After 40 years of working the docks for Stevedoring Services Ltd., Marvin Kelly is calling it a day.

Mr. Kelly originally came to the docks to work in 1968, taking a position as a terminal clerk at Penno's Wharf, handling cargo from across the world.

"My starting pay was £26 and 10 shillings," said Mr. Kelly. "Those days it was casual labour. I came just after they negotiated a basic wage.

"In the old days, we had a ship from every which where. The freight system back then was all just loose cargo. Everything had to be handled by hand. I really came at the onset of containerisation."

This hand loading led Mr. Kelly to one of his more exciting moments, when in 1970 he was responsible for seizing 15lbs of marijuana that was hidden in a rug brought in from the West Indies.

After over a decade, Mr. Kelly was promoted to the position of container co-ordinator in 1981 as the shipping business turned further away from hand work and towards computerisation.

"I didn't know diddley about the computer technology, but my supervisors told me all I needed to know was what I wanted the computer to do," said Mr. Kelly.

"When I started, everything was written by hand. Now we're highly sophisticated."

Ten years later, Mr. Kelly moved further up the ladder after being promoted again to terminal manager.

Now retiring, Mr. Kelly's co-workers joked that they have lost their weatherman because he always seemed to know what the weather was going to be.

"I just read the weather report," he said.

Now that he is retiring, Mr. Kelly said that he hopes to become more involved in his community and his church.