THE job was as risky as it was mammoth in task. But it was all in a day’s work for the skilled workers that were once employed on the banks of the River Itchen at Camper and Nicholsons shipyard at Northam, Southampton.

It was October, 1956 and the workforce were facing a big challenge as for hours on end they manhandled tons of molten lead in the construction of one of the biggest boats ever built at the yard.

Camper and Nicholsons was one of the great names in boat building and the Southampton craftsmen had an international reputation for their high standards in creating vessels that sailed the oceans all over the globe.

It took 40 men seven hours carrying long handled ladles full of molten metal to form the keel of the 64-ton ketch that was destined for the Mediterranean.

The Daily Echo said at the time: "The laying of this ballast keel of lead was done in a time-honoured fashioned. It varied only in small detail from the method used in English shipyards for the last 200 years or so.

"It is a system which has stood the test of time and cannot be bettered even in these days of short cuts and automation.''

By the end of the day the workers had carried and poured a total of 25 tons of lead into a mould shaped to hold the keel of the yacht.

"Lead was kept molten in pots heated by wood and coke fires,'' said the Daily Echo. "Men filed past the pots, dipping their ladels in and passing up a ramp on to a platform running alongside the mould.

"As soon as they had poured the lead they walked down another ramp to a circular fire where ladles were kept hot until their turn came round again to ladle out another 20 pounds of lead and walk up the ramp to the mould.

"Men stood on either side of the mould supervising the pouring or directing two large blowlamps into the slowly-filling mould so that the liquid metal kept an even consistency and would eventually set to perfection.

"In charge of the operation was Mr George Lines, 63, foreman shipwright, who has been with Camper and Nicholsons for 38 years.

"His right-hand man in all that went on was Mr Walter West, 46, who was apprenticed to Camper and Nicholsons when he left school and after 33 years has risen to assistant foreman shipwright.''

The yard continued building craft for many years but shut in the early part of 1980.