大象传媒

This Story Has Been Inputted By A 大象传媒 Radio Bristol Peoples War Volunteer.

A Lad Called Bris (One Sailor鈥檚 War) - Part 2.

The deck was crowded with ratings who were to join different ships. Bris was taken to the cruiser H.M.S. London, the weather was atrocious, everyone was soaked with spray on the drifter and he was glad to get off aboard the London.
He was ushered off to the Pursers Office for billeting purposes after which Bris made a terrible mistake. The London was preparing to put to sea, he was unaware of the procedure of putting to sea, no one was allowed on the upper deck except the duty watch special duty men, like most large ships the London carried Marines. Bris made his way up the foc鈥檚le ladder, before reaching the top a voice said, very quietly, 鈥淚 would get down below if I were you son.鈥� Bris replied 鈥淚 only want to get my hammock out of the rain鈥�. The Marine Officer went berserk. 鈥淕et down below鈥� he screamed. Bris nearly fell off the ladder, he later found out that he was not allowed on the upper deck until it was piped, Duty Watch Seamen Fall Out. It took a little while for Bris鈥檚 heart to gain a normal beat. As he realized he had got off lightly, the London proceeded to Val Fiord in Iceland with escorting Destroyers. The Bosun piped that passengers were to clear kitbags and hammocks from the foc鈥檚le. Bris was billeted in the stokers mess and was likewise put in a day work party.

The journey to Iceland was pretty rough and some tackle left lying loose in the oil tank room was thrown around and a tap was broken off. Bris was in a sorry state of seasickness. The chief stoker had no room or compassion for the sickness Bris was experiencing, he assigned him to operate a hand pump. Knee deep in oil Bris felt like dying, eventually they arrived in Iceland and anchored in Val Fiord to await the arrival of H.M.S. Echo, a Fleet Destroyer H23, from Russia. Bris was transferred to H.M.S. Echo, he had to report to the regulating Chief Stoker who assigned him to No.6 mess.

He had previously been told, by his Uncle (his mother鈥檚 brother), who was only eight months older than him who was already in the Navy on H.M.S. Icarus, to make himself useful and not be afraid to volunteer and join in any activity and in the doing would get on a lot better. Bris unpacked his kitbag in a locker come seat. When he had settled he looked around and saw half a dozen ratings sat around three buckets scraping or peeling potatoes. First I must explain to the reader, to put one at ease, every three months or so the cutlery and mess traps were replaced and at this time it was near the replacement time, utensils were invariably lost and one was lucky to have a knife fork and spoon. The destroyer had been at sea for some time on convoys to Russia, which took thirteen days up and eleven days back, because the returning were empty ships the speed was quicker. Bris did not have a knife so he could not help with the potatoes, so wishing to be helpful he decided to wait until the peeling was finished and then take the bucket of peelings up to the upper deck and throw them down the gash chute. Bris in his eagerness to help grabbed one of the three buckets, which he thought held the peelings and took it to the upper deck, there wasn鈥檛 much difference in the colour of the water from the other two buckets and before he had realized what he was doing he had thrown half the spuds away. Being the end of the potatoes in the potato locker they were very small, as everyone picked the larger ones first, so ending up with a load of small ones. He was very embarrassed when he had to explain to the leading hand of the mess what he had done. The leading hand was a three badge stripey with over fifteen years in, he was a miserable old geyser, what he called Bris is unprintable and after he had vented his feelings he presented Bris with a knife to peel half a bucket of spuds on his own. After this episode Bris vowed that he would never volunteer for anything again, he had learnt his lesson.

The Echo stayed in Sadis Fiord for about a week when one day a tall gangling rating came down to the stokers mess deck ladder, looking just like he had come straight out of the scram bag, a bag that is kept for loose clothes left about on mess deck, as it happened this particular day was a Saturday and the chief stoker was on mess deck looking for volunteers for a church party for Sunday. Smiling he said 鈥淚t鈥檚 church or work cleaning out the bilges,鈥� which was a dirty filthy job, however, out of the two a lot of ratings preferred to do the latter making it difficult for the Chief to arrange a church party so when the new rating announced himself as Lofty Kirman the new stocker, the Chief said 鈥渞ight church party tomorrow morning.鈥�

The service was generally taken by the Captain who received five shillings, which does not seem very much but in 1941 it amounted to twice the amount received by a second class stocker or ordinary seaman per day being two shillings and sixpence equaling to twelve and a half pence in present day currency. The service was always Church of England; other arrangements were made for Roman Catholics and others. One rating announced himself as a Mohammedan; this did not please the Chief very much. 鈥淥.K., that鈥檚 fine we鈥檒l see how you like it up on the foc鈥檚le six o鈥檆lock in the morning for the next fortnight to see the sunrise鈥� he said. That taught the rating not to be funny again.

The shore leave in Sedisfiord amounted to two hours in an Army Camp, British of course. On entry you were given two tickets for two pints of beer, Bris was amazed when he saw a few liberty men paralletically drunk, Iceland by the way was a dry country at this time, this was the reason the liberty men were taken to the British camp. Bris was later to find out how they got so drunk. The time came one dark winters morning about four o鈥檆lock, Special Sea Duty Men to Muster was piped. One by one Escorts, Cruisers and Battleships slipped out of the Fiord to rendezvous with the convoy of merchant ships which had sailed from Loch Ewe in Scotland thus the first Russian Convoy for Bris.

From a total of eleven Bris was never to forget this one. A terrific gale was blowing and it was not long before half the ships company was seasick, he felt very ill but not as bad as some of his mates were. Anyone who knows anything about seasickness will realize that one feels like lying down and dying. Mountainous waves sixty foot high and more, one moment a ship was in sight and next out of sight before disappearing the propellers were well clear of the sea. Bris was thrown from one side of the ship to the other, water swilling about the mess deck as the ship rolled and pitched. As the ship went down in the trough of the wave thousands of tons of water came down on the foc鈥檚le, if it were not for the bending plates in the ship it would break its back. As this happened the ship would give terrific shudder crockery flew from the racks sometimes the lights would temporarily go out and it was very frightening.
Bris鈥檚 duty was to double up with a first class stoker in No.1 boiler room accompanied by a Petty Officer, until he got used to the job of flashing up the sprayers as steam was required, the P.O.鈥檚 job was to increase the air intake fans to keep the pressure in the boiler room to prevent the pressure dropping below that of the furnace which would result in the flames coming out into the boiler room and burning someone, what鈥檚 known as a flashback. An airlock system is required to enter or leave the boiler room the hatch must be closed before the door is opened, if this is not done this would also cause a big flashback. All this work had to be carried out under extreme conditions whether seasick or not. Bris soon got the hang of things, it wasn鈥檛 long before he was on his own on watch with a Petty Officer or Chief who were in three watches, Bris was in four so that he had a different P.O., every watch.

The atmosphere on a destroyer is very relaxed, unlike cruisers or battleships which were nothing less than floating barracks where discipline was strictly adhered to, not so on small ships. Bris got to know his P.O.鈥檚 very well, one was a very small man about seven stone Tom Thomas was his name, another was a tall medium built man from London obviously called Cock Court, the other was C.P.O., Tubby Pinnel who was twenty two stone, a massive man with a ring of roses tattooed around his neck like a necklace. He came from Gloucester and was a very jovial character who would only have to look at you before he would burst out laughing. A time serving man about thirty-eight, he took a liking to Bris who was also game for a laugh and a joke. Tubby made a point of teaching all the new stokers the P.O.鈥檚 job. If one can imagine the fan control regulator, a long steel pole coming down from the deck head on the end of which was a wheel. This was what Tubby would hang on to, he would also teach them how to increase or decrease the speed of the oil pumps and heaters. If the ship was traveling at a steady speed Tubby had the habit of hanging from the regulator and falling asleep, his neck and head literally sinking into his chest, snoring and heaving. How he managed to hold on, Bris didn鈥檛 know and it used to scare him for if there was a sudden action there would be panic stations so Bris decided to do something about it.

One job he had to do was to clean the carbon from the sprayer cones with a long poker about seven feet long. He would wait for Tubby to go off to sleep and then smash the poker down hard on the steel plates along side Tubby who would nearly jump out of his boilersuit, resulting in Tubby getting his hair off and giving Bris extra work to do, cleaning brasses and gauges on the top of the boiler. Bris was making a rod for his own back and he had to find another way to keep Tubby awake, he had to change his tactics.

