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Chapter 6
- page 2
There were three new ‘R’ ships built between 1944 and 1945 to replace their namesakes sunk in the war, the ‘Richmond’, ‘Roxburgh’ and ‘Rowallan’ Castles. With very minor changes the new ships were almost identical to those they replaced. In the above photograph the ‘Richmond’ is seen still with the fittings for mine Para vane deployment on the bow and midship life raft slides. Later these would all be removed along with gun mountings on the bridge and the top masts rigged, the somewhat ugly single radio mast on the monkey island being cut down, the stump being used for the radar scanner. The ‘Richmond Castle’ had a fairly long life; I piloted her into Walvis Bay in 1973 when on her penultimate voyage. In 1957 I sailed as a cadet on her.
"Here I would add that I was greatly helped for in holding me personally responsible, the Chairman, the late Sir Vernon Thompson also gave me full authority to act, so as a small item I was able to order the already mentioned comforts for the men. The difference was impressive to men whom had been travelling from different parts of the country and were arriving tired and irritable. The main result, no trouble, a very great achievement in those days.
The task of starting up cargo work at Southampton was a formidable one, and one to cause many a heart to be daunted. To begin with, nobody in authority in Southampton really believed we could succeed in resuming the Mail Service to the pre-war schedule. The labour force that had been mustered to meet the requirements of the invasion forces had done good work but appeared to be much under the sway of union shop stewards, not union officials. These shop stewards were people with whom to get on with it was first of all very necessary to understand. This required knowing where they had come from, their background and to become acquainted with them. This I tried to do - it served in good stead later on, as it created mutual understanding and respect. There were many meetings between the Dock Authorities and ourselves on ways and means to overcome the difficulties of restarting the Mail Service. I believed then and still do that much can be done by mechanising discharge. With this in view a party consisting of representatives of the Docks Authority and ourselves went to Avonmouth where Messrs. Elders and Fyffes had their endless belts for discharging bananas, just as they now have in Southampton. We took with us fruit cases, the size of orange crates and grape boxes. The idea was to see if the belts would do the job of unit discharge. The experiment was a success. There was no question of belts such as these of being unable to discharge unit cargo efficiently and automatically counted. Endless portable belts could be set up in the sheds for sorting and delivering. T makers of the belts were called in, their representatives came to Southampton. There was no doubt about the success of such a scheme, but of course the belts would have to be installed, the sheds adapted - who would pay? There is an interesting factor connected with this idea. When the shed at No. 102 berth was built it was so that mechanising with belts could take place if ever they were required to be installed. The idea of two sets of rail lines at the back of the shed (double gullet) was to enable two trains to be loaded with unit cargo at a time. Belts were to go over the top of the inner most lines to deliver cargo to the platform between the lines and thus to the outer train. There was no doubt whatsoever that the rate of discharge would be improved upon out of all recognition and could continue in all weathers.
While the talk of mechanising was going on between ourselves and the Dock Authority, I had come away from Liverpool with the seed of an idea of working a piece work bonus scheme for loading the ‘outward’ general cargo.
The weeks went by, but eventually we started to load general cargo for South Africa in the ‘R’ ships. The labour left us in little doubt that at the rate they were working we should want several weeks to load a ship - not days - for instance only 400 tons of cargo were loaded in one day.
The idea, which I borrowed from Liverpool, was that if the men loaded over a certain tonnage in one hour, all tonnage loaded over and above that would be at a bonus rate. The scheme did not do well in Liverpool because the rate at which the men had to load to earn bonus was too high and the men, knowing this, did not try. I resolved if ever we got the chance to try in Southampton, the target figure would have to be easy to obtain, and then the natural urge to earn more money would do the rest. I worked out the costs myself so as to be satisfied that the Company would benefit and that they would not pay any more per ton for loading under this scheme. At the time it was costing us 2/6 in wages to load a freight ton, and the rate of loading was about 7 freight tons per hour per gang. If the bonus rate was settled at 2/6 per ton over 7 tons per hour the Company would not lose and neither would the men, but the rate of loading would jump and be dramatic.
The Showdown
The ‘R’ ships started to bring fruit from South Africa. It was previous practice to load the trays 4 boxes high so as to get 50 cases per tray. With our first fruit ship the men refused to do this - they would only load three high saying four was too much for them to do. A quick decision and a resolute one was necessary. We decided to tell the men to load four high, and if they declined to do so to stop discharging the ship. This happened. I should explain that the men were on day rates and these basic rates had not been altered throughout the war. The real question was money and any settlement would have to give the men the opportunity to earn more. This I determined they could do, but the Company should have the benefit of not losing and also have a fast discharge.
The stoppage caused consternation throughout the port and in London. But this was the opportunity I had been seeking. I was glad and excited I was anxious to grasp the nettle for instinct told me this was the great chance.
The Chairman came to Southampton, he could see that in declining to load trays four high the men were just using that as an excuse. I explained that there was to be a meeting between the union officials, shop stewards, the Dock Authority and ourselves. The answer would be ‘piece-work, if we could get a satisfactory proposition. I was given full authority to act and settle and also to put over the piece-work bonus scheme for outward loading if I could.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Docks and Marine Manager. The leader of the shop stewards who is still prominent in dockland eventually said they wanted ‘piece-work’ rates for discharging fruit. He said how much they wanted per ton, the number of men per gang, and they would load four high. Having knowledge of costs, rates of discharge in my mind I accepted at once and before there could be any withdrawal. (I think dad was referring to a Mr. Hamer who’s brother who lived a few houses up the road from us and was a steward on the ‘Queens’. Hamer was unusual in being a Jew; my father said he knew of no other Jewish stevedores)
It was further agreed that work should resume at 8.00 am the following day. Now was the opportunity to put forward the piece-work bonus scheme for outward cargo. The shop stewards accepted in principle for they knew as well as I did that the target figure could easily be reached and that our offer was fair. To clinch the matter I offered to let them see the cost books to see they were getting fair play. They took my word. The scheme was eventually adopted by all concerned including the Dock Authority.
This meeting was I believe historic as it was the beginning of being able to deal with our Mail Service in the time required. The rates of discharging fruit went at an unprecedented speed. The ‘R’ vessels began the piece-work bonus scheme and were quickly loaded."
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