We dropped anchor in the Clyde near Gourock, this was the very spot from which I had set forth on my trip around the world over two years beforehand. The weather in late June 1947 was magnificent- it looked as if we were going to get a good summer following that terrible winter. I enjoyed my stay in Scotland and we had some great nights ashore in Glasgow. There was a big dance hall in Sauchiehall Street, I think it was called Barowlands or something and as always we ended up there on a night out. We stayed three or four days in the Clyde, then we headed over to Ireland. We dropped anchor at the bay off Bangor in Northern Ireland. Bangor was a smashing little port, it was strange to see a coal jetty in the middle of a holiday resort with an old fashioned crane off-loading a collier into horse-drawn carts - but this only seemed to add to the charm of the place. There was a lovely park there-just near the sea front and I met a nice girl there while walking on a lovely sunny afternoon. Her name was Elaine and she came from Stoke in England. I took her out a few times over the next few days and I showed her around the Howe on visitors day, we wrote to each other over the next few months and I saw her once again in Buxton after I was demobbed.
The only thing that I didn't like in Bangor occurred on July 12th, up till then that date had no significance to me but I was out with Elaine walking in the park in the afternoon of that day when a procession of bands and marchers came walking through the park, they stopped and started making speeches and banging drums- it was Orangemens Day and the bowler-hatted umbrella carrying union-jack toting mob were screaming our defiance of the Pope and long live protestant Ireland, it all seemed far too inflammatory so soon after a World War - I was not impressed one bit, though I will never forget the uneasy feeling I felt about it all.
After Bangor we headed back to Portland Bill and our home base near Weymouth. It was about this time that I was called into the ships office and was told that my time was nearly up and I must make my mind up whether I wanted to be demobbed or sign on in the peacetime navy. Although I hadn't enjoyed the Howe as much as my other ships, I still took a couple of days thinking it over before I told my divisional officer that I had decided to be a civilian. At the back of my mind I thought I would stay home a while and help my parents and then emigrate to Australia or New Zealand where my heart really had never left.
Comments
Post a Comment