Part 21 -Tragedy Onboard

After the end of the war in Europe there were plenty of ships to spare and some of the big ones started to come out to the Pacific. Among them were the Victorious an aircraft carrier and it sister ship Illustrious, the battleship Howe and although I didn't  know it then - my next ship the HMS Belfast- the biggest battle cruiser in the navy. On the Lothian we were working our way back to Australia as we were due a refit.
One incident that happened in this period was due to a stupid act by a couple of drunken seamen. We had had shore leave in New Caledonia and when we returned to the ship which was at anchor in the bay, some fool set one of the smoke floats off. These smoke floats were stood on the after deck near the stokers accommodation. When the smoke float was activated the smoke poured down the ventilators into the stokers messdeck. Many of the stokers were overcome by smoke and we dragged dozens of semi-conscious men onto the upper deck. However the next day one of the stokers died, we buried him at sea and we had an auction of his clothing.  This raised quite a sum of money for his next of kin, this was the only way the navy will allow any money to be raised and the custom was that you bought something and then gave it back to raise a bit more money for his relatives.