| Description | Tape 1 Side A. DEREK WILLIAM JAMES BARKER born 2 July 1937 Great Yarmouth. Current situation - working in sales/invoicing for Seletar shipping. Details re company. Grew up in part of Old Yarmouth now gone. Went to Nelson school, Technical High School. Wartime memories of Yarmouth. Moved to Caister to avoid air raids. Details re uncle's John High billposting business, now Mills & Owen. Recalls effect of paste on skin, folding posters, skill of getting wrinkles out of posters. Was only child. Father worked for uncle, also a firefighter. Story of call to a brewery that was bombed. Recalls father being called out, e.g. to Johnston's oilskin factory when it was hit, heat from flames etc. Describes sounds of air raids, doodlebugs, German planes, air raid precautions. Father had a strong personality. Close family. Mother one of 7. Details. Recalls father's attitude to life, his experience dealing with plane crashes, relationship with him. Describes mother. Mentions paternal grandfather, maternal grandmother - a disciplinarian. Details re grandparents' work in poster business, farming, bricklaying. Names of family members. Childhood neighbourhood seen by some as slum but it wasn't. Explains. Close neighbourhood. Home was next to oilskin factory. Describes house. Left school without qualifications, couldn't sit exams. Recalls closeness to extended family, attitude to locking doors in the area. There were only 3 cars in street. Everybody travelled by bicycle, 'shank's pony'. Mother went to Anglican church. Details. Went to Methodist Sunday School. Religion not important in own life. Explains position. Family attitude to politics. Explains own Tory attitude.
Tape 1 Side B Politics (cont'd). Explains parents' Tory attitude, own position. Education at Nelson School, then Technical High School. Encouraged to go into clerical work. Learned the trades as well. Helpful now for DIY (do it yourself) work. Recalls teachers at school, discipline. Went to night school, did typing, shorthand. Recalls leisure time activities, e.g. playing in bombed out oilskin factory. Certain rough areas of town out of bounds to children. Explains. Father did part-time work in fishing industry. Recalls large number of fishing boats - possible to walk across the river on them. Great Yarmouth busy in summer. Did part-time job in restaurant as cashier. Took up roller skating, met wife at rink. Own parents and wife's parents also met there. Parents were Yarmouth roller dance champions. Recalls own second place in championship. Reference to Jocelyn Taylor, big name then. Recalls attraction of roller skating, skills necessary. Appeared in summer show. Stopped skating after accident at work. Details. Recalls dancing partnership with wife, arguments about movements, pressure of competition. Career aspiration - to be an accountant. Background to getting job with Great Yarmouth Shipping Company 1953. Details re company, sailings schedule, names of ships. Recalls doing manifests. Details re ownership of company. Describes industries etc in Great Yarmouth before oil/gas industry. Recalls work colleagues, locations of offices. Describes stock control work. Good place to learn trade. Explains work in Shipping and Forwarding. Recalls sinking of company ship, one of the masters called 'Breezer'. 1955 did National Service as clerk in Royal Artillery. Enjoyed army. Recalls good relationship with staff sergeant. Feelings about need for discipline, National Service.
Tape 2 Side A Feelings about value of National Service 1955-7. Mentions Suez crisis. Marriage 1960. Details re roller skating competitions, free dance etc. Was never into music, liked reading. Recalls first hearing of oil industry supply vessels. Background to move to oil industry, Wimpy as Shipping, Customs Clerk, 1965. Details re wife, her work, children, names. Details re increase in wages with Wimpy. Recalls application to Norfolk Line, accidental entry to oil industry. Had no knowledge of industry. Involvement in base construction work on site of old herring industry factory. Details re base construction. First realisation of size of industry at time of 1965 Sea Gem strike. Recalls sinking of Sea Gem. Describes first American boss, a Texan. Memory of Sea Gem disaster. Americans' attitude to North Sea weather, advice of local. Describes work routine with Wimpy arranging loads, Customs etc, long working hours. Reference to dockers, crainage. Attitude of Great Yarmouth Shipping Company to Wimpy. Oil companies wanted one-stop suppliers. Mentions Great Yarmouth steel. Pipe work imported from America in early years. Details re Gulf Oil, BP, Glomar 4, Global Drilling. Demanding attitude of Americans, their salaries. Rapid growth of industry, big American presence. Many used Star Hotel. Recalls big Christmas 1965 party at Bridge Hotel. Reaction of Great Yarmouth people to industry, previous experience of Americans during, after war. Little realisation of significance of industry. Structure of Wimpy organisation, link with Brown & Root. 'Wimpy Base' still used by ASCO etc. Details re shipping - supply boats, fishing boats acting as standby boats. Impact on Great Yarmouth of discovery of gas. Recalls initial predictions of life of the industry.
