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Dundee R.N.V.R.

As there were no trades in Dundee RNVR I joined as a seaman - everyone wanted to get into the act. We attended drills at the "ship". Pulling an oar is a skill which we practiced. At that time strollers would watch mixed level of skill and get some amusement from seeing an occasional fall from the boat boom or Jacob's Ladder resulting in a wet bottom by landing in Earl Grey Dock. Knots and splices, bends and hitches were skills acquired.

Gathering Clouds

Things became more ominous politically and it seemed that words alone would not settle this one. Poland was the next endangered country - Britain had a mutual agreement with France to assist. Hitler tore up the Munich Agreement and in September 1939 crossed into Poland. Prime Minister Chamberlain announced on Sunday morning, 3rd September that Germany did not withdraw so we were at war with him. My kit was at home and here we were in sight of the docks and nobody had come for me! It became a matter of patience as the Reserves were called to Portsmouth, working from the southern depots, northwards as we could be processed. Would I miss it?

Shortly afterwards, I suffered an accident at work and on return from D.R.I. complete with sling, found that I was to report that evening for a medical exam. I got cleaned up with some difficulty and went to the Unicorn asking if I might report sick at Portsmouth. The doctor humoured me, removed the emergency dressing and said I should come back in a month. Thoughts of a quick finish by shipmates and missing it after all. When I went back after a month, this doctor had been mobilised and the locum asked how I was, to show him, with plaster wrapped round the offending digits, a quick flex on his blind side and I was set for Pompey. To this day I still have not got full use.

Victoria Barracks - Joining routine, medical - were there 2 blind doctors in the Navy or did I flap the fingers of the good hand? Drafting Office - detailed for Ship B3 didn't look much like a cruiser to me, actually it was a liner on arrival in Glasgow - here 7 x 6" guns were fitted to now she was a cruiser (unless we met a real one).

Trade Test

I applied to transfer to Trade. We were a mixed lot, living on starboard side us seamen 2/- perhaps 3/- a day, reservists stiffened by a few regulars and naval pensioners who were not chuffed at ceasing to be postmen or whatever. On the port side were the Merchant Navy, firemen, greasers, cooks, stewards, a sail maker a lamp trimmer. The engineers were merchant on a T124 Agreement at merchant rates of pay (plus we heard, danger money). What danger did they fear from us? Time might tell if we let them down.

Armed Merchant Cruisers

Armed merchant cruisers had mixed fortunes in WW1 and this continued in WW2 where they suffered losses with some Dundee men in them. At one time they were taken in to port and spaces unoccupied by passengers in her new guise were filled up with empty oil drums - this to give us a bit more flotation time if/when we got the knock.

HMS Wolfe (named after the hero of the Heights of Abraham Battle with French Canada) had previously been a Canadian Pacific liner - 16,500 tons, anti aircraft defence 2 x 3" guns and 2 stripped Lewis guns. We did gunnery drill and set off on our first trip to the ice on the Northern patrol. A number of these ships patrolled in lines, occasionally sighting adjacent ships. I was helmsman/bridge messenger and could snatch a look at the chart to see where we were. One of our early trips was clearing the Minches northwards, trips lasted about three weeks. A seaman (Dundee RNVR from Mid Craigie) reported sick. The doctor checked him and we carried on. By the time we got back to the Clyde he was transferred to a hospital ship and on return from next patrol, he had died. Then we saw a naval tradition carried out. His kit was auctioned and the proceeds passed to next of kin. An item may be bid for and put back in again more than once. At the end everyone had given what they could.

These patrols with a view to stopping cargos reaching the enemy entailed stop and search and if needed we put a prize crew aboard and sent her into port. The skills of Earl Grey Dock were put to good use. Signals might come in, coders would decipher them, then we could find only too often another AMC sunk. We could not detect them but they could hear us. We used paravanes in shallow waters to cut the mooring wires of mines for sinking.

Attack

An aircraft shadowed Wolfe for some time and attacked from masthead height. A bomb, which had had no time to nose down, landed flat in the scupper. As an ex liner there were gates in the rail for passenger access. The ship鈥檚 bugler and 2 others managed to lever it out over the side. He was a Glasgow R.N.V.R.. The German plane banked to near wave top and escaped.
Normal duties meant 4 hours on and 8 hours off. 4pm - 6pm (1st Dog Watch) and 6pm - 8pm (2nd Dog Watch) meant that no one worked the same hours on succeeding days. Call outs at any time meant "action stations" with all guns manned. There were also depth charges to be released over the stern should a U-boat be sighted. This was a weapon more suitable for destroyers/corvettes with more speed to escape from the impact area of their own charges. Signal men and telegraphists and coders formed the communication branch. Internal communication was by tannoy broadcast or to gun positions by headset via the crew communication number. Initially this was my post on 3" anti aircraft gun till one day our loading no. had his hand smashed in the breach. We had a commissioned gunner who patrolled the upper deck with revolver to ensure no post deserted. My job was headset, however the gunner made it clear that everything was everyone's job - nobody queried trade union rights! So I became instant loading no. As I did not wish to have my good hand damaged I became fairly nimble getting it out of the way. We managed close to 30 rounds per minute which was, I was assured, not bad. All work no play apply too so we had a concert party which did a show every trip. Among our numbers were 2 who had brought their accordions, a couple of violinists and the lamp trimmer who played the concertina with one hand like a yo-yo, always a couple of comics and singers , after the show the wardroom gave us drinks, my drink was ginger ale then, so they did not incur tremendous costs on my behalf.

Church ladies and others knitted scarves, gloves, helmets etc., which we had great need of in Arctic waters, we were asked to write a thank you if an address was included, having done so letters were exchanged. In my case the lady concerned was the first person to contact me during the extreme times in the Far East when were left with only Australian Red cross comforts to wear and, our rescuers having donated every spare scrap to us, we still had to buy some of our own clothing.

Patrols often took us up North to the ice barrier in desperate conditions. If the weather was very severe (worse than the usual) "dodging" had to be resorted to. The ship had to keep its head up to the weather or fall off beam on. Inevitably we made slow way, till one time we had to either turn around or run onto the ice. Orders were given "the ship will come about in 30 minutes time", so we tried to secure anything that was likely to move. Next order, this one on a shorter timescale, was "the ship will come about". We had acquired a lot of ice top weight so when the wheel was put over, the ship keeled over to the point where a question entered many minds - would she right herself or continue to roll? Many previous seal and whale ship ships out of Dundee found a different answer from ours.

Armed merchant cruisers had no better fate in the 2nd war than in the 1st. They were used for other purposes e.g. trooping and submarine depot ships. Losses caused this change of policy. It was announced one day when I was on leave two of them, "Patroclus" and "Laurentic", had been sunk by U-boat. There were other losses such as "Rawalpindi", "Voltaire", "Foylebank",
"Transylvania". A number of Q ships were also among the casualties.

Losses
Over 40 members of R.N.V.R. East Scottish were lost in WW2.

Transfer
My application to take a trade test led to me joining a group after some delay and I was sent to HMS Sultan at Portsmouth. We were allowed a set number of hours to complete a test piece and, despite air-raids and no allowance for lost hours, I was accepted as an Engine Room Artificer.

Len Stevenson via Dundee Central Library

EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE: Len鈥檚 account has been particularly difficult to transcribe and certain passages have been deleted to preserve continuity. Corrections have been confined to that which may assist in understanding the piece and any resulting errors are the responsibility of the editor.

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