Oral history of the Malta Dockyard: John Azzopardi

(00:30) He was one of the 20 apprentices who joined over the age of 18. During the first year of the apprenticeship, they were divided into groups and were given basic training in the main trades, including electrical fitter, boilermaker, blacksmith, etc. After a year they chose which trade they wanted and he decided to become an engine fitter and started work at the machine shop (factory). Before he began his apprentice, he was doing the City & Guilds Technician course. He was then transferred to study for Higher Technician Diploma and spent 2 years working, which meant that he only went to the Dockyard on holidays. His apprenticeship period was only three years, after that he got the journeyman certificate and became a fitter with the instructor Mahoney.

Education-Employment pathways / local and foreign training opportunities 

(04:30) He worked there for about three orfouryears, because then there was a call for applications for those who wanted to become ship engineers on Texaco ships. He applied and went for the interview and was chosen with others. In September 1973, he started training and working as a ship engineer. He stayed in this position for about 2 years and obtained the ticket as a second engineer. When he returned back to the Dockyard, he was sent back to work at the machine shop. Then in 1979, he was asked to go as a trainee shiprepair manager allocated to Mr. Genovese, who was an established shiprepair manager.

(06:00) After a year then, he was sent for about 5 to 6 months to the Malta Drydocks London Office with Spiru Aquilina. When he returned, he was appointed shiprepair manager and he stated taking care of ships under repair on his own. After some time, they requested him to take care the outfitting of the Chinese supply ships that were constructed at Malta Shipbuilding and moved to the drydocks for the outfitting. 

(07:30) After some time he was sent to Manoel Island yacht yard, to project manage the outfitting work on a super yacht Midnight Saga. He stayed at Manoel Island for about 5 to 6 months. Meanwhile he heard that once he finished the Midnight Saga, the probability was that he would continue on shipbuilding work, something that he did not like. So, in 1988 he decided to look for a job outside the drydocks. He applied for job with SGS (now ST Electronics) and after an interview, he was chosen for the post and so his experience at the Drydocks came to an end in May 1988.

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

(09:00) His work at the machine shop was with the bench fitting section and included overhauling of various ship machinery such as turbo blowers, valves, etc. Shiprepair projects that he enjoyed working on were the two Libyan passenger ships Tolotela and Garnata. He also worked on the ship named Perch, that was officially the first ship to enter No.6 dock.

(18:15) He recalls an event when he was once working on night shift and he was phoned to go on a ship immediately as one worker fell in one of the ship’s holds and died.  Despite the accident, he states that he loved his trade a lot. He enjoyed doing the 1st year training and still recalls that during his electrical training with Mr Farrugia, he made a transformer, which he still uses. 

Education-Interesting training and skills 

(20:45) When he was on the bench fitting training, they were a group of 5 or 6 who under the supervision of Mr. Fsadni, made a model of a diesel engine. He describes his satisfaction whenever he completed a project. In fact, he states that what he learned from the drydocks was very important and very useful for him and for the job he found after leaving the drydocks.