大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Wendy Young on behalf of Bernard Ashton and has been added to the site with his permission he fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was 15 in 1939, and enrolled at the Prince of Wales sea training hostel. It was situated in Lime House East London, but at the onset of the war we were evacuated to Stalham Norfolk. I finished the course in 1940 at the age of 16 as a P.O.with a signaler badge.
I travelled down to Southampton with two other boys to join a Merchant ship. i signed on The Rochester Castle as a deck boy earning 拢5 1s 3d a month.
I felt sea sick especially when we reached the Bay of Biscay but soon got over it.Every Saturday we had boat drill and fire drill, many of the crew were detailed to be on the gun crew and I was one of them. We had two guns, one on the after end and the four inch was on the gun platform. A twelve pounder high angle was on the port quarter aft.The four inch was for surface, and the twelve pounder for aircraft.We became proficient under the instruction of the second officer, who had been on a gunnery course. we also had two seamen who had done a similar course.
I was in the ammunitions supply team on the four inch gun and became a breech loader on the twelve ponder with two others.
Every Saturday after boat drill, we practiced on the guns, and sometimes during the week when not in port
The Rochester Castle was built about 1937, and did 16 knots, she could do more in an emergency.
Our first port of call was Las Palmas Teneriffe, for bunkers, weploughed through the Atlantic to Cape Town, discharging general cargo, loading meat and butter in the fridge holds, then on to East London, Port Elizabeth,Durban, and into the Indian Ocean calling in at Dares Salaam, and Mombasa where qwe discharged more cargo. After two months and nine days we arrived back in liiverpool.
We sailed out again to Cape Town and returned via Las Palmas coming up to dock in London, but at Dungeness there were a few ships waiting for the Channel to be cleared of magnetic mines which had been dropped during the night. We docked in London on the evening tide, and discharged our cargo of meat, sugar, and fruit
I was on my third voyage, when Dunkirk happened so instead of returning to London we docked in Liverpool, which was in the August.I signed off and went to the Shipping Office.
My next ship was called the Lagosian. I joined it at Hull as an Ordinary Seaman.That night there was an air raid on Hull.The next day we signed articles and later that evening we sailed North in convoy to Burnt Island. The ships mustered, and the Captains went ashore for orders.
We were off Peterhead, and it was my turn to be on watchI heard the sound of aircraft, and looked towards the bridge and there was a twin engine bomber gliding over the ship at masthead height.There was a massive bang and he dropped bombs midships on the portside . We were ablaze, they started to blow a long and short blast to abandon ship. We lost one lifeboatand the accomodation on the portside where the bombs had hit. We had to use an axe to cut the lifeboats free, thye rafts went into the water, and the three Able Seamen and the Bosun and myself stood on the outside of the rail. The Bosun jumped, one of the Able Seamen put his arm across me to stop me jumping. The Jacob ladder was dropped over the side and we went down the ladder to the boats. Within 20 minutes we were picked up by a Waler Chaser.
Two or three hours later the other O.S Seaman and myself were asleep. The next morning we landed in Aberdeen, wemwere measured up for new suits and put on a train for London, the rest of the crew were sent to Hull.
I spent two months at home then I went back to Liverpool. The next ship I joined in the November of 1940 as an Ordinary Seaman was the City Of Oxford. I signed on a Thursday and we sailed that evening in convoy to link up with another convoy coming down from Scotland. Within 24 hours there was a storm force 10 which took away the starboard life boat. We thought that we were going down, we had coal at the bottom of the ship as ballast and heavy machinery on top of the coal, for the Bauxite Mines in British Guiana. The cargo had shifted and we took a 27degree list, the pounding carried on to the following evening. A day later a tug out to meet us on the Clyde and we anchored off Gourock. a Tender came out and took the two davits to be repaired, also workmen came aboard to straighten the cargo out.We stayed there under repair, and the Dock workers came aboard
On the 23rd December we set sail and joined the convoys going west, heading for the West Indies,discharging coal at St Lucia, and general cargo in George Town.We picked up bauxite at Mackenzie City, loaded barrels of pitch at Trinidad, then back to St Lucia to take bunkers to get us back across the Atlantic.
Girls carried 70lbs of coal on their heads, they walked up the ships ramp and tipped it into the bunkers. They received up to a penny halfpenny for every basket they brought. We went to Greneda and loaded up with mace ,sugar, and arrowroot powder. We dropped anchor at a bay in Bermuda. The Captain went ashore for convoy orders.
Within two days we had joined a convoy coming down from Halifax,Nova Scotia. Eventually we hit a hurricane which caused severe damage to the electric cables, which went around the deck, and damaged the anti magnetic mine cable. We had to return to Halifax to get the damage repaired, after that we took fresh bunkers and joined a convoy HX112, being 41 ships in the convoy.
On the 16 March we were attacked and one ship was sunk. We had a scatter signal, we met up in the next evening and we were attacked again. Two tankers blew up, they were a mass of flames because they were carrying high octane also 8 ships were sunk. Two days later we docked in Scotland, at Loch Ewe. After that we joined a different convoy, and eventually docked in Purfleet. I went home on leave.
I rejoined the City Of Oxford with a different Captain .Because I was on a six months article, this meant if you returned to the United Kingdomwithin six months you had to remain with the same vessel.
We sailed again with an escort convoy, they escorted us all the way to the American Coast. It was the same proceedure,George town, Port of Spain,Bermuda.
Joining the convoy at Newfoundland we proceeded in thick fog. Ships had a blue stern light to keep a distance also they had a fog buoy which sent up a spout of water, so that you could see that, before you saw the ship, and thats how you kept the distance between each ship. But a ship's steering gear must have broken down, because we had a Norwegian ship which came across our bow, and we ran into her stern, so both ships had to make for St Johns Newfoundland for repairs. Afterwards we sailed in convoy back to Liverpool.

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