1941, Thursday 24 April;
The Navy-Blue Humber Snipe staff car pulled up, Layton’s pennant fluttering in the gentle breeze. A Lieutenant jumped out and opened the door, Layton and Rear Admiral Drew climbed out. They were down by the Kallang River, at Tanjong Rhu, where the Thornycroft, Vaughan and Walkers shipbuilding yards were located. Orders had been placed for a variety of different small warships. Thornycroft had Fairmile B’s, HDML’s and smaller launches to build. Walkers had HDML’s and smaller boats, while Vaughan were building MMS (motor minesweeper’s) of 245 tons.
Thornycroft were well established, and had already provided a number of boats, the other two had only previously dealt with commercial orders, and would begin to delivery completed craft sometime in the summer. The orders, with the promise of more to come, could only be met by expansion of their shipyard facilities, and a big expansion at that.
There was construction everywhere, some new roads had been laid down, many still dirt tracks, but gradually they were concreted, no bitumen overlay, while newly erected poles carrying power cables, and telephone lines, stood along the way. They led to an increasingly number of new slips, with their associated new sheds, and an assortment of buildings being built. The big boat building sheds were wooden framework, with open sides and corrugated roofs, with windows cut in the roof to provide ventilation.
And the noise coming from the shipyards that already existed there, spoke of sawing timber, drilling, derricks and cranes swinging loads, and Chinese workers. Much work had been manual, but increasingly now electrical saws, sanders, woodworking tools etc imported from Canada and the USA were being installed, speeding up the work immeasurably.
Layton and Drew were touring the yards to see how the work was progressing, managing directors, naval architects, shipwrights, in tow, anxious to explain delays, and how they were overcoming problems. They were looking at a part built Fairmile B, a shipwright explaining its construction. The planking, deckhouses, engine beds and bearings, was Douglas Fir from Oregon, while for timbers and gunwales, they used Canadian Rock Elm, both imported from Vancouver. Local woods being used were the Siamese Teak, for the decks and for keels and stems, and Balau, a Malayan hard wood.
The tour over, it was back in the Humber, and off to Keppel docks, to see the Singapore Harbour Board’s repair yard, which was also expanding, to build ships, with a very unfinished yard, but already they had an order for a 300-ton harbour tug and a 1000-ton mooring vessel. And as the shipyards expanded so did the labour force of workers, almost entirely Chinese. The pay was good, and valuable trade skills to be learnt, so they had the pick of the brightest wanting to work. Some came direct from the trade schools, others learnt on the job, but all were keen to work.
