Extract from Corvette magazine

 

COXSWAIN OF THE SHIP’S MOTOR BOAT

Sent in by Doug McCloud RANCA (SA newsletter Jan 2011)

 

Reading Ralph’s article about watch-keeping in harbour reminded me of my time as a coxswain of the motorboat working long into the night, when the ship was at anchor and everybody had their heads down.

 

We did 24 hour on and 24 hours off, but there were many times we never got the 24 hours off. When we put to sea we would have to start sea time watch-keeping.

 

When I was doing my training in Flinders Naval Depot the CPO instructor said: “you will find sleep is a privilege”. He was right.

 

One of our jobs was taking picture parties to other ships, mostly American ones, as they had the latest films. It often took two trips to get everybody there, but coming back nobody wanted to wait for the second boat, so they all piled in and muggings me cast off with an overloaded boat, sometimes standing room only.

 

Sometimes on the way back the air raid siren would go and all the lights would go out and you were left wondering whether they were going to bomb the shipping or the airstrip. If there was no moon, it was pitch black and you had to find the ‘Glenelg’. If you went too close to other ships, you were challenged. On finding the ‘Glenelg’ it was always good to see no officer on the gangway, me with an overloaded boat. By about midnight things usually went quiet.

 

If we were standing off an American base, there was nearly always a party down in the Ward room. The invited guests were mostly American nurses and Army women and sure enough, at about 0300 the quartermaster would wake the motorboat crew, which consisted of the stoker and myself and we would have to walk the boom, half asleep, to get to the Jacob’s ladder shackled almost at the end, to board the boat and take the drunks ashore.

 

If it was a moonlit night, they would want a trip around the bay and once I had an officer tell me to do just that, but I refused and said my orders were to go to the wharf and back. I could override him. He came with us to see that the women got safely back to their compound, which was surrounded with a high mesh fence with barbed wire on top (which was not there to keep the wild animals out!)

 

I served nearly 1 ½ years on the ‘Glenelg’ and most of that time I was one of the Coxswains. I liked the job, it got you off the ship and I volunteered to do it. The above is only one of a small number of incidents that I was involved in while steering the boat. At one time I was gun-running in Sydney Harbour. But that’s another story.