Wayne Pritchett on Rivers and Harbours
I saw an advertisement in the Isle of Wight County Press in 1973, and they wanted someone to drive a steam crane, which was the last working steam crane on the Isle of Wight. A steam crane on a Dredger at Newport. Well, from the old Borough of Newport as it was.
Well, I applied for the job and not having driven a crane of any sort, I suppose I applied for the job as a bit of a joke really, but to my surprise I got the job. Bit of a panic set in then and I’ll always remember I went down to see the old chap who was about to retire, and I said to him, “I don’t know anything about cranes” I said, “but I’ve got the job.”
I said, “I don’t understand how I got this job.”
“Ah” he said, “I put a word I for you” and I said, “What do you mean you put a word in for me.”
He said, “When I left school, in 1921”, he said, “Your great grandfather gave me a job on one of his barges” and he said, “I knew who you were” he said, “so I put a word in for you.”
I said, “I don’t know how I’m going to handle this machine, I’ve never sat in a crane before, let alone a steam one which you’ve got to light a fire and God knows what else” and he said, “Don’t worry” he said, “you’ve got two weeks to learn. I live in Newport and if you get a problem, come and see me.”
So that started my career with the Borough of Newport. That’s when we used to dredge all the mud out the river ourselves and the crane actually was an 1876 Grafton steam crane. Originally it was based in Bembridge Harbour where they used to pick up all the shingle outside the Harbour to put on all the Isle of Wight railway tracks, but when the railways closed down, the vessel was surplus to requirements. The old Borough of Newport bought that dredger to move mud from the river and that’s quite a bit of fun driving the thing because you used to have to light the fire at 6 o’clock in the morning and wait until 8 o’clock before you had a head of steam to start work.
Well, I drove that in company with another old chap who worked on there. He retired later that year and then I found myself working this thing on my own which was a devil of a job really, moving the ship about ‘cos you’ve got to remember the ship was 70 feet long as well as a crane on there.
Of course, the Harbour Master at that time was a chap called Vic Sheath who’d been born on the river and he was quite knowledgeable about the place and we got on quite well together but for about seven years I just worked with Vic Sheath as Harbour Master and I was just the crane driver as such.