Tape 2 Side B Shipping Customs Clerk, Wimpy (cont'd). Explains role of Wimpy as oil base service supplier. Wimpy managed 3 vessels. Details re their names, length of contracts. Customs stricter then than now. North Sea treated as foreign country. Recalls old Customs House, quarantine requirements. Recalls an American who got into trouble for leaving vessel before Customs clearance. Recalls a particular strict Landing Officer, Mr May, dockers' respectful attitude towards him. Problem with undeclared goods brought in by an American, firm reaction of Mr May. Recalls Ed Amos, excise officer with similar approach, his attitude to work on Sundays, own relationship of trust with Customs. Significance of Customs to oil/gas industry, attitude of Americans - who learned the hard way. Majority of Americans who came over were said to be the ones they didn't want over there. Class distinction in American oil industry. Explains. Recalls another incident involving self, a blustering American and Customs. Growth of own department, instructions to new staff re priority of Customs, need to keep good relations with them. Recalls Customs characters, hospitality on board ships, formality in addressing each other, attitudes to Customs. Effect of work on home life of long working hours as Shipping Clerk. Kept in touch with office during time off. Worked six months without time off. Comments on Harold Wilson, 6 pound pay rise. Recalls rises in wages in oil industry - increases every 6 months. Details. Offshore workers were earning big money. Recalls first visit of Glomar 4, argument with dockers re loading, offloading, their change of opinion. Never member of a union. Explains. Only company union Transport and General Workers.
Tape 3 Side A. Shipping Customs Clerk, Wimpy (cont'd). Negative American attitude to unions, own attitude. Little sense of Aberdeen in Great Yarmouth (in 1960s). Wimpey considered establishing base in Aberdeen, had first refusal on Peterhead but delayed, ASCO moved in. Few changes to Great Yarmouth with oil/gas industry. Development of new local companies but response generally too slow. Reference to Brown & Root. Property prices went up because Americans, on expenses, were prepared to pay. Gives example of own home. Benefit of employment when fishing industry was dying off. Recalls earlier social changes in Great Yarmouth, GI days, conflict in teddy boy era, well known policeman, Joe Malley, 'the Yarmouth riot squad', his no-messing approach. Details re own family, gatherings with parents, eucre card games. After high activity of the 1960s, industry started to ease off in the early 70s when Aberdeen started up, some companies drifted away. Details. Recalls ex-BP man who was first to realise BP had found gas. Describes media presence at time of first strike. Story of swearing colleague. Staff grew, routine remained same. Explains relaxing Customs procedures. Details re crane work in Great Yarmouth, rates. Little competition in own field except from Offshore Marine. Details. Recalls becoming father figure in the field. 20 good years of industry for Great Yarmouth. Assistant and self thought of starting own company mid-1970s. Details. Plan failed because things started happening in Aberdeen. Recalls Wimpy's negative attitude to going to Aberdeen. Reference to Hartlepool. Little known about Aberdeen. Gradual wind-down of industry after mid-1970s. Details. Changed job to accounts work. Explains return to shipping, Customs work early 1980s.
Tape 3 Side B Shipping Customs Clerk, Wimpy (cont'd). Recalls attitude of new boss to established systems. Own approach to training new people. Things got busier in mid-1980s but not like in 1960s. Changes, decline in industry. Recalls talk of Wimpey going to Falmouth. Describes Wimpey's care for staff, social club. In later years, spent more time with family. Details. Own approach to bringing up children. Opinion re need for parental control. Attitude to family, work priorities in earlier years and now. Company taken over by Inspectorate EAE 1984. Details. Made redundant 1994. Effect of industry decline on Great Yarmouth, loss of work for little businesses. Town is dead now. Feelings about this. Reason for being made redundant, company plans to sell off bases. Out of work December 1994-July 1995. Details re colleague Henry Smith. Reference to Ventureforth company. Details re redundancy procedure. Recalls difficulty getting new job. Got work with Seletar Shipping in accounts, sales invoicing related to offshore industry. Job came out of the blue. Mentions bonuses paid for not being off sick. Describes job, longer deadlines. Details re company's lack of continuity and preparation for time after own retirement. Describes work of shipping agents, their responsibilities to owners' and charterers' interests. Comments need nowadays for training. Recalls learning sense of efficiency, cost-effectiveness. Feelings about waste, current wasteful approach to use of paper, current work culture. Feelings about forthcoming retirement. Describes current home in Caister, near Great Yarmouth. Great Yarmouth has half-empty business parks. Comments on its future, prospect of an outer harbour, promise of oil industry - which went away.
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