Fred Foley remembers his father working at the docks

Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 25th July 2012 by Jenny Porter

Fred Foley remembers his father’s occupation as a ship repairer at the docks and how he would only be employed for short periods of time.

Interviewee: Fred Foley

Interviewee Gender: Male

Interview Transcript

Fred: Me dad worked on the docks..or he was a ship repairer me dad.  He worked on the Holland and Monks(?) he worked for all the ? but when he only worked when the ship come in, you know the saying ‘when me ship comes in’ (indecipherable) and he’d get laid off.  When the ship come in he’d do some work on it repairing the ship. And when the repairing work had finished they’d get laid off and then they’d come home from work and they’d go home and they wait for a telegram then.  Have you heard about this before?

Jenny: No

Fred: They’d wait for a telegram, and then when the ship come in they’d get a telegram you know we’ve got a job for you and they’d go down and whether that ship was there they’d be working on it and then when it was they’d finished the ship would sail off and they’d get laid off again but…

Jenny: Yeah up and down all the time.

Fred: And I had a brother and two sisters…

Tagged under: childhood memories, docks, working life, ships

Categorised under: Work & Industry