Oral history of the Malta Dockyard: John Debono

Education-Apprenticeship process 

(00:30) The period for the apprenticeship was of six years-1st year they would teach you how to have more precision in their work, through specific tools such as a hammer, file, micrometre and cold chisel (scalpel). Then it goes on to make 6 months in the ‘loco shed’ and 6 months on the lathes and other machines. In the loco shed, they were taught on reciprocating machinery, while in the other section, they were taught how to use lathes, milling machines and so on. After 2 years, the apprentices would go on board vessels to learn from the tradesmen on the job. In the 3rd year, for six months they would accompany a chargeman on work referred to as ‘heavy’ and another six months on work referred to as ‘light’-the reference to heavy and light work, depended on the vessel type such as war vessels, minesweepers, minelayers, etc. In the 4th year, the chargeman accompanying them would stay with them throughout most of their apprenticeship. From the 4th till the 6th year, the procedure remains the same. After their 6th year, the apprentices would be called back and the Indenture returned to them, advising them they have passed without any mishaps. 

(04:00) At the time a lot of Norwegian vessels were entering the dockyard, berthed next to each other in Boiler Wharf-the reason why crane 4669 was built, to be able to reach the outside berthed vessels. 

(06:00) He was sent to work on vessels named ‘Mohammed Reza’ and the ‘Reza Shah the Great’, with a team of around 22/25 people for work on the tank and deck and his chargeman on works related to the engine room, boilers, etc. 

(06:30) Then there was a call for interviews for position on chargemen-he was given a guy (gang of men), which was not well organised by the previous chargeman. He went to the senior foreman telling him about this situation.

(08:15) A vessel named ‘Il-Mistra’, which was one of the vessels that took a while to be repaired. A full dismantling the main engine. 

(08:15) After a while there was an opening for a foreman within the department, which he applied for and was immediately accepted.

(08:45) After 2 years, when the yard was still managed by the British, the senior shiprepair manager called him to take the position of a shiprepair manager, which he did not want to because of various banters and mismanagement within the department and refused the offer to be promoted to shiprepair manager. This was about 1967-68.

(10:00) The opening for a position as ship managers was again available, but he was not interested though two of his colleagues applied for the post. A person who knew him (a DNV surveyor Joe Debono) asked him why he did not apply, the reason being that he felt more comfortable in his present position. After a week, more pressure was put on him to apply for the post of shiprepair manager. Eventually he put in his application, which was accepted, He started as trainee Shiprepair manager with Twanny Xuereb. 

The first project he had as a ship manager, required all types of repairs, yet after they had removed and sent various parts for repairs, they got an order to put everything together as the vessel had to leave urgently.

(13:00) Cunard Countess -conversion work with a team for hull works and engine works. They had to go to Montevideo to see the vessel, but in his place went the engine manager as he could not go himself. The vessel had a lot of repairs that needed to be done due to the damages done by the troops. When she arrived here and all the repairs were completed, they discovered that the Cunard had bought two other vessels, the Vistafjord and Sagafjord hence he went to Norway to discuss with them what needs to be done on the vessel. The conversion for the Vistafjord was not to be done immediately, but they wanted to know beforehand the dockyard offers.

 

(16:30) When the Vistafjord was due to enter the dock, the Cunard representatives (Mr Norvic), wanted to disembark the passengers in the dockyard, even though John had told them that it would not be safe.

They had to prepare several options to make to dockyard safe and accessible for the passengers-which involved a lot of preparations, since this procedure was never carried out before. After the vessel completed the repairs, the ship needed to bunker in the dockyard and even though it was a complicated procedure, they still managed to do it.

(19:45) The Vistafjord was being repaired in No.4 dock but it needed repairs on one of the stabilizers and there was no space for the stabilizers to be removed, hence they thought of bringing the vessel to No.6 dock. The general manager at that time (Mr. Salvu Brincat) disagreed with changing docks and were given the instruction to remove a part the side wall of the dock. They were allowed 2½ days to carry out this operation.

After that, they did a lot of conversions for various vessels.

