I meet the "SS Grodno" and the Cook!

This story was recounted by Bill Dixon, and has been added to the website with his permission by the staff of Blackpool Central Library.

This story is my memory of my first deep-sea trip in the “GRODNO” — an ugly name for an ugly rusting hulk of a ship — hi-jacked on her way to the breaker's yard, in 1939, to do another trip or two for King and Country.

I was to be Assistant Cook to the scouse ship's cook who, I believed, was also hi-jacked on the way to the knacker's yard.
This balding beer-bellied, multi-tattooed, always sweating and scratching figure of a man was my food guru — his yellowing eyes and florid features bore witness to many years of booze abuse.

His knowledge of hygiene was only matched by his command of conversational English — his sentences were limited to 6 or 7 words and liberally interspersed with the F word, which he used with great forcefulness invoking the Holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

As assistant cook, and having served in FIRST CLASS hotels, I looked to him as my master of Haute Cuisine. I’d looked around the parts of the ship that concerned me — Bunk, Galley, FOOD STORES (a dangerous walk down aft) and a close study of the aforesaid ship’s cook I had to work with. I’d seen all that and I didn’t like one teeny bit of the picture. Things looked rough and would get rougher before many days had passed…

We set sail on the morning tide, out of Liverpool, to the convoy rendezvous point off Oban — a misty grey loch filling with all types of merchant ships. The only sound in the still mountain air was the shifting of the anchor chains to get more comfortable, while we waited for orders.

We all set sail the next day, in some disarray, for somewhere — we knew nor where — away from these beloved Isles.

[The author of this piece has written a number of other contributions to the People’s War website. They are:

My last day ashore
My first ship — M. V. Wim
Jumping ship then the Ocean Volga
Convoy preparations
A Lancastrian in New York
Thanks Yanks!
Voyage around the world
I meet the "SS Grodno" and the cook!

He has also contributed two poems:

The SS Grodno — one more trip 1939
The last day of SS Kingswood]

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