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Location
At Sea
Age
17 Years

29th October 1940

CURED BEEF

When I went on watch at 1am it was much quieter. By the morning it was xxx than ever! She took seas over the foc’sle, in the well deck, amidships – in fact she took them everywhere. All four life boats are smashed; two of them being carried completely away, the other two being unusable. Sections of the bridge and lower bridge are smashed in. Everybody’s rooms on the lower decks are washed out; sections of the railings have been washed completely away; the stern steam pipe casings have been broken and the D.C. is coming adrift again. One raft was lifted bodily off the deck by a huge wave as our foc’sle went under; then as we rose, down she came with a smack. It is now useless. Going on at the rate we are, we shall have to put in at Montreal for a month or so!

The worst experience was at midday. I received a distress message from the “Homeside”. She was torpedoed 50 miles from us, and we were heading in that direction. Then one of the tankers from the “lost” convoy, signalled by lamp, but it was impossible to read accurately, for she was at a great distance and great waves kept intervening. We think she had sighted the sub. We didn’t particularly relish the idea of being torpedoed, with no life boats! Everybody was glad when night fell!