we were gonna **** form, **** PFB company, and I was on guard the first night again, three nights on **** That was that, **** being A. **** So that, ehm, we's, just sort of general duties there, **** and then we formed this Port Floating **** Equipment company, 969 PFE, and **** Now, from Cairnryan we went 'round to a headland, **** but the nearest place was the Isle **** It's on the Mull **** And eh a bay near us, Rigg Bay, we started the secret experiments for the **** And the first one was the, the first idea rather, was great big concrete cassoins, the floating barges, **** which would be flooded, **** with a road **** going between them, **** and they got pioneers **** winching this roadway up and down, **** and this was too cumbersome, **** and they abandoned it, **** but then, they used these cassoins as breakwaters in Rigg **** Bay, because it r--, really used to be fierce there, the weather, on the **** And, uh, then they hit on the idea with the pontoons **** supporting flexible bridging, **** which was the main thing. **** And, uh, **** when they decided **** this was **** what they was gonna use, **** ehm, we then moved down to the Isle **** of Wight, and **** we started training on **** 'Cause we was afloat; **** we got up the Navy's nose, **** because they, see, and they said, no. **** They were gonna tow them across to France. **** And **** when their bods came **** and **** looked at them, **** they said, **** We're not gonna go next, **** 'cause it was just a section of floating roadway -- six spans on **** pontoons, which were not facing the direction of port, but athwart. Across the direction of **** port, resting on
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