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I joined the "Queen Elizabeth" at the Tail of the bank Greenock in July 1943 for passage to Halifax Nova Scotia. There were varied personnel en passage Air Crew Cadets M.N. Officers joining ships that were under construction in Canada and U.S.A. I shared a cabin with eight other M.N. Cadets. On the second day out we mustered at emergency stations, two of our number were unable to attend as they were first trippers and had succumbed to mal de mer. Unfortunately they opened one of the port holes for a breath of fresh air. This was against standing orders — NO port holes below "C" deck must be opened. The Troop Officer was a R.A.F. Wing Commander (Non flying of course) he raised a great tumarsh about this. Fortunately one of our senior Masters (Capt. Vernon-Browne) intervened and was able to have a few words with the Master of the Q.E., so things were sorted out at that level. However next morning I knew that our cabin was certainly going to be inspected by the "crocodile" consisting of the Q..E. Staff Captain, S.N.O.(Cornmander R.N.) our Wing Commander friend and our Senior Master Capt. Vernon Browne. Inspection by the way was carried out during emergency drill. On this occasion as Senior Cadet (19 yrs. Old) I had to remain out side our cabin. We had been up with the larks to make sure everything was spic and span. The "crocodile" duly inspected and we passed muster. The S.N.O. a large man with a huge beard asked me in that tone of voice, "how long have you been at sea"? I looked him straight in the eye and said "two and half years Sir". I was nineteen, torpedoed twice and had various other near things -1 did not scare easily - ah the confidence of youth. We arrived Halifax without incident The Speed of the Q.E. was vital. They had not started building our ship. We were in Halifax for six weeks, during that time we occupied our time with various jobs. I and some of other younger lads worked in the Clarke Ruse Aircraft factory in Dartmouth assembling Airspeed Oxford training planes, 2/0 Jack Hogg and 2/O D.Russell were skippers on the ferries that plied between Halifax and Dartmouth. We moved by train from Halifax to Baltimore and there we joined our brand new liberty ship "Sampenn" built by Bathlehem Steel Corp. Sept. 1943. The liberty ships were named Sam after "Uncle Sam" and the abbreviation of various American states, in our case Perm for Pennsylvania. We loaded stores and ammunition at New York for Brindisi -
where we arrived Oct/Nov. 1943. As there was no berth available, we were allocated a temporary berth at mooring buoys. The berth was very close to an airfield that was used for delivering supplies to Tito's Army in Yugoslavia. The danger of such missions was very apparent, a pranged Halifax bomber lying off the runway. Shortly after we had rung R.F. W.E. an R.A.F. sergeant and two airmen arrived on board to collect our barrage balloon, which was moored to our aft mast. The next thing I heard was Barney Magill our Chief Officer asking the Sergeant "Sweet heart would you like a cold beer"? I thought hello hello what is the Chief Officer up to now because this was his normal approach when he wanted a big favour, as a cadet I had done a lot of extra hours with the same approach. Barney Magill was a real character, he was from the Isle of Magee and had a very sallow complexion, the Spanish Armada springs to mind. Negotiations were completed over a.cold beer and several bags of our galley coal were loaded into the RAF launch, the following day the nose of the crashed bomber was hoisted on board the "Sampenn". Of course the big question on board, what the b—— hell was the Mate going to do with that When we got alongside, the discharging was done by men from the RASC. It was not long before the sweetheart approach was made to the Capt. RASC in charge. Our tween decks all carried ammunition and therefore the steel decks and ship's sides were lined with T & G wood laid on 2" x 2" bearers, a well constructed magazine. Quantities of the wood were landed ashore. Our Chippy disappeared ashore for several days. The reason was quite simple, an ENSA party was due and Chips was constructing a stage with beautiful T & G and 2X2 bearers. Ah what did the good ship gain out of all this? The liberty ships had an upper and lower bridge with telegraphs, phones, steering etc. duplicated. The lower bridge was faced with a 2" mixture of pitch and stone chips that gave protection against bullets and shrapnel, it was quite useless for navigational purposes and was therefore never used, except for the chartroom. The upper bridge was open to the elements, except the wheelhouse, which was covered with canvas. It was now that Barney's grand scheme came to light. The Perspex windows from the nose of the crashed bomber were carefully removed and Chips set to and built a magnificent wooden wheelhouse using all the wheeling and dealing equipment. He also built wing dodgers and a small chartroom all on the upper bridge. When we returned to

