Well officially it wasn’t allowed...
in case the picture fell into the wrong hands.
That’s a picture of MS Port Victor, when that was torpedoed,
it was one of those ships that was travelling alone, and was just unlucky to run into a U-boat…
You took this one, did you?
Yes. I had to jump down into the boat and treat some of the wounded.
Some had got damaged by the torpedo, we gave them a bit of morphine before we hoisted them up onto the ship.
They were the only casualties I think with the second torpedo
hit the lifeboats as they were being moored.
So the whole crew and passengers, I think, were rescued from that, we put them up in the wardroom,
148 off the ship, quite a lot, it was a very crowded ship.
When the convoys were being attacked by packs of U-Boats,
the route was going further and further north to escape them
so we were right up among the icebergs and the whales which was rather fun.
That’s a picture of one of the first U-boats sunk by HMS Starling,
she rammed it and dropped depth charges, this was Captain Walker’s ship, in action, yes.
It was actually the real thing then. That might be a unique photograph, in fact.
That is unique because after that they did so much damage to their bows they were in dock,
they were told not to ram U-boats again!
They always needed proof, didn't they? Yes, yes,
and some of it was pretty grisly as well, wasn't it? Yes.
So they lowered the boats, to go and pick up the wreckage,
and I was asked to go in one of these boats, to see if there were any human remains floating around.
I was taking pictures of depth charges going off, and this one went off the moment it hit the water
It’s called a prem, a premature. We had to go into port after that for repairs.
The chances of that happening are so small, and to have a camera in your hand, it’s quite unique actually.
Another occasion we went fishing, we thought there might be a U-boat lying on the bottom in the Channel.
and dropped some depth charges, and the sea was absolutely white with cod,
and all the sailors got out with their hooks and nets, and in no time you hung around
and we all had some wonderful cod straight out of the sea
And when we got back, it was quite sensational, because sinking six U-boats,
this was a time when the tide was just turning, and this was regarded
as the moment where we had really got on top of the U-boats.
That’s the picture I took when we came back to Gladstone dock,
and AV Alexander brought us a message from Churchill, he was a civilian Lord,
what tickled the sailors, he put on a cap, I think it was a bus conductors,
and an overcoat with brass buttons on, and the sailors saw through him.
The Medical Officer was in his bed, and this explosion happened,
and the whole of the back end of the ship fell off
and he found himself lying in bed looking at the sea, an extraordinary, remarkable escape.
We picked him up; he climbed up there, and was unhurt, except he cut his feet on the jagged metal.
And they took him home. No human casualties, and they tried to tow it back, they got a tug there to tow it
and got it back within 40 miles of Falmouth, and a big gale blew up, and she broke up.
All very friendly, There’s something about the sea which unites sailors
We went right up to Murmansk, and that was quite an adventure, to Russia.
There was no drinking at sea, it was a rule, you couldn’t stand the strain, keeping watch, if you had any alcohol,
but when we got back, we made up for it.