大象传媒

HMS DRAGON DECEMBER 1939 - OCTOBER 1942
I joined the Navy on 10th July 1939 before war was declared - the whole family was in the Navy and I knew there would be a war and I joined because I wanted to. I wasn't scared because at that age you ae not scared - I was only 19.
The Dragon left England March 5th 1940. I was training between July and December at Chatham Barracks. In our class there were 30 others. I have lost touch with everyone and have no idea what has happened to them. If anyone from that time reads this I hope they get in touch.

March 1940 we sailed to Gibraltar and then onto Malta to continue patrolling the Mediterrean looking for contraband ships carrying anything for the enemy. We often shopped ships and boarded them to see what they had but it was our job to stop the ships trading from the enemy. I was in the engine room at the time - I didn't board the ships. I was a Stoker. The name goes back to the coalships, now called eningeering mechanic.
We were there until June and left via the Suez canal- fairly calm in this area, heading for Mombassa. We did various patrols in the Indian ocean and then went on to Durban. We arrived in Durban around the time of Dunkirk. This was a very depressing news. The morale was quite low but the people of Durban were more worried than we were. The people of Durban would meet us at the docks and take us out for meals etc. I danced with Jan Smutts niece.

There was 'The White Lady' an opera singer and she would meet us at the docks at any time of the day and she would bring a megaphone and sing 'there will always be an England' and other patriotic songs.
I was a country lad from Ipswich - never left the town before and the food experience was very different with lots of meat. I had a tot of rum a day and a few beers on shore.
We were not allowed to play cards and gamble as it was assumed you were a thief - so we 'did not play cards for money'!! Most of the time we were at sea patrolling so kept busy.
We would write letters, but only got mail every two months or so - we had to wait until the mail caught up with us. My sister and dad wrote to me. All my friends were serving.

We never stayed in port for very long - just a few days.

After Durban we went on to Cape Town for boiler cleaning - for a fortnight - we did that job. That was hard work, it was hot, dirty, we had rods and had to push them through the tubes and clean the inside so that the tubes were clean for the steam. this had to be done every 12 months. We always went into Cape Town to do this. We were in 4 watches, one team on and three off for the whole day. So that each team got a turn to go ashore.

Every other day we would go ashore and catch the train from Simonstown to Cape Town and we would meet up with a dog called Just Nuisance - he was great dane and he would follow the sailors to cape town (he got his name because he would get on the train - south African railways objected to him getting on the train so they called him a 'nuisance' where he got his name.
He was first noticed before the war started living with a cafe owner in Simonstown where sailors would call in for a meal and they would make a fuss of the dog and gave him tit bits so he became friends of sailors who wore the round hats.
When Just Nuisance came across a sailor who was very drunk he would take him by the arm and lead him to cape town station. Eventually he was officially enrolled in the Royal Navy as an Able seaman. As far as I know he is the only animal every to be officially enrolled as a seaman. complete with official number and everything an ordinary seaman would have - eg. a billet in the naval camp and also a bed at the Union Jack Club in Cape Town.
Many times I have had Just Nuisance on the train - he would take up the whole seat. He would get off with us at Cape Town and then wander off on his own.

After Cape Town we went to Freetown Sierra Lionne patrolling the south atlantic looking for the enemy. That lasted for six months then back to Cape Town.

In October 1941 we sailed for Singapore where we were given the task of patrolling for enemy. We called in at Pnang. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour on December 7th and we were then at war with Japan. during that period HMS Repulse and the Prince of Wales were sunk by the enemy. We returned to Singapore to take on some survivors. These survivors then made up our crew - we lost some crew to sickness.

singapore was bombed in February 1942 - we engaged with the Japanese aircraft with anti aircraft fire - I don't know if we hit any. After being forced from Singapore when it fell we went to Batavia in Java where we continued patrolling - this continued until the end of february when we left Batavia for Columbo. On the way we were called to a place called Pedang to rescue a group of soldiers who had escaped from the Japanese and were waiting to be picked up. On the way to Columbo we had to dischare the soldiers onto another ship, meet an oil tanker and oil ship. We were then told to rescue a ship that had broken down - the ship was called the Kedder, we had to take her in tow to columbo.
After Columbo we had to tow a high spped target to Mombassa. From Mombassa we continued patrolling until October 1942 when I left the HMS Dragon and went to Petermaritzburg for the PO course.

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