It was a short uneventful passage from Halifax to New York we were met halfway by an American coastguard bleep, this was a powered balloon which they used for submarine spotting. The first sight of America must have been one of the most awe-inspiring sights I had ever seen, first of all the Statue of Liberty in the middle of the Hudson river on Governors Island, the size of it inspired me. I was told by some of the Americans that you could walk around the torch at the top. The American soldiers pointed out many famous buildings like the American state building and the Rockefeller Centre towering above the other skyscrapers on Manhattan island.
We docked at a pier on Manhattan Island and the troops began to go ashore-again there was a terrific welcome for the Yankee heroes. We were among the last to go ashore and we hadn't very far to go, I think it was pier 90 where our barracks were, or at least it was an American naval barracks but they made us very welcome, there were about twenty Royal Navy ratings for different ships, the five of us who had been together since Portsmouth were kept together as it was obvious we were to join the same ship.
After we had gone through the routine of joining the barracks for temporary accommodation and stowed away our kit-bags and claimed a bunk, we started to get ready to go ashore and discover the delights of New York.
I went ashore with two mates, a lad named Wallace from St Neotts and a lad names Howard from Birmingham, we went into a photographers and had our picture taken together but it cost a packet so we decided to be careful how we spent our very little money. As we were walking along looking in wonder at all the wonderful things for sale in the shops, things that were impossible to get in wartime England, a little chirpy New Yorker approached us hand outstretched, "Welcome to Gods own country", he smiled, "just say where you want to go boys and Ill show you around". He could obviously tell we were brand new but we were very wary, we had been warned about con-men. I had reasons to be ashamed of my suspicions after that first night.
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