Oral history of the Malta Dockyard: Lawrence Zammit

(00:30) Lawrence started his apprenticeship in 1978 as an electrical fitter which lasted three years, with the first year going through all the main trade of the shipyard.  On completion of his apprenticeship, he was allocated to the electronics department, which at that time was known as the Radio Shop. He worked on various electronic equipment and control systems which can be found on a ship.

(03:45) After 6 years at the radio shop he was chosen as a management trainee for two years. The training was extensive and he gained a lot of experience onboard the ships. On completion of his training in 1989 and worked as a shiprepair manager in 1990. He remembers the senior ship repair managers John Debono and Joe Scicluna.

(06:30) The period as shiprepair manager was quite short as he was called back as manager of the electronics department reporting directly to the Engineering Division manager. During the time at the radio shop, he was offered to start a course for an MBA. In 1995 he was called to form part of the computerisation, which in actual fact was a re-engineering of the processes used in the shipyard. During that time, the council secretary John Darmanin left the shipyard and Lawrence was recommended to take his place.

(10:30) In 1995 he started his role as council chairman, His wark mainly consisted of preparing reports for the dockyard council. During that time information technology processes were being introduced. Also, during that time in 1997 there was a major change in the Malta Drydocks act. The workers council system changed and Noel Zarb Adami took over as chairman. There were also a lot of changes in the top management structure.

(13:30) Due to these changes in 1997, he left the position as council secretary and was offered the post as assistant commercial manager. It was a relatively new job for him and he was involved in developing a database system for the commercial process. In 1998, he moved to marketing department with Spiro Aquilina.

(16:15) With marketing, he was involved in re-organising the agency network. His job entailed a lot of travelling with Mr Aquilina, which gave him a lot of experience in the international business environment. During this period there were again a lot of changes including a change in chairmanship and top management

(20:30) When the closing down process started, he left the shipyard in 2008. Lawrence career in the shipyard was a continuous learning curve and gave him the opportunities to work outside Malta.

(22:15) As negative experiences he vividly remembers the two major tragedies occurring in the shipyard: the docking arm and the Um el Faroud. He specially remembers the dock-arms accident as he was working of the ship that was in the dock. These tragedy makes one reflect the danger of the shipyard work.

(24:00) He looks back at the yard from the socio-political where the best tradesman came out of the dockyard and supplied Malta with good quality technical people. The dockyard was also used for social aspects which affected its mode of working.