- Contributed by听
- Guernseymuseum
- People in story:听
- Ken Birch
- Location of story:听
- Weymouth Bay
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A7590396
- Contributed on:听
- 07 December 2005
Ken Birch interviewed at home in 2005. Transcribed from CD by John David 24/11/05.
We got on the boat from Guernsey, it was called the Duke of Argyll, I can remember that very clearly, it was filthy, and stank, because it had been used for the evacuation of troops from France, and had obviously been working for a couple of months non-stop, without anyone cleaning or doing anything else. We travelled over to Weymouth, we left in the evening and travelled through the night. The next morning I got up, and one of my cousins, who was a lot like an older brother to me, we wandered round the boat. We were anchored outside Weymouth harbour, as were many other boats, and it was foggy. And we wandered up to the bows, where a sailor was hitting a ship鈥檚 bell, twice, two dings, every now and then. We chatted to him, and he said that was what all the boats were doing, they were ringing to identify themselves because of the fog. And so he said 鈥渄o you want to have a try?鈥 and being kids we said of course we did. So he said 鈥淟isten to when that one sounds,鈥 and he pointed out a particular bell 鈥渁nd then hit it twice after them鈥. He said 鈥淪ee if you can do it鈥 So after we had done it successfully half a dozen times he said 鈥淩ight, carry on鈥 and cleared off. And then there was a lot of hooting and shouting from the various boats, and into view came the Courier, which was a small boat with a tall funnel which used to travel up and down to Alderney, and that had now made the journey across the channel by itself, and that went past us, and obviously went somewhere to Weymouth, and a little time later they all made more noise, because this time it was the Joybell, and that was the boat that used to go to and from Sark, and that was a small boat with a funnel, and it was very much like a miniature liner of those days.
Now maybe in memory I鈥檝e got it wrong, it may have been the Joybell first and then the Courier, but I think it was the Courier first.
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