Oral history of the Malta Dockyard: Joe Delceppo

(00:30) During the apprenticeship they got trained on all of the trades within the dockyard for short periods of time. At the end, they would have an assessment and he was chosen to be a pipe worker.

(01:45) When he became an apprentice, he thought he would not have to attend school anymore, because he did not like it, however they still had a number of hours in the week, where they attended various lectures, in the training centre lecture rooms and other lectures at the technical institute. 

(03:15) He worked as a pipe worker with the afloat section for 10 years. They fabricated pipes from 3mm to over 1 meter depending on the vessel. They worked on various pipe systems. Pipes with screw thread connected (tal-kamini) pipes, up to cargo lines with flanges.

Mentioning cargo lines, he remembers the time when they did an inspection on these lines using a camera, with the divers. An elbow section of the pipe was removed and the camera was inserted in the pipe to inspect the inside of the pipes. After inspection it was decided to remove all the cargo pipes. 

(05:00) He remembers once, they had to do a small job on a naval ship, where the engine was running and it was not possible to switch off the engine room, because it was a long process to restart the boiler. So, they had to carry out the work in the boiler room, it was a small task but the surroundings made it difficult due to the extreme high temperature in the room, where they almost ended up dehydrated. The crew onboard apart from offering them water, they first gave them a teaspoon of salt due to the blood pressure being affected with the heat. 

Safety-Health and Safety procedures 

(07:15) Although he worked as a diver as well, he feels that working onboard a vessel has more dangers than diving. Working onboard, there was always the danger coming from trapped flammable gases, even if cleaning was done beforehand. There is also a lot of work on scaffoldings and working in tanks. In fact, working in tanks was something he did not feel comfortable doing due to the scaffolding, which was not very steady. 

(09:30) In his line of work, a pipeworker could also work with copper, coppersmith, in fact during his apprenticeship, as a project they had to do a kitchen sink made out of lead. 

(10:15) With regards to the written test, as pipe workers, they had sat for the City & Guilds examination. With these qualifications they could deduct a year from their apprenticeship. In the written exam they had questions on the kind of joints to use for gas, oil, water or steam pipes, the type of bolts, calorifier, oil separators and so on. 

(11:45) He remembers the most projects when he was a diver. He took a course for diving with a friend out of personal interest. However, after a while the yard needed divers on a part time basis. This meant that they were called as required.

Entering the dockyard-Trades (From approval to the departure of a vessel) 

(13:15) The main work as a diver was that of assisting in the drydocking of the vessel-fitting and adjusting underwater the side blocks (as the middle line stays the same) in the dock in preparation for the ship to be docked, they had to make sure that the side blocks are positioned according to the docking plan. The docking plan provides information on what is required in terms of height adjustment of the side blocks.

If the requirement was to reduce height, then before the new ship comes in, they would mark with a lead those blocks (posti) that required to be adjusted. On the other hand, when the side blocks required additional height, then they would sink, with a counterweight, the additional wood required and fit the wood on top of the block, fix them with clips to the block and then remove the counterweight.

Sometimes, they were also asked to inspect the ship’s docking position before it sits on the dock blocks. They used to check for any gaps that required packing.

Entering the dockyard-Trades (From approval to the departure of a vessel) 

(15:45) He learned diving with an Italian company, diving with an instructor. They learned a lot of different techniques and the signage used for communication underwater.

Entering the dockyard-Trades (From approval to the departure of a vessel) 

(16:15) As dockyard divers their work was very practical, so they used the minimum equipment possible. From a safety point of view, this was not an ideal practice, however there is no hindering in their performance. 

(17:00) He remembers the construction of an SBM, where there was a connection between two structures, where they had to push infourpins using hydraulic jacks.

(18:30) He also remembers, work on a tanker, where they had to make an underwater manhole on a tanker. They had to chain-drill a hole and create a flange for the cover. The job was not easy as the diver, when working underwater, cannot take in full the reaction from drilling and hammering tools. They also worked with jackhammers underwater as well, to reduce the level of the concrete in No.7 dock.

Entering the dockyard-Trades (From approval to the departure of a vessel) 

(20:00) The underwater visibility in the dockyard is about two meters. They use different swimming technique in order to not disturb the sludge and debris underwater. 

Entering the dockyard-Trades (From approval to the departure of a vessel) 

(21:45) Underwater cleaning-hull cleaning done by the divers was the preferred method to do the cleaning of the hull before the application of paint to the vessel. When the cleaning is done underwater, the marine fouling is easy to remove as it is soft. The divers used an air driven machine, with marine plywood discs with wire rope to brush and remove the marine growth.  It was a heavy job, in fact when one reached a certain age, they do not do this job anymore. The job took around 1½ hours, but it also depends on how many divers are working on it.

(27:00) The docking operations also depended on the shape of the vessel’s bottom, because these differ from one boat to another. For example, when it came to dock tug boats, they had to install shores on the side of the dock using wedges to keep the shores in place. They also had to pack the side blocks with wood to take the shape of the hull. 

Generally, they also made inspections of ships with bottom damage. These inspections served to make sure that no dock blocks are put in way of the damage.

(27:45) He calls that once a Libyan crew member fell overboard and they had to dive to try and find him. Joe was not keen to find this person, but he was found by another diver Charles Cachia.

(28:45) After the diving experience he went back to working in the pipe shop. The pipe would be brought from the vessel to the shop. This is fitted on a floor board to take a wire template of the pipe (galvu tal-wire). This template is done so that the existing flanges are re-used and positioned to their original position. The new pipe would then be fabricated to the shape of the template and fitted between the flanges, keeping to the original shape and dimensions. 

In the shop he was a machinist, working on the lathe where they would machine off the original welding. He also worked on the drilling machine to make new flanges, and on the screw cutting machine (kamini). 

(33:00) He then joined the purchasing department, where he spent his last 13 years at the dockyard. He was in charge of a number of stores within the dockyard with regards to storehouse stock. The system was that the storekeeper would keep a book listing down the remaining item in the store, updating the list as items are taken out of the store. Once the stored quantities come to a minimum, they would ask for a replenishment of the stored items.

He would then ask for quotations/delivery times and samples from different companies, and prepares a comparison list with his recommendations for his manager’s approval. 

Stores that he was in charge of were in relation to fasteners, sheets, corrugated sheets, flooring for bilges and a lot more.  One of the stores he was in charge of supplied pyrotechnics, hazardous cargo, flares, smoke signals, parachute rockets-there is a limit and a system of how to store it.

(36:30) He mentions a system for storing of pipes in Germany when he was on a course on shipbuilding. These used to take first the bottom pipes, which were the older ones.

In the dockyard, there was a time when they had to throw pipes because the bottom ones were rusted. The practice should be that when new pipes are bought, these are stored on top of the older pipes. This means that the first pipes to be used should be bottom ones. 

As another example, he mentions safety shoes, which had an expiry date for use. This means that if kept unused for a long period of time, these had to be thrown them.