The job of producing BBC programmes can bring many unforseen privileges and one of these is the opportunity to gain access to places that the general public will never be. In the mid 90s one BBC producer, Bob Crookes, got the chance to test his head for heights, while viewing Harland & Wolff's shipyard from a completely different angle, when he ventured to the top of Goliath.

Rats eye view of the enormous wheel assembly the crane rolls on Base camp The first sigh of relief came when I found I didn't have to climb for there was a door into the crane almost at ground level, just above the huge wheel assembly, and it leads into a small dark area where there are stairs but, to my great pleasure, an elevator. A strong nerve is still needed for the elevator is not only slow but noisy and a vivid imagination is not helpful as you travel up the single square leg of the crane. You step out at the top into an engine room with a huge diesel engine rattling away with a deafening roar and this is the powerhouse that drives the crane. There's nothing here to remind you that you're hundreds of feet up in the air and the whole place is a schoolboy's (or his dad's) delight with a surrounding labyrinth of ducts, pipes, steel staircases and bulkhead lights and you feel as though it could well be the setting for any number of computer combat games and that special smell of oily metal is everywhere. The whole crane seems completely self contained and has its own support system in terms of staff and resources including a crew room with a modest kitchen in it and you quickly lose sight of the fact that you are indeed still inside a machine.

Don't look down! Reaching the summit From the engine room it's only a few flights of steel staircase until you pop through a small metal door and once again you remember that the outside world is still there - but way below you! This really was a breathtaking experience, for the first thing that greets your eye when the hatch door is thrown open is blue sky, this was on one of the good days of course. The sensation encountered when climbing through that hatch door onto the 'deck' with the wind on your face and a sudden realisation of the sheer vertical height is almost indescribable. Now I don't mind how far down I go and I'm happy in any underground hole, no matter how small or tight but heights and me don't go well together and I soon realised I was clinging on to anything that appeared solid as I walked around. After about half a minute, when my head went a bit 'light' I realised that I'd forgotten to breathe. I could try and convince you that it was because it was all so breathtaking but it was really my subconscious telling me that my body was not happy to be there, view or no view! One of the first heart stopping sights was one of the crane's crew members sitting with his legs dangling over the edge, eating his lunch and I could barely watch as he turned around and stood up to greet me. I wanted to shout "No, no stay there, it's OK" but he was totally oblivious to the distance between us and the ground. This was his territory, his workplace, he was at home here.

View from the top

Once I got over the initial fear and risked a look out rather than a look down the panorama from up there was astonishing for it was one of those stunning February days when all was crisp and clear and visibility seemed to be forever. I could see the Mourne Mountains in one direction and Slemish in the other. With the entire geography of Belfast laid out around me it was fascinating just trying to identify streets and junctions. My reverie was interrupted when a plane coming in to land at the City Airport was actually flying lower than us!

Scared - but proud!

Swaying in the breeze!

One thing I had never realised is that the cranes move about when the wind gets up. There was a gentle sense of swaying every now and then, almost like the roll on a ship but not as pronounced, a bit more subtle and almost imperceptable but I was told it was indeed the effect of the wind. The crane's driver told me that it has been known on a very windy day for the entire crane to roll along its railway tracks if it wasn't firmly braked.

Very few people ever get the chance to go up there so I did feel like a VIP that day and it was a privilege watching experts at work and the crew of the huge crane are experts indeed. Watching the driver go through the complex procedure of lifting a colossal metal structure from the ground and setting it in place with pinpoint accuracy seemed a bit poetic. But you soon drift back into reality when you hear of the sort of weights they're dealing with and you realise that there's no room for mistakes on this job. The obvious cameraderie within the crane crew pointed up how each one of them relies absolutely on the other man being on top of the job, every time, every day.

A bird's eye view of the yard in 1995

YOUR RESPONSES

Aaron M. Collery - June '08
Moore W. Skinner who was my Granddad worked at the shipyards all his life, along with his father and brothers. I can still remember as a small boy my Granddad coming home from work, then going into his garden to tend his roses. My mother was Sarah Anne Collery (nee Skinner), used to tell me stories about when she was a young girl during the Second World War the German Bombers would raid the shipyards, they stayed out all night on the hills overlooking Belfast harbour with many others watching this unfold as it was a safe place to be.

