Can you trace a lifeboat transceiver to the ship it was on.

[Tony Selman]

Two ROA members have recently contacted me to see if a Salvita III lifeboat transceiver can be matched to the ship it came from. The cousin of a member in SE Ireland has recently acquired the Salvita pictured below and the question was raised is there any way of finding the ship it was allocated to. I personally do not know and if such a system ever existed I would guess the Marconi records ended up in the skip with the demise of Chelmsford. It is, just, possible the records exist amongst the Marconi archives at The Bodleian but there is no point in me contacting them if the matching never took place and a Salvita was just taken from the stores. Does anyone know?

[Naytikos]

Ron would probably know; but I think he stays in the other place.

In my limited experience of MIMCo I rather doubt they were organised enough to record serial numbers against particular ship's names. The invoices to the shipowner certainly had the serial numbers on them but I think that's as far as it went.

Not like today's EPIRBs.

Wrong: I just found a post by Ron on the next thread, so hopefully we will shortly have the benefit of his vast knowledge of matters Marconi.

[Tony Selman]

Ron has replied on the other place. The general opinion is that if such records were ever kept they will be long gone. I rather doubt they were ever kept. The Irish guys have got a meeting of former R/Os in Limerick on Thursday and they are going to have a look. The current thinking is that the clockwork driven cam/s inside were cut for the A/A dashes and not the call sign but no one knows for sure. Worth a punt.

[Ron Stringer]

Originally Posted by Naytikos

In my limited experience of MIMCo I rather doubt they were organised enough to record serial numbers against particular ship's names. The invoices to the shipowner certainly had the serial numbers on them but I think that's as far as it went.

Ship's name and equipment serial numbers was recorded on all relevant documentation for every order and, for ships with Rental/Maintenance contracts, held on the individual ship's file, together with copies of all service records relating to every subsequent service visit. Many hundreds of those files were kept, in a horizontal filing system, floor to ceiling in a room about 40' x 20' and kept current by two filing clerks.

In the 1990s, following reorganisation within GEC and Marconi, MIMCo no longer reported directly to Sir Arnold Weinstock at GEC but firstly to GEC-Marconi HQ at Stanmore and later to MCSL at New Street. Subsequently this proved to have a very negative effect on the Marine company's fortunes.

In order raise funds for MCSL (following their mobile radio debacle) the MIMCo-owned Elettra House building was put up for sale (it is now a VW dealership) as were several of the depots around the UK. The resultant revenue was transferred to MCSL, who had taken over the running of the company. MIMCo HQ was moved into much smaller accommodation in a building on a MCSL-owned site on Waterhouse Lane. One of the filing clerks was made redundant. After a year or two there, that site too was sold to become a retail trading estate, the remaining filing clerk was made redundant (along with others) and what was left of MIMCo's HQ staff were transferred into the old Canteen in New Street.

Due to the down-sizing involved in these moves, there was no room to store the heritage material. It was offered to the Company Archivist but rejected since there were no sufficient resources available within the organisation to take it on. Accordingly all non-current R/M files and all the old supply and installation records, beyond the mandated requirements of company law, did indeed go into the skip.

A great loss to the history of marine radio and the British MN but, at the time, nobody was interested in taking the records. Chelmsford Council and its Museum and the Essex Records Office were not interested. Even when the entire GEC-Marconi empire collapsed, all the historic records pertaining to the very development of radio and Giulgielmo Marconi's personal correspondence (that had been amongst the items looked after by the Archivist's department) were rejected and were in danger of being dumped or disposed of privately to the highest bidder. Eventually money was raised elsewhere to fund the rescue and transfer of the records to Oxford University's Bodleian Library.

Radio began here in the UK but all the information about its inception and achievements were almost lost due to the country's apathy concerning scientific and engineering matters.

[BobClay]

A sad state of affairs across the board with the collapse of these major companies. My hometown of Stafford was basically an 'English Electric' town (previously Siemens, there is even a pre-war housing estate there still called 'Siemen's Colony.')

When I left school in the early sixties the 'Ingo' as it was known employed 10,000 people in the town. I myself worked for a while in the newly built MRI (Meters Relays and Instruments) factory. Giant transformers on huge Scammell wagons were often seen leaving the factory bound for all parts of the world.

Then it became GEC and then Alstom and has gradually downsized to a mere stump of what it was. Most of the factory space is long gone, now replaced by the likes of B & Q and Pizza Hut and so on.

[Lucy Knight]

Why don't you contact Samford Mill Museum (Marconi).
Ex R/O Charles Marshall is working there for a while.

Details about Samford Mill and C.M. are on Hawkey's thread Old Radio Gear, last post.

I exchanged emails with Charles re records kept a few weeks ago. He is registered on S.H. under different user name.

Lucy

[Lucy Knight]

I emailed Charles Marshall who has a job at Sandford Mill about the lifeboat radio. This was his reply.


Lucy, hi
For the model you re talking about, I don’t have any details
Unless I have record from the Newcastle depot. For the type you are discussing it could be stencilled on the lid or on a label.
The many Lifeboat units have an AKD , that would have the call-sign on it.
Apart from that, I have no further suggestions
Regards
Charles Marshall