Every morning at 7.40 the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) runs a segment called "On this Day". Today being September 20th, it listed a selection of important events occurring on 20/09 over the last 200 years.
One of those was the launch of the Queen Elizabeth II on Clydebank on September 20 1967. Well, I was there on that day! I was then working on my doctorate at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and was friends with several students in the arcane engineering field of Naval Architecture. Somehow or other they received several tickets for the launch and we headed off by car to Glasgow about 180km away.
In those days, Glasgow was a dour working class city and Clydebank with its ship-yards lay close to its heart. We crammed into to the ship-yard and I found myself standing mid-way along the hull close to the drag chains required to stop the vessel from hitting the opposite bank of the river. I found out afterwards that being close to the chains was not a good idea! I was also at the base of the hull, with the entire height of the vessel towering above me, albeit minus quite a bit of the superstructure. That would be added during the fitting out stage downstream.
The launch was not without several dramas despite the generally festive atmosphere. To start with there had been much discussion in the press and other media about the ship's name. One of the favourites was the "Winston Churchill" and it was something of a disappointment when the Queen, who slammed a bottle champagne against the pointy end, intoned over the ether "I name this ship Queen Elizabeth II". At my proletarian end of the ship there was a decided groan at that outcome. The second drama ensued immediately. Once the lever is pulled, ships are supposed to glide seamlessly down the slipway. On this occasion, the vessel refused to budge. It took a team of workmen maybe 15-20 minutes to remove the blockage and, starting almost imperceptibly to great cheers, it accelerated down the slipway. Then the drag chains ground into action and, to further cheers, slowed the hull sufficiently to prevent it hitting the opposite bank of the Clyde.
When I saw a replay of the launch on TV that evening something was very wrong. The Queen announced the name, exploded a bottle of champagne, and the vessel glided down the slipway more or less simultaneously. That was my first introduction to the art of video-editing. Apart from that sleight of hand (or should it be celluloid?), it was a grand experience.
As a postscript I might add that 1967 was a wonderful year for me. A little over 4 months earlier I had another stunning experience. On 10 May, my university gave an honorary degree to one of the greatest people of the 20th century - Dr Martin Luther King - and I was honoured by the opportunity to meet him in private audience (just me and one other student) for about 40 minutes. Our conversation almost exclusively focused on American Civil Rights. More about this on some other occasion!
AS
1 comment:
Having returned from a three and a half week European car tour through France, Austria and Germany to lovely little Reit im Winkl, I have caught up on your Japanese adventure which certainly was a remarkable trip with some very interesting plus many beautiful sights.
Richard S.
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