Ivy Sayers-Jack - Dec '07
Sorry to hear that the ship yard is closing. My father worked there in the forties during the war. He was a steel erecter. He loved working there. He took the bus to work from Raby Street, Belfast every morning. He loved working by the sea. He has passed away now but I always will remember Harland and Wolf.

merryjane linda mole - Apr '07
like this articile of a shipyard in the back ground so far and i love shipyards with all my heart its by me merryjane lighthouse mole to new yorks shipyard postal office .

John Hancock - Mar '07
FOR STEVE CARTER Not sure if you have found out by now but the ship you refer to is HMS Caroline. Her webpage is: http://www.nhsc.org.uk/index.cfm/event/getVessel/vref/430

Bill Bickerstaffe - Feb '08
I started in the engine works as an office boy in 1954. I then served my apprenticeship as an iron turner. I worked in the Abercorn, heavy turning shop, brass shop then the plant shop. I joined a ship which was in dry dock M/Delius1960 and spent 3 years in the Merchany Navy before coming to Canada in 1964. Many happy memories and I still go home quite often and coming from East Belfast the cranes are always visable.

My Grandfather worked on the Titanic and I didn't find this out until recently. I remember Mr Rebbick was a real gentleman. The Delius was cut in half and a piece added to make it longer. It was there the same time as the Canberra and I remember very well the day we sailed out on her and passed the Canberra being fitted with her main engines. Great times and great memories playing football in the dry dock at lunch time ans watching the guy diving off the aircraft carrier Bonaventure!

Dawn Binnion - Jan '07
I've been to belfast 5 times now and the sites never cease to amaze me. My kids are learning about the Titanic at school and they love the Harland and Wolfe cranes top place to be. Don't ever change it.

Ralph Walker - Nov '06
I have a Davidson & co Ltd "sirocco"works steam engine C.S.5 1/2 No.861, it is in very good condition but the external brass is missing , Does anyone have info or a pic that might help me restore it? Anything would be appreciated.Thankyou

Steve Carter - Nov '06
I would like to know if someone can help me out with the identification of a ship that is both shown on Google Earth and which I took a picture this June from the air (albeit at a distance) of a ship that seems to be residing in one of the docks at the H&W site.
It has three funnels with the centre funnel being of larger diameter the the other two and what looks like a typical naval type crows nest/control tower mounted on what seems to be a large tripod.

Can anybody help?

Miriam - Sep '06
Sept '06 I am an art student studying at the University of Ulster in York Street. I have spent a lot of time on the art college roof enjoying and photographing Belfast's skyline. All of my mum's side of the family work in the shipyards and oil rigs in the North East of Scotland and so I am drawn to the yard in Belfast. The huge cranes which dominate Belfast's skyline are such a powerful statement, “Goliath” being a perfectly fitting name. My view from the college roof would feel empty without them.
I am currently working on a tribute art piece about Harland and Wolfe and would really like to speak to anyone who worked there. I would appreciate it if you could contact me at ipaintforu@hotmail.co.uk.

Larry Brown - Aug '06
For Ron Hunter: Please have a look at a tea planters website www.koi-hai.com .Like your Dad, I too was sad when I saw what Sirocco had become. Nevertheless, I immerse myself in looking at the past, Sam Davidson, James Davidson, Ritchies, Alfie Agar, Ted Maguire and much, much more. Belfast is to us, our Belfast with special memories. How many can relate to going to the 'Classic' every Saturday morning as members of the GB club, we all intend to be, good citizens when we grow up and champions of the free! There is so much about belfast, that makes it so special to all of us who were born and bred there.

Jack Johnson - Aug '06
I worked in the yard and as a young shipwright / steelworker, I had the pleasure of going onto the top of the big craneson a regular basis.
The cranes were a marvel in their workings ligting sections onto ships, some weighting 700 tonnes and it would be a terrible loss not only to the skyline over belfast but to the people of East Belfast many of whom worked a lifetime in the yards.

Lisa - Aug '06
I live in Belfast and I think that Harland and Wolff is a great site and really think it should stay were it is because every time my friends and I past it it always reminds us of a great thing that belfast has achieved and I love hearin stories about it!

