大象传媒

This article, presented here in 8 chapters plus an introduction, is the naval autobiography of Alec Kellaway. Alec served in the Royal Navy from January 1936 to November 1947. His story shows what life was like training for the Navy immediately before the war as well as service in a wide variety of ships during the conflict. The book was written by Alec himself and has previously been published on the HMS Hood Association web site (www.hmshood.com) and in the HMS Cossack Association newsletters.

I was There! Where? Chapter 5b - Coastal Forces

The food en-route was very basic. We had taken aboard a case of 30 dozen eggs, a quantity of bread, fresh meats and vegetables. The meat was stored in our refrigerator, which was operated by a paraffin lamp. The lamp heated the gas, which was compressed into a liquid and on its way round the coils was condensed back to a gas reducing the temperature inside the fridge. In harbour this was very successful but when the sea was rough the little glass globe around the light flame broke and we were soon out of spare glasses. This dogged us all the time at sea so when in transit we had no fridge. On the journey to Gib one or two of us managed to boil some potatoes and those who did manage to eat just had potatoes mixed with raw eggs. Our bread supply soon gathered a green coat and cutting of this coat left just a small piece of available bread. We were fortunate that after about four days out one of the Corvettes called the MLs one at a time alongside and passed over some freshly baked bread. This was a hazardous occupation as the sea was still rough and it was with great skill by the COs that no damage was done.

The crew were in three watches during the trip, which is normal practice. The two officers had to divide their time on duty as best they could. It was a very tiring trip for them, as they had to share the watch duties and normal duties as best they could. In the engine room we had numerous functions to carry out besides watch keeping. The MLs were running on one engine per day to save fuel. The engine not in use had to be serviced, this entailed a complete change of the plugs, and a lengthy task as each engine had twenty-four plugs to be cleaned. It seemed very strange that we had no spare plugs. Each plug was capped by a screwed adapter that came on the plug leads from the distributor, this being screened to prevent any interference with the wireless system. Removing these screen caps took quite a while, then cleaning the plugs, refitting the plugs and caps added to the time. Plus there was the daily transfer of petrol from the upper deck tanks, inspection of the boats bilges and their pumping out if necessary. The engine room staff were kept fairly busy outside of their watch keeping duties.

Our telegraphist, the only person not watch keeping was gainfully employed for the greater part of each day, perhaps doing more hours than anyone else. He was not a good sailor though he did manage to carry out his duties very well. Besides taking the daily admiralty signals, looking after the two officers, tending the galley, providing hot drinks and being called to the bridge when signals were being passed around the small flotilla I consider he did a remarkable job taking into the fact his seasickness.

At last Gibraltar came into sight and shortly we entered harbour, tied up alongside the quay after a strenuous exacting trip. The first item on the agenda was to get fresh food and prepare a meal. While the meal was being prepared all spare hands went around making the boat tidy and clean. The CO went ashore for further instructions and on his return told his crew to get some rest, as we were to wait for further details.

Gibraltar had not altered much, the only difference being there was a greater naval presence than before and we berthed in a different area to where the Hood used to berth. We had been in Gib a few days when we were ordered to completely fuel up, taking on stores and essential foods, we were going to move on. However our four boats and the local ML flotillas sailed on a submarine sweep into the Mediterranean. It was an impressive sight, about twelve MLs lying abreast sailing to the east. The aircraft carrier Ark Royal had sailed into the Atlantic the previous day and in the dark hours of the following day returned past Gib into the Med where the MLs had done the submarine sweep. When the Ark Royal and her attentive destroyers passed us we all returned to Gib.

On our return to Gib all MLs took on fuel and went back to their respective berths. Shortly afterwards our four boats were given orders to prepare for sailing and then told to sail. We left Gib and turned into the Atlantic, turned to port and headed south down the coast of Africa. This time there were no Corvettes to escort us, we four MLs were on our own. The little flotilla had cleared Gib when our CO gave us our next destination, Bathurst, now Banjul in Gambia, saying that the trip would take six to seven days using our one engine a day routine.

