Autobiography of
RICHARD LAWRENCE GARNAUT
BORN 31st AUGUST 1918
at 99 Semaphore Rd Semaphore Sth Australia.

Written by dad on 16th July 1985

1. Page 1 - Having lived for sixty six years I have decided to leave a record of what I can recall from the early days as I recall them, and I will only type what I know to be true and anything I am not sure of I will not touch on. I may make a mistake, but I will be as accurate as I can. I’m looking back, I have no regrets and if I had my time over again let it just the same.

2. It is hard to realise that when I was young there was no such thing as electricity in homes, no refrigeration, and before ice chests we had a Coolgardie safe hanging out the back under the grape vines to keep milk butter etc and meat had to be cooked the day you bought it. There was no such thing as radio, and I can remember when I was about six and the excitement of waiting your turn to listen on the earphones of a very small crystal set, and I can remember the huge aerial we had to put up to get any reception at all. We learnt to pull the earphones apart and lay each earpiece face down on a saucer and we could all crouch down around the table and as long as your ear was within a foot of the saucers you could faintly hear the programme, and if anybody even spoke or coughed a clip behind the ear was soon on its way from Dad or one of the older brothers.

3. Our street lights were the old gas lamps, and I can still remember the man coming along just before dark with a long stick and lighting the lights. As long as I can remember there were motor cars, and with a bit of luck you might see one a day go by, and everybody would dive out the front to see it. It was really all horse drawn vehicles, and you never walked to school, there was always something you could hang on the back of or climb in under and sit on the back axle, and the driver never knew you were there.

4. When Movies first started there was no such thing as talkies they were all silent movies, and we were given four pennies to go, three and a half pennies to go in and a halfpenny to spend. Tom Mix and his horse Tony were our favourite cowboy pictures and Charlie Chapman comedys came second. When I first went to sea with Dad in the ketches, it was all sail no engines in boats There were coal burning steamers, but it was mainly fully rigged sailing ships.

5. Page 2 - I do not have any records or the Garnaut Clan, but my Grandmother Garnaut told me that Great Grandfathers family fled France during the French Revolution to Ireland, and he eventually finished up in Australia as Captain of a sailing ship, and while in Melbourne his crew deserted for the Goldfields in Ballarat, his ship was sold, so he married and settled in Sth Australia and his son Tom (my Grandfather) as Captain of a sailing ship went to Ireland, and bought out a load of migrants and he married one of his passengers a Nary Kelly from Dublin and they settled in South Australia, and that is all I know about the beginning of my family, perhaps its better that we do not know any more. There may be other versions but Gran Garnaut’s account I think is pretty close to the mark.

6. My Grandfather had five sisters, Mary Anne (Meegan) Kate (McLay) Margaretta (Riley) Helena (Fisher) and Hetty who was single. I remember nothing of my Grandmotner’s family, but she married my Grandfather Thomas Bernard and they had four children, Thomas Bernard (3-5-85) Richard Lawrence, Louis, and Falie (Broun).

7. Daniel Dineen a Master Mariner from Ireland married a girl with the surname Kestrel from England. That is as much as I know, and as I write this I wonder if that is where the family get the name for the ketch Pengana, because that is the Aboriginal name for Kestrel a bird around the South Australian area.

8. The Dineen’s had six children, Daniel, Mary (my mother) Doss (Hawkes) Norma (Doyle) Eunice (Ralston) and Eva , who is a Sister of Mercy in Western Australia. Sister Eva died 18-1-95.

9. Thomas Bernard Garnaut and Mary Dineen married in South Australia in 1907 and they had seven children.

10. Thomas Daniel 14-5-1909. married Jean Rowe from Wallaroo Sth Aus in 1938, both are deceased, Tom died in Cairns 15-10-84. (No Children)

11. Mona 1910, Died about 1917 from Diphtheria.

12. John Authur II-3-12. Married Mary Pay from Norward Sth Aus 3I-8-40, Jack died and, is buried in Christchurch N.Z. 6-4-73 (Four Children) Mary died and is buried in Picton N.Z.

13. Robert Joseph 4-4-15, married Thelma Wong from Victoria about I944, they had Five children. Robert died 18-9-99.

14. Louis born about 1916 died accidentally six months later.

15. Monica Philomenia born 10-3-22 married John Schar from Goodwood Sth Aus 25-8-45 Jack died 25-11-72 Seven children.

16. Richard Lawrence 31-8-18 married Agnes Eaton from Herberton Qld they were married in St Patricks Cathedral Melbourne 18-1-47. Six Children. Agnes died 30-9-99.

17. Page 3 - Eaton Clan

18. William John Eaton was born in Gympie 1876, and to my knowledge his family came from England, his Father was Jack Eaton, and his Mother Jase Long. William John was a miner, and after leaving Gympie he settled in Herberton and was a tin miner there until he retired, then they moved to Cairns where he died in 1940. He married Helen Carr in St Monica’s Cathedral Cairns in 1907 and they had five Children.

