Description
Object description
Printed account "A Sailor's Life: A Personal Account of Life in the Navy During the Second World War", by Petty Officer John Galt (1923- )
Content description
A self-published ts account (48pp) entitled 'A Sailor's Life: A Personal Account of Life in the Navy During the Second World War', describing his joining the Royal Navy in Glasgow aged 16 (March 1940), going to Douglas, the Isle of Man, for training in the training base HMS ST GEORGE, details of the routine, being based in chalets, moving to the main training camp in Douglas, training in signals and his promotion to Ordinary Telegraphist, 'shore leave' in town, meeting his future wife, being drafted to the aircraft carrier HMS INDOMITABLE then at Liverpool, learning to navigate his way round the huge aircraft carrier, the different ranks on board, joining the W/T Office, sailing to Greenock (October 1941), loading stores, the aircraft joining the ship (Fairey Albacores, Fairey Fulmars, and Sea Hurricanes), his first and only sea-sickness, sailing to Bermuda, then Jamaica (November 1941), INDOMITABLE being damaged by rocks, shore leave in Kingston, seeing carriers in Norfolk, Virginia, USA, receiving the message to commence hostilities with Japan, life on board, crossing the equator (24 December 1941), Christmas in INDOMITABLE, celebrating New Year in Cape Town and being late back to ship, crossing to Aden, loading Hurricanes at Port Sudan, sailing for Singapore but crossing instead to Surabaya in Java, sailing back to Sudan, sailing to Trincomalee, Ceylon, joining the Eastern Fleet with Rear Admiral Boyde on board, being on action stations, losing friends from his training days in various ships during the fighting, getting the news from the BBC, sailing round the Maldives, arriving in Bombay, shore leave, the Navy canteen, INDOMITABLE sailing to attack Vichy Madagascar, sailing to Mombasa, Kenya, examination for Telegraphist, then Leading Telegraphist, and his promotion, sailing to the Mediterranean to take part in Operation Pedestal, a convoy to supply Malta (August 1942), rigging a jury aerial from the yardarm, seeing HMS EAGLE hit and sunk, his action stations in the central communications office, hearing the battle but not seeing it (12 August 1942), an explosion setting fire to the wireless electrics, taking the code books to the deck and the remote control office, seeing the devastation from the bombing, casualties and burials, sailing to Liverpool for repairs, drafting to Portsmouth Signal School, evacuation to a holding camp for draftees, Stockheath Camp, going by train to Greenock with ACV24 draft, sailing in RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH to Nova Scotia, Canada, by train to the US, to HMS ASHBURY PARK, New Jersey, his job as assistant to the Master-at-Arms Office, shore leave and being adopted by families in Newark, Christmas in New Jersey, travelling by Pullman train to Portland, Oregon, to join the escort carrier, HMS RAVAGER, ex-pat families looking after them, the ship being finished, details of the crew and captain, descriptions of the ship, sailing to Seattle, sea trials, sailing through the Panama Canal, arriving in Norfolk, Virginia (June 1943), deck-landing training, seeing Grumman Avengers landing as well as prangs and ditchings, shore leave in New York, RAVAGER loading up with Corsair fighters, sailing in convoy HX248 to Greenock, RAVAGER being used to train air crew landing on US built carriers in the River Clyde, descriptions of accidents, crashes, and some fatalities, a mistake leading to the wireless mast being unsecured and falling down when entering Lamlash, small Army spotter planes landing, a collision damaging the RAVAGER, sailing to Gibraltar then to the US, picking up fighters and transporting them to Belfast, sailing on to London, staying with a friend in Bermondsey, experiencing a V1 bomb, returning to the Clyde for more deck landing training, promotion to Petty Officer Telegraphist, the end of the war, and ends with his leaving RAVAGER which returned to the US. Throughout he gives anecdotes relating to sports, naval parlance, Fulmars getting lost near Jamaica and ditching, meeting a fellow Scot from his home town, a plane crew getting stranded on a desert island near Madagascar, and a destroyer allegedly not getting his signal leading to trouble, and the account is illustrated with copies of official Admiralty photographs of RAVAGER.
History note
Cataloguer SJO