- Contributed by听
- sparkswatson
- People in story:听
- John Watson Cairns
- Location of story:听
- Indian Ocean
- Article ID:听
- A8875155
- Contributed on:听
- 26 January 2006
SS Rancher
After many treacherous trips across the North Atlantic in a variety of Merchant Ships, I boarded the SS Rancher for my final voyage of the war. We left London on 1/12/44 and returned to Avonmouth on 27/10/45 鈥 after a voyage of some 35,500 miles.
We visited many ports and had an assortment of cargoes during that time:
London 鈥 Mombasa (Suez-Aden) 鈥 (Cement)
Mombassa 鈥 Tanga 鈥 Zanzibar 鈥 (Cement/General)
Zanzibar 鈥 Durban 鈥 (General)
Durban 鈥 Port Elizabeth 鈥 Karachi 鈥 (General/Ammo)
Karachi 鈥 Bombay 鈥 (General/Ammo)
Bombay 鈥 Suez 鈥 (M.T.Army Stores)
Suez 鈥 Port Said (Light)
Port Said 鈥 Aden 鈥 Calcutta 鈥 (Salt)
Calcutta 鈥 Santos 鈥 (Jute)
Santos 鈥 Paranagua 鈥 Rio de Janeiro (General)
Rio de Janeiro 鈥 St Vincent (Bunkers)
St Vincent 鈥 Avonmouth
It was on this voyage on the 8th of May that, as the Second Radio Officer, I copied the surrender message at 1721 hours. A picture of this Marconigram along with the text can be seen on my story entitled 鈥淕ermany has Surrendered鈥
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