Bill's Memories: Chapter 2 -Let's go to Sea.

Lets Go To Sea

As we reported, the Cmdr. said “your ship is out of dry dock and your gear, hammock and kit bags are already on board.” So I went to report to the Captain. Jack, by this time was wondering where he was going to and why not with me. We shook hands warmly then I left to report to my skipper on board the ‘Bhima,’ a supply ship. The skipper shook my hand and welcomed me aboard. All the crew were new as the old crew went on leave, the telegraphist came from Hull and we had a lot to talk about. I worked out the look-out watches(duties) we had to do. It was to be 4 hours on watch, 4 hours off watch. It was to be three spells on watch 24 hours a day while on board the ship, which proved to be tiring in the long run, for in the hours off we had to eat, sleep and do our own washing etc.

We set sail on the morning tide, going to Glasgow up the east coast through the Pentland Firth, that way round. ‘Guess what?’ as we were passing cape Wrath, northern most point of Scotland, we got dive bombed. We fired back. He hit the ship next to us and just missed us. We hit the plane and it was smoking from its engine and flew low over the sea towards its base, France maybe if he ever reached there. The ship he hit was crippled, but it managed to carry on with a destroyer standing by it. I thought I had seen enough of bombing for a while.

On reaching Glasgow, our cargo was ammunition — bombs for aircraft, shells for the army and all kinds of ammo. We were bound for the Middle East through the Suez Canal via Cape Town. When we first crossed the Equator we had no time to go through the rituals as is normal so our Skipper did not play Neptune, God of the Sea, but we did have a tot of rum to celebrate. There is no pollution at sea only good salt air. We arrived at Capetown three weeks after leaving Glasgow and had a full nights kip. We arrived at night and were looking forward to seeing Table Mountain, blacks with spears and lions! What a shock I got. Early next morning I was the first up. I saw Table Mountain alright, but no lions or blacks with spears. Only skyscrapers and thousands of blacks all hoping to get jobs on the docks as labour was so cheap. A car came on the dockside to our ship. Out got four women, from the Women’s’ Voluntary Service, loaded with sacks of Jaffas, grapes and grapefruits for us lads. The size of the Jaffas had us slavering even before we peeled them. They also invited us if we wanted to go on a trip round, we were welcome to. I declined as we were not staying there long, only picking up fuel for the ship, fresh water and supplies of food that is. We left the Cape and called at Port Elizabeth, East London and the ‘Millionaires Playground,’ Durban. White sands, blue seas and huge yachts anchored in the bay. Wowee. But no blacks were allowed on the beach. Notices said so. Now Mandela is President.

Jack Cunningham, my buddy from Hull, by the way was lost at sea, I was to hear later on. His ship was torpedoed in the Atlantic on the way to America, his first trip. The subs were hunting in wolf packs and many ships were sunk. I thought I’d mention it before I forgot.
Before we left Durban we were invited to a party in a house that was beautiful with big gardens, two black maids and two black gardeners. They were English people who had emigrated there years ago. We had a good time, but I had the feeling that they had it cushy and trying to impress us on that score. Would those people have done it in peacetime? In all it was nice. We left Durban the next morning and headed up the coast to the Gulf of Aden and up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal. All ships, naval and otherwise could not go through without an Egyptian pilot. We had to unload our cargo of shells, tanks and planes that were strapped to the decks with wire hawsers, at the time. It was when they were driving Rommel and his troops from the desert in N. Africa. We had time off to visit the Fleet Club in Alex and we had a couple of beers and a game of housey housey(bingo). I won 1100 piastres, (£11). I changed these into English money as we were to sail the next day. Egypt looks well on postcards but if you can stand all the wogs, flies, camels and the pong, alright, but not for me. Yet we were to visit the “asshole” of the world — Calcutta — soon.

