Troopships
Troopships; the very designation evokes unthinkable thoughts. By 1950, enough random talk got around re the sinking of the 'Lancastria' and a host of other unnamed losses. So when I boarded the H.M.Troopship 'Dilwara' at Southampton middle January 1951, I was not unduly perturbed, except that the Korean War was beginning to get nasty, thus the 'DILWARA' was well packed with servicemen en route for the middle and far East and Japan. Besides, had I not worked on the loading do***entation process of similar B.I. vessels at 21 Shed Royal Albert Dock, so she was familiar company. Unlike some servicement, who never having been near a ship before, were upon embarkation, all aglow, like young lads after their their first alcholic pint.
The ship left Sothampton. The weather was atrocious. A troopship is nothing more than a floating overcrowed barracks. It has its own military C.O. At 2200hrs the tannoy blurts out the Evening Hymn and Last Post. You get you head down and before you know where you are the same tannoy system is blaring out 'Reveille' followed by the stirring strains of the Sousa March 'Hands Across the Sea' (will I ever forget those strains). You wake, and you are immediatley conscious of the massed converted holds filled with scantilly constructed bunks, seemingly, as far as the eye could see, but more than this, the marked movement, up and down, side to side under what was an heavy swell.
What's all this leading up to; well in the follow up post I am looking into the highly probable liklihood that the H.M.Troopship 'Dilwara', upon hitting violent weather in the Bay of Biscay, was almost at the point capsizing under the intense pressure of a violent storm. Part 2 to follow:-
Ward
Troopships; the very designation evokes unthinkable thoughts. By 1950, enough random talk got around re the sinking of the 'Lancastria' and a host of other unnamed losses. So when I boarded the H.M.Troopship 'Dilwara' at Southampton middle January 1951, I was not unduly perturbed, except that the Korean War was beginning to get nasty, thus the 'DILWARA' was well packed with servicemen en route for the middle and far East and Japan. Besides, had I not worked on the loading do***entation process of similar B.I. vessels at 21 Shed Royal Albert Dock, so she was familiar company. Unlike some servicement, who never having been near a ship before, were upon embarkation, all aglow, like young lads after their their first alcholic pint.
The ship left Sothampton. The weather was atrocious. A troopship is nothing more than a floating overcrowed barracks. It has its own military C.O. At 2200hrs the tannoy blurts out the Evening Hymn and Last Post. You get you head down and before you know where you are the same tannoy system is blaring out 'Reveille' followed by the stirring strains of the Sousa March 'Hands Across the Sea' (will I ever forget those strains). You wake, and you are immediatley conscious of the massed converted holds filled with scantilly constructed bunks, seemingly, as far as the eye could see, but more than this, the marked movement, up and down, side to side under what was an heavy swell.
What's all this leading up to; well in the follow up post I am looking into the highly probable liklihood that the H.M.Troopship 'Dilwara', upon hitting violent weather in the Bay of Biscay, was almost at the point capsizing under the intense pressure of a violent storm. Part 2 to follow:-
Ward