MERCHANT NAVY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 14 October 1942, Page 1

MERCHANT NAVY

SHARES ROYAL NAVY’S RETICENCE SILENT HEROES CARED FOR IN PORT j Because the men of the Merchant Navy are not organised into battalion or fleets they do not receive many of the compensations that fall to the '• other service. For so long has the Merchant Navy been taken for granted that its men are apt to be forgotten Yet. says a writer in the Melbourne I "Age,” from one year’s end to another , they are unceasingly keeping open the ! sea lanes of the Empire .facing langei l every hour, so that communication) I may not cease, and that trade and the transport of troops and vital war maj terials may continue. 1 These gallant men receive little reI ward, and seldom are recognised except by the comparatively small umber of people who. through the Seamen's Mission in various parts !of the world, realise their heroism _ ‘ and the hardships they endure When a seaman, no mutter to whal country he belongs, sees the familial flag of the Flying Angel—the name by which the mission is known all over the world—he knows he is sure of a warm welcome, refreshment for body and spirit, and that cosy comfort and checi { for which he has been longing since he v i left his home many months, or even i 1 years, before. ' The Seamen's Institute at Port Melbourne and the Central Institute in Flinders street Extension arc the places to hear stories from these men | who sail the seven seas—lf they will j talk, that is—for they are amazingly s | modest and reticent. Take the lad from Liverpool, for | instance. This was his third visit j to the mission in nearly four years. 0 ' It was a cold night, and he was j ; sitting in the cosy lounge reading. L * No one would guess that his ship j j had been torpedoed—it was the last e j thing he would mention. That was i two trips ago. and he drifted in a - lifeboat for two days before being ' j picked up. "When you get hit you ; are afraid for a minute,” he quietly " j admitted, "but once it is all over ' ] you don’t think any more about it. r ; We have got to do our duty.” Then a I he was torpedoed again in the Allani | tic - ar. 1 they were picked up by a dej strove;'. To-day he bears a big sea* .■ j on the forehead and an injured eye f as a vivid reminder. When he went home after his la>t | trip—he had been away for sixteen months—he could not find his home: 3 i there was not a sign of it left, and i j he spend a whole day looking for his r family. At last he found them—his i I mother, two little sisters and his brot j ther—all safely in another house. - I When the bomb wiped out their homo fi they had all been in a communa l 1 [ shelter. WHY HE VOLUNTEERED r j Then there was the Yorkshireman L from U.S.A.. who also came to the - mission every night when in port. He has a wife and little son and a flourishing business in that country, [ but is now serving under the Union Jack to help win the war. He had returned to England, after being . away for thirteen years, to visit his • parents and set them up m business. ? In the last big "blitz” their place 1 received a direct hit, and his pai - * ents and five sisters were killed. Sick i at heart, he was about to return to j U S.A., when the British Admiralty called for volunteers, and, answering the call, he was put on a freighter. ’ On the homeward voyage this ship was torpedoed. Mr "X” was in the . j “crow's nest” when it happened, and f said that derricks and winches flow I past his head like match sticks with : the force of the explosion. "Out of a crew of 47 only four : of us g A out,” he said. When he ! dropped or> deck as the ship was ■ quickly sinking he broke his wrist f and ankle. Diving into the icy North ) Sea. he joined four other men clinging to a raft. "Our chief engineer. 'an elderly man, held on as long as lie could,” he said, “but the poorold chap gave up eventually." They j drifted for 57 hours until a flying . boat sighted them, and a destroyer picked .hem up. "That’s all.” he remarked. j But it was not all really, because | after staying ashore for three months ( > to recuperate, he was on another 1 voyage, and aga’.n was torpedoed in , the North Sea. There is a cosmopolitan flavour I about the institute. One finds various nationalities among those for whom it cares, and all are treated alike—whole crews of ships. British and foreign, as well as individuals, are supplied with knitted comforts, parcels of books and magazines and other good things. SAILOR FROM CHILE From far-away Chile carne a group of six who joined a "free” ship of one of the occupied countries so that they might do their share in winning the war for the Allies, and help to save their own homes from the enemy, as their spokesman said. Tins young Chilean spoke several languages. He had been at sea since he was 16. except for eighteen months in the army for training, and had travelled the world three times. His father and grandfather were chief engineers on ships, and his grandfather,, the oldest Scotsman in Valparaiso when *he died at 98 years of age, was president of a big shipping company. So the sea is in his blood. Yet he vows that, once he gets home again to his wife and baby daughter, he is going to buv a farm and stay on it. Had he been torpedoed o Yes. but he didn't want to talk about it "I was scared." he admitted, with true courage. "but what is the use of thinking about it? If you talk about it you only scare the kids, and we need men for the ships!" The same spirit of service was shown by a young Portuguese, serving on a ship from another occupied country because he wanted to do his bit for the Allies. He had not been home t<> Lisbon for over two years. He was tor- ; pedoed two years ago when on a tank- | was ,hree hol "' s >n the . vater when the burning benzine cov- ! * urface ° f He jumped aft and swam under the water for I thiee hours, coming to the surface now I nnd then to breathe Later he was m the famous Jervis Bay convoy when the raider attacked, and he watched Pie ep.e fight until presently ins ship slipped away i n the darkness P It is men like these who throng he institutes of the Victoria Missions ®°f men,on an average 4000 a month, and occasionally they wilT quietly tell their story, "but with no ™n b T' ad "- Thc mi “’™ has just established a hostel of 30 beds the Merchant ahead and has already put 500 Christ" mas hampers aboard some ships—the first of many—beeause it is unlikely tile men would have any Christmas reminder otherwise.