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The Owners
"John
Dinwoodie Sr owned the Dinwoodie business but, sadly, he
drowned in the Forth when his boat 'Medusa' sank in 1978.
His
son,
also named John, took over the business."
Working for John
Dinwoodie
"When
John Dinwoodie Sr lost his life,
his son, John Jr and I were both
Merchant Seamen. I was AB and John
had become 2nd Mate. He came home to
take over his Dad's business. His uncle Alex also worked
for the company.
I had been on a rest
after getting married, and joined the business about 7 months
after the death of John Sr.
I was a Rigger, Skipper, Driver, Foreman, you name it, I did
it. I worked , 7 days a week,
for over a year."
Hours
"One time,
I left my house on Monday
morning, telling the wife I would be home
for tea. I got home at 8pm on the
Friday. I had
been sent to do a 12-hour job in
the dry dock on
the Swither ( fisher protection Ship) starting at 7am on the Monday.
John said he would bring another crew down with a
Forman. When he came back, he had a
crew but no foreman. He said he
would get someone as soon as he could, but
I never got home until the Friday.
I soon got used to being sent on small
jobs only to be away for days.
I used the 'Inchmickery'
boat all the time, as I'd managed to get a
coal fire working on it and beds for us
and some home comforts."
Pay
"I did love
the job, especially when I found out I was being taxed on emergency
tax level. With the amount of work I
was doing, I never noticed that I was
underpaid.
The week that
they worked out
my 7-months of tax,
I was paid back £1000 tax.
That was a lot
in 1975! Even better, I was
asked into the Office the next week and told that I
would be paid another £872.58
and was asked to sign,
to say that I would make no further claims from the Tax
Offices. After that,
my wages shot up."
David Ross, Granton, Edinburgh: 15 November 2015
(3 emails) |