Merchant Navy

Look Out: Writing to a Brother in the Merchant Navy

However the biggest disruption took place with the departure of my brother, George Johnstone to the...

Learning: East-Ender becomes Stoker in the Merchant Navy

Learning: East-Ender becomes Stoker in the Merchant Navy...

The Other Navy

Despite suffering great hardships, and frequently coming under fire, ex-merchant Navy men can join the...

My Career and the "Head" Line

Each and every ship that the Head Line had, they went round the coast, and if you went round the coast you...

Mulberry Harbour: Onboard the Tug Boat Kings Cross

In 1944, after many months of towing huge concrete and steel sections all around the British Isles and...

The Acropolis

My friend, the apprentice, and I climbed what seemed to be a long rocky road to the Acropolis and arrived...

My wartime service in the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy by William McGregor

I signed up in the Navy as a T124 rating for two years in an ardent merchant cruiser, "HMS...

Dad's Story - in the Merchant Navy Aged 13

This was during the Depression and there was six to feed at home, with two older brothers in the Army...

Active Service with P & O

Also on board was Margaret Bourke-White, the official Time magazine photographer and Kay Sullivan,...

My Parents' WW2 Story

Five children in our family, without a steady income, as my father, civilian, in the Merchant Navy,relied...

Alone and Torpedoed

The Indian seamen were put on the ship after having been shipwrecked on another ‘Clan’ ship...

Not a British ship in sight

We proceeded via Milford Haven and Gibraltar to the Mediterranean arriving at Augusta Sicily for convoy...

My Wartime Experiences on the Merchant Navy ship "Samselbu" by Capt Michael Furlong

My Wartime Experiences on the Merchant Navy ship "Samselbu" by Capt Michael Furlong. There were V1...

It's over!

The following year we came to Britain, and my first recollection was of standing outside Ilford station,...

Seven Brothers Went off to War

Gunner Ernest Lindfield served with the Merchant Navy on the anti aircraft ships and part of the convoy...

Enemy Action on Merchant Ships

My Uncle Edward, now sadly deceased, was an Officer in the Merchant Navy and served on merchant ships...

Portreath Coasters

At the start of the 2nd World War, I was Master of a Coasting Vessel, the SS Islesman, trading out of...

Bills Story: Postwar Merchant Navy

I joined the ship in Belfast with many others as the ship was being converted from a troopship back into a...

Crossing the North Atlantic in wartime on the Rossington Court

My father was a Merchant Navy captain, in command of Rossington Court. The convoy had a non-Merchant Navy...

The Training Ship - T.S. Vindicatrix

I served three months on the ship before 'passing out' as a merchant sailor who had never been to...

From Desert Sands to a Life on the Ocean

I can not recall its exact date but six weeks later we disembarked at Port Suez in July after a long dirty...

Eve of V.E. Day — loss of SS Avondale Park

He was George Anderson from Tudhoe, Spennymoor, a Merchant Navy Officer and at that time the Chief Engineer...

Memories of the Merchant Navy

My uncle who was born in Ireland, joined the Merchant Navy when he was quite young... Each time he passed...

A Sailor's return

Before the war my father served in the Merchant Navy but in 1939 when war broke out he was called up to...

My Grandads Experiences

My granddad died when I was a baby so if the details to my story are a little vague in places this...

Sinking of the SS Fiscus 1940

Late 1940, two Welsh Brothers Kenneth James Lewis and Raymond Leslie Lewis walked aboard their first ship,...