Audio
Virginia Wilder Parker - Working Inside a Ship
Transcript
When I first came to the yard they said women would never work below decks...uh-huh, we did. Down in the bilges, topside, everywheres. We welded in gun turrets...lot of it was rough like I just mentioned about the...the um... Oh that thing in the ground. Isn't that awful? Um...the dry dock! Um...we used to go down there...ice, icy days, everything, it was quite dangerous. And uh, sitting on cold steel, wasn't the best either but we all had pads that we made and we printed our name on it. and sometimes uh, it would be so hot that you couldn't put your hand down on the steel, you'd get burned, and then we'd hear about the people in offices in Boston being sent home because of the heat, and we're out there under the hot sun. Things like that. And...of course there never had been that we knew of a second class woman welder. So one day I was welding, I was working inside, a structural shop, and um, I was on the deck, welding and...I got a tap on my shoulder Put my shield up, and a man said he wanted to be the first to congratulate me, and I said for what? He said you just made second class. I understand there was seven women made it, four in charlestown and three in South Boston. It was, uh, it was quite an experience.
Description
Virginia Wilder Parker, Charlestown Navy Yard Welder during World War II, on working inside ships under construction at the Charlestown Navy Yard.
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