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The day Geoffrey left school in July 1942, he was walking with his bicycle towards the school gates, accompanied by his best friend Alan Hogg. At the time, Alan was a sergeant in the Air Training Corps, and Geoffrey was Killick of the Guard in the Sea Cadets. Alan said to Geoffrey, "I bet I shall be an officer before you are", which seemed very likely as Alan was the older of the two. Geoffrey never forgot those words: he was to become an officer four months before his twentieth birthday. Alan, on the other hand, became a telephone engineer - he did his National Service in the Royal Navy after the war, but never held a commission.

Geoffrey joined the Merchant Navy in October 1942, as an apprentice with Elders and Fyffes. His first ship was then S.S Tetela, a small refrigerated cargo ship; which, before the war, used to carry bananas. She had accommodation for twelve passengers; and, because of this, she was occasionally selected to be Commodore ship of the convoy. Each convoy had a Commodore, the highest rank in the Royal Navy Reserve, and each Commodore had a small staff. A convoy would consist of forty to eighty merchant ships - even more sometimes.

The Captain of the Tetela was Billy Liston, a portly man approaching retirement. There were three Navigating Officers, three Radio Officers and five Engineer Officers. Then there were the stewards and cooks, the deckhands, and - in the engine room - the donkeymen and greasers. In all, there were some forty to fifty crew members, including a refrigerated engineer, the bo'sun and the carpenter. Geoffrey shared a cabin with another apprentice, the son of a captain in the same company.

Geoffrey was to complete eight voyages in the Tetela, three to New York and five to Halifax, Nova Scotia - returning, in most cases to Liverpool. Every convoy was attacked by German U-boats - and many ships and lives were lost. However, the Tetela came through unscathed. One large convoy, consisting of over eighty ships, lost half that number. Geoffrey, on another occasion, and in appalling weather conditions, was in a convoy in which HMS Harvester was lost with all hands. There was an incident where the Tetela was second in line, and the ship in front of her was torpedoed and sank. The Tetela moved up and became column leader. An hour later, the ship astern of her, which had moved up from third in line to take the Tetela's place was also sunk. There, but for the grace of God…

The Apprentice's Club in New York was unique. Run by a lady philanthropist, it was a place where many apprentices and cadets used to meet, and where they had a chance to meet young ladies of their own age. On his second visit to New York, Geoffrey walked into the club and - sitting in an armchair - was someone he immediately recognised. It was Peter Jeans, who had been a choirboy with Geoffrey at St. Johns, Greenhill (Harrow) years before. Peter's ship had been torpedoed, and he only had the clothes he was wearing. On his last trip to New York, Geoffrey went again to the Apprentices' Club, where he again found Peter Jeans sitting in the same armschair - and he had been rescued from the sea a second time!

Peter survived the war: Geoffrey was to meet him once more at the Sir John Cass Nautical College in London, where they were both studying for their certificates in 1947. Memories! Memories!

Geoffrey Walker

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