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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jenny Zmroczek of Norfolk Adult Education's reminiscence team on behalf of Jack Prior and has been added to to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
Jack Prior
Service Number : R240374
Merchant Navy : Deck Hand — Quarter Master
Decorations: Atlantic Star
Pacific Star
1939-45 Star
Imperial War Medal 1939-45

Before the war I was a schoolboy living in London, and I ran away to sea when I was 15 in late1939. My family were naval people and I’d been left at home to look after my invalid mother, but by then I had had enough. An opportunity arose through a friend’s father who ran a coastal company and they gave me a position. I started on the East Coast run which was known as E-boat Alley, doing four on and four off on the Westdown and the Guelder Rose. These coasters were approximately 500 tons. You used to have to cook your own food in your time off and take your own donkey’s breakfast which was a straw paliase to sleep on. It was all quite hard, but a good experience. We used to take coal from up North down to London, and cement from London up to the North. I did this for just over a year, and then I went on the deep sea run.

I started deep sea on the Radhurst, a ship which had been captured from the Germans. We had a short voyage up to Greenland in a convoy. There was a terrible storm that year and we lost a lot of ships, not by enemy action but through storm damage. It was really frightening when the funnel went over the side from the storm. We had to wait for a tug to come and pick us up. The seas just came towering over the top and then the holds got breached. We were all wet and cold and fighting to keep the holds dry. There were about 50 or 60 of us aboard these 5000 ton ships. I worked on the deck and was responsible for maintaining everything above the deck, including steering the ship.

After Greenland I went all over the place. To New York and all over the world. Sailing in convoy we had experiences where U-Boats would attack us. Fortunately I was on ships which didn’t get sunk, but a lot of the ships around me were sunk at that time. Only one ship I was on was bombed and that was the Sussex, but it survived with minor damage. The Atlantic was the most dangerous place to be and we could sometimes lose a third of a convoy if we were attacked. One minute you’d be going along, and the next minute there’d be a ball of flame and a ship would go down. We didn’t stop to pick up survivors as there would be a ship in the stern of the convoy to do this. With a fast ship we would go on our own, or if we went down to South America or Australia we’d be on our own to a certain point and then we’d pick up a convoy. Although we had some trips where we had no contact with the enemy, we had to remain watchful for periscopes just in case.

When we got to where we were going we might have a week or ten days to unload and then load up again, so we didn’t get a lot of time ashore. I would do a couple of voyages on the same ship but mostly I would change ships at the end of a voyage after having a bit of leave. Each trip was about six to nine months, and we wouldn’t know where we were going until we sailed because that was classified. We went along to the shipping port to the company’s office and they would put you on the next ship available. I was mostly with the New Zealand Shipping Company. The place I most liked going was South America. I wasn’t so keen on going to the colder places as the whole ship would get iced up.

We carried a variety of cargoes including weapons and troops. We took prisoners of war over to Canada, and we’d bring troops back. When we went round to Africa we were full of ammunition and tanks. When we went to Australia or New Zealand we’d take general cargoes and come back with food. The same if we went to Argentina.

We would stop off en route to refuel. Some were oil burners, some coal. Sometimes we had to pull in for repairs because of having engine trouble.

As we were civilians we didn’t wear uniform unless we were on a passenger ship when we’d wear the company uniform. We had to provide all our own clothes and had no special kit for coping with the colder climates or hot climates.

At the end of voyages we would be given a cheap travel warrant to get back home for our leave. We could come into any port, London, Bristol or Glasgow, and then we would make our way to our homes. The most scary part was travelling through London and seeing all the damage. We knew what was happening while we were on board ship but it was still a shock to see it as you don’t get the whole picture when you’re not there. The biggest shock I got was when a Doodlebug came across and I was terrified.

One place we went on shore, Montividao, the Germans were there having surrendered from the scuttled Graf Spey and we were sitting in the same bar as them having a drink. There was no animosity between us — they were just ordinary people like us. Anyway, we couldn’t cause trouble or we’d be for it from the local vigilantes or police.

We’d bring silk stockings home from the States and some places we’d pick up bananas which we would pack in sand to keep them fresh. We could get things which those in the Services couldn’t. We’d get sheepskin coats from Argentina — they were cheap but smelt of sheep. You could have a lot of fun down on the South American coast and it wouldn’t be broadcast. When we went down to Cape Town and Durban we would go ashore and I’d feel ashamed to be a white man as the Zulus would have to step off the kerb to make way for us. That was Apartheid, and it’s the only place in the world where I’ve had such a thing happen to me.

There weren’t enough guns to go around on the merchant ships and so they put wooden guns to act as silhouettes to fool the Germans that we were armed. As they were looking at us through periscopes they would think that the guns were real.

You had to be compatible with other people to get on with each other in the close confinement of a ship, but there was great companionship. We were in our own little world and I enjoyed my war up to a point. I was discharged from the Merchant Navy in 1946 and then worked in the Royal Docks.

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