19. Colin George born in Herberton 1908, he married Maisie Pairbank of Herberton, they had one child, Colin died in Brisbane 18-10-84.

20. Thomas Alfred born in Herberton 1911 he married Sheila 0’Keefe, and they had six Children, and Sheila died in Brisbane 2I-7-83.

20.Ismay Joan was born in Herberton 19l4, she Married Jack Moss of Herberton and they had five Children Jack died in Brisbane about 1970

21. Agnes Kathleen born Herberton 7-12-18, married Laurie Garnaut of Adelaide in St Patricks Cathedrel Melbourne 18-1-47, they had six children.

22. Joyce Patricia born Herberton 1925, she married Jack Gleeson of Townsville in St Monicas Cathedral 15-8-48 Cairns they had five children

23. Helen Carr was born in Gympie in 1879 and her parents Henry Carr was born in Cork Ireland and Margaret Smith was born in Wales.

24. Agnes was born in the Cosmopolitan Hotel Herberton and when the Hotel closed and was demolished, the material was used to build a house on that site, and the Eaton family lived in that house till they came to Cairns. For a period they lived in a house next to the railway line in Herberton and also at the Eaton Picture Theatre in Herberton for a few years which they operated, Colin assisted in the operating room, Joan played the piano, and Agnes was usherette when she was about thirteen. After completing school at Mt Saint Bernard College in Herberton Agnes worked for the Herberton Shire Council, and when she came to Cairns she worked in the office of Cummings and Campbell Cairns and then with the Mulgrave shire until she was married.

25. Page 4 - My Aunt Falie married a Captain Braun who went to Holland to bring out a new Schooner in 1921 and when he got back to Australia he renamed it the Falie after his wife, The Falie is now preserved in Pt Adelaide, and is the last of the Ketch and Schooner fleet operating in the grain trade during my era. My father Thomas Bernard, his brother Richard Lawrence my brother Thomas Daniel and Mums brother were masters of various Ketches and Schooners over the years, and to mention but a few that come to minds were the Falie, Reliance, Dashing Wave, Gerard, Pengana, Edith Alice, Lulu, Hecla, One and All, Neleebbee, Harold, Mary, and Dad at one time was Captain of the tug Florrie, and I can still remember the excitement of being on the bridge as kids with passengerships being towed clear of the wharfes and streamers everywhere, they would blow right over the tug and we would gather armfuls.

26. The Mosquito fleet as the Ketches and Schooners were nicknamed were used to pick up loads of Wheat and barley from the various ports along the St Vincent and Spencer Gulfs coast, and the average load was between 750 and 1500 bags, (3 bushel bags ) pending the size of the vessel. My brothers and I and sometimes Mum made up a crew (by today’s standards you would require at least a crew of six ). Usually it was Dad and two of us boys, we would have to load and discharge the cargoes, except if you unloaded into a steamer and the wharfies would come on board and load approx fifteen bags to the sling and the steamers winches would lift it out. I understand that Mum’s father was also a Master Mariner and Mum spent a number of years cook on his vessels.

27. The Sailing ships from England and Europe would anchor a few miles off the shallow ports and we would lighter the wheat and barley to them, that was actually the beginning of the famous grain races of those days, who could record the lowest time from Australia to England, it was a fantastic sight to see those big Windjammers loaded with grain all sails set taking off.

28. There was other cargo like Lime, salt from Port Price, Gypsum and General cargo, but I was mainly involved in wheat and barley, and in 1938 I joined the Royal Australian Navy. It is interesting to note that we spent more time at sea when we were kids than school. Dad could not afford to employ labour, and our wages was two shillings a week pocket money, and we thought we were made. ‘I also recall going to sea under sail prior to the Mosquito fleet getting engines in the late twenties. At twelve I had to leave school n 1950 and become a full time sailor.

29. Page 5 - About the late twenties when they started putting engines in, we had a ketch called the Lulu, and Dad got hold of an old Engine from a Sheffield Simplex motor car, it had eight cylinders, and quite powerful. The biggest problem was fresh water storage for the cooling system, because in those days radiators had to be filled several times a day and the Engine room had to be built into the cargo holds, and this reduced the carrying capacity by at least a hundred bags, and when loaded the vessels were too much by the bow in the water, so this was offset by stacking bags on the deck right aft each side of the steering wheel. When steering you had a five feet stack of bags all around you, and to go forward you had to crawl over the top of the bans. The deck load was covered with tarps and lashed down and dunnidge was under the bags to keep the bags about nine inches of the deck so as the bags were kept dry. In heavy seas the decks were always awash, crawling over the top was always dicey in heavy seas, after a sea had broke over the ship, and she came back on even keel you would dive across the stack onto the deck the other side and hang on till the next sea broke over, you would then go for’ard and do what had to be done i.e., tighten or loose sheets check lashings on deck loads or man the bilge pumps which were just for’ard of the missen mast amid ships, they were hand pumps, and sometimes in those wooden vessels you would spend hours pumping because in heavy seas a leak or two easily developed, and the bilges had to be kept dry otherwise you had damaged cargo on your hands. It would have to be the worst experience any sailor in those days had to put up with I had to take my turn from about the age of ten, and standing on an open deck seas breaking over you, blowing a gale, the ship rolling and pitching, bitterly cold, wet through and not at all happy.

