大象传媒

By the summer of 1943, I had reached the dizzy heights of L.A.C. (Leading Aircraftman) and had already experienced some of the adventures I would like to record whilst on the crew of HSL 2554.
There is a photograph on me on the bridge at Newlyn, wearing a great bandage around my head, which solicited murmurs of sympathy wherever I went, but I often had to 'come clean'....
The fact is somehow I had acquired a large cyst under my left ear, and was sent to the West Cornwall Hospital to have it lanced. This minor operation was performed easily and quickly by the experienced staff, but when it came to dressing the wound, I think the nurses decided to go 'over the top'! Instead of a small plaster, which would have been quite adequate, the nurses used a full roll of bandage to wind round and round my head - which had the effect of making me look badly damaged. With my uniform cap on top of the bandage, the result was quite comical...
Regarding the photograph, the old 'Gaiety' cinema can be seen in the background, but has been replaced - many years ago - by a restaurant. It is a fact that if there was a call-out during the showing of a film, the management would flash a message on the screen calling any off-duty men back to the harbour..
The four H.S.L.'s based at Newlyn were always moored alongside each other, with the 'First Duty' boat on the outside, with full crew on board, and engines regularly started so we were always ready to go to sea. When the first duty boat went out, the boats all moved up so that the 'ten minute' boat became the first duty boat, the one hour boat became the 'ten minute' boat and the 'four hour' boat became the one hour boat. This was the plan, but all to often the plan had to be abandoned if the demand for boats was too great.
In effect, the crews were never completely off duty. Although those on the four hour boat came closest, they all had to leave details of where they were going - or where they would be - if required.
One of my minor jobs was to use the station bike to go to Penzance to let our Skipper know when he was wanted...
At one time, we were called on to do two weeks at St. Mary's on the Isles of Scilly, followed by two weeks at Newlyn, during which time we came to know the rough seas between the two places all too well. During my last spell at St Mary's, we were called out to a Hampden that had crashed not far out, and we were successful in getting all the crew. The following morning the pilot came to the harbour, asking if he could have his 'maps and foreign money' back, please, as otherwise he would be in big trouble. Discreet enquiries revealed that one of the crew - a time-serving airman -had mistakenly thought the missing document were 'Craven A' cigarettes! Understandable, since the package was contained in a red cellophane covering which closely resembled the cigarette packaging! The missing items were duly returned to the relieved pilot, who left us with the light-hearted comment that he would rather have been picked up by pirates! (I think he was joking!)

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