This word that is now thrust on to us most days is something that the Docks have been associated with for many years. Not so much, newspapers, plastic bottles, tin cans etc but "good old oil".

Take the first photo, for instance.   What do we see? Just three men standing above an entrance to an oil tank. These are "Tank Cleaners". It's a brilliant study of men who have an  unenviable job. As the name suggests, they perform the duty of removing any surplus oil that has accumulated in the bottom of tanks, whether on a tanker or cargo ship. It is a mixture of oil and sometimes water and cannot readily be removed in the process of tank cleaning. The photo is of a period in the 1960's. In effect, the tools that they use to perform their duties are the same now as they were then. A bag of sawdust, a hand scraper, a shovel and a small hand brush. The bucket is being hauled up from the tank bottom with a block and tackle. Today, the bucket would be hauled up with the aid of an small air winch. All the residue was and is transferred to either a large 1 ton bucket or to a wagon affectionately known as "Dirty Dick".

The Photo shows "Dirty Dick" being towed by one of the firm's locos (No. 3) to the Eastern side of the docks (circa 1980's). It would go to a Boiling Plant. This was situated on land that had been reclaimed by using the rock and soil from the enlargement of no2 dry-dock and the cliff. The Locos have not been used since 1986. 

The photo above shows the Boiling Plant. The residue from "Dirty Dick" would be pumped into this unit and after the boilers had reached a certain temperature, the oil would float to the surface, be  filtered, separated from other fluids and finally pumped to an oil settling tank.

The last photo shows one of the two small tanks that would house the newly recycled oil that would eventually be used in a boiler to supply steam to the rest of the yard. The Boiler House can be seen to the left of the railway tracks. All of  this area is the Oil Base but to most people in the yard, it was and is referred to as "Abadan", named after the oil refinery in Iran. 

So from the Tank Cleaners to the final supply of steam, this was and is the docks assistance to recycling. One very interesting point to make here concerns the effort made by the docks in the early 1950's to start a complete Tank Cleaning facility for tankers.  It was known as the "Victor" oil /  water separating plant. Surplus residue from the ship's oil tanks would be pumped ashore, passed through a separating plant after which  the oil would be eventually stored in local tanks.  Meanwhile, the ship's cargo tanks would be given a hose wash with a  special 3 nozzle headed unit, preferably with hot water.  After this exercise, the ship would be given the "All Clear" to confirm that it was gas free and able to go either alongside one of the wharves or into dry-dock.  This process was copied by various other ship repair docks throughout the world.

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