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Capt. R. Hinton-Browne was in command of the "Clan Maclnnes". He was quite a character. One of the many tasks the cadets were allocated was checking the lifeboat equipment, especially the water casks and changing the water frequently. Also the food tanks containing biscuits, concentrated meat called pemmican. The lifeboats were swung out at sea, Captain Hinton Browne was very insistent that we always wore our lifejackets when working in the lifeboats. If we were caught not wearing them - the threatened punishment would be to bail out a bucket of water with a teaspoon!! The lifeboats were always swung out at sea, for the simple reasons the boats had radial davits and it was a slow task to swing them out from their normal housed position. We did two trips with stores to support the North Africa landings 1942/43. The first trip we loaded at Faslane for a code name Port (Hatton) which was Algiers. On the outward passage when we were about 20' W running parallel to the Spanish/Portugese coast. We were shadowed by Focke Wolfe Condors, a four engine long range plane. Of course that was bad news for us as we knew Mr. Uboat wouldn't be long in locating the convoy. In sheer frustration the escort and the merchant ships opened up with their anti-aircraft guns. However the Condors kept out of range. One evening they returned before dusk and the 3/0 (gunnery officer) Mike Ure ordered the P.O. gunner to lengthen the fuse on the shells for the 12 pounder anti-aircraft gun. The P.O. was not at all happy as it was on the limit of the fuse. A Condor duly returned and we gave him a blast. I think we got near him as he sheared off. Before arrival at Straits of Gibraltar one ship was torpedoed and the night before arrival at Algiers another ship was torpedoed, she managed to beach herself. All in all quite a successful passage.
The next voyage we again loaded at Faslane for Hatton (Bougie). Fairly uneventful passage until evening before our arrival Bougie. Just before dusk the "Clan Macinnes", the'TEmpire Mallory", and a destroyer branched off from the main Convoy of 12,ships who were proceeding to the next Port (Phillipinao) along the coast. Here I should mention the "Clan Macinnes" had the duplicate cargo of the "Empire Mallory" based on a fifty fifty change of one of the vessels arriving intact. I was on the 4-8 watch with the Chief Officer. One of my duties at dusk was to inspect the blackout for whole ship and report back to the Chief Officer (Mr. Lockyer) Well on this particular evening I needed to make a call of nature (sit-down) and I thought I would tell the Chief Officer I may be a bit late after doing the blackout inspection.. However the next thing we heard the engines of a plane or planes approaching, there was low cloud. As I was ship's plane recognition expert, I announced I thought they were single engine planes and therefore more than likely"our own fighters. The Chief Officer announced don't be too sure of that as I've been caught out with that assumption previously. The words were no sooner out of his mouth when the Empire Mallory who was leading ahead of us was obliterated by bomb splashes. Fortunately for us the enemy had spotted the other ships - and attacked them. If they had known it would not have required a bomb to finish us off as No. 1 hold was full of cases of aviation spirit. It only required a blast of incendiary machine gun bullets into the wooden hatches of No. 1 and whoof! End of "Clan Macinnes". During our time in Bougie we had a number of air raid alarms, but no attacks. My gun position was now a 20mm. Oerlikon gun about 25 ft. above the main deck, reached - 2 -
by a vertical ladder. When an alarm was sounded, I had to fight my way along an alleyway to get to the ladder, as the troops (RASC) discharging our cargo were intent in making a rapid exit from the "Clan Macinnes" via the gangway. I complained to the 3/0 (Gunnery Officer) Mike Ure.
He in turn had a word with the Capt. in charge of the troops. The reply was that his boys were getting clear quick as they knew what would happen if a bomb hit the "Macinnes". Strange we never gave it a thought - poor dumb blighters. After discharge at Bougie, we proceeded to New York to load for U.K. Our decks were lined with T & G wood -complete magazines for explosives.A few days before arrival U.K. Four ships capable of 11 knots formed a convoy 3 ships were bound for the Mersey and "Clan Macinnes for Glasgow. On arrival North Channel (Channel between North Ireland and Scotland)about 06.00hrs. we ran into thick fog. I was on the port side of the bridge and the Capt. and C/O on the starboard side. Imagine my surprise when I spotted a fog buoy passing ours at right angles. I immediately dashed to the starboard side to inform the Capt. .The next thing we saw was a oil tanker (""Luminetta") heading for us. She was part of an outward convoy which obviously were unaware of our presence and we certainly had not been warned. We rang full astern on our engines and thanks to the prompt action of the "Luminetta"who altered course but was unable to avoid hitting us on the starboard side forward of the collision bulkhead. This was fortunate for both vessels,if she struck us in the way of No.Hold — it would have been the end of the two ships and all on board.As previously mentioned all our tween decks were full of explosives and as we had our D.G. on (De-Guassing) .This was a system of electrical wiring running round the tween decks to counter magnetic mines, damage to the wiring would have been a disaster. We duly limped up the Firth of Clyde but were not permitted to anchor at the Tail of the Bank. We anchored at Kames Bay Rothesay very isolated and hopefully did not present a hazard to the local area
The aforementioned was probably the nearest to eternity I had encountered and it was not through enemy action. We spent sometime at Kames Bay during June 1943 in very pleasant weather, discharging the explosives into barges. The stevedores were all from the London area and had been transferred to the Clyde.

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