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Thread: Wartime Memories

  1. #1
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    Default Wartime Memories

    I remember a time when I was crewing on an old coal burner on a trip to S.America in 1943. and I got the fright of my life. I had turned to at 7.00am and my first job was always to scrub the alleyway outside the saloon. I finished the job and carried the bucket out to empty it over the side. It was still dark and there was a thick mist, so you couldn't see any of the other ships in the convoy Something caught my eye and I made out a line of foam angling in from just astern of where I was standing. In that moment I knew that it was a torpedo and it was going to hit us in just a few seconds. Before I had time to do anything I felt the ship turning away to port and this line of foam continued on a parallel course about 30 yards away and at the same speed as the ship. Then I realised that it wasn't a torpedo but a marker that the ship ahead of us was towing so that we could keep it in sight and maintain our station in the convoy. What a relief! The adrenalin was really pumping through my veins, and I was excited and hyped up for the rest of the day.
    The deck hands were mostly Scousers but the engine room crew, (the black gang) were all blacks from the West Coast of Africa. One of them went by the name of Liverpool Accra and he was the scariest looking man I've ever seen, with deeply etched tribal scars carved into his face and chest, but he was quite a likeable character.
    Anyway, during the war, we were occasionally issued with parcels of gloves or balaclavas etc. by the Missions to Seamen, which well-meaning Christian women had spent long hours knitting. Sometimes they would include a personal message of goodwill in the parcel, together with their name and address, probably in the hope that the recipient would write them a word of thanks. One such parcel even had a photo of the sender enclosed, being a very nice looking young lady.
    A couple of the deck hands decided on a particularly unchristian joke on this unfortunate lass and composed a letter declaring that the recipient of her knitted goods had been so smitten by her beauty that he was determined to make her his number one wife and would be calling on her as soon as his ship docked and he could travel to her home. lt was duly posted off with a photo of Liverpool Accra enclosed!
    Cruel ungrateful bastards! I imagine that she moved to another distant address pretty fast.

    There was always danger from U boats in the N. Atlantic and from surface raiders in the South Atlantic and the Pacific.
    Charlie Smith was the Second Steward and I shared a cabin with him. He was a rather short, fat Cockney and made quite a lot of money by running a game of Crown and Anchor in his off duty hours. He told me a story of when he was the Captains Tiger (steward) on a previous trip going to S, America. lt seems that the Captain of this ship was one of the old fashioned, no nonsense, Gung Ho type. The ship was within a day’s sail of South America when an unidentified warship came into view and flashed a signal for him to heave to. The captain, suspecting that it was an enemy raider, ordered the gun crews to action stations and steamed on full ahead. Again came the order to stop. The captain signalled back, ‘Identify yourself or I will open fire’. The answer came back quickly and convinced the captain that it was a Royal Navy vessel. He was quite unperturbed. Turning to Charlie he said, "Well Smithy, I bet that put the wind up them". Charlie said, 'Well I don't know about them, but you certainly put the fear of God into me!"

    It was one of my jobs to fetch the food from the galley for the Officers saloon.
    The cook would load the food into covered steel containers and I would carry it from the galley amidships to the saloon further forward. There was no internal access so I had to use the outside deck passage. On one very rough day we were butting into a heavy sea and I was halfway on the return journey when we dipped into a big wave and shipped it green.
    lt caught me full on, knocking the container from my hands and left the food floating around the deck.
    I salvaged what I could and delivered itto the Chief Steward in the pantry next to the saloon. He was most unhappy. "You silly so and so. How long have you been at sea? Don't you know better than to use the weather side?" etc. etc. He ordered me to take the roasts back to the galley for the cook to reheat and to get more vegetables if there were any to be had.
    I did what I was told, using the deck passage on the other side of the ship and was on my way back with the food when we ploughed into another big wave. This time the sea caught me waist high, and washed me into the scuppers. I would have gone overboard except that I got tangled up with a stanchion which I held onto for dear life. I emerged, wet and bruised, but empty handed, and after that the Chief gave up and opened tins of corned beef and pickle for the meal.

    We had aboard a crew of R.N./R.A. gunners to service our armament of a 4 inch gun, which was mounted on a platform on the poop deck, plus several Oerliken’s. The big gun was quite a heavy piece of ordnance and it was only fired once when I was aboard. That was during a gun drill and was aimed at a target floating about half a mile away. The recoil from the first shot just about demolished the platform and the crew quarters underneath. lt was more of a danger to us than to the enemy!


    My Ships. -021.001 9-23-2013 12-10-18 PM 790x523.jpg With D.E.M.S. Gunners in B.A. Amusement Park.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Wartime Memories

    An authentic and enjoyable post! Please write a few more.
    Harry Nicholson

  3. #3
    Keith at Tregenna's Avatar
    Keith at Tregenna Guest

    Default Re: Wartime Memories

    Ditto Harry, very interesting Charles and
    an insight into then. Respect.

    Keith.

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    Default Re: Wartime Memories

    Indeed sort of Stories we all like to read here on site, need more of these, so get out your writing Skills and Memories ALL.
    cHEERS AND THANKS
    Senior Site Moderator-Member and Friend of this Website

    R697530

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