大象传媒

i thought i would write this story that dad told me about.it is not sad or morbid or about death and dying it is quite funny,dad as little boy in poplar heard all the stories of the horror of ww1 as he was growing up and it is not unfair to say anybody in a uniform was not welcome in many areas of the eastend men had returned telling stories of corporals sergants captains and so on making there lives a misery .
so now dad has grown up in the eastend street wise and ready for anything, he is now a pro boxer and doing ok when war breaks out now dad was never going to go in the uniform services arfter all he had heard as a boy so he decides to join the merchant navy so a few weeks later papers arrive telling him to report to poplar dock at 4 am with no idea were he was bound for
once there his papers checked he was shown aboard what he described as a floating muck bucket,what it was in fact was a 40 year old coal burning supply ship once on board he was told his duties would be stoking the boilers at this point the chargehand of the engine room said look here my lad i always like to do first shift on stoking the boilers we shall be at sea about a month give or take a week so dad thought thats ok he has been here years thats ok by me well week one comes and goes nothing but grey skies and big waves week two comes and is realy bored now at this point the old chargehand says to dad ok your turn to stoke now until we dock well as dad goes down below to begin his turn what a shock the mountain of coal which was right on top of the boilers 10 days ago was now three quarters down the back of the ships hole he s[pent the next ten days running the entire lengh of the ship with barrows of coal what a lesson this young know itall had been taught thankfully on the return leg another new sailor had joined and i think you can guess the rest.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.