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Harold Taylor had been called up to join the Merchant Navy in October 1943, his first voyage being to Gibraltar. At the tender age of 17 Harold's second journey was to Dakar before returning and boarding the SS Empire Treasure bound for Sydney. Here Harold tells us of this trip:
We arrived off Liverpool after our trip to Dakar, somewhere around 20th July 1944. We found that we were destined for Manchester, which meant using the Manchester Ship Canal. Evidently this was the first time this ship had done so, because our funnel had to be shortened. The entrance to Liverpool was a rather protracted affair. First of all we came under the Mersey Harbour Control who used their own signal system by means of the lingaphone speech apparatus. This was a combined voice and head set, but the microphone was through soft pads that fitted round the neck and the voice transference was by means of the voice box.
We operators had to be on the bridge for this and at the control of the pilot. We proceeded up the Mersey past the Liver Buildings, which I was to see several times later. That evening we arrived at Eastham Locks where, if I remember correctly the slicing off of the funnel took place, then of course they had to fit a flange to both pieces so that when they put to sea again the two bits could be joined. I think this delayed us for a couple of days.
Our progress along the canal was quite slow and the waters where a filthy colour and full of rubbish. I believe our first night's stop was at a village, the name of which I forget. Whatever the stop was that we made that night, it was handy to a pub and we all went ashore and had a few beers and came back in a merry mood and a devilish one.
Almost alongside the vessel were allotments and the 2nd engineer spotted some potatoes growing. This period being the double daylight saving hours, it was light till nearly midnight. We had been on sweet potatoes ever since Dakar, so a raid was made on these potatoes. We scratched away the earth from the plants and took the vegetables, replacing the earth afterwards. Our plunder we took aboard and the engineers roused their catering staff to produce some chips for us which we ate in the chief engineer's cabin.
The next day we proceeded along the canal and had our next night's stop between Irlam and Flixton, they are as you might say twin villages, one on either side of the canal. I believe it was Flixton that we settled in and had a wonderful evening with a great group of villagers. So much so, that the following morning before leaving, we took gifts back to the pub for distribution.
We eventually finished up at Salford, where there was an amazing network of canals between warehouses. We then commenced the formalities of return, with Customs searching the ship. During this process I had a call to go to the dock gates, where I found my brother, Bruno and his girlfriend, Irene, both of whom were at Bangor University at the time.
By some peculiar twist of fortune, when my telegram from Liverpool had arrived home, my mother had interpreted some marking quite erroneously to indicate that the telegram had come from Liverpool, which of course it had. She had got on to my brother and told him I was there and to go and see me. They had both travelled to Liverpool and made enquiries, being told that they were not supposed to know where the ship had docked. In the end they were directed to Salford, having spent all their money in doing so.
We were not in the clear yet, Marconi's office was in Liverpool so the three of us set out for that town, but I do not think we were able to get clear that day. I seem to recall staying at the Merchant Navy Officers Club overnight; this was the big hotel attached to Lime Street station. We were eventually paid off in Manchester on the 26th July.
That summer was an exceedingly fine one, I met many of my old mates who happened to be on leave at the same time and also made friends with the girl I eventually married. Apart from dating Monica, the few memories I have of this leave are half wartime circumstances and half social.
The first of these was my first sighting of a V1 rocket. I was indoors when I heard this notable clatter which I put down to a particularly noisy tractor travelling down the road. Being curious as to why it should be there, I looked out the window and could see nothing so I went out into the street and discovered that the noise seemed to be skyward. I saw this peculiar looking object come over the houses at no great height, probably less than 500 feet, and travelling north west. It was making a noise like a clapped out engine and emitting flames from an engine mounted above the rear end.
This thing was closely followed by a fighter aircraft, possibly a Spitfire. They both disappeared from my view over the houses across the park and a short time later there was an explosion and the fighter returned. I later understood that it was a 'doodlebug' and had been brought down at Funtington. The most usual way for this to be done was for the fighter to get their wing tips under that of the flying bomb and tip the thing over so that it crashed in a convenient area, rather than shooting it down when it may act erratically and crash anywhere.
