MARK TWAIN

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 12th Year

Issue

Issue No.

2

Date Released

Oct 1958

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1MARK TWAIN
2. 2COUNTY SHOW
3. 3MINEWATCHING
4. 4A TIME TO DIVE

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: the positioning of the second sea-boring unit off Blackhall colliery, Durham.
NCB Commentary - West Hartlepool, celebrated in the annals of British shipbuilding. Today an unfamiliar structure rears towards the sky at the end of Church Street and dominates the adjacent dockside. This is a new sea boring tower built for the Coal Board to prove coal measures under the North Sea. 230 ft. up finishing touches are being put to the tower’s deck installation. For the men in the box it’s a long way down. From the deck the dockyards and town make a spreading panorama. But not for long; the tower is on the way to sea.
The top of the tide. The tricky job begins of winching the tower to the harbour mouth. Slowly 700 tons of steel, supported by pontoons and the buoyancy in the tower’s base girders, slowly, the tower nears the gateway to the sea. Here tugs are waiting to take up the tow to bring her to her determined resting place.
Time for a last farewell from the shore to the men who will crew the seatower as she moves off to her work place. Small boats fuss around the pontoons while final preparations are made for the two tugs to take up the tow. Quaysider and Southsider are towing in tandem, one behind the other. The cavalcade moves off on the 3 1/2 mile journey. The tower will rest on the sea bed east of Blackwell Colliery to find out just how far to sea the coal measures extend.
The marker buoys are reached. Now it’s 10.30 in the morning and under grey skies the tower begins to sink towards the sea bottom, about 100 ft/ down. The operation is nearly over. The pontoons, their job done, are unlashed for the tow back to harbour. From the men who will live on the tower during the next months it’s a so-long message to the pontoons which will one day return to tow them to their next position.
Meanwhile out at sea off Blackhall there’s work to be done.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 8th September 1958.

Keywords

Ships and boats; Mining; Exploration and explorers; Energy resources

Locations

England; County Durham

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.13 No.150 April 1959, p193.
The National Archives COAL 32   /12 Scripts for Mining Review, 1956-1960

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board