大象传媒

The image attached to this story cannot be viewed for moderation or technical reasons

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Sue Sutton on behalf of Jack Pidgeon, the author and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My 'Action Station' when I was on duty was on the bridge standing next to a TBS (Talk Between Ships), which was a radio link between ships. I had to listen to what was going on and sometimes the Captain would turn and say "Bugler, what are they saying?".

My off duty position was in the lower steerage position. I had no official duty here, but I was able to give the seaman at the helm a break if he wanted to go to 'the heads' which is the navy term for the toilet. The needle on the dial in front of you showed you were steady on the last order. The Navigation Officer on the bridge would order down the voice pipe saying, for example, "Steady on 180!". You would then turn the wheel until the needle on the dial showed 180 and replied up the voice pipe "Steady on 180 Sir". Standing in front of this 4ft polished wood and brass wheel felt great, and to steer a 32,000 ton ship was out of this world!

Once whilst we were at sea for a long stretch we ran out of potatoes. For lunch, instead of potatoes, we had boiled rice with our meat and greens, then for afters, we had boiled rice with a spoonful of jam.

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