BRITAIN’S NEW NAVY

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 December 1940, Page 10

BRITAIN’S NEW NAVY

TYPICAL VOLUNTEER CREW . LONDON, November 1. Men from all trades and professions now man Britain’s auxiliary warships which scour the seas for German U-boats. A year ago many of them knew nothing of the sea; to-day they are professional sailors. One of them here writes of a typical ship and crew. These words are being written in one of the many small auxiliary warships which the Admiralty is now steadily building and equipping. She is one of a new class, and I shall call her “lona,” although that is not her name. She is a sturdy vessel, well armed, fairly fast and likely to give a sticky time to any enemy submarine she comes across, German or submerged or on the surface. To man these ships, the Admiralty has called into existence a new Navy, and the officers and men on board the lona are typical of the sailors who are manning Britain’s small warships. There are three officers. The captain is English, an R.N.V.R., and in his late thirties. Until three years ago he was skipper of a merchant ship in Australian waters. Then he married, and, like many merchant service men who marry, he came ashore. He went into the jewellery business in London, and was doing well, even during the war, but he volunteered, and here he is, back to the sea, in command of a small and deadly warship instead of a large and peaceful grain ship. The first lieutenant, “No. 1,” is an R.N.R. sub-lieutenant. He was an exConway midshipman in the last war, saw service in the Mediterranean, at Dardanelles and at Archangel. After the war he was second mate in the merchant service, and then, when the slump came, he went on the stage. At the beginning of the war he volunteered as an ordinary seaman. Soon he will be in command of a vessel similar to this one. No. 2 is myself. Six months ago I was writing articles dealing with the J map of Europe, pointing out the strategical complications which were presented to politicians and militarists.

Now as an R.N.V.R. sub-lieutenant I am mainly responsible for our ways across the many charts which even a small warship must carry. The lona’s crew are young and tough. No German, seeing these men at work, would ever talk about the decadence of British youth. Most of them were fishermen and volunteers. One came straight from whaling, in which he was making good money, to fight the U-boats. One is an ex-Gor-don Highlander who fought for the Republican army in Spain. One or two are ex-clerks, including one of the stokers. We have already had a foretaste of the winter’s gales. Night watches for look-outs are cold beyond belief, and even the woollens which kind ladies knit and send in such abundance cannot keep out the final bitter slash. But these things are soon forgotten.