Reg Austin: Greasing the Timbers

"Now, that's one of the things that's really altered in my lifetime is the method of the greasing and the material we used. In the old days - I'm going back to, up to perhaps 1950ish or about that time - we used Talleen which was rather unstable in different weather conditions. When it was very hot the base coat would perhaps become a bit too moist and things would be a bit sticky so it was a little bit unpredictable and some ships would stick on the ways when you release all the mechanisms to launching, the trigger etc. We did have trouble. I remember one in particular, there was a very light - it was a gun boat, built for a foreign company. It was a very light structured ship and it proved a bit too much and the Talleen held it and it was some hours before we managed to get it off. But after Talleen we got a by-product from the petroleum company. It's an Esso, an Esso base coat which is more of a waxy type grease and we had to boil that to a certain temperature and then pour that on and it sets off and gives quite a hard surface and it 100% better than the Talleen."