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A Look at Life in The British
Merchant Navy in the Forties


Blue Line No 2
Anchor


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

Blue Line No 2

My pages are maintained by Maureen Venzi and are part of The Allied Merchant Navy of World War Two website.