I had my recall to sea and was to return to Liverpool where I signed on on the SS Empire Treasure on the 15th August 1944. The empire boats came in two categories; firstly either captured boats or boats taken over by the Ministry, and secondly they could be boats that were specifically manufactured for war service and mass-produced in shipyards across Canada and America for the now common war effort. Those of the construction type, as ours was, were usually called Fort boats, but for some reason we were not, perhaps it had something to do with the company that controlled them.
Our company was particularly toffee nosed, so no doubt wished to be different. They were the Port Line, which essentially was the cargo side of Cunard. The officers were white, and the crew, Chinese. The officers were very stand-offish, hardly ever passing the time of day and barely able to acknowledge ones presence. Even the Engineers were hardly approachable, in fact about the only contacts I had were with two engineers. One was the sixth who was on his first trip and only recently qualified from a factory apprenticeship, the other was a likeable lad who was the fifth and I believe enrolled from the Pool.
The apprentices were not a lot better, although two of them were on the their first trip. My complaints do not stop there as the other Sparks were almost as bad, in fact as I write I cannot recall one thing about the Chief. I do remember the second and if I recall correctly, he had been a footman at Buckingham Palace. He was a Scot named Dewar.
One thing that was good about the Treasure was its accommodation. Everybody lived around the centrally constructed bridge and accommodation with the funnel going up through the centre, so everywhere was warm. Another unusual feature was that all the officers dined in the saloon, except that the engineers sat at a separate table to the deck officers, including the Chief Engineer. This gave the impression that the Captain's table was under used and ours was over used. Second and third sparks sat with the engineers.
I did strike up an acquaintance with the apprentices and one other engineer, but more of that later. During our passage to Canada we were aware at one time that the convoy was being waylaid by a pack of submarines, but I suppose by virtue of manoeuvring, we were able to avoid them. The only other significant thing was fog.
Approaching Newfoundland we hit it and hardly saw anything for the next four days. The only contact we had was with the steam hooter. The Convoy Commodores ship would start off the sequence as he held the centre of the front line of vessels and spreading outward from him each leader of the column would sound the columns number in Morse on the whistle. I believe we had 22 columns. Then after each leader had sounded each ship, in turn down the column each ship would sound their number in that column. This process was repeated about every ten minutes, some columns of ships had 7 vessels in them.
Often one would hear very close to us a ship that should not be in the position that it was sounding from, but to the best of my knowledge we never lost any ships from collision or from enemy action. Navigation was still carried out by officers of the watch, such as plotting course etc., but their course was determined by the commodore. One must also remember that we carried no navigation lights, and the only light we were permitted was one faint blue light over the stern. You had to be very close to see it.
There was also very little wireless communication carried out, one only received messages. The world was split up into areas for signals. These were known as BAMS areas. Off hand I forget what the letters meant, but it was something British Admiralty Merchant Shipping. These areas were numbered 1 to 9 and some were split further into a and b and in a couple of cases also c. So whichever area you were in, you listened out for messages in that area.
Anther call sign you listened out for was the Convoy call sign, as well as your own ship's call sign. Of course by virtue of the fact that all ships call signs had been changed, one would not know another ship's call sign unless you had previously sailed in it.
Having received a message you then you spent a long time decoding, which was all done by hand, and you could spend all night decoding a message for your area and find at the end that there was nothing for you to take note of. This could be very frustrating, as could decoding a message for the convoy. There always seemed to be destinations for all ships except your own, leaving you to know where everyone else was going and yourself in limbo.
Harold and his shipmates continued in the SS Empire Treasure past New Foundland, round Cape Cod and onto Quebec then Montreal. They discovered that in Montreal the bars did not allow women, the only place to take a woman for a drink being a nightclub or hotel. Also while there Harold discovered the quality and price of clothes very good and purchased underwear and nylon stockings for his sisters.
From there they set sail for Sydney where manganese ore was loaded on board. Their only past time whilst here was fishing as they were not allowed ashore.
They subsequently arrived back in Liverpool on 21st October and here Harold continues his story:
This time home I renewed my acquaintance with Monica with the added bribes of cosmetics and nylon stockings. The last trip being only a short one, my time was soon up and I returned to Liverpool and signed on the M/V Thurland Castle on the 1st November 1944, little realising that when I returned home the war would have been over for three months.
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