Oral history of the Malta Dockyard: Joseph Farrell

Entering the dockyard-Reasons for joining

(0:30) He did not go to dockyard school as he did not want to go to work in the dockyard, to begin with. He only entered the dockyard because he was getting married and needed a more stable employment to have a family. 

Education-Employment pathways / local and foreign training opportunities

(01:45) He entered the dockyard as a welder, after having done some examinations. He continued to do various examinations, along the way, to expand his skills also as a burner. He was also tested to different welding grades referred to as Grade A, B & C, which classified the welders within their trade. The mentioned tests required them to do various procedure tests, which are then inspected and approved by other companies, even foreign ones. In fact, he had the opportunity to work with a German company ‘Krupp’, due to his skills.

Trade Union-Reasons for trade unions

(04:45) He also felt that they were never appreciated for their work, even though they have gone out of their way to their grade, they were still paid the same amount as other welders which were less qualified than them. When the welders brought this issue to their superiors, the reply they received was that the grade gave them priority when overtime is allocated.

Safety-Accidents 

(06:15) The work involved a lot of danger and they had to walk long distances to arrive to their allocated workplace, handling a lot of equipment that was needed to carry out the work. He also recalls the number of electrical shocks they experienced due to exposed wiring and working in the rain. Moreover, they had to work in tanks, which had to be checked before they start to work due to the usage of fire in a dangerous atmosphere.

Safety-Accidents 

(13:30) A fatal accident happened on No.1 dock when a welder was involved in an explosion, due to gas leakage in a tank.

(14:00) He recalls how cold it was, working in the dock (bacir), which is under the water level and they used to make fire with the wood they used to find. 

(15:00) Even though they might have their disagreements, they still had fun together and helped each other throughout their workday, such as leaving their own tools for their colleague to replace them.  

Family and Social Life-Home life

(15:45) There were many times when their superior had told them to stay working overtime due to a lot of work. So, there were times, he would have started to work at about 7 am and returned home at around 2 am, finding his wife looking outside the window, waiting for him, as there was no facility for him to call his wife and tell her that he will be staying longer at work.

Family and Social Life-Home life

(17:00) After a shift of the sort, he still had to wake up early the next day to go out with his wife and children, taking them to play, although he would still sleep in the car while the children are out playing. 

(17:30) The team still coordinated with each other, dividing the work, each one of them would take what they did best. 

Life after the Dockyard-Finding a new job

(18:00) After the dockyard closed, he wished they would have sent the most qualified workers to teach in schools. When he applied for a post to teach in a school, he was considered overqualified due to having made a course of a journeyman in order to be able to teach and he had also done a course in Yugoslavia to learn shipbuilding practices.

Life after the Dockyard-Finding a new job

(18:45) He then applied and was tested to work at the Malta Shipbuilding where he spent quite a long while there and was extremely happy working there. Unlike shiprepair, shipbuilding involved a much cleaner environment. When he was practicing in Yugoslavia, they had taught them a new technique known as ‘arcair’.

(20:30) He had applied to become part of the works committee, where he spent 21 years. He became the chairman of the committee to assist and improve the workers’ standards and their working environment.

(22:30) He was involved in the building of the Russian vessels, which had particular requirements. They used different welding electrodes depending on the type of steel to be welded. He also remembers the building the of the Gozo ferries. He describes some welding procedures used on the hinges of the ramp doors of the Gozo ferries.

He recalls also his welding work on forged steel, which again required special procedure and electrodes.

(30:00) Before he left the dockyard, he had the opportunity to work on an aircraft carrier and minesweepers, which was something he had wanted to do.

(31:30) Another opportunity he mentioned was that of working on a submarine. His manager, who was very much respected by everybody, sent him to Birgu, and to his surprise he found out that he was going to work on a submarine moored at Birgu in front of the St Lawrence Church. The work consisted to welding some cover studs.

(34:45) He recalls the fatal accident that happened in No.1 Dock, which is still impressed in his mind. The shocking memory when they witnessed three men being burned alive on a buoy and they could do nothing to help.

(35:45) Another accident, happened on No.5 Dock when they had to work on a vessel’s tank, they were tracing the wires, which they required; in the meantime, before entering, they stopped and said the 8:00 am prayer, which was traditionally said daily by a MUSEUM member also working on the ship.

As they were going down into the tank to start working, there was a part of a plate that had to be cut out and as soon as cutting started, the tank went on fire followed by an explosion. This meant that if they have started working in the tank, it would have been fatal. 

These types of accident happened a lot while they were working, seeing your own colleagues die in front of you.

(40:00) During his early days, he remembers that in the dockyard there was a printing press. This was in the bastion under the Senglea clock tower.

(42:45) He mentioned that they used (through ship agents) to sell meats and vegetables and tools for the vessels that will come in port (ship chandling).

To which he also added that they did, if not everything, most of the works that are made manually such as key making. This is where he shows his disappointment in losing that kind of craftsmanship that was taught and established through the dockyard, which was not passed on to the coming generations.

(45:30) Tools were made there as well, even the tools they used in order to work. He described some simple methods used to do certain things.

(48:30) Mr. Farrell was mentioning the story of how the workers had already begun to use new ways for their own health and safety measures in their work.