Memories of growing up in Leith. The trials and tribulations of the period, allied to the camaraderie of the community in facing up to an uncertain future made a lasting impression on John Stewart.

In March 1951, I presented myself at the plumbing shop of Henry Robb, Shipbuilders in Leith, at Victoria Pier for my first day of apprenticeship as a ships plumber. This would last for a period of five years.

For the first time in my life I wore a pair of dark overalls and working steel toecap boots. It was strange to say the least. The previous week I had been wearing a suit, shirt and tie as required of an office worker. What had I let myself in for? I would soon learn.

I was going in as a raw lad and would emerge a man. Shipyards were, as I was soon to find out, renowned to sort out men from boys. To quote the old maxim - 'if you can't stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen'.

It was not an unfriendly place and the friends I made there would become friends for life. However that was yet to come.

I was met by the plumbing foreman, Duncan 'Dandy' McLean. For the uninitiated, the 'Dandy' was synonymous with the name McLean through the fictional detective character featured in the Weekly News at that time.

I was immediately assigned to work with an experienced plumber, David Borthwick within the workshop proper. How disappointed I was, for I was hoping to begin work on the ships straight away.

My workplace was on a mezzanine floor above the main workshop. This was not a pleasant place, for the smoke from the gas fires that heated pipes for bending drifted up to it, despite the presence of large air extractors.

My work here consisted of lead lining the wooden rocket boxes that would contain distress signals, lead window boxes that were fitted beneath the opening windows of wheelhouses, making lead pipe flanges, and lead 4' soil adaptors for WC's on board ship.

Although I did not enjoy the working environment of it, I appreciated I was getting a firm grounding in the basics of the trade. I knew that the boys who were assigned to shipboard work in the first instance were denied this learning.

However, after six months I was moved out into the yard proper where I was to work on a seagoing tugboat, the Arusha. This was still on the stocks. Here I became knowledgeable in nautical terms.

M.V. Cicero for the Ellerman, Wilson Line, Hull

It was a language all on its own. Aft - back, for'wd - front, bulwark - side, midships - middle, deckhead - ceiling, bulkhead - wall, companionway - corridor, the list was endless.

M.V.Longfellow for the Rodney Steamship Co. Ltd. London

John Stewart, 2001