Berth 24 is a 1950 British documentary produced by

British Transport Films British Transport Films was an organisation set up in 1949 to make documentary films on the general subject of British transport. Its work included internal training films, travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via th ...

and directed by J B Holmes, concerning

Hull Docks The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally cond ...

and specifically the unloading and reloading of a ship, the SS Bravo heading back to

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

. The leisurely 40 minute original was somewhat long in its capacity as a "filler" between feature films in the days when a ticket bought an A movie and a B-movie. It was rereleased as a 15 minute film entitled Dockers at Work in 1953. The documentary was broadcast in UK on 25 February 2021 on

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 ho ...

. "Berth 24" is also included in the British Transport Films Collection, Volume Nine "Just The Ticket" ( which as of June 2022 appears to be currently unavailable )

Overview

The film begins with two officials in an office overlooking the dock, deciding he logistics of getting a new ship berthed in the busy dock. Unloading must be co-ordinated with he arrival of a freight train which must be directed to the correcting siding in the docks. The ship is emptied of its huge cargo of timber and grain. The grain is shown being pushed by below deck "ploughmen" who use huge paddles to push the grain into the central device from which it is sucked out of the ship and over to the grain elevator on the docks. A prize bull makes its way from the farm to the dockyard. It is hoisted into the hold then pulled by the ring in its nose into a small pen. The ship hoists the

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

flag showing it is ready to leave and

stevedore A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...

s manhandle the final large crates in the hold o optimise space. More lorry-loads of goods arrive. They keep loading until the ship is scheduled to leave i.e. if a lorry is late it leaves without those goods rather than wait. Time to leave counts down. Tarpaulins are pulled over the holds and the crew leave. A tug appears to guide the ship out of the dock. The dockside warehouse is empty. The tug heads back into harbour as the Bravo leaves the estuary into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. The

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

heads back to his ship.

Ships Featured

*SS Bravo registered in Hull *SS Angelo *SS Kitty

Cast

The film is almost entirely the actual dock employees other than the Swedish man buying the bull, who is played by Richard Huson. The musical score is by

John Greenwood John Greenwood may refer to: Sportspeople * John Greenwood (cricketer, born 1851) (1851–1935), English cricketer * John Eric Greenwood (1891–1975), rugby union international who represented England * John Greenwood (footballer) (1921–1994) ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berth 24 British documentary films 1950 films British Transport Films 1950s British films