Yes Davy imagine the crane drivers in a middle of a lift knocking off to go down to go to the bog haa
But the Hammerhead Crane at the Walker Naval Yard did have a toilet behind the cab
But that's because it's on a fixed construction (does not move on rail tracks)
The jib moves 360 degrees on the fixed construction (even today)
I was up working on it in 1968 age 18 with no scaffolding just a few scaffolding boards that yous hauled up by rope.
Mind put me in good stead when I got sacked by Jobling in late 1973 when I got sacked by the Plumbers manager Jobling
I walked over the yard and went into the Stagers Cabin
The chargehand stager asked me to climb to the top of one of the uprights which I did and he started me straight away
Jobling wa hopping mad the Plumbers looked down there noses till I showed them my payslips of a lot more than them (the carpenters doing the handrail were on less than Us)
When the Plumbers asked for Staging I made sure I put the ladder (mistakenly) on another job.
When the Plumbers moaned about it I Said do as the Stagers do and climbed up the scaffold vertically.
Mind there was a big strike 74 at Leslie's so I got back in my trade not as a Marine Plumber but as a Pipefitter as you were called elsewhere at Seal Sands the place was booming chemical plants oil rig building.
The royals from the likes of Leslie's could not get a look in could they.
Even the plumber welders cos it was all boilermaker welders.
3 years got construction site money plus dig money and home every night on three times the wages of them Leslie's plumbers.
Mind I was blacked for life as working as a marine plumber.
Mind when Leslie's shut I had the experience and got work all over the country.
The backstabbing Laslies Plumbers ended up stocking shelves in supermarkets.
The stagers all good lads went on to be scaffolders some owning there own businesses
And I always knew I could get a job with them if times got tough.
Backstabbing..... Them shipyard royals some of them years later if they got on the rigs.
Complained about the job and yes I turned my back on them as they turned their backs on me.
And yes I am no better than them and they are no better than me.
But the experience I had with the shipyard royals I would rather help a dilute pipe fitter than a shipyard Plumber any day)
(a Marine Plumber is a Pipe fitter outside of the shipyards)