The Kent History Forum

Life Stories and Personal Memories => Personal Memories => Topic started by: castle261 on June 23, 2021, 05:54:49 PM

Title: Near death experience !
Post by: castle261 on June 23, 2021, 05:54:49 PM
I was engaged to pick up a twelve and a half ton propeller, from the dockside, to the bottom
of No 8 dock. the electricians were standing by, in case the brake slipped. They were in the
cab with me. The crane had a safe working load of 10 ton, overload twelve& a half ton.
From top to bottom of the dock was 38 feet. I felt ok as the electricians were here with me.
` Were are going below, now `they both said.  I called out ` leave the sliding door open `.
` My get out `if anything went wrong, The crane usually has clamps to go over the crane track
on the ground, but over time rusted, useless. The lift started - with the test weights.
    The weights arrive on a lorry, A one 10 ton one & a two & a half ton one. We lift up twelve
& a half ton, a fitter measures the crane jib, to make sure the jib has not buckled slightly. all
o.k. We wait for the heavy lifting gang, to attache the lifting wires to the propeller. Later all
ready, the lift starts. I take it up seven feet, to clear the dock area, we are over the dock now
ready to lower. I ease the hoist / lower control into the lower position, on one notch, the
slowest speed, The slinger, who is the only man I look to for hand signals, indicates lower,
then faster. I have to judge what would happen if the load ran away fast down the dock, so
to counter that, I decide to keep it on the slow speed. After a while we arrive at the bottom of
the dock, the slinger indicates `Stop`I keep going as I realise by stopping now, the weight
would draw the jib down & the crane could topple over, into the dock. I stopped just right as
 the propeller reached to matting under the it. plop it went a little spray of water, then I
stopped. The slinger gave the thumbs up, meaning a `good lift` then I waited while they unscrewed the holding bolts. Now all over, all I had to do then was, lift the test weights back
on the lorry. Phew - I have another 8 lives.