Ian Lallow on Boatbuilding
Shortly before I left school and went into the business, I mean you had a seven-year apprenticeship, but when I went into the business, in theory it was a five-year apprenticeship and we took on apprentices at that time.
Father was taking on apprentices although I did more than … I didn’t just do five years boatbuilding because I went into the business. I spent a bit of time with the Painters, bit of time with the Engineers, bit of time with the Riggers and what have you and then me full five years was up. I was involved with the Office side of it as well. I used to do the wages and things like that.
Tracy: Can you remember what sort of salary you were earning when you first started?
I can tell you when I first started, it was £2 12s 6d for a week. In those days it was a 42-hour week.
Tracy: Were there any initiation ceremonies when you first started there?
Not initiation ceremonies. There was lots of … didn’t necessarily happen to me because I was the Boss’s son if you like, but I mean apprentices used to get sent down the road to Ratsey and Lapthorn to get the key to the fog locker and things like that you know, silly little things but that’s what used to happen in those days.
Tracy: We’ll talk about working practices. Did you work on shifts, were there teams and was there like a hierarchy within your …?
No, you got apprenticed to a Boatbuilder or a Mechanic as they were called and I mean I was apprenticed to a fellow called Stan Martin, who’d been at the Yard all his life and he taught me for my first year, and then after that you went with somebody else on the next job whatever the job might be, you know.
Tracy: What would you have worn to work?
Oh, a set of overalls, a boiler suit which in those days they were brown. Don’t ask me why. These days they seem to be blue or whatever, but yeah you always had a boiler suit on. My father, who was the Boss, he always came to work with a collar and tie and a proper hat on, you know, but I never went down that road at all. I‘ve always been dressed as I am now, sort of thing.
