1989 workparty

1989 Cambria work party notification from William Collard’s own archive.

Here’s a bit of history from Rebuild Project Manager, William Collard, found when he was going through his Father’s barge-related paperwork. It dates from 1989 when Cambria was in Dolphin Yard and was a ‘joint project by the Maritime Trust and the Dolphin Museum’. It is written by Rod Spratling, we think the ‘Boss of Volunteers, Basil’ of his day but William can find no other mention of him and did not know the gentleman.

 

The work party was to happen on Sunday 19th March and Rod was asking for a good turn out to make a “good impression” because the session might be visited by a crew from Television and Local Radio. The tasks were to be ‘mucking out’ the accumulated debris beneath the hold cieling and clearing limber holes, chipping, wire brushing and painting winches and fittings, spraying preservative fluid and generally tidying and making ship shape the decks and hold. They were laying on tea, coffee and soup for the volunteers. The letter came with an attached sheet by which you could reply listing which of the jobs you were happy to help with.  “You could end up on TV”, said Rod.

 

Thanks for that, William. Fascinating stuff.