An unusual, dangerous and stressful job

Shiprepairing is one of the chief industries in our country. Malta Drydocks has a skilled force of employees and operates seven drydocks.

It offers a full range of engine, electrical and electronic repairs. The work includes surveys, underwater cleaning, shot blasting, spray coating and laboratory facilities. It can build ships, tugs, storing installations, barges, pipe-laying craft and floating docks.

Yet because of heavy reductions of shipbuilding and repair Malta Drydocks has been hit very hard. Its constant problem is that of finding markets, particularly with fewer ships plying the seas.

The Marsa Shipbuilding Yard was set up in 1976. Its first major projects were the steel shutters of the breakwater arm at Marsaxlokk. In 1994 an agreement was signed by Malta Shipbuilding, the Malta Drydocks, the government and the General Workers Union to merge Malta Shipbuilding with Malta Drydocks.

I recently interviewed Nazzareno Busuttil, who worked as a shipwright at Malta Drydocks and later as foreman at Malta Shipbuilding, and who also had the opportunity of working on the bypass of boilers 7 and 8 at the Marsa power station. He gave me a picture of how dangerous and stressful this work was.

Many major accidents occurred during the time he worked at the drydocks, and a number of workers were injured. He said that whoever worked in such a job was at great risk of being hurt or even lose his life through some accident.

Mr Busuttil recalled two misses he experienced himself. Once, while going down a vertical ladder into the hatch of a cargo ship, his leg missed a rung and had he not grabbed the ladder tightly with both hands, he would have fallen down and probably injured himself.

Another time, while working at the sump of a ship's engine together with a colleague, they heard their chargeman shouting for help. When they went up to see what happened, a fire was raging, but luckily it was soon put out.

However, Mr Busuttil also recalls some fatal accidents. In one, a worker lost his life while working on an omni-barge. On the same dock a buoy caught fire, and two men lost their lives; another was badly burnt and later had to be sent abroad to undergo plastic surgery.

In the same area a chargeman of welders was killed while he was repairing a transformer. The death of two other welders, one of whom had just returned from his honeymoon, fell down into a hatch. The other welder died of suffocation caused by fumes from a fire on board a ship.

I then mentioned to Mr Busuttil the most serious tragedy that ever occurred at the drydocks, when nine employees lost their lives while working on the ship Um El-Faroud, on February 3, 1995 - ten years ago last Thursday.

There was a big explosion and the ship caught fire and all nine died on the spot. Some of these men were found burnt on the opposite side of the ship. Others were found with body parts missing. These unfortunate men left their families and loved ones to grieve for life. The ship was later scuttled at Zonqor Point in Marsascala.

Mr Busuttil said that though dangerous, such work is a challenge for all the brave men who risk their lives doing it.

He then resigned from the Malta Drydocks and started to work as a foreman at the Malta Shipbuilding, another very stressful and dangerous job, which also carries a lot of responsibility.

He recalled that one day he had to take a very difficult decision, as foreman, while working on the boilers at the power station. One boiler had to be switched off to the repair work to be carried out, and if anything had to go wrong with the other boiler it might have caused a blackout in a substantial part of the island.

So the work had to be carried out in the least time possible, in order to limit the risk. However, though everything was done on time, one employee fell down while removing the staging and was seriously injured. It was one of Mr Busuttil's biggest disappointments.

An ambulance together with the civil rescue team arrived on the spot immediately and the injured worker was rescued and rushed to hospital. The police investigated. That night Mr Busuttil accompanied the injured worker to hospital and stayed with him, until he was told that he was out of danger. The worker eventually recovered and returned to work.

Mr Busuttil insists that although many safety precautions are taken, the risks involved in shiprepairing and similar work remains high. He added that although this dangerous work is stressful and difficult, yet it was still a source of satisfaction to the brave and skilled employees involved.