Further to my initial post on the “Chit Chat” section, perhaps I can get on with the “preamble”. And believe me, this thing needs a preamble!
Smiths Docks would appear to have been run on not only philanthropic principles, but also on “quasi” religious grounds. Possibly Quaker? I’m probably wrong anyway.
But to continue. The (large) books more or less concentrate on the education of the workforce. There are many learned articles written by some notables of the age (1924 in this case) that describe early voyages throughout history. In fact, just about everything has a nautical feel to it. I suppose that nowadays this paternalistic attitude would be “frowned upon”, but in the days when a large and poor workforce had never gone further from North Shields to Whitley Bay (about 3 miles), tales of foreign lands and the perils of getting there must have been both exotic and intoxicating.
Not content with just looking after their workforce, all sorts of “uplifting” schemes were employed.
Alas, space on this forum precludes my posting of the entire book (or “books”, as it will be). So I shall content myself with only aspects (photos) of the shipping operations. Just about all the photos have extra written descriptions of why the ship needed repair and how the yards(s) coped with the jobs. The first tranche is all 1924 (ish). Remarkable quality. Built on the Tees.
As I mentioned in my first post on this subject (Chit Chat), this is in no way a money making thing. CDs with the entire contents of the books will be made available completely free of charge. Well, “free to me” at any rate. Following my usual practice I’d only ask that the required number of blank CDs plus plastic cases(to avoid damage) be sent to me in a stamped / addressed envelope. The discs will then be copied and returned ASAP. I really don’t know how to cope with respondents outside of the UK.