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My only memory of Lowestoft is that I left Skegness (HMS Royal Arthur) after training as a 鈥淪parker鈥� and arrived at the Nest into a theatre with a sloping floor, devoid of seats. I thought at the time 鈥渋t鈥檚 like being on a sinking ship. Perhaps it鈥檚 part of the training鈥�. One day I was standing on the grassless lawn, with a biting cold wind sweeping in from the sea, when a group of sailors arrived wearing white caps above orange faces. I asked a nearby PO who were they? He replied 鈥淭hey鈥檝e just come back from the Mediterranean. Their faces are an orange colour from the mepacrine tablets they take to counteract malaria鈥�. Standing there in the freezing cold, the idea of being in sunny climes appealed to me. 鈥淗ow do I get to the Mediterranean?鈥� I asked. 鈥淕o to the drafting office and make out a request chitty for a foreign draft.鈥� He replied. I doubled over to the Drafting office and wrote out my request. Who days later I was drafted to Parkstone Quay in Harwich. Casualties on the East Coast at that time were high with a lot of vacancies to fill. I was drafted to the Asdic Trawler HMS Sapphire and stayed with her until she paid off after the war.

There is a lot of confusion over whether were ships were called HMS or HMT and although they were all trawlers they were not all HMT. Before the war the Royal Navy was aware of the threat of U-boats and acquired several patrol vessels based on trawlers, equipped for anti submarine work. Being part of the Royal Navy, they were HMS. (The Sapphire was one). Came the war, the Navy needed more trawlers so the fishing fleet was robbed. I can鈥檛 find out the arrangement whether they were purchased, rented or pinched but they were designated HM Trawlers. The difference is seen in the Pennant numbers. The pre-war HMS vessels (to complicate the issue) had a Trawler Pennant No T27. The later HM Trawler vessels had a Fishery Pennant No. FY45. To add to the confusion, some of the HMS ships preferred to call themselves HMTs.

Also none of our ships were 鈥淎rmed Trawlers鈥�, this was a distinct group of civilian fishing vessels rather akin to DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Shipping). Fishing trawlers were fitted with twin Anti-Aircraft mounted Lewis guns to counter German aircraft raids on the fishing fleet.

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