the USA the_New York pilot asked Capt Ellis where we got the wheelhouse built, as it was the best he had seen. He was flabbergasted when the Master informed him, the ship's carpenter had built it. So the "Sweetheart" approach certainly worked very well for Barney and the "Sampenn".
At New York we loaded military stores for Alexandria and Port Said .En route when north of Bone we were attacked by Heinkel torpedo bombers. Originally there were 12 bombers, however 7 were shot down by our own fighters. The "Sampenn" was an outside ship on the port side of the convoy. One torpedo bomber ran parallel to us. Of course we were closed up at the guns. I was the breech man for our 4" LA/HA gun. The drill was Lofty, from London, DBMS naval rating received ammunition from the ammunition lockers manned by two DBMS ratings. Lofty then rammed the shell into the gun, I then closed the breech and put the setting to fire, I shouted ready fire, the gun trainer an gun layer swung gun on to the target. The gun layer when satisfied that the gun was gun on the target pulled the firing lever. On this occasion I am afraid the ammunition suppliers were nbg and were cowered behind the lockers. Lofty and I swore at them and I said never mind the US b——'s grab the ammunition which Lofty duly did and rammed it into the gun, I quickly closed the breech and set it to fire—I then shouted at the P.O. gunner if it is the last thing you do fire this!!!!!!!! gun, poor sod he must have been shaken with my shouting and duly fired the gun, well the shell burst in front of the Heinkel torpedo bomber — end of story. The gunlayer was a P.O. R.N. (DBMS) from Wales and the gun trainer was L/CPL. Maritime Regiment R. A. (DBMS) from Edinburgh.
After discharge at Port Said we returned to the U.S.A. to load military stores for India (Calcutta). Our voyage was more or less incident free except, back to the gun again. We were carrying out a practice shoot with the 4" LA/HA gun in the Red Sea. Usually an empty oil drum with a flag was dropped over the side and at an appropriate distance the Gunnery Officer, generally the ship's Second Officer, would order fire. On this occasion I had set the breech to fire. The P.O. gun layer got the drum on target and pulled the firing lever, alas nothing happened — we went on to the still misfire routine i.e. do nothing meantime. All of a sudden the gun fired !! The recoil hit me on the right arm-I

thought oh oh it will be broken. Then I saw Lofty the ammo holding his hands over his eyes, I thought gosh he is blinded, all this in a matter of seconds and it only took a second for Lofty and I to realise we were O.K. .Very wisely the 2/o then made us fire the gun at the target again. After bunkering at Aden, at that time and up to late 1970's a very busy port, as all ships proceeding East or West called there for bunkers. To continue after leaving Aden and proceeding along the Gulf of Aden, we had our torpedo nets down. The nets extended P & S from the end of No. 1 hatch to the fore end of No.5 hatch and to a depth of 25 ft, approx. the nets were held in position by four booms, 2 on either side extending out about 15 feet. During the midnight to 04.00 hrs. watch the DBMS gunner (private maritime gunner R.A.) who was the lookout on the port wing of the bridge was reported missing. A search of the ship was made with no success. At first light we retraced our course and also hoisted the torpedo nets for examination, alas we never found the unfortunate lad.
We called at Colombo for stores, water, etc. and also to form a convoy for our voyage to Calcutta. When the convoy was forming outside Colombo the Captain asked for the convoy documents to verify our position in the convoy. I went into the chartroom for the papers. The paper on top was the secret recognition code for the next four days. Well as I was handing the aforesaid over to the 3/O a waft of wind blew the recognition paper over the side!! Well the look of consternation on both our faces must have been something to behold and who was going to inform Capt. Ellis!! Poor man he turned ashen white when he was informed. The S.O.E. destroyer came abeam of us and the situation was explained —we were allowed to proceed—a wee bit humbled On completion of discharge at Calcutta we loaded a general cargo, tea, gunny, etc. for Glasgow. We arrived Glasgow June 1944 almost 11 months from our dep. from Greenock. So ended my Cadetship. After a period of leave I attended the Royal Technical College Glasgow in preparation to sit my examination for Second Mate (F.G.) certificate.

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