Oral history of the Malta Dockyard: Vince Muscat

Education-Apprenticeship process 

(00:30) Around 800 apprentices sat for the exam, at the time of the Admiralty. His index number for the exam was 792 and he ranked 181 out of all the students. After being accepted by the to join the Admiralty dockyard, they were required to do a medical test. Furthermore, they were then grouped for a meeting where they had to choose the trade they wanted to practice. The trades were limited, and the new apprentices, had priority of choice depending on the order of merit of the exam. He chose the trade of a shipwright-it was a versatile trade as it involved working with metal and wood. 

Education-Apprenticeship process 

(03:00) After choosing their trade, they then did the medical test and signed the Indenture, bringing his uncle who worked in the dockyard, as the witness. Then they were taken to the Bighi Naval Hospital, and took full medical tests, including x-rays and blood tests. 

The training centre for the shipwrights was underground-a this was like a tunnel that was two floors high and 50 meters wide. At the centre he had two instructors. One was a member of the MUSEUM society Mr Manuel Falzon, who was not only very good trade instructor, but also taught the apprentices good morals on the work. The other instructor was Mr Lewis Steer who was the instructor on the metal work.

They started off their training with woodwork. Compared to the other apprentices he had more knowledge on the subject as his father was a carpenter. One of the tasks, during their training, was that of doing wood joints (minċotti), which was not an easy task, since they had to join two pieces of wood together and they had to do around 85 different joints, which required them to get acquainted well with the tools. The instructor also used to check each one, seeing that they followed to perfection. 

(06:30) The next phase was metalwork-filing, cutting, and fitting-similar to what they did with the joints, but this time using metal-and becoming more knowledgeable and comfortable with using the tools involved. 

Education-Apprenticeship process 

(07:15) While doing the practical side of the trade, they still had to attend school-dockyard college-most of the lecturers were navy officials.

(07:15) He remembers on instructor, Mr Smedley, who was swimming at St Thomas Bay with one of his ex-students. Mr Smedley was attacked by shark, and no traces of him were ever found.

They had other subjects, like science, English, mathematics and other subjects.  Admiral Prizes were awarded to those apprentices who made good progress. 

(08:30) In their 2nd year, their lessons were not held in the training centre and they were split into two groups-one group took metalwork, between No.4 & No.5 docks and the other group went to the boathouse to do woodwork.

He was on the group that worked on metal-there they advanced their skills by working on sheet metal work which was a necessary skill due to the requirements of the Naval ships. There was also a welder with them for necessary spot welding.  They were taught modelling the sheets into a cylindrical shape, pyramid (from a round part to a square shape), 5-piece elbow (this technique required them into fabricating the metal into the form of slices, put them together, forming an elbow at a right angle) and a cowl (it’s like a pipe, at an angle, the opening is a bit wider, placed directed toward the wind to ventilate the below cabins)-which he deemed the hardest thing to make. He got rewarded with a sheet metal work certificate-the metal work lasted 6 months and then they moved to the boathouse for the woodwork part. 

(11:30) The boathouse was a workshop for a variety of work. It was used for repairing masts; wooden pulley blocks (buzzelli) and working out boat hulls (sides of a boat /ship). The boathouse consisted of slipways leading directly into the sea, where most of the Admiralty boats and vessels were pulled out on the slipways. In addition, there were also the wood caulkers (qlafat). In his toolbox he used to have a wooden hammer, cotton (malju) and a flat caulking chisel. He then inserts the cotton and the hemp (qanneb) in between the wood planks to make a watertight seam.

(13:00) Mr Maggi was the instructor for the woodwork training, they were taught to make their own tools-wood plane (ċana), bigger wood plane(mezza), wooden mallet (mazzola), spokeshave (buqxix), fillister plane (buvett), narrow planes (cippijiet tal bastun), which were put into a metal toolbox, given to them in their first year of the apprentice, as sort of a locker but to carry around.

(16:15) Going on to the third year of the apprenticeship, they were split into groups to join the chargemen in different shops, to overlook the work. They were situated in shops such as the destroyer shop, boilershop, submarine workshops (which was his favourite one), battery shop, coppersmith shop, and gyro shop-the shipwrights were stationed below the submarine workshop.

The No.1 dock, had the possibility to be divided into two docks by means of an additional dock gate.

 

(21:45) After being in the shops, they were then exposed to working afloat, where he had the opportunity to work on the first tanker that entered the dockyard named Sirius. Here they had to work on the ship sides, changing rivets and metal plates, involving the works of burning (issaffi) which was a complicated process as they had to be careful as to not damage the good part of the plate. Afterward, they had to fabricate a model (galvu) with wood as a template for the new steel plate. Once the plate is fabricated, it needed to be installed and temporarily fixed so that the rivet holes are drilled on the new plate. The driller used pneumatic drills and the shipwright has to then fit the new rivets which have to be fabricated according to the size of the hole. After the complicated procedure of fitting and fixing the rivets, using heat and various pneumatic tools, these had to be inspected by using a hammer, and depending on the sound, they would determine whether it was installed properly or not. Afterwards, considering that the metal plates were riveted and not welded, and the sheets overlapped one another the process of a chipper is used. The process involves the person ‘hammering’ the steel plate edge to close the gap. 