30. We used to call those gales southerly busters, and they would come in without warning otherwise we would try and dodge them. They would blow in from the Southern Ocean, and they would lash the exposed coasts of South Australia. I always reckon that they were just as bad as being in a gale in the North Sea except that we did not have snow and ice to go with them. You could imagine what it must have been like in one of those sailing ships in weather like that, and as a point of interest, a Clipper with a load of wool took 66 days from Wallaroo in Spencers Gulf to Queenstown now known as Cobh in Ireland, she was the Swanhilda. The Clippers were faster ships, and a load of wool was much lighter than grain. The fastest grain ships were the Pamir and the Parma in 103 days from Sth Australia to Europe, and the last ship I remember seeing in South Australia was the Herzogin Cecilie.

31. Page 6 - When I was born, we were living behind a Chemist shop at 99 Semaphore Rd Semaphore Sth Aus, and we then moved to the following places, Union Hotel Waymouth St Adelaide, a Cafe in Commercial Rd Pt Adelaide, 4 Parr St Largs Bay, 73 Fletcher Rd Birkenhead, Aldgate in the Mt Lofty ranges, 73 Fletcher Rd Birkenhead, 97 Goodwood Rd Goodwood, The Navy from 14th June 38 to 13th June 50, then Agnes and I after we were married lived at 36 Mime St Crib Point Vie, 62 Abbott St Cairns, 3 Aplin St Cairns, 466 Muigrave Rd Cairns, 5 Aplin St, 93 Esplanade, 3 Aplin St and 5 Aplin St became Pengana Motel, 299 Severin St 1/249 Buchan St then 301 Severin St Cairns.

32. In those early days you were born at home, and soon after my Uncle Dick (Dads brother) and Mum went into the Union Hotel in Waymouth St, that was the days of vaudeville and our house guests were Chorus girls and Mum told me that every afternoon between five and six the girls played with me in their rooms during Mums busy period in the bar. (Pity I was not a few years older). Uncle Dick got caught by the cops for after hour trading, so Mum left him to it and she then took over a Cafe in Pt Adelaide, Dad or Course was away at sea most of the time, Uncle Dick because of chronic seasickness had to give the sea away, he then went into a bootshop In the Port Rd Pt Adelaide, and he spent the rest of his working days in shoes, and when I was nine I can well remember sitting on the veranda roof of Uncle Dicks Shoe shop ( l27 ) to watch the Duke and Duchess of York go by, the Duchess is now the Queen Mother.

33. My first recollections of life was when we were living in Parr St and I remember the house in Fletcher Rd being built and if I recall it cost £500 and Dad got a loan through the State Bank, and he still owed money on it when we sold it in 1938 and moved-to Goodwood three days before I joined the Navy

34. In 1926 we went to live in the Adelaide Hills at Aldgate, I have some very happy memories of those couple or years, I was only eight, but was very good on the Kettle Drum and I had no trouble getting into the school Band, It was a State school and I can remember my brother Bob and I getting into a fight with the School bully and his young brother, and as a result we nearly got expelled, however Bob was always a good fighter and from then on the Garnaut’s were boss of the kids. (Teach them to call us Catholic dogs.)

35. (Page 7) We moved back into 73 Fletcher Rd, and that was the beginning of the depression. Dad had a ketch called the Lulu at the time, and the bottom fell out of the wheat and barley export prices, and while we carried on till the middle thirties the Mosquito fleet never recovered. The whole fleet spent most of the time after that tied up at Birkenhead wharfe awaiting orders that were few and far between.

36. Road transport was beginning to enter the picture, and eventually took over the whole grain trade and the Lulu finished up at the wreckers, there was no sale for her or any of the others, except for the larger ones who were fitted with marine engines and used for general cargo on the Kangaroo Island run. Towards the end Dad used to take away several ketches while waiting for a load for the Lulu and thats how I went to sea in a lot of them, I always went with Dad.

37. My schooling was at the Dominican Convent at Semaphore, and all told I only had six years at school, and when we returned from Aldgate I just went to school between trips and finally left school at twelve in I930. I dont recall ever passing an exams education in those days was not all that important and as long as you knew how to handle hard work with plenty of I.Q. you were made, so with the early training and the hard work we were well equipped to hold our own in the world.

38. On the ketches I was always the cook, Dad seemed to like my cooking, and I was doing that from about nine. