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The Light Lorry and Its Usefulness in Ship-repairing Services.
ABIG use is mad& of light vans in connection with the ship-repairing trades on the Merseyside, and their particular sphere of operations lies in the transport of material to and from the works 'and the ships that are, in the
docks 'undergoing repairs. There is hardly a, firm in the .Merseyside shiprepairing trades from the well-known firm of Carnmell, Lairds downwards that bas not experienced the useful service of the speedy li-tonner.
Many of the Liverpool firms have vehicles of various capacities, but often enough it is the light lorry that is first on the job getting the repair tackle quickly on board. the steamers from the works. In these days, when there is such keen competition from foreign yards for ship repair work, close attention has to be given to economic factors and speedy workmanship. It is an interesting experience to spend a few days on a ship which is being reconditioned and
C28 refitted for a service other than that for which it was built.
In the first place, a small gang with the immediately necessary repair tackle would be sent from the works to the ship, and as the preliminary work is being fulfilled, preparations would be made for the job to "open out." Motor vehicles would be running to and fro bringing materials, tools, and plant, End big numbers of men would be employed to use them.
On big contracts of this description the service of the motor, particularly of the light express kind, is of great value, and during the war was of inestimable
utility. Huge quantities a material,. timber, metal parts, and the requirements of perhaps a dozen trades have to be carried to the steamer in the dock. After a ship-repairing contract has once been started, the express lorries are constantly journeying between the engineers', the fitters,' and joiners' shops and
the ship, and when the job is well in hand they are quite as active clearing away the surplus material and 'carrying it back to the yards.
Another interesting use of the light vans and lorries at Liverpool is in connection with the . shipping services of the port when steamers of all descriptions, from the humble little tramp to the fleet ocean greyhounds, arrive and depart ever x day. Whilst a ship is in port all the stores are replenished, and this necessitates tremendous quantities Of goods, in scoresof categories, being transported to the ships,
Some of the big shipping companies havomotors of their own for the transport of stores from their own stocks to the ships, but in the case of small vessels, where the master of the ship orders the provisions, etc., from local firms catering for ships' requirements,'. the stores are usually conveyed to the Steamer by the express delivery lorry.