He recalls the work on two Shell VLCCS: Lampas and Lepeta. The two ships had american main turbines. They had major work on the main turbine.

(24:30) The Royal Viking Sun, was the last conversion they did, where they had to go to Sharm el-Sheikh to inspect the vessel. The issue with the vessel was that they left the stabilizers open and whilst berthing to the jetty, they hit part of a coral reef (Qroll) damaging extensively both the stabilizer as well as the sea coral. The vessel was arrested for damaging the sea coral reef.

After the inspection of the vessel, they concluded that the yard should not have any problems to do the repair work on the steel and engine, however the yard would require manufacturer’s assistance on the stabilizers. The superintendent informed them that the stabilizers have already been ordered (from Brown Brothers).

There were other problems on the transformers, and other electrical cables that were damaged due to seawater flooding. This meant that there was a lot of additional work in way of the damaged stabilizer.

 

(28:30) As the work progressed, they were finding a lot of additional damages. Such as the floating floor in the cabins was damaged with and needed replacment. There was a lot of additional work on electrical motors and miles of electrical cables.

(31:00) To add to the existing problems, the yard was informed that Cunard wanted the Royal Viking Sun to go to Dover, for the opening of Eurotunnel, as it was going to be used as accommodation throughout the event. This meant that the installation of the stabilizer had to be postponed to after the Eurotunnel opening. By that time the new stabilizer should be in Malta for installation. Eventually this was what happened. 

(32:15) Gas tankers-these were very dangerous ships. The client was a Scottish company, where they had to carry their work as instructed by the client, nothing more, nothing less. 

(33:15) In relation to the Cunard Countess, on the second night it was in the dockyard, there was a fire on the vessel, which was put out by a member in the dockyard, by partly flooding the dock.

Entering the dockyard-Swan Hunter / Bailey / changeovers

(34:30) During the hand over from the Admiralty to Bailey, John was allocated to Bailey. He comments on the work charge code 99 that was introduced when Bailey took over and was allocated to workers that did not have work to do.

To facilitate the transition, for the first 6 to 12 months, the Admiralty sent to the yard about four naval vessels. Two of them were large barges and the others were a cruiser and a destroyer. These vessels had to be dismantled in their entirety, and all their equipment sent to the workshops for repairs / overhauls.

Afterwards this changed to British commercial vessels, such as Esso, Shell. These vessels gave us a taste of the requirements on commercial ships. However, the discipline under the management of the Admiralty remained. 

(37:45) In the time of the Admiralty, the engines were reciprocating and turbines while the British vessels had diesel engines-Doxford-where he even went abroad to learn more about them. These engines used the piston system. Then when this changed to commercial vessel repair, they had to adapt to other engines from different manufacturers.

(40:15) The Ausonia was a troop ship. She was always anchored at Marsa. in 1979, when the British were leaving, they used the Ausonia for an excursion for British servicemen and their families.  While she was outside harbour, she had some trouble with the oil pump-so they had to check the turbines, remove them and take them to the shop and had to make new parts for it as it was damaged. The work took three weeks. (Edit Note: maybe mixed ships)

(44:00) He recalls several personal accidents. One happened during a night shift where he fell into a Butterworth opening on deck, luckily, he got stuck.

Another one happened on a vessel that had a Harland and Wolff engine that had eccentrics, instead of bearings, and its bolts were large, hanging with a very thin wire which eventually snapped and out of reflex, he went to catch it not to cause damage to the engine. which could have led to him hurting himself.

Furthermore, he had an accident on the Vistafjord during a refit in the yard. There were some problems with the surveyor in the boiler room, so he was called there to assist. By the time they finished, and were leaving the boiler room, somebody had opened the floor plates and fell down and hurt his hand.

(47:20) He remembers the accident of the Dock arms in No.6 dock. It was a tragic. 

 

(48:00) One of the crane workers took his own life.

(49:00) The fire accident of the boiler room on the Marsa el Hariga. The insulation, which was soaked in some inflammable substance, caught fire.  It was the action from the yard that the fire did not spread throughout the whole ship.