Steven Shaw, England - Jul '06
Robin Adair, you should keep those stupid comments to yourself or get away down to the south!!!!!!

Naval Dockyard Society - June '06
Dear Readers
Information about the Harland & Wolff yard, oral histories and experiences, and pictures, are most welcome to the Naval Dockyards Society (NDS), ideally culminating in a cumulative article on the yard in a future edition. NDS also welcomes expertise, that researchers, enquiries, and interested parties can be directed to. If you would like to share information or expertise, or present an article or short piece to the Editor's consideration, or if you would like more information about NDS, please contact the Editor via ndsoutreach at gmail.com Thank you.

Michael - June '06
Times change and life moves on - as they say, however, the pretty much total closure of Harland and Wolfe is a tragedy for young working class men of both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds. The sort of young men who realistically won't be able to afford the cost of £15K of University tuition fees additional to another £21k of debt incurred through living expenses along with another £60K of house price inflation. These young men with the yard and its existence had a future, a future that lead from the monotony and maybe wasted years of school to something brighter with the camaraderie of older men in the yard - now they only have the dole queue or the call centre or the rotten job as a security guard to console themselves. As a small boy through the troubles I watched the yard and its doings as a reliable certain constant, now its near end depresses and saddens me - not least as other yard with other similar labour costs in France and Scandinavia keep going.

Ron Hunter - May '06
My Dad Robert Hunter worked at the Sirocco Works for 20 years before coming to America. He is 97 years old and in very good health and living in California.
S ince 1950... I go back every Sept for a golf tournament and have taken pictures from the Hilton Hotel of the slow destruction of Sirocco Works. It took a long time and sad to finally see the big name go.

Robin Adair - April '06
The money that's been wasted on harland and wolf could have kept the clyde yards going, it's all been for nothing, all political, no common sense, the north will go back to the south, as it should.

Jim Cullen - April '06
I worked in a small yard at the foot of the Queens Bridge back in the 50s and 60s. I was only an apprentice then to my Uncle who ran a "Coach Trimming" (Auto Upholstery) business there. It was beside the "Aero Arms" bar and just at the junction of where the "shipyard" workers turned onto the bridge at night on their way home. It never ceased to amaze me to see the enormous volume of men and traffic that went through that intersection every night at 5 or 5.30. It was always the same policeman who directed the traffic and kept everyone moving. Time has moved on and I'm sure things have changed immensely since then. Jim Cullen, Ontario, Canada.

Steve Wright - April '06
I had the privilage to be shown around the yard on new yrs eve a few yrs ago, was gutted though as i would have been brought up the crane, only no one else was there!

It would be a terrible terrible shame if the yard shut down and wasnt open for the public to learn about belfasts great history.

Michael Davidson - March '06
I was employed in the Yard from 1970 until 1987 and loved every minute of it.One of the highlights [excuse the pun] for me was working on the Goliath crane for a week. Sad to see such a great shipyard become a shadow of its former self

Larry Brown - June '05
I'm an old Sirocco man. Started there when I was 15 and went to India when I was 21. 12 years there,16 in Papua New Guinea and Australia since 1986. I visited Belfast this year to do some research on Sam Davidson and Sirocco. How sad to see that Belfast has had it's heart cut out. No "Yard", Sirocco-no Ropeworks-no Mackies but Shorts is hanging in there!

Bill Bickerstaffe - Feb 08
I started in the engine works as an office boy in 1954. I then served my apprenticeship as an Iron turner. Worked in the abercorn. heavy turning shop , brass shop then the Plant shop. I joined a ship which was in dry dock M/Delius1960 and spent 3 years in the Merchany Navy before coming to canada in 1964.Many happy memories and i still go home quite often and coming from east belfast the granes are always visable. My Grand father worked on the titanic and i did not find this out until recently. Great times and i remember Mr Rebbick a real gentleman. The Delius was cut in half and a piece added to make it longer. It was there the same time as the canberra and i remember very well the day we sailed out on her and passed the canberra being fitted with her main engines. Great times and great memories lplaying football in the dry dock at lunch time ans watching the guy diving off the aircraft carrier Bonaventure i believe.