Though nearly four decades have passed since the whistle sounded to end the shift at the Collingwood Shipyards, the sounds, smells and sights of the shipyard remain riveted inside the minds of its former workers.
Some gathered today at Collingwood town hall, where they donned a white hard hat and walked together to the museum yard for the annual Shipyard Social event.
Sharyn McNabb was among the white-hatted procession, having started her career at 17 years old in the payroll and benefits office for Collingwood Shipyards.
"It was a good place to work," said McNabb, recalling the payroll department responsibility included between 200 and 1,500 employee paycheque depending on what work was being done at the yard.
Launch day was usually exciting, except for one: the Tadoussac in 1969. The ship launched early, before workers could get out of the way. Two men were killed and many more injured.
"It was complete chaos," recalled McNabb. "We were still in the office. We had no idea what was going on until we went to the yard and everyone was running around trying to find out what happened."
After the disaster, McNabb never missed a launch.
"On launch day you could hear, first thing in the morning the hammers driving the wedges under the ship and that's all we'd hear all day," said McNabb, noting the sound of the hammering is still the strongest memory of launch days. "They would turn the power off at the office and we'd all go watch."
"After the Tadoussac, I had to go watch, because if I saw the ship go into the water I knew it was alright," she said.
Collingwood Shipyards closed Sept. 12, 1986. McNabb happened to be off work for a holiday and heard about the closure on the radio while she was at home.
"I thought, 'OK, I'm going to have to get another job,'" she said. "There was no sense in complaining or moaning."
She stayed at Collingwood Shipyards until Feburary 1987, then worked for the Town of Collingwood in the payroll department for 22 years after that.
She is retired and still living in Collingwood.
Ken Lloyd also remembers the 1969 launch of the Tadoussac because he was under it. He was working at the back of the ship to prepare for the launch, but a "rally" was called to have all the workers to the front of the ship to help.
On his way, the boat launched early. Lloyd was just a few metres away from one of the men who was killed. He reached out to grab the man, but let go when he realized the body was not whole.
Lloyd was wounded and later needed surgery to recover from the injury. But more than that, he couldn't face going back to work. He made it as far as the punch clock one day after the deadly launch, but couldn't bring himself to punch his time card.
He left the shipyards and didn't come back until 1972.
Lloyd worked as a blacksmith for his final stint at the shipyards and stayed until they closed. He made tools and specialized bolts for the ships and worked on the slab next to the blacksmith where they bent the steel for the boats.
After the shipyards closed, he started his own lawn care business and later worked as a machinist at the wheel plant in Collingwood, making rims.
He now lives in Owen Sound with his wife Vera. Lloyd has been to each of the five Shipyard Socials hosted by the Collingwood Museum, but this was the first time all three of his children attended with him.
Sheila McDonald, Lloyd's daughter, was young when her dad worked at the shipyards, but has happy memories of getting a special tour of a boat and watching the side launches.
"If you didn't stand in the right spot, the wave would wash you right over the edge!" she recalled.
The Shipyard Social began six years ago by the Collingwood Museum.
The first Shipyard Social in 2016 was meant to be a one-off event to mark the 30th anniversary of the closing of the Collingwood Shipyards. But feedback gathered after the first led to the event becoming annual. Each year, the museum arranges a group photo of the former workers.
Mostly, the day is a reunion for old colleagues, and a time to swap stories between and about the people who made ships in Collingwood's harbour.
For more, visit the Collingwood Museum website.
