Describe the Calshot? A big monster. It stuck up, it
was the biggest tug in Southampton docks. It must have been,
if not the oldest, very near the oldest, because there was other
coal burning tugs, the Clausentum and the Canute, but they were
only very small compared with the Calshot. We had twice as
many crew as most of the others, and I think most of the other
crewmen of the other tugs admired us because it was a nice big tug
and we used to get quite a lot of different jobs. The most
important thing with the Calshot it was the tender tug, which is
quite different. We used to go out to the liners rather than
the liners coming into Southampton docks, the cheapest method was
to anchor at the Cowes Roads, which is off the Isle of Wight, and
send a tug out. That was the Calshot's duty. And this
happened quite a lot, three or four times a month, which we used to
look forward to. We'd meet three or four hundred passengers,
all from all different walks of life, never stepped foot in
England, and I can always remember when they used to come aboard,
they looked like every colour under the rainbow. You name it,
they had it on. And I remember we used to come up the river
and they used to look and see the docks with the cranes, and they
said, ‘is that England’? And they couldn't wait, it was a
fight for them to step onshore. And it was funny because I'd
never been out of the country so I didn't even realise what it
meant to people. It made you feel proud you were English,
that's for sure. And I often wondered what it was like in
their country.
Question: Was it most of the West Indians coming
in?
Yeah, then the immigration was...there was no restrictions. I
think they used to put three or four hundred on and if the ship was
too heavy they used to take one or two off. I think they must
have had twenty to thirty in a cabin, but you know I suppose their
passage was so cheap it didn’t bother them so much. They just
wanted to get to England.