We arrived at Calcutta a couple of weeks later via the Indian Ocean. It looked alright till we went ashore later. We were pestered with mosquitoes and fireflies. The fireflies flitted about like miniature neon lights (its their way of attracting a mate). But the mosquitoes were unbearable. I had a touch of malaria after and had to take tablets. I was amazed by the squalor and the pong. Everyone burnt coconut oil, rotten fruit and professional beggars lined the streets and you could not go a yard without being pestered by them. It seems there is a bloke in charge who took the money they had begged and gave them just a little back. But I was told he would see they had one meal a day.

While I was in Egypt I bought a leather case. It was a beaut. So while I was in Calcutta I bought two pairs of silk pyjamas, one for our Mabel and one for Dot. Much later on I was to fill it with souvenirs from all over the place, like king ebony elephants from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). They were beauties, but now they are at the bottom of the Indian Ocean off Ceylon.

We left Calcutta and were on our way to Rangoon via Ceylon for a short stopover and that’s when I bought those king ebony elephants. We picked up some army stores for the blokes who were fighting the Japs in Burma, and then on to Rangoon. As we sailed up the Irrawaddy River and the sun shone on a temple of gold, a monastery, it looked all golden the nearer we got. We moored to a buoy while the pilot came and then to the quayside. At least it looked cleaner there and was. What struck me most was the monks dressed in saffron robes and tinkling a little bell. Although they didn’t actually beg, people would meet them and fill their tiny bowls with rice and sweetmeats. We were there two days and when we left the Japs were only 400 miles away. They were pushing their way through Burma onto Rangoon. We were pleased to get away. We stopped in Ceylon again and took on board supplies again, water, fish, fresh bread as we were in short supply, also a marine who had been stationed there. He turned out to be a happy-go-lucky chap who was called back to service when war broke out. I was chatting to him when he said ”Son,”(and he seemed old enough to be my Dad), “which is the best ship that ever sailed?” I said I did not know, he replied “Friendship, and which is the worst, relationship.” I asked him “why?” He said “when I got out of the Marines in peacetime, my three sisters were fighting who I was going to live with, so they decided I was to live with each one three months at a time, each in turn. After a while when the novelty wore off I was like a bloody wheelbarrow, they pushed me about all over. So when the war is over I’m going into an old veterans home.” He was a character and I had many a laugh with him. It was by now 21st February 1942 when we left Ceylon and the skipper warned everyone to keep a special lookout on watch. It was to be the next day on though we didn’t see anything about at all. It was 23rd February 1942 at 12 midday when unexpectedly there was a great explosion and the ship lurched. We had been hit in the forward hold by a torpedo. There was no panic. We were just stunned for a moment. We assembled by our gun ready to fire, but there was no sub to fire at. I rung the bridge up to find out if they had seen anything. They said “No, but stand by just in case.” The next thing we knew the skipper blasted the ships hooter six times, that meant abandon ship. It was me and my mates’ job to lower the port side boat away, and others lowering the others. When we had the boat down we were to go down the rope ladder to the boat. We had lost one boat in the explosion. It seemed to go up like a kite so that meant we had to share the boats crew that had been blown away among the other boats. Anyway, we got down okay but with the extra men in it, it was very low in the water and we had to do something fast. The skipper asked some of us to swim to the other boats as the boat would flood and sink if a storm broke. I was only wearing overalls, an old cap and gym slippers. As the sharks would be miles away by the explosion when we were hit. So with that in mind I went over the side and I swam faster than an Olympic swimmer. No one went faster. When I got to the other boat I was hoisted aboard in a flash, three more followed and others swam to the other boats. That made the boat I had come from safe. On our boat was Sparks, the Radio Officer from Hull, who had brought the tins some tins of cigs, Players, and the Marine and Desk Officer Henry. We were the mainstay of our boat.
Meanwhile the ship was settling in the water nearby and was blowing like a huge whale that had been harpooned, as the holds filled with water. Then it went down beneath the waves. The marine stood up in out boat, saluted and said “Now you see it and now you don’t.” this broke up all the tension in our boat. We laughed at him, at the time it seemed comical. At the back of our mind we hoped it would turn out like that, for our position was this. We were far from the shipping route (lane) and would be very lucky if we ever got picked up, but we dare not think of that. It was very hot in the boat and soon my overalls dried on me. It was very hot in the daytime and very cold at night. It felt a welcome relief when it was. Sparks “Do you fancy a cigarette, Bill?” I said thanks and he gave me a full tin of fifty. Then he came out with a good ‘un. “Have you got a match?” I said how can I have any matches, I had to swim to the boat. Then the marine said “Try this contraption.” It looked like a tube. You flipped the top off and pulled down the bottom and it lit or glowed. One puff and we were smoking. It was great to have a fag again.
I was taking spells on the tiller. The Lt. pointed to a star and said “Steer for that star and you’ll not be wrong. I am going to try and have a kip.” Soon the stars started. First the marine and then Sparks. I thought, how could they sleep? It sounded as though they were having a snoring contest.

