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It is pleasing to see the number of pages appearing on the Internet
which
are not only dedicated to the British and Allied Merchant Navies,
but also
devised and operated by seamen or ex seamen or their families.
It is not just the War
Years that we seek to revisit, but now, sadly, memories
of the once great
British Merchant Navy itself are in danger of being eclipsed.
In generating this site, it has been my intention to present
some recollections
of my own short life at sea in the form of a few short
(and some not so
short) stories, and to link up to some other sites
which are dedicated to
the Merchant Navy, and which, over the years, have given
me great pleasure
in visiting and reading.
During my time at sea, I worked on Troopships, Tankers, a Fort Boat,
a Liberty Ship, a Collier (North East Coast Agreement,
where we used Merchant Navy
Food Ration Books, and bought and cooked your own food!)
a Coaster that went Deep Sea, a
Coaster that stayed on the Coast, and a regular Cargo Boat
that belonged to a well respected Shipping Company,
Moss Huthinsons of Liverpool.
I started out in March 1942 as a Deck Boy
(Bugler!) Together with the Galley Boy, the Deck Boy was
surely the most
humble (and humiliating) position aboard ships in those days?
However,
I eventually rose to the dizzy heights of Able Seaman.
I have to state -
indeed, I am happy to be alive and able to state
-
that unlike
some of my less fortunate friends, the only time I got
my feet wet during
the war, was when we were scrubbing down the
decks each morning on the
various troopships in which I served.
I hope you will read my stories,
visit the linked sites, and for those of you who spent some time
"On Articles", I hope you will be able to identify with
at least some of
what I have written.
I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the help and inspiration I have
received from Mrs. Maureen Venzi of Calgary,
Alberta
who by placing my stories on her own excellent page some
two or three years
ago, has inspired me to venture into the mysteries of
HTML myself.
I have just recently completed writing my
most recent story
"My St. Clears Voyage"
which tells about
my second-to-last wartime voyage
in the Spring of 1945. I am in the process
of completing
"...And Just when We Thought It Was Safe!"
which is
about my memorable post-war voyage aboard the
SS Empire Abbey.
I sincerely hope that you will enjoy both
of these new additions to my web pages.
Gordon Sollors
June 28th, 2002
To go to Part One of "My St. Clears Voyage"
PLEASE CLICK HERE.
To go to one of my earlier stories please
click on the links below or go to
"Allied Merchant Navy's" full
Table of Contents Page.
The Peggy
Christmas in America
Steering Lessons
My First Trip to Sea
My Last Wartime Voyage
My pages are maintained by Maureen Venzi
and are part of The Allied Merchant Navy
of World War Two website.
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