Merchant Navy



Ike Bradley's American Identification Card, c1940.


Ike Bradley - Knowing The Ropes


Born 1922 Ordsall, Salford. Interviewed 1989 - T010

Click here to listen to this extract in RealAudio format.

Q: So what else would you have to do with ropes?

Same as this, that'd be a mooring rope for tying the ship up. That'd go along the bollard - you know the bollards along the quay side - as you was berthing or docking, you'd throw your heaving line in and then you'd tie your heaving line to there, and they'd pull that and they'd put it over a bollard there, and you'd put that to your winch, to your windlass, then you'd tighten up on your windlass and that and pull your ship in. And then when your ship was berthed alongside, you'd put a rope stopper on this to take it off the windlass - you'd have bollards on deck, and you'd wrap it like a figure of eight, keep wrapping it round, and it would never, never pull out, because the strain of that is pulling against them strands there.
Salford Docks Office work
Unloading grain
Getting work
Overtime
Dock Police
Merchant Navy Knowing the ropes
Getting work
Foreign seamen
The Great Lakes
Getting logged
Life in Ordsall Wartime
Mill work
Housing
Kids adventures
Teaching The Hollies
Trafford Park First day at work
Wartime food
Bombs
Engineering
Living in the Village

Back to the Oral History title page

The SQHC Oral History web pages were created by Matt Craven (matt@craven4.freeserve.co.uk), and are copyright 1999 Salford Quays Heritage Centre. No material on these pages (including - but not limited to, the RealAudio extracts) may be reused without the express permission of Salford Quays Heritage Centre