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Bill Brown
‘From 16 I was in the merchant navy, so I was away pretty early. Two years before that I was in Galashiels. I was 16 when I joined up, I was 14 when the war started and I couldn’t get intae anything but the army cadet force, so that’s what I did.

I was in an oil tanker, and that was one of the most dangerous jobs ye could get, because if ye were hit ye had no chance. But I got away wi’ it. I went to New York, but they wouldn’t let you take money out the country so I was there without a penny tae spend, couldn’t dae a thing about it. We were loaded up wi’ oil, and when I came back I joined another ship which was a munitions ship, and by that time I was down at the Mediterranean so it was all bombs and shells.

I was in the navy five years, I joined when I was just a kid really, didn’t know what I was doing. We had quite a job with U Boats — I was on a convoy and we had four ships sunk in one night with the U boats — and luckily I wasn’t on one of them.

I saw the ships going up, I saw the flames, but I never saw the U boat, just the damage they did. I did actually see one when the War finished, but that was different. I did two routes — the North Atlantic and the West Coast Africa.

You had to sleep with your gear on. I was just a kid, didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but I got away with it.

This ship I was on was called a map ship. It was a tanker but it had a deck on it. The Americans put planes on it, and that was it.

I probably went to the pictures, I can’t remember — what else could you do, I was only a kid, I couldn’t go to a pub or anything. When you got off you didn’t want to go back, but at that age you don’t know what the dangers are. I didn’t feel scared, that’s the stupid thing, I just took it for granted. We were all young and didn’t know much.

I think my Mother worried about it but my Father was an old soldier and he didn’t care. We had rations to begin with, but I wasn’t at home so it didn’t affect me. It wasn’t that bad really, it got worse of course but I was away. We were well fed in the Navy, we were bringing the food in.

I was in Naples when it blew up, there was a munitions ship sabotaged, and I was in an oil tanker right next it when it blew up. We were always in danger anyway.

I met an awful lot of friends — some of them were killed and some of them just disappeared. I don’t keep up with any of them now. It could be brutal at times, and things happened — it was the Merchant Navy I was in, not the Royal navy and there wasn’t the same discipline.

At VE day I was on a ship near Sunderland, and everybody else had gone ashore so I was stuck there on my own. I got the short straw — somebody had to stay aboard and that was me! On VJ day I was at sea, can’t remember much about that. I was at sea and it was just another day.

You had three watches — they went from 12-4, 4-8 and 8-12, and it depended what watch you were on. The ship had to be maintained and they also had what they called field days and you had to work two days a week for nothing, you could be shovelling coal or anything like that that they wanted you to do, and you had to do it. You didn’t get paid for that.

I hardly saw the captain, I was away down there, and he was away up there! I didn’t know him. I wouldnae know him if I had met him! There were 80 people on the ship, but you never met he captain. During the War when you went to America you went down by the Azores and South America to dodge the U boats, so it was difficult to know where you were — I’ve been places I don’t even know I’ve been!

I joined the Fire Brigade after the War — it was kind of the same sort of thing. I felt different — once I finished with the merchant navy I was all for going back because I didn’t know anything else. Luckily my parents talked me out of it, because the merchant navy was nothing after the war, so that was that.

Being in a convoy if you got torpedoed, in a convoy a ship couldn’t stop to pick you up or anything. Seeing that was one of the worst things that happened — I was only 16.

I think when I first joined the Merchant Navy I went to a training ship, I didn’t like that at all — it was pretty hard. You were on a ship, you didn’t know what was going on really, that was your world. I was in a tanker, which if you got hit would’ve gone boom, but I didn’t know.

When you went to America you got no money at all- you could go ashore, but with no money what was the point. I went to see New York to see it, I was in Staten Island and the Empire State Building. I must’ve got the money from somewhere. I didn’t think a lot of the Americans — I still don’t — they’re bumptious, and they know it all! Don’t like them!

It wasn’t for the British Empire — it was for myself as much as anything. It was just what everybody was doing so I did it! The British Sailors Society advertised for somebody to sponsor in the Merchant Navy and I put my name in and I got picked. I think I got picked because there was nobody else there. I just wanted away and that’s what happened. I’d gone to school at Glendinning Terrace and the Academy. We all joined Army Cadets at 14, and we were taught to do things which was silly, but if we’d been asked to do it during the War we’d have done it — like attacking a tank with nothing but an iron rod! — and we’d have done it! It was a funny time.

We knew war was coming because we were given gas masks before the war broke out so we know there was something happening, but we were just kids and we hadn’t a clue!

(Collected by SBC Museums)

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