An aerial view of the docks

Can anyone supply a date or photographer/pilot?

Well, seeing as how we are on the banks of the Tees and home of Smith's Docks, I'm going to put in a link for ship lovers. It's the site for the World Ship Society under the banner of Teesships and it's run by my brother-in-law Ron Mapplebeck who gave my site a link up and is upset that I haven't returned the favour! Sorted!!

The good ship GOODWOOD, then the TETIN in the Tyne in 1965

I worked at Smith's Docks from 1956-1959 in charge of the "GS34" stores. At first this was a small building housing spares for a gas turbine engine being developed on a testbed "over the yard". Smith's were convinced they were on to a good thing with these engines but I wasn't so sure. A French invention, it had been developed in 1928 so I was of the opinion that they had missed the boat, so to speak.

At any rate, Smith's were so sure of success that they pulled down my store and built a new one which incorporated the Engine Works Store. They put me "on the staff" and for good measure put the Tool Store and a Tetrochloride Tank Bay under my charge as well! Then, on the upper gallery of the fitting shop they laid out a theoretical Conveyor Belt to speed up the building process.

A small ship called the GOODWOOD was brought into the drydock and fitted with the first engines off the new assembley line before departing on trials.

In those days I was a bit of a red and used to buy a magazine called "The Soviet Union", a propaganda rag styled on American glossys. Imagine my surprise one day to read an article about the GOODWOOD and its engines when it was visiting a Russian Port! I never saw a word about it in the British press. Smith's Docks didn't do much good with the engines, although they installed a few in ships they built.

Anyway, coming to the present day... I had asked my brother-in-law, Ron Mapplebeck of The World Ship Society, if he had any idea of what had happened to The Goodwood, just out of curiosity. It seems that it isn't always easy to trace ships as they change ownership and names quite frequently but... eventually...

It turned out that she had started life as the AUSTIN at Sunderland in 1949 before being re-named as the GOODWOOD but in 1963 she became the TETIN and then had another change in 1968 becoming the TUNG SING! Finally in 1970 she was broken up for scrap in KAOHSIUNG (pronounced COW SHUNG) in Taiwan.

I'm always struck by coincidences in my life and this was another one. If you go to my site about my father (a Slaggy Island Prequel) you'll find that he died in a Japanese Prisoner Of War Camp in Taiwan called Heito. The nearest town to Heito is Kaohsiung. Also, about 4 or 5 years ago my son was sent to Kaohsiung by his company to supervise a job lasting six months but at that time we had no idea about Heito Camp. Have a look; click on the blue Slaggy Island Prequel.