My Gawd! The moon rose and I have never seen one as big. Of course, when in a boat everything looks big. I could see the other two boats ahead of us. I found out later on you can go for days without food, but you cannot go one day without water. It is the most important thing in life. We had to ration it out as we did not know how long it would be before we were picked up. Dawn rose quickly and we had a little drink. We had a glass tube that we lowered into a small water tank that was positioned on one side of the boat. Out of the tube we only drank half of the tubes measure, as we had to make it last. It was useless to drink in the heat of the day as it only seemed to go slimy in the mouth and did not do us any good. Half a tube at daybreak and half at dusk.

It was daylight and the sun seemed to come up very quickly. It was then I saw a wandering albatross. A bird with an eight-feet wingspan who flew so gracefully and skimmed over the wave tops without flapping its wings. These birds roam hundreds of miles in search of their favourite food, squid. I wondered how far we were from land. The Lt. who I took over till from said “I’ll dish out the water ration and you get a kip.” I had another fag after, and tried to snatch a bit of shuteye. I must have dropped off for a spell because they told me I had no need to talk of snoring, that I snored as well, and no need to talk of them. Sparks, the chap from Hull, was a stout bloke with alabaster skin who could only get suntanned on the wrists and neck and did a daft thing. He took his coat off, and his shirt, to cool off as it was hot and got really sunburnt on his belly. He paid for it, as at night it was cold and put his shirt and coat back on. He went through the night, moaning. It turned out he had a big blister on his stomach. I felt sorry for him as there was nothing we could do to help him, only put a wet blanket over him.
The Lt. asked me if I had noticed anything and I said “I can’t see the other two boats.” I had a look through the binoculars we had and saw what I thought was a sub with its conning tower out of the water. I pointed this out to the Lt. who said hush, don’t let the others know. He took the glasses and said it looks like a ship. And it was, on the lookout for us. We lit a flare, a “Verey light.” It’s something like a Roman candle and you have to strike it by rubbing on a hard surface and hold at arms length. It gives off red smoke and a ball shoots out up into the air. They spotted us and everyone cheered. We were the last boat to be picked up. It was a Greek merchantman named ‘SS Chios.’ They had put a scramble net over the side of the ship and to say we had been cramped in the boat, we went up those nets like monkeys and one of us stayed with Sparks who could not get up that net. They lowered a cable with a double hawser, we attached it to each end of the boat and they hoisted the boat up and onto the ship’s deck. Their doc and our doc had a look at Sparks. They gave him an injection and then carried him to the sick bay. Meanwhile we were shaking hands with the Greek ships crew, then they gave us a drink of saline water, which tasted good. We had a shower and only used as little as we could as water was as precious to them. I felt good after it. The salt had formed a sugary coating on my face and my bottom lip had split and blood had caked a bit on my chin. I later went and had some salve put on it. The ship’s cook had made a huge semolina-like pudding. It tasted great. We had some strange meals aboard the ship as they use a lot of garlic in their cooking, but anything went down good when you’re hungry. When we went to the bog!!! My first in three days, I was as constipated as an owl. Also others were for I could hear woos and arrs. It was like having an abortion, but I went!!

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