One of the nicest surprises of my leave was meeting an old friend from the Lothian. Bill Glenton had served on the Lothian with me and I had written a few letters to him, we had also met in Hong Kong when I was on the Belfast and he was on the destroyer Cossack. We had exchanged addresses and promised to call on each other if ever we were in the area. Anyway he happened to call at my mothers while I was on leave so we were able to have a good chin-wag. My leave was soon over and I headed back to Portsmouth, after a week or so I was sent for and told I was to be drafted to HMS Howe, a battelship.
The Howe bay at anchor at Portland Bill which was near Weymouth, strange that my last ship had been named Portland Bill. The Howe was turned over to peacetime routine and was crewed by mainly National Servicemen, these were young lads that had been called up after the war to do two years in the forces. The total crew of the Howe was about 2,000 and it was like a small town on board. I was allocated to mess 98 which was all older able seamen. The leading seamen of 98 mess was named Bob Tilburn, he came from Leeds and he was one of three survivors from HMS Hood which had been sunk by the Bismark with the loss of 1,800 lives. He was a nice chap and I got on well with him, he told me that he owed his life to wearing three overcoats and being on deck when the Hood was blown up, he was blown clear and floated with air trapped in his clothing until picked up.
Life on board the Howe was pretty dull, my duties were Bosuns Mate in harbour and in charge of radar watches at sea. I had been called into the ships office and told that I would have to go in for leading seaman as I had a second class radar rating and the leading seamen on the Howe had only had third class ratings, this made me the only able seaman with a second class rating on the ship. I said I wasn't interested in being a leading seaman as I was awaiting my demobilisation.
We stayed in Portland for Christmas and I had a few good nights ashore in Weymouth. I was in the ships football team and we had one good match against the prisoners in the borstal institution on Portland Bill. I think they beat us, but it was a good game. The winter of 1946-1947 was one of the severest on record and we spent a lot of time clearing snow off the decks and chipping ice off wires.
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