On Thu, 4 May 2017 21:16:40 -0400, Kilgore Trout
wrote:

Here are scanned pages from a pamphlet that was originally published as a magazine article about
the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.

I was working at the shipyard at this time, in the Mechanical Maintenance (84) department. I've
worked the linear launches as part of the hydraulic team (which literally pushed the ship on
rollers onto the floating dry dock), and also worked on the dry dock pretty much full time at this
point, and on the cranes.

You have stirred up my ,memories of shipbuilding on the River Tyne,
1954-58. I did not work of a shipbuilder's yard but was the local
salesman for Esso which had just introduced mineral lubricants to the
market for launching lubricants - tallow and other things before
that..
So I was present at several launches, not on the VIP platform but
underneath the hull. offering a prayer that the ship would start
moving as soon as the chocks were knocked out. There were, of course,
hydraulic rams to give it a push if necessary.
At least one shipyard would not believe that the coefficient of
friction would be so much better than with the old materials so there
were some exciting launches.
The Tyne is not wide so the ship had to be turned as soon as it was in
the water, done with suitably positioned drag chains. At one launch,
the ship was going a bit quickly and did not turn quickly enough and
hit the boiler house of British Paints on the other side of the river
- the chairman of British Paints was on the VIP launch platform but
fortunately he could not see his boiler house!

Guy Gorton