Does anybody have a copy of Ripyard Codlings poem listing many of the managers and formans nicknames.
I can only remember a few like 'nappy neck', 'haversack', 'the Sheriff, and Jellytot. matbe you can remember more.

If you Google his name.go to www.mancvoices Issue 16 some of his work is there under his real name......although Davitt is marine enough!

Geoff

Don't think it's the one Terry wants but, for a good laugh, see: http://monologues.co.uk/Seafaring/Milli ... Tanker.htm

Ron

OUR FOREMEN.

I’ve met some foremen in my time
I’ve seen them fall, I’ve watched them climb
I’ve watched them play their power games
And chuckled at their strange nicknames.

There’s one who never leaves the job
Rejoices in the name of ‘Blob’
There’s ‘Bootsy’, ‘Noddy’,’Hoot’ and ‘Bull’
And one they call the ‘Galloping Skull’.

With torch and chalk along each seam
The ‘Flying Saucer’ leads his team
And clustered round each longy butt
The ‘Seekers’ search for undercut.

Your cup of joy will reach the brim
If you should work for ‘Oily Jim’
For though some say he is a cad
He calls each welder ‘Bonnie Lad’.

There’s one who’s never off your back
His name of course is ‘Haversack’
There’s plenty more, just let me think
Oh yes there’s one called ‘Panther Pink’.

A little further down the Tyne
There’s one called ‘PC 49’
And helping him to run the joint
Another one called ‘Diamond Point’.

Wallsend Dock have ‘Knotty Neck’
And ‘Broken Bracket’ rules the deck
Across the river they have got
A character called ‘Jelly Tot’.

There’s one thy call ‘Four Mile Smile’
He keeps them laughing all the while
That order book and pencil keeper
You’ve heard about is called the ‘Leaper’.

In Smith’s of course they have the ‘Lung’.
The biggest villain yet unhung
And like a ‘Baddie’ on the telly
A bigger one’s called ‘Fender Belly’.




At Walker Naval Yard each day
The ‘Concorde’ swoops upon is prey
And welders flee from ‘Whacky Jack’
And wish they had ‘Old Trashy’ back

My list, of course, is not complete
There’s other names I daren’t repeat
And none of them would miss a chance
To lead us all a merry dance.

Before I put my pen away
To every foreman I will say
No matter what you say or do
The lads will stick a name on you.

That's the one thanks for finding it.
I always wondered if it was just here in the north east that we like to give people nicknames.
I find that i am always doing it. Maybe it's because it's easier to remember them if they have a funny descriptive tag.

We had quite a few......... 'Masser Bob', 'Teacake', 'Jimmy Two Fang', 'Pencil Bob', 'Tarmac', 'Sputnic', to name but a few! and they were the clean ones.....

We had one who was always throwing his hat on the ground in despair .... "Mr. Atlas"
One that had me puzzled for a while was the foreman in charge of making up export cargo on the flat ro-ro slave trailers, where you had to put in vertical stanchions then horizontal boards .... the foreman often seen shouting 'don't forget the stanchions and boards' with his arm going up and down then sideways .... yes, he became "The Pope".

We had The Balloon, Dick Turpin, The Pilot Light, The Policeman, The Chemist, Bristle Hound and The Panda.

Trying to work some of those out could be interesting!!

Worked with other river workers too...the agents and fellow foyboatmen had nicknamed a pair of slow workers 'p**s and ignorance', one night awaiting a late arriving vessel on Eston Jetty we were approached for ' a light' by these two who after some limited conversation asked did we know who was meant.???.....we kept a straight face until they left...

Geoff