Lowestoft's shipbuilding past recalled
LOWESTOFT'S shipbuilding past has been revisited many times in Turning Back the Clock - but your memories and pictures from Brooke Marine just keep coming!In recent months you have brought us various photos relating to the well-loved town shipbuilder and its legendary manager, Harry Dowsett, and here we take a look at a few more.
LOWESTOFT'S shipbuilding past has been revisited many times in Turning Back the Clock - but your memories and pictures from Brooke Marine just keep coming!
In recent months you have brought us various photos relating to the well-loved town shipbuilder and its legendary manager, Harry Dowsett, and here we take a look at a few more.
Peter Hemp, of Walmer Road, Lowestoft, has already brought in a wide range of pictures, including some of a visit by Prince Philip and a number of boat launches, but this time we take a look at a rare piece of nostalgia.
The former maintenance shop employee worked for Brooke Marine for about 30 years, and one memorable occasion for him was when Capt Arthur Robert Erwin presented him with a signed booklet (left) to mark the commissioning ceremony of the USS Beaufort.
The US Navy ship, seen in our main picture here, was commissioned in Virginia, USA, on January 22, 1972, but was built by Brooke Marine in Lowestoft in 1968.
It was the second of a new class of ships designed to provide the fleet with the most advanced and comprehensive capabilities for ship salvage, diving, emergency repairs and long-distance towing.
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Another to bring in photographs relating to Brooke Marine was Hazel Wilson, of Marlborough Road, Lowestoft. Her late husband Fred worked for the company as a sawyer for about 18 years and can be seen (below left) outside one of the company's factories, cutting up a tree for a ship's keel. That's him on the far side, with colleague Russell Smith on the left.
And former marine coppersmith Billy Hansford, of Claydon Drive, Oulton Broad, came forward with another photograph after seeing the old image of Lowestoft Electrical employees.
The company did a lot of electrical work for Brooke Marine from the north yard, and the image on the left shows at least 13 workers carrying a degaussing (making a ship's hull non-magnetic by producing an opposing magnetic field) cable
for a ship being constructed in the wet dock in the 1970s.
