大象传媒

This contribution was submitted by Owen Cleaver to Edgar Lloyd and is added to the site with his permission.

The Caernarfon Castle was a good troop ship. It had two six inch guns on its rear deck. It had been an armed merchant vessel . Previously in its history it had been gunned by a German battleship鈥nd everything had gone above the main deck. It managed to escape though and they towed it into New York and it had been refitted in America and so instead of hammocks we had what they called 鈥淪tand E sections鈥� which were metal bunks which came down鈥o we were on beds if you like. It was pretty well equipped鈥�.American style. We left Liverpool due north round the north of Ireland. Joined up with the convoy we steamed west for three days, we steamed south for three days, we steamed east for three days and on the tenth day out of Liverpool we met Gibraltar. We knew we were going to Rhodesia and we didn鈥檛 think we鈥檇 be going round the Cape.

When we got into the Med it was like a millpond. Absolutely smooth and you could see the dolphins..under the boat, flying fish. We went through the Med stopped at Port Said overnight. There were the usual Arabs on the quayside, and the troops were throwing coins to them - which they鈥檇 previously heated up - and part of the fun was to watch them pick them up. We went down through the Suez canal and we had a few of the merchants from Port Said got on selling leather goods and got off at Aden at the other end鈥andbags, belts鈥�.a throw back to civilian life. In the Red sea you鈥檇 see thousands and thousands of jelly fish that make it the Red Sea. We stopped at Aden for a day鈥�.some people went swimming鈥nd then we went on down to Mombassa. There was no RAF camp on the island and we went to HMS Kilindini which was a shore station. There were 250 of us going down to Rhodesia on the draft鈥e went to this place and the sort of discipline was rather alien to us. You couldn鈥檛 get a pass to go out into Mombassa鈥ou had to wait until the liberty boat came. And being a shore station there wasn鈥檛 a boat, was there? You had to parade in front of the guardroom and then you were told to stop talking on the gangplank - of course that brought the house down! The Petty Officers were not very happy about this sort of thing. There wasn鈥檛 a lot they could do because there was 250 of us鈥� We were there only a matter of days. We walked into Mombassa in the day鈥here was nothing else to do. They soon got rid of us to an RAF camp on the mainland Port Reitz. I think it had a runway鈥nteresting thing, many of the camps I went to had runways, but I never saw them. My main idea was to get out of the camp not to go in further!
(While in Kilindini it was VE day)
In Port Reitz you slept under mosquito nets and there were plenty of bananas鈥onkeys about pinching the bananas. There was a lorry into Mombassa but we didn鈥檛 bother about that as we鈥檇 seen Mombassa and there wasn鈥檛 much there. We went swimming in the sea because it was right next to the sea and in the evenings we went to the Port Reitz hotel where we all learned what Cherry Brandy was. The first liquor we鈥檇 had really that wasn鈥檛 beer. We were there for three weeks and there was a Squadron Leader in charge of the draft - he was on the boat and told us a lot about South Africa while we were on the boat and what might expect - apartheid and all that sort of thing. And he came to us one day and said: 鈥淲ell, there is a boat going down to Durban, however you can make up your own mind whether you want to go on it or not - we will not force you. It鈥榮 the Chinese Navigational Company steamship Hu Nan Normally going up and down the Yangtze 鈥ts 1700 tons 鈥nd its a troop ship for 150 colonial troops. There鈥檚 250 of you but its going down to Durban.鈥� We said鈥lright we鈥檇 go down there. It wasn鈥檛 the Ritz it wasn鈥檛 the Caernarfon Castle. I slept on deck鈥t took us ten days to get to Durban and I slept on deck for nine. The tenth day it was raining in Durban and I didn鈥檛 want to sleep under a hatch cover any more. Most people slept on deck, some slept down below on a pile of lifejackets - they said it was quite comfortable. The ablutions were very crude or non existent. When we finally sighted land we were all on the deck at the front - there was another deck at the back but we didn鈥榯 go there much, there鈥榙 been a goat tied to the mast and chickens and things on the poop deck. So we saw land about the same time as the bridge 鈥hey turned north and we steamed up there for about four or five hours and there was an aircraft came up and did a bit of a turn鈥o we turned right round and went back south to where we鈥檇 come from. The captain was Royal Navy, the other officers were Indian Navy and the crew were the traditional sort of laskers and someone wasn鈥檛 very good at navigation. So it was getting dusk when we got near Durban and rumour has it we steamed right across a minefield into Durban. We were very very hungry because the food had been terrible. We could see into the officers鈥� dining room which was below the Bridge and they didn鈥檛 have bad food, naturally, but we used to queue up for about two hours at night for the white bread that was left over that they used to have. Our food鈥�.you used to have to go down to the one deck below 鈥nd there was a quite wide staircase down the side - probably called a companionway or something . I remember the porridge in the morning, every table had an orderly who would go up with a big pan to get porridge and the boat rolled one day and he came down one step ladder鈥e didn鈥檛 stop he went straight up the other one and the porridge went straight on out. We didn鈥檛 eat a great deal so we were very hungry when we arrived in Durban. There were two Royal Navy destroyers parked next door and their sailors came across to say hello and we told them we were hungry and they went back and came back with loaves of bread. Well they got half way up the gangplank onto our boat and they just went. People just grabbed them and shot off to corners anywhere. We were that hungry. No one was really grumbling because we were all together and it didn鈥檛 matter but we were not meant to go off the ship and some people went into the destroyers and had a meal there. A lot went into town, but they only had half their uniforms with them. They had no hats or anything like that. They were all brought back by the Military Police. But nothing was ever said or done about that. We left that boat the following morning and got on a train to go up to Bulowayo via Jo鈥檅urg and we were on the train for two nights. The South African railways didn鈥檛 go very fast鈥hey had these observation coaches鈥ike balconies on the ends of carriages, like the old American things so you could stand and look around. And you could drop off and run alongside鈥�.or go up the front of the train and drop off and take photographs if you had film with you鈥nd climb on a coach at the back. And South African railways were built by the British of course and they were built by the mile so you鈥檇 be chuffing along and you鈥檇 think 鈥︹�淥h there鈥檚 another railway down there,!鈥� and about an hour and a half later you鈥檇 find your way on it. And you鈥檇 be going the other way. If there was a gradient of any sort they鈥檇 find the easiest way round鈥�.it didn鈥檛 matter how far it went so it was slow going. There was no food on the train鈥hey鈥檇 stop at some little place where there鈥檇 be a couple of tin huts where they sold food. There was one place鈥 don鈥檛 know what people were doing鈥ecause we left the station to go on and after about a couple of hours the train stopped and reversed all the way back again to pick up some blokes who got left there! What they were doing I don鈥檛 know - but that was the sort of thing that happened. It was single track with passing places every fifty miles or so鈥ou know.
It was after Jo鈥檅urg that you got this sort of meandering because it was up through the mountains and things. And we stopped in Mafeking鈥 think we probably had a meal in Mafeking and again we lost some members. I think it was standard practice that the train blew its whistle and a lot of steam and everything and it shunted up for two hundred yards and that produced all the latecomers. They鈥檇 come haring out of all the shops and cafes 鈥�.haring after the train. It would stop there until everybody got on. Then it was on to Bulowayo.

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