Now Tubby was a bit of a lad when he was on leave, getting half up the pole and singing in the pubs sailors songs like The Faithful Sailor Boy and Come Back my Little Sweetheart in the Spring. Tubby used to tell Bris all about this carry on so he decided to ask Tubby to teach him the words of the songs, Tubby sang these songs time and time again and Bris would act dumb and say 鈥渨ell and what comes after this and that鈥� Tubby would get wild with him saying 鈥淲hat are you? Bloody dumb or something? I鈥檒l write it on the oil heaters with chalk鈥� and then they would be singing together. Bris would deliberately sing the wrong tune and get Tubby to sing it again and again just to keep him awake. Some of these songs were quite long, like I鈥檒l Come Back My Little Sweetheart In The Spring, which went like this;

FIRST VERSE
鈥楾was on a summers morning when all the world was still,
鈥楾wo lovers rambled down a lane beside an old worn mill.
He was thinking of the morning when he had to go away,
And as she nestled close to him she hear him softly say.

CHORUS
I鈥檒l come back my little sweetheart in the spring,
And those wedding bells for you will surely ring,
And when England鈥檚 causes righted our hearts will be united,
I鈥檒l come back my little sweetheart in the spring.

SECOND VERSE
For a sailor stood upon the quay in his uniform so neat,
Waiting for the picket boat to take him to the fleet.
The siren it was blowing and on the mast the pennant flew,
And as the cable rattled in she heard him sing this tune.

REPEAT CHORUS

THIRD VERSE
For the scene has changed again once more unto the battlefield,
Our blue clad boys are striving hard and a noble flag they shield.
For a stray shot strikes our hero and he鈥檚 numbered among the slain,
And as he鈥檚 lying dying fast his chum sing this refrain.

CHORUS (different words)
You鈥檒l be lonely little sweetheart in the spring,
For those wedding bells for you will never ring,
For lover he is lying amongst the dead and dying,
You鈥檒l be lonely little sweetheart in the spring.

FOURTH VERSE
In a cottage by the old mill stream sits a maiden young and fair,
And a letter there鈥檚 a letter that she鈥檚 reading from his chum far over there,
And as she reads it o鈥檈r it was too much to bear,
And as the morning dawn awoke she had gone to a land so fair.

CHORUS
So they laid her in the churchyard in the spring,
And those wedding bells for her did never ring.
Not a word of him was spoken for they knew her heart was broken,
As they laid her in the churchyard in the spring, oh in the spring.

I hope this will give the reader some idea of what Bris was putting Tubby through. Such were the songs Tubby and Bris sang together that a great friendship developed between them and often taking the mickey out of each other. One such incident occurred when Bris was dobbying (washing) his boiler suit on the upper deck using two buckets, one filled with soapsuds and the other with clean water for rinsing. He was sitting by the fan intake of No.3 boiler room and when he had finished his washing he suddenly had a thought 鈥� Tubby would be on watch and hanging onto the fan regulator. Laughing to himself Bris promptly threw the bucket of soap suds into the fan intake, with the result Tubby was covered in soap suds whipped up by the fan. Bris had to make himself scarce and with a hiding place behind a canvas screen at the entrance to the foc鈥檚le, he observed Tubby鈥檚 head and shoulders covered in suds above a hatch, peering around, he daren鈥檛 leave the boiler room. Tubby had no proof that it was Bris but he knew in his heart it was him.

Some hours later they came face to face with each other on the upper deck, Tubby smiling all over his face said 鈥淲hen have I got you on watch next Bris?鈥�
鈥淚n the middle watch, why?鈥� replied Bris, 鈥淵ou know why.鈥� Tubby said hoping to see some sign of guilt on Bris鈥檚 face, chuckling to himself he went on his way. Deep down Tubby knew Bris was responsible and Bris knew he was in for it when he went on watch with him. A lot of extra work, unnecessary cleaning and testing of water gauges etc.

Although it was against the KRs and AIs (Kings Regulations and Admiralty Instructions) Tubby would sometimes come down on the stokers mess deck. How about a game of cards lads he would say, smiling all over his face, but he was a very bad loser. If he lost a lot of money he would fly into a terrific rage and declare that if he caught anyone gambling again he would put them in the rattle (on a charge). He would tear up the cards, everybody laughing; Tubby very red in the face would stomp off.

If one can imagine twenty eight men living in a small space forty foot by twenty five foot, each man allowed eighteen inches to sling a hammock head to toe over twenty eight lockers and four tables and everything being thrown from one side to the other, such was the living conditions. One cannot really imagine it, unless you have actually experienced being in a sea with sixty foot plus waves, the pitching and rolling, water swilling about the deck, of course there were times when the seas calmed down a bit.

(Continued in Part three)

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.