A British historian, who has written a brief history of the Bermuda Dockyard, is calling on Bermudians to send in names of family members who were part of the Dockyard apprenticeship programme.

Dr. Ann Coats, secretary of the Naval Dockyards Society in England, and heritage professor at the University of Portsmouth needs the names to put the finishing touches on her report ‘Origins of Bermuda Dockyard’ which she has compiled for the West End Development Corporation (WEDCO).

“I was brought into the project because I am a dockyards historian,” she told The Bookworm Beat this week during a tour of Dockyard led by three former apprentices, Edmund (Teddy) Chaplin, Lionel Phillips and Harcourt (Jack) Fraser. “I was asked to research the history of the apprentices and find out the names of the apprentices from the beginning of the Dockyard.”

Throughout the history of the Bermuda Dockyard, right up until 1950, apprentices provided much needed labour in the Dockyard while learning a trade such as plumbing or engine repair.

Dr. Coats did uncover a few surprises during her research, particularly rules pertaining to slave labour in the Bermuda Dockyard. She found that during wartime in the 18th and 19th century, the Bermuda Dockyard was so desperately in need of workers that the labourer held the upper hand.

“For this reason, wages in the Bermuda Dockyard were also higher than in the next nearest Dockyard, which was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,” she said. “What was really interesting was that a lot of the workers had slaves who were either apprentices or helpers for them.

“Through the pay-books you can see that one year some of these names were obviously owned by a worker. But the next year they were in under their own names being paid. It seems as though they were able to achieve their freedom by working at Dockyard.”

Every Saturday the enslaved worker had to give a portion of his pay to his owner, and he could have up to six owners. The catch was, he could choose which owner got the pay portion.

“According to the pay-books, the slave decided where they were going to work and they supported themselves,” said Dr. Coats. “This was a very unusual arrangement. So working in the Dockyard they actually achieved quite a lot of control over their lives. The storekeeper said that if slave didn’t like what they were told to do, they can pack up their tools and go.

“So he had to treat them properly in order for them to stay here. That is the first I’ve come across an arrangement like that. So it was quite a surprise to come across that information. But it was very interesting to see that it was a means of gaining training, earning a living and gaining their freedom.”

The Bermuda Dockyard had its beginnings in 1794 in St. George’s. Back then the Dockyard was just a collection of wooden storehouses and hulks. It moved to Ireland Island in 1809, but was officially just a naval yard until 1869 when a floating dock was added.

Dr. Coats has written similar reports on Portsmouth Dockyard, her main area of expertise. She also recently took part in an attempt to save a military water tank built in 1800 in Gibraltar which the Government wanted to demolish to create affordable housing.

“I like going to places where there are Dockyards,” she said. “The Bermuda Dockyard is smaller than the Portsmouth Dockyard, but the pattern of storehouses is the same. You need buildings for rigging and sails and spars. This has an ordinance yard and a victualling yard, which Portsmouth has.”

She said the Bermuda Dockyard was important because it was the only place that British navy ships could stop for repairs between Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and Jamaica. This made it quite important during times of war in the 18th and 19th century.

Dr. Coats has produced her report based on documents held in the British National Archives in London.

“The records consist of pay-books,” said Dr. Coats. “Each pay-book comes in a big box. You have to unfold it and copy out the records. It is not a quick process. I have to look through, find the apprentices and write them down. In the records the apprentices, (who worked before 1882) will usually be listed with their master. Often they were paid together. The master would get the pay for himself and his apprentice.”

The records give information such as how long the apprentices were paid for, their rate of pay, their occupation and who the money went to.

In her report on Dockyard there is a list of the apprentices who worked in 1796 and 1797, also enslaved workers in these years, and all of the owners of Ireland Island which was brought by the Admiralty.

“This information could be very important to people studying their genealogy, because a lot of families in Bermuda will have worked in the Dockyard,” she said. “You get the same names being repeated generation after generation. It was very common for a father to pass on his skills to his son, because it gives his career life. So the names that come through the pay-list are a microcosm of Bermuda names.”

The project was initiated by Mike Jones of Mike Jones Associates, Portsmouth and Bermudian Lloyd Telford, WEDCO general manager and son of a Dockyard apprentice.

A local group called the Dockyard Apprentice Association is helping WEDCO to erect a board with the names of all the Bermuda Dockyard apprentices.

“The work of the association is important, because it has been difficult to get a hold of twentieth century apprenticeship lists in London because of privacy issues,” said Dr. Coats. “The Admiralty is retaining those names under data protection. But we were hoping that the Governor could ask the British Admiralty if they could release the names. Otherwise it is hit or miss whether families will get in touch with us. All that they want are names and the dates they were apprentices.”

Her research included interviews with several living former apprentices, but she would like to add more.

“Their memories are so important,” said Dr. Coats. “It would be a public archive for other people to study their experiences.”

She said it is not just important what the apprentices did in the past, but also what they went on to do with their lives.

“That was one of the points of this project — to show how being an apprentice prepared them for life,” she said. “It gave them all sorts of skills that they could utilise in later careers. They had discipline, management skills, hard work. They have all gone into running their own businesses or retail. They are an example of how training at a young age can prepare you for life.”

Lionel Phillips, chairman of the association said his group not only wanted to publicise the history of apprentices in Dockyard, but also to encourage more apprenticeship schemes.

“The Dockyard Apprenticeship programme was a five-year term and it covered many, many trades, electrical, engine fitting, carpentry, plumbers— it went through the whole gamut,” said Mr. Phillips who became an apprentice at the tender age of 14 in 1950. “There were 20-odd trades all told.”

Mr. Phillips was an engine fitter apprentice. He was taught all the areas of mechanical engineering around internal combustion engines, steam engines, welding for electric and gas and refrigeration.

“The last workshop I worked in here was a little shop they use to call the Bike Shop,” Mr. Phillips said. “That was where we use to prepare all the small boat engines. Then refrigeration became my love.”

In 1972 he became the president of the Gilbert Darrell Company that provided refrigeration for stores, hotels and other institutions.

“The only education I had after elementary school was in the Dockyard School,” Mr. Phillips said. “We had a very good education system here. We went to school one full day per week and spent four days in the workshop.”

Mr. Fraser was a plumbing apprentice starting in September 1949. Mr. Fraser went on to be a prison officer, rose to the rank of Assistant Prison Commissioner before retiring, and now teaches driving.

“My apprenticeship helped me quite a bit,” he said. “I was able to learn a trade, and later train up two guys in the prisons who are still in business.”

In 1950 when the Dockyard was preparing to close, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Fraser were amongst a group who were sent to England to complete their apprenticeship training.

For information about the report or to report the name of a former apprentice contact WEDCO at 234-1709.