(28:30) Smithery shop-The is where the smiths worked. Theses was also a chain testing area. Part of the Smithery became the welding school.

In the same area of the smithery there was a slipway known as the Melita Slip. This was used to slip (pull up boats on to dry) for repairing of barges (bracken);

Furthermore, also near the Smithery, there was a fixed crane (this means not moving on rails). This was known as the ‘Red Crane’, which turned 360° in one angle only. It worked with steam. Was used for lifting out of sea vessels such as tug boats, similar small boats and barges, and locate them on the jetty.

(31:45) They also had a school where he had learned welding with Mr. Zammit, situated near No.3 dock, where he earned his welding certificate.  

(33:15) He also went for training in the drawing office, learning how to draw, sketch and how to do plate moulding.

Education-Interesting training and skills 

(33:45) He also added, how back when they trained in the boathouse, they were also taught how to make a half block model of a boat. This was a small model made with layers of wood which takes its form depending on the drawn sketch they had, hence there were extra teachings from the draughtsman involved when it came to reading sketches and making the model to scale.

(34:30) During his 3rd year apprentice, at 18 years old, they also had to do training at Manoel island. His manager was British, Captain Newton, who had an MFV (Motor Fishing Vessel) boat, which he wanted to convert into a yacht, so he had the opportunity, at such a young age to work on this project. Due to the fact that Vince liked working on wood, the captain noticed his skill and gave him tasks, such as fitting a bath, the rudder, and deck lights made of copper. Vince was supposed to be there for three weeks since he was still an apprentice, but he stayed there for 8 months, at the captain’s request, as he liked his work very much. 

(36:45) After eight months, he went back to the dockyard and continued his apprenticeship. He worked on the floating dock as well, which was considered dangerous as they had to go there with a boat and when there was a docking, there was a lot of machinery and the use of wire ropes to keep the dock steady when a vessel is entering the dock. He was very scared of the wire rope as it could cause fatal accident should this wire snap.

 

(39:00) Another job they had to do was that of fitting the dock shores (puntali)-where they used to prepare the right sized ones, depending on the vessel to be docked. The dock shores (puntali) were wooden beams, about 10 inches square, which had to be cut to size (given by the drawing office) with a saw that needed two people to use, as it had two handles on each side-the dock shores were fitted between the ship side the dock sides. This was required to hold the ship in place and not incline on its side, a process which is done while the vessel was still afloat. 

(42:30) The shipwright also had work on the underwater part of the ship, that of changing zinc anodes, situated near the propellor, because of the fact that the propellor is made of brass and the vessel plating are made of steel, Since the different materials react when in contact with the sea water, the zinc anodes are corroded away instead of the other materials.

(43:30) Another thing they worked on was the rope guard. This is a semi-circular steel plate guards fitted between the propellor and the hull of the ship to protect the tail shaft from getting ropes caught in around the shaft causing it damage.

(44:30) Welding and gas cutting gradually substituted rivets. This made the repair procedure much simpler. Thankfully the rivets were becoming scarce as time went by. Obviously, the work on the shipwright still involved removals of damaged plates, moulding and fabrication of the new plates, and obviously the final welding and testing.  

(46:30) The work on the inside of the ship involves them working in the cabins, on the air conditioning system-huge motors on the deck which pumped good air in the cabins and removed the bad air from inside. Linoleum flooring had to be fitted in the deck accordingly.

(48:30) In 1965, after he became a journeyman-having finished his apprenticeship and became a full-time shipwright and witnessed the change in vessels types, change of management from naval to commercial vessels-he applied for the position of a welding instructor. He added that this was the year he got married as well.  

(50:45) He mentions his instructor, Guzeppi Zammit, as he not only helped him strengthen his skills as a welder but also taught him a lot of the basics when he was still an apprentice from his own time and was there for him in a personal level giving him the wisdom of becoming a family man.

Education-Dockyard school 

(51:00) Becoming an instructor, he had to teach apprentices, where amongst the students he had to teach were his brother and his son. Over the years he has also taught children of whom he had taught their father as well. 

He had taught people which came in with a scheme made at the time, such as casuals, which were people who registered for work and they send to learn and work at the dockyard when there was a need. Another one is where state government bodies, were sending groups of people, giving them the opportunity to learn a trade in the dockyard. 

He also taught students, male and female, from the university, who had to make a work phase in the dockyard.

 

(01:00:45) The biggest satisfaction he got was when a foreigner who came to look over his class and was extremely satisfied with the finishing result of the female students, which at the time was very new, seeing a woman working in such a field and with how professional his teachings were. 

(01:01:15) A student from India, while visiting Malta to teach a certain welding system technique, took his class as well to learn to weld-this student (Mr Sheth) deemed his welding as art. 

(01:02:15) The university students he taught at the time, graduated and most of them became engineers, and surveyors, who also joined renowned companies such as Lloyds, amongst these students there were the children of important people in Malta as well, which motivated him to show his skills even more. 

(01:03:00) The difficulty of having to teach both sexes within the same class.

(01:03:30) Due to the lack of apprentices at the dockyard, he got the opportunity to teach primary school students, who were given the opportunity to learn a trade, one of them was welding.