Seventeen
 |
I
went aboard a converted passenger ship, “Prince Henry” which was to sail
in two weeks for British Columbia. On the way we stopped at St. Lucia,
and Kingston, Jamaica in the Caribbean. The day after we left St. Lucia,
a ship was torpedoed at the same dock we had just left. We sailed through
the Panama Canal and up to San Francisco. While there we went to Hollywood,
visiting some of the stars, and then on to Esquimault, B.C. After a week
we left for Alaska and the Bering Sea. |
After about three weeks of
really rough weather, it was back to Esquimault again.I had now been in
the navy for one year, and being 18 I got a raise in pay to $37 a month.
I wasn’t used to getting all that money, so I sent $10 a month home. At
18, I had traveled 7000 miles by train, sailed south and through the Panama
Canal and up to Alaska, and now I had to leave the west coast by train
and report to Halifax. This time I was assigned to a destroyer, “Gatineau”
which would be doing convoy duty between “Newfie” and “Derry” (Newfoundland
and Londonderry, Ireland) making about 15 trips across the Atlantic. There
would be lots of enemy submarine activity here. Later we were sent to the
English Channel for ‘D Day’ landings, escorting landing craft and other
ships to France and the landing beaches. Finally, it was back to Halifax
for ship repairs and a well earned leave.
Before too long, I was assigned
to the cruiser “Ontario” which was being built in Belfast, Ireland, so
we had to go across the Atlantic on a troop ship loaded with thousands
of army, navy and air force personnel.
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I celebrated my 21st birthday
shortly after I went aboard the “Ontario. After a few weeks of trial runs
and training we were off to the South Pacific sailing through the Mediterranean
Sea and the Suez Canal, stopping at Ceylon, India - now Sri Lanka and on
to Hong Kong. The war had just ended, Japan had surrendered, so we had
to do occupational duties, living ashore with the Chinese, looking after
“rice line-ups”, and maintaining law and order among the people. After
3 months of this, it was back to British Columbia again, stopping at Pearl
Harbor and Honolulu, Hawaii and then Esquimault.
The war was over so most
of the fellows were being discharged, but not me. I still had 2 ½
years to serve. I was transferred to Halifax, this time going aboard another
destroyer, “Nootka” sailing up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. In the
winter months, we sailed to Bermuda, The Caribbean Islands and Key West,
then back to Halifax. After short time around Nova Scotia, we sailed for
Hudson’s Bay, and were nearly late getting back to Halifax for my wedding
in October, 1948.
I was discharged the next
May - just eight years after I enlisted.
As you sail through life,
I hope that you will always remember what your instructors (mom and dad)
tried to teach you as you were growing up. Show respect for others. Know
right from wrong. Resist temptations.
When I was 14 or 15, I saw
a plaque in a friend’s home. It read, “A good thing to remember and a better
thing to do is to work with the construction gang and not the wrecking
crew”. And your great grandmother used to say, “Good boys make good men”
and “Don’t get your hands so dirty that you can’t wash them off at night”.
I wonder now how my parents
must have felt when I left home at 17 to join the navy. I hope you don’t
have to do that.
Love always
Papa.
Douglas C. Maybee lives
in Truro, Nova Scotia and may be contacted at: dmaybee@ns.sympatico.ca
His web site is
users.eastlink.ca/~carleton
Web Site provided by Baylite
Studios, September,2000
