大象传媒

On the 7th of June the long waited day arrived, and at 9:30 am we left the jetty and went into Kure Bay lying at anchor there into 1:30pm. When we said goodbye to Kure for good and steamed out into the 鈥淚sland Sea鈥� en route for 鈥淧oint Dexter鈥� where we were to stay until early Monday morning and then onto Hong Kong on the first lap of the journey home.

It was about four and a half hours steaming to Point Dexter, the weather warm and sunny but there was a very heavy heat haze making visibility very poor. About 4pm we passed H.M.S Anson with her escorting destroyer, she was on her way into Kure, better her than us, I鈥檝e seen as much of Japan as I ever want to see and I shall be very much relived when we see the land of the Mikado fading away astern on Monday.

As I write this we are lying at anchor at Point Dexter, we are about two miles off shore and away in the distance can be seen something of a town. I鈥檒l know more about that after tomorrow as shore leave is being granted. Myself I say roll on Monday lets get away out of here before something crops up at Kure and we have to return.

The following day (Saturday) shore leave was granted so at 1pm I boarded the tug which came out from the shore for the purpose, and went ashore in Japan for the last time. The weather was dull with every prospect of rain when we landed, the place we visited was a small fishing village called Mitsu there was nothing much there though, and on the whole it was just a walk around. I caught the 7pm boat back on board as by the time it had started to rain very hard. Sunday was spent just messing around as it was a terrible day with torrential rain and a high wind. Monday arrived with the weather worse than the day before, we sailed at 9:30am, passing through the scores of islands that dot the Inland Sea, it was about 7pm that Japan disappeared astern in the rain and we were out once more in the wide open spaces with the next stop as Hong Kong where we expected to arrive on Sunday morning.

The weather remained very bad with high wind and rain until Wednesday morning when it began to brighten up and in the afternoon the sun broke through and the sea calmed down considerably. Flying fish flew to and fro across our bows and a school of Dolphin led us on out way at one time for about ten minutes.

About 5pm land was sighted on the pot bow, this turned out to be Okinawa, visibility was pretty poor so we could not see much of it, not that we wanted to having had a good view of it on out way up to Kure. Thursday dawned bright and clear with the sea calm and from then on the trip was very enjoyable, on Friday H.M.S Anson passed us again, this time on her way to Hong Kong, she was doing about 20knots so she arrived there long before we did.

The china coast was sighted about 3pm on Sunday afternoon and we steamed along it until at last Hong Kong was visible ahead and about 7pm we passed through the narrow harbour entrance once more. We dropped anchor well out in the stream just ahead of the Anson and no sooner was the gangway down than the Chinese from the sampans were trying to get aboard.

The following day (Monday) I went ashore to have a look around fully expecting to find things much the same as when we were here before, but quite a surprise was in store for me, Hong Kong is totally different town now, all the small stalls on the streets have gone as so have the markets in the back streets, the place has lost that terrible smell which used to assail one the moment you stepped ashore, now the streets are swept and quite clean and everywhere is organised, to walk along the main street is now very much like walking along a main street in any large shopping centre. The shops are piled high with merchandise of all descriptions, prices are very high and little bartering goes on now. Cigarettes can be obtained at cheaper prices than in the UK out of curiosity I asked the price of ten Players and much to my surprise I found they were only 80 cents with is 1/- so being 4d less than UK prices.

After about a couple of hours roaming around I decided to take a Rickshaw down to the Fleet Club to see how things were in there now. It is quite enjoyable riding around in a rickshaw especially with a bunch of bananas to eat en-route. The Fleet Club is a lot different to what it was on my last visit 5 months ago, now the food is very good and can be enjoyed in comfort and fresh air after a good meal of Ham, Eggs and Chips followed by Bananas in custard I went down to the cinema below where, drinking Ginger ale and eating ice cream I saw a good film, after which I went another walk around and so back on board at 10:30pm.

It was about 9am on Wednesday the 19thy June that we sailed out of Hong Kong harbour for the last time and turned our bows for Singapore 1,450 miles to the south on the second stage of our trip home.

鈥楾his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 war site by Jim Salveson of the CSV Action Desk 大象传媒 Radio Stoke. On behalf of Elizabeth Adams and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

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