- Contributed by听
- Blackpool_Library
- People in story:听
- Bill Dixon of the Blackpool Merchant Navy Association
- Location of story:听
- Preston
- Background to story:听
- Civilian Force
- Article ID:听
- A5912769
- Contributed on:听
- 26 September 2005
The author, Bill Dixon (on the right) being interviewed in 2005
This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Peter Quinn of Lancashire Home Guard on behalf Bill Dixon, and has been added to the site with his permission by the staff of Blackpool Central Library.
I walked rather timidly into the Merchant Navy Shipping Office in Preston. It was wartime 1941 and my time had come for me to do my bit for King and country. I wasn鈥檛 happy; in fact, I was bloody miserable and would get worse before the day was done. A thin, fidgety man came from behind a desk, rubbing his hands and smiling - a bit too easily for my liking! 鈥淣a then lad,鈥 he said in his best Preston accent, 鈥溾橝v yer come to join us?鈥
鈥淵es,鈥 I mumbled. I tried to match his smile, but my face didn鈥檛 want to know. 鈥淲ot鈥檚 yer name?鈥 I told him. 鈥淎re yer fit?鈥 he continued, nodding in anticipation of a positive reply. 鈥淲ell,鈥 I began, 鈥渁part from flat feet, bandy legs, varicose veins, cross-eyed and a touch of halitosis - Yes鈥. 鈥淵er fine lad, yer fine, you鈥檙e just the calibre we鈥檙e looking for!鈥
Rotten sod, I thought 鈥 with that catalogue of problems I should have been back on the train and home within the hour. 鈥淔ollow me!鈥 He busied himself trying to march in front of me down a narrow passage. He looked over his shoulder making sure I hadn鈥檛 done a runner 鈥 I was still there.
鈥淥h!鈥 he said, 鈥淐an yer swim?鈥
鈥沦飞颈尘?鈥
鈥淪WIM!鈥 I nearly choked.
鈥淵es, swim! Yer know鈥 And he demonstrated 鈥 hardly Olympic class.
鈥 I can do two breadths of the local baths鈥
鈥 No, no, no lad, I mean fully clothed in the North Atlantic!鈥
My jaw dropped!
We stopped at another office and I watched him disappearing back up the corridor, still giggling stupidly at his sick joke!
I signed on my first ship, never to forget that thin, cruel sod who had ruined my last day ashore, until I went home in 1946!
The ships on which I served 1941-1946 were:
1)鈥淲im鈥 鈥 a dirty rust bucket of a Dutch coaster 鈥 Belfast and back to Liverpool.
2)鈥淩owan鈥 鈥 another coaster 鈥 Londonderry and back.
3)鈥淕rodno鈥 鈥 Twin well-deck TRAMP, launched in 1919! Escaped the scrap-yard and so did the ship鈥檚 scouse cook. Iron ore from Almeria in Spain and back to Middlesbrough.
4)鈥淏ritish Confidence鈥 鈥 Benzine tanker 鈥 New York and back to Ardrossan.
5)鈥淎thel Chief鈥 - another tanker 鈥 left the ship in New York.
6)鈥淲earpool鈥 鈥 a cargo ship, in convoy to Oran (North Africa). Ammunition ship supporting Operation TORCH.
7)鈥淥cean Volga鈥 鈥 from New York to Basra with stores for the Russian front.
8)鈥淔ort-la-Trait鈥 鈥 stores for the Battle of Normandy. My discharge book puts us off the coast of Normandy 20-23rd June 1944. The French government gives us a 鈥渨indow鈥 of 5-6th June to 20th August to be recognised as taking part in the Battle of Normandy.
9)鈥淗ighland Princess鈥 鈥 a trooper. Polish troops to Naples, Italy. Second trip to Lagos, West Africa. Black troops to Egypt. Third trip Liverpool to Odessa, Russia, with ex-POWs then pick up British and allied ex-POWs from Odessa to Port Said. Another ship takes them home to the UK. We embark Aussie and NZ troops 鈥 we are taking them home. Set off Suez Canal 鈥 Red Sea 鈥 Aden 鈥 Bombay 鈥 Freemantle 鈥 Western Australia 鈥 Hobart 鈥 Tasmania 鈥 Lyttleton NZ 鈥 cross the Pacific 鈥 round the Horn 鈥 Port Stanley, Falklands (about 38 years before the Argentine War) 鈥 Montevideo for beef 鈥 Pernambuco, Brazil 鈥 and then London. The 鈥淗ighland Princess鈥 had been our home for more than two years, had watered us, fed us and looked after us thousands of miles from home. Good old 鈥淧rincess鈥 鈥 it鈥檚 Goodbye now. Enough already 鈥 let鈥檚 go home 鈥 1946.
[The author of this piece has written a number of other contributions to the People鈥檚 War website. They are:
My last day ashore
My first ship 鈥 M. V. Wim
Jumping ship then the Ocean Volga
Convoy preparations
A Lancastrian in New York
Thanks Yanks!
Voyage around the world
I meet the "SS Grodno" and the cook!
He has also contributed two poems:
The SS Grodno 鈥 one more trip 1939
The last day of SS Kingswood]
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