Hi,
Today I had an incredible lunch at the Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club (
http://rncyc.com/) with some of the men who built the QE2, who were also colleagues of my father's. I was picking their brains about QE2, and also about my Dad, since he's not around for me to ask. They are all very much looking forward to the QE2 event next year, and will be spreading the word around others they know that helped build QE2.
Tim's amazing Steam-powered QE2 ModelTim, who was heavily involved in the design and build of QE2's original power plant, has built an incredible steam-powered model of the QE2. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it, and its ridiculously complicated and detailed steam engine. The power and speed are exactly to scale, the mast is the actual aerial for the radio-control, and the funnel is the actual one for the ship, blowing steam. She can blow her whistle, which is an exact replica of QE2's - being an actual audio recording!
My Dad, David LightbodyMy Dad's boss, Ian Broadley, respected my Dad's skills greatly and they worked together for a long time. They all remember him well. He was apparently known to some as, the "Heat Balance King" - which apparently involves complex calculations of what the "steam condition" is at different points through the system. When I asked them why it was my Dad who had to fly to troubleshoot her turbines, they asked me back "who else would it be". Nobody else was considered unless my Dad was unavailable - he was their expert. (Parmetrada Steam Turbine expert). My Dad worked heavily with Willie Ireland, Bob Coates and Ralph Fleeting.
The UnionsThe unions killed the Clyde shipbuilding, and they watched it happen first-hand with great frustration. Attempts to modernise and improve efficiency were met with strikes, industrial action or being "Blacked" (blacklisted by the union). Examples they gave were of modern machinery coming in which needed less men, but the union refusing to allow redundancies and forcing the team size to remain the same.
As things progressed, one section needed a 50% redundancy. The manager compromised and proposed 30%. The union insisted on less than 5%, until it was explained that the actual required figure had been 50%... it went on and on. They met Tony Benn, had discussions with him, and weren't impressed... I'll try to get more info on this for the record.
Tim recommends a book by Sandy Stephens, I'll try to find out which one it is.
A cost-cut too far - QE2's breakdownWe've discussed QE2's cost-cutting during her design elsewhere. Tim Henderson was involved in the cost-cutting of the powerplant - they achieved a 10% cut - the cost of the plant was £5m and they shaved off £0.5m. Against the engineers judgement, the Steam Generator was deleted. They are categorical that this was the cause of the famous breakdown (
link) . Tim also remembers clearly them bringing the power down from 120,000shp to 110,000shp.
John Browns ComputerWe've discussed previously the state of the art Ferranti computer that was on board QE2, but what I didn't know whas that John Browns themselves had an ICL 1900 computer - British made - and the government wanted them to promote heavily that it was being used to build QE2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICT_1900_series They think it had 32kb of memory... This was 2 major national pride projects being used to complement each other. It highlights the importance of QE2.
The SuppliersWere falling over themselves to supply to the QE2 project. At one point two suppliers came in with prices that were very close. So close as to be suspicious. They saught a 2nd quote from a Swedish company which was significantly cheaper, and used it to lower the price from the British suppliers.
Nuclear PowerAlthough they all worked on Diesel and Steam-Turbine technologies, they were also working on Nuclear power and it was a big thing on the Clyde at the same time as Q3 and Q4 were being designed. Y-ARD (Yarrow-Admiralty Research Department) that my Dad worked at too, was heavily involved.
Designed in Liverpool or ClydebankI asked them for their views of this. They said that yes, she was designed in Liverpool, however they had a lot of input going back into the design, and were in Liverpool every week discussing the design. One example they gave was that John Browns knew a huge amount about building ships, but not about marketing them, or making them work in the real world, which in the mid sixties had suddenly become the Jet age. They remember clearly the decision being taken to abandon Q3, and the team re-focussing on Q4.
They all said they looked at QE2 in later years and realised she was an absolute stunner, a very special and unique ship.
- Rob