Remember painting the decks with a broom, it was a lot easier than bending and painting with a brush and what about the times you used a chain to descale the rails, you make a round turn on the rail then, holding each end, you would pull on it as though milking a cow, it did a marvelous job but that wasn't the end of it, you would apply the paint, red lead, undercoat and topcoat, with cotton waste, easy-peasey, likewise stays, swifter’s and shrouds would also be white leaded using the cotton waste trick. Wherever possible, if there was an easy way we would use it, it was practical especially when preparing and painting the whole ship over a period of four months and that not including overhauling all running gear.
It must cost shipping companies millions to do what we did in four months, are they really saving money, I think not?

I also remember how we used to lash a paint roller onto a length of bamboo for painting the hull off the quay side, years later the extendable roller became available in DIY stores, sold as a wonderful new invention, I thought at the time could the so called new inventor be an ex AB making himself a few bob. stan.