On this jaunt south the sea was very moderate. Everything was so calm and quiet that if one did not know different you would think that it was a luxury motor cruise. Eventually we arrived at Bathurst. The four MLs tied up to the small jetty. The four COs reporting ashore for further orders. Our CO on his return called us all on deck to relay his orders. Our four MLs would come under the control of the Admiral at Freetown, Sierra Leone. Our anti-submarine patrols and escort duties would be on the West Coast of Africa. The Edinburgh Castle, an old Union Castle liner, was being used as our depot ship at Freetown in King Tom Bay. At this time in Bathurst it was decided that the five petrol tanks on deck could be discarded. The crew then set about the task of removing the tanks, pipes and fittings, though our CO only had three tanks removed, keeping one tank each side of the wheelhouse.

A few words about Bathurst; it was the capital of Gambia and was very small. The natives mostly Negro and though they had their own language English was a second language and freely spoken. It was noticed that Syrians owned many of the few shops and the local hotel. A problem that dogged the MLs was the provision of healthy foods. At Bathurst there was a small NAAFI and canteen but the supplies were limited.

The MLs were allocated food comforts in view of lack of canteen facilities. This consisted of the supply of tin meat per four persons, a tin of fruit for four persons and dry stores for making drinks. This allocation was super for us as the qualifying period for these food comforts was for so many hours at sea. To us MLs who were spending days at sea we qualified for an abundance of comforts. The problem for the crew was the lack of fresh supplies and it was still with the flotillas when I returned to England.

The first escort duty 279 did was to cover a Norwegian cargo ship to Freetown. This ship was carrying vital war supplies in her holds where crates of aircraft and other war material were stowed and on deck she carried four MLs going further east. Two thoughts entered our minds; what a valuable array of arms to be entrusted to one ML and why had our boats not been carried this way? As soon as we cleared Bathurst the reason why only one escort became apparent. The Norwegian captain kept his ship as near to the coast as possible and we sailed outside him doing our sonar-asdic sweep. It was stated when the war was over that no merchant ship escorted down the West Coast of Africa was lost when escorted by a ML though ships sailing independently were torpedoed. It would seem that the MLs were a good deterrent. Outside Freetown we met another of our flotilla who took our Norwegian ship onwards to Takoradi, a seaport of Ghana. From there another ML from another flotilla would take over escorting the Norwegian to its outward destination. 279 entered Freetown and moored in King Tom Bay, the trip having taken just over three days on the one engine per day routine.

Perhaps a few words about this one engine per day routine, to save fuel one of the two engines would be idle every other day. We could on one engine maintain the speed of our charge without stress to the running engine. The idle engine was able to disengage its propeller through a clutch in its reduction gearbox. Should there be an emergency this engine could be started up, the clutch engaged and the boat could if required work up to full speed in a matter of seconds. A practice that was carried out quite often.

While on escort or patrol duties the submarine detecting apparatus 鈥� sonar- was always in use. The operator would set the sonar up and the searching ping from the sonar would be related to the wheelhouse by microphone. Should the ping, which in normal operations echoed in a return ping change to pinga, then this indicated a foreign body below the ML, action stations were sounded and a defence attack state was in being. The sonar operator would take over his apparatus and hope to obtain a clearer contact with the unknown object. The rest of the crew would be ready to attack by depth charge if required. After an intensive search the pinga would have disappeared, probably it was a large fish or a shoal of fish, the boat would return to routine sea stations. The emergency routine occurred many times on our trips, but never did we need to go into attack.

To return to our entry and mooring in King Tom Bay, nearby was moored the Edinburgh Castle, our base ship, which would be our head quarters giving us supplies, mail and any comforts that were available. Not much really as we very seldom went aboard. Astern of the Edinburgh was the City of Tokyo, a large refrigerating ship that supplied meats and butter to the numerous ships that called into Freetown. At Freetown leave was given each day from 2pm to 6pm, when a walk into Freetown could be taken. This was by a short cut down by the stream where the mothers and daughters of the local population did their washing. These women folk would carry sailors over the stream on their shoulders for sixpence. This saved a long walk round the road.

Also at King Tom Bay was a beer canteen run by the NAAFI. Beer was rationed because the bottled beer came from Canada. The sailors鈥� version of NAAFI was 鈥� No ambition and few interests鈥�. Freetown itself was a widespread community. Had few shops and no places of interest.

Alec's Story continues in Chapter 5c - Coastal Forces

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