Wooden lifeboats

[Graham Gowans]

Not long after I started working in the John Brown shipyard in the 1960`s there were two liners in for major refits. Part of the work included replacing the original wooden lifeboats with ones which were more up to date. As Loch Lomond is closeby to the Clydebank shipyard several of the workforce wished to purchase the wooden boats to convert into pleasure craft for sailing on the loch. The management refused to allow this to happen. So my father & a few others were given the job of destroying the boats. Firstly they were told to burn the boats. My father said it couldn`t be done, but was told to just get on with it. So followed several attempts to set the things on fire. Every flammable liquid available was poured over them, but nothing worked. As the lifeboats had been treated so as they wouldn`t burn in an emergency at sea. So the now blackened boats were unceremoniously broken up into piles of scrap. The workers couldn`t even take the scraps home for their home fires. I wonder what finally happened to the remains ?

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

What a shame that the lifeboats couldn't have been kept to sail on Loch Lomond... another opportunity to keep a piece of history gone to waste...

Thank you for the story, Graham. The things that happen behind the scenes...

[Lynda Bradford]

Good story Graham and how shortsighted of the management not to allowed the lifeboats to be preserved. 

[Graham Gowans]

Further to my last post about the fate of the wooden lifeboats, I suddenly remembered that all their survival equipment was to be replaced as well. This time most of it found its way out of the shipyard. Jars of ships biscuits, barley sugar sweets, rubberised torches, distress flares & rockets, metal storage boxes etc etc. This must have happened prior to Guy Fawkes night, as I used the flares & rockets on this night. The flares gave off a red glow & lots of smoke. The distress rocket was something else. Standing about three feet high it was black & had three wooden legs instead of the normal single one. It was about three inches in diameter & when I lit the fuse it took off at tremendous speed. It soared high into the night sky, higher than normal fireworks & exploded with a huge bang. Unknown to me it was a parachute flare & suddenly we were back into daylight, the light from it was so bright. Neighbours came running out of their houses to see what was going on. I ran towards it as it floated down from on high, hoping to recover the parachute, but it burnt out whilst still quite high above me & I never did find my prize.

[June Ingram]

Fascinating, Graham !  Thank you and tell us more as you think of it.  June