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Outward Bound
Dunera 1953
We sailed from Southampton on the Dunera 1st
May
1953 bound for Port Said, not being a good sailor I suffered for
the first Four of Ten Days and spent more time not
feeling well (bloody awful Really), when we had boat station
drill which was every day to start with, I was told to sit down
and they would worry about me when and if the ship sank (but I
still had to put my lifejacket on), but after I got some sort of
balance it was quite pleasant in an odd sort of way. I woke up
on the last day and I thought I was in heaven, then it dawned on
me, there was no movement, we were still what a relief but the
smell phew!! on deck to have a look at where we were, I could
not believe my eyes, over the side there were small boats with
Arabs selling things, what they did was to throw a rope up to
the deck, you caught the rope and they would put what you had
bought into a basket on the end of the rope and you pulled it
up, (never tried it myself), but some did, they even managed to
get onto the ship somehow, we disembarked and boarded a train
bound for a place called Ismailia further down the Suez Canal,
but would you believe the Army had forgotten that we were on our
way so we had to march to Moascar, our lorries arrived some
hours later and off we went to Tel-el-Kebir where I spent the
rest of my service. An experience I shall never forget.
Below is a picture of our dinning room as I said before I was not a good
sailor so I did not see to much of this area as I never made it
there for the first four days, oh well !! I also had to have a
tooth out while on board, I found out where I had to go this
officer had a look and yes he said it had to come out he jabbed
me with a needle (well in the army you get used to that sort of
thing) and told me to walk around the deck, when I got back I
sat on a wooden chair this other bloke held my head and then the
dentist
(I think he was a dentist) took my tooth out.
What a
journey.  |
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Homeward
New Australia 1954
This ship was a different proposition to The
Dunera, would you believe we were in a cabin of six not bad that
considering on the Dunera we were on fold up bunks three high on
a troop deck. We sailed from Port Said on Christmas Eve 1954 and
docked in Southampton on New Years Eve, there were quite a few
people waiting on the quayside some of the troops on board were
from Korea and they had relatives there as well as some of our
lads, if you had a relative there they could come on board for a
short time. The journey home for me was a lot better than than
my outward one, it was only on the first day that I was not to
sure what was going on, which was a good thing because the Bay
of Biscay was yet to come, but when we got there it was like a
millpond, was I happy about that.
When we disembarked we had to layout all of
our kit so that customs could pick their way through it, no
worries though not a lot was found, mind you where we were you
could not buy a great lot but we of course did have a few
presents for when we got home. |
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