19 March 2007

Chatham Dockyard

On Thursday, I went to the Chatham Dockyard with FLAGS.

 I went to the Mast House first because that is the entrance to the Dockyard.  First we went on the Wooden Walls audio tour which told the story of William Crockwell who was fifteen and he started work at the Dockyard.  On the tour we went all around the Mast House and behind the entrance there was a big puzzle board. We stopped and listened to the models speaking to tell us about what they did at the Dockyard.  We saw a three or four minute film which showed us how they made the ships in 1700’s.  They made the patterns for the boats by drawing on the floor then they made them up out of oak trees.  The outline of the ship looked like a backbone with ribs coming off it. An oak tree takes 80 years to grow and they needed 3000 to build one ship.  Also, there were 26 trades used to build one ship.

Next we went to the Lifeboat museum.  I saw old lifeboats one of them was Blue Peter III and another one was a wooden rowing boat that I rowed.  I went on the big lifeboat which had a steering wheel and beds underneath for the people who have been saved.

 After that we went on the HMS Cavalier warship.  It was a very, very big warship and I looked all around the boat and I saw how they used the ship. There was the Captains dining room which was the biggest room in the ship and it was very smart.  They had their own shop which sold food in tins, tobacco and cigarettes, chocolate and soap.  There was a library in the corridor but there weren’t many books. 

Outside, I saw the ships bell to alert people when the ships are coming and to leave the Dockyard. 

 I saw a ‘Y’ gun and guns which had wheels on the tracks.  I sat in the Captains chair to drive the boat.   I thought this boat was very, very uncomfortable and I wouldn’t like to live on it.

 Then I went on the submarine called Ocelot.  It had very small rooms. We saw 6 torpedo holes and one real torpedo.  Once they had fired all six torpedoes they had to put 18 back in the holes to prepare to fire again.  We saw the escape hatch which takes 20 seconds to get up to the surface.  They had to put a red suit on before they climbed up.  They had an oxygen system in the room to help them breathe if water was coming in. 

In the middle of the submarine I saw the telescope and they could pull it down underneath the floor. There was a button to get the people out of their bunks. It was very loud.  There wasn’t much room so some had to sleep and some had to work. We came out of the top of the ship which was in a dry dock.

Next we had our lunch and we played in an indoor play area.

 After lunch, we went to the Ropery.  A man dressed in old clothes did us a tour all around the ropery museum.  He kept telling jokes but I didn’t understand them.  They used to make rope by turning a big handle which was very hard work.   A man had to walk up and down the ropery at least 54 times a day or he didn’t get paid.  There are four stages to make rope: fibre, yarn, strand and rope.  They had to stretch out the fibre and make it smooth.  Then they twisted 3 lengths of fibre together to make yarn and then twisted them the other way to make strands then twisted 3 or 4 strands together to make the rope.

 We saw the machines which made rope instead of the men. 

 The ropery was really, really long and had tracks on the floor for the machines to move together as the rope was twisted.  The ladies and men had to work separately. 

I wouldn’t like to work in the ropery because I might get my fingers chopped off by the machines.  On my way out I got a rope and I saw some small tracks on the pavement.

 Finally, I went to the outside play area and there was a really fast roundabout.  A lot of the play things had been made out of wood and rope.

It was a very long day and I enjoyed it.  I learnt how they used to build ships in the olden days and their lives were very hard.