大象传媒

When I was called up in 1940, at the age of 25, I wanted to go into the Navy. I told the Recruiting Officer that as I had been a Boy Scout I could already read morse and do semaphore and so it was that I became a Signalman.
After training I proceeded to Porstmouth barracks where I was told that I would be joining the Australian Navy! I joined the crew of HMAS Napier, then being built at Fairfields Shipyard on the Clyde.
We spent many months ploughing the North Atlantic and were then sent to the Mediterranean. Having been selected to go for a Commission, I was then told that I could not have one in the Australian Navy but must transfer back to the Royal Navy. Thus it was that I found myself in HMS Naiad - Admiral Vian's Flagship of the 15th Cruiser Squadron.
On March 11th 1941 at 8pm we were torpedoed. I was below decks at the time in the Signal Distribution Office. Rushing to abandon ship, we could not at first open the hatch to the upper deck. In darkness and rising panic we battled with the hatch and - at last - it opened. The next thing I remember I was sitting on the guard rails before launching myself into the inky water below.
Swimming around amongst the others I met a boy seaman who had been one of the few survivors of the sinking of the battleship HMS Barham. "You're making a habit of this." I said. We made sure the non-swimmers had the life jackets and we then we swam around in the cold sea, wasting our breath singing 'Roll out the barrel' in an attempt to keep our spirits up. At length I was picked up by one of our escorting destroyers, HMS Jervis.
Back in England, and more than sixty years later, I was chatting to a chap I met at a party in our village, only to discover that he had been on the Jervis and helped to pull survivors aboard that night - probably including me! An amazing coincidence.

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