The Lothian, as I have said was a converted merchant ship and our mess deck was in a converted hold, the ship was just finishing a refit at Brisbane which leads me up to the reason we kept missing the Lothian on our way over from the UK.
Apparently the Lothian had started off from the UK about a week from when we left on the Queen Mary, it had gone to New York and then down to Charleston in Virginia. From there it went to Panama and should have called to San Francisco. However at Panama with the steamy heat of the tropics, the crew of the Lothian had protested at the lack of ventilation in the converted holds, they went ashore at Panama and refused to come back on board until something was done about the conditions. The captain read the riot act and said it was mutiny, he sent armed marines ashore and made the men go back on board. The whole ships company was under close arrest (barring officers and marines). The Lothian then passed through the Panama Canal and head straight for Australia. She went to Brisbane and had ventilators put in the mess decks and the whole ships company was confined to the ship and under a 90 days detention sentence - that meant that any small misdemeanour was committed, the 90 day sentence would be added to the punishment.
That was the situation when the five of us joined the Lothian, we were the only ratings from the lower deck allowed ashore at night, it was not a happy atmosphere. We were all allotted to the radar mess, which was number 10 mess, they were a grand set of lads and they told me that the new ventilators had made a vast difference as it had been unbearable down there during the passage through the tropics.
After about a week in Brisbane we were ready for sea, the final night ashore the locals had arranged a farewell party for the crew, unfortunately due to the stoppage of leave only the officers, some petty officers and marines and we five newcomers could attend. We went of course and had a good night with plenty of eats and beer and some good turns on stage, our mess mates who had to stay aboard were not envious as they knew we were not involved in the mutiny, however it was a sad time really.
When we left Brisbane, we visited Townsville and Cairns in Queensland, the captain allowed shore leave again and I was able to go ashore with my new shipmates, there were some good lads in our mess and it was the first time ashore since Panama. You can imagine that they let themselves go. I remember a night ashore in Townsville when some of the lads had to be brought aboard on stretchers, they were absolutely paralytic drunk.
From Townsville we sailed north to more troubled areas. I remember going through the New Hebrides and New Caledonia and we went ashore in Numea, the capital of these islands. The Lothian was the flagship of Force X, as we were known, this squadron consisted of half a dozen ex-merchantsmen. The ones I can remember were the Glenearn, Empire Spearhead, Empire Arquebus, and Empire Mace. We carried landing craft and troops- some American marines and HQ staff. My job was in the radar plot room, we plotted courses of ships from radar signals and drew their courses on perspex plotting tables. Our first real effort in the war was to land troops near Hollandia in Papua New Guinea. They were only reinforcements as most of the Japanese troops had been cleared out of the area.
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