Worse job unblocking shithouse pipework
Best job not unblocking shithouse pipework

One of the worst jobs was when an apprentice was the polishing the brass . A complete waste of time and I still hate the smell of Brasso or colza oil. Shoveling ashes overboard after an extended stay in port. There were many jobs that had to be done and as an apprentice, I think it was their lot to do the most menial and obnoxious of them

worse bit for me was getting the shore supple cable ashore and plugged in after the deckies had filled the plug with water from the deck wash. used to be a bit scary switching it on. Lucky for me I never got a shock from it.

When I was a student at Leith Nautical College I'd come home to Stafford during the Summer holidays and get a job to supplement my grant. One job I got was with a window cleaner, and after a couple of weeks he got the work of cleaning all the hanging lampshades in a workroom in the Lotus Shoe Factory (now long gone.) The lamps were those green on top white on the bottom enamelled metal shades and I had to use a high stepladder to get at them. The room was full of girls working all kinds of 'shoe' machines which made me a bit self conscious wobbling about above them.
The lamps were all turned off and had years of dirt on the upper surface, and I developed a technique of spinning them around while drifting the soogy cloth down over them. This greatly improved the cleaning speed and I was done in a couple of hours.
Feeling pleased with myself I waited near the door while the foreman switched the lights on, which blew every fuse in the room !! The insulation on the wires was that old fashioned rubbery stuff, that gets hard and brittle in time, and my spinning created shorts all over the place. In fact they had to rewire the entire room lighting system (so I was told.)
I explained to my boss that I had probably saved the factory, because that was a fire just waiting to happen. I still got sacked. :eek:
When I went home and told my Old Man, he nearly bust his gut laughing. :egg:

I'm sure there was a few cheeky girls with fine cleavages who also wobbled a bit.

Changing the suction and discharge valves on a centre scavenge Doxford:cloud:
Don't recall any good jobs

I was always terrified of opening up SW inlet strum boxes and tube coolers. There were always some weird and wonderful "critters" in them!
Rgds.
Dave