Description
Object description
British stoker on draft aboard Eumaeus when torpedoed, 16/1/1941; served as stoker aboard HMS Lucia, 1941-1943; served as petty officer aboard HMS Alecto, 1943-1945; served aboard Landing Ship Tank (LST) 3045, 1945-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Manor Park, Ilford and Greenwich, London, 1920-1940: family background and social circumstances; death of mother, 1931; education; various jobs; move to lodgings in Greenwich, 1936; work as apprentice lighterman on Thames, 1936-1940; motorcycle activities; outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; background to volunteering as stoker to join Royal Navy, 18/3/1940, including colour blindness and signing on as regular for 12 years. Recollections of period training as stoker at HMS Pembroke Barracks and Mechanical Training Establishment, Chatham, 3/1940-12/1940: kitting out; barrack accommodation and hammock; role of cooks of mess and food rations; nature of stoker training and question of seamanship training; relationship with recruits and instructors; German air raids and sheltering in tunnels;. Account of voyage with draft and being torpedoed by Italian Submarine Cappellini aboard Eumaeus, 29/12/1940-16/1/1941: nature of ship; boarding ship at Liverpool; secrecy.
REEL 2 crowded messdeck; separation from convoy; recreations; question of lifebelts; effects of torpedo strike, 05.30, 14/1/1941; first casualties under shell and machine gun fire from Cappellini; signal message; final torpedo strike; question of presence of Walrus aircraft; firing 4.7 guns; order to abandon ship and taking to rafts; sinking of ship and story of escape of Chinese crewman from suction; state of survivors on raft; sea swell; sharks; view of marines in sinking lifeboat; attempted rescue of sailor by Walrus; rescue by South African ship; sun burn and blisters; voyage to Freetown, Sierra Leone and transshipping to HMS Furious; treatment; transshipping to Polish ship; re-equipment; question of casualties and role of various officers; voyage aboard Indian ship to Aden; personal morale.
REEL 3 Recollections of period aboard HMS Lucia based at Colombo, Ceylon, 1/1941-5/1943: nature aa submarine repair ship; stokers' mess; duties stoking auxiliary coal boiler; heat exhaustion; watch system; reception on joining ship at Aden; voyage to Colombo; recreations ashore; question of getting married on return to GB; Japanese air raid, 5/4/1942, including bomb damage forward, casualties to submarine crew, damage to other ships and makeshift repairs in dry dock; voyage to Bombay, 4/1942; refit and return to Colombo; promotion to leading stoker; duties in charge of watch and on turbo generator; detachment to East Africa. Voyage aboard HMS Gambia back to GB, 5/1943-8/1943: nature as light cruiser; escape from U boats in Mediterranean. Period aboard HMS Alecto, 12/1943-5/1945: role as petty officer in charge of stokers; role as sloop escorting midget submarines; contacts with midget submarine crews; petty officers' mess; recreations; relationship with officers; leaving ship, 5/1945. Period aboard Landing Ship Tank (LST) 3045, 6/1945-11/1945: voyage out to Malta; VJ Day, 15/8/1945; heat exhaustion and return to GB, 11/1945.
REEL 4 Continues: treatment for effect of heat exhaustion and headaches. Period in HMS Pembroke Barracks, Chatham, 12/1945-3/1946: medical treatment; demobilisation, 3/1946; minimal pension. Post-war career: work as driver and builder; effects of service including skin cancer; story of meeting former shipmate; question of effects of sinking of Eumaeus, 14/1/1941.