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This story continues on from ‘Fire & Water’ by Richard William Holsgrove.

The title, ‘The tramp’, refers to the merchant ship. Like a tramp, it travels from place to place all over the world. Years ago tramp steamers were quite common.

‘The lady’ refers to the Royal Navy ships I served on, like the minesweepers. All ships are referred to as ‘she’. Ships are always being painted, having their brass polished, having their deck washed down, etc. Even some of the rigging is called ‘stays’. So, like a lady, a ship is always made to look nice.

When I joined the navy, I was based at Chatham barracks in Kent, by the River Medway. I was selected to be sent to a training base at Pwllheli, in North Wales. The base was called Glendower. I was trained as a D.E.M.S., meaning Defence of Equipment Merchant Ships. We were trained to instruct the merchant seamen how to use and time the guns on the ships, to maintain and repair them as necessary, and to fire the orlicon guns which fired small shells with tracer shells when used at night.

I was mainly on the North Atlantic convoys taking food, ammunition and oil to Russia and England. There were hundreds of ships sunk by submarines, which came out in packs of 20 or 30 or even 40 at a time. Seeing men in the water dying was devastating. We could not stop or we would be sunk. In any case, the cold Arctic conditions and the oil burning their lungs meant those men died in a matter of a few minutes.
It is so important that the story gives the reader the impression that war should never be allowed to start. There are no winners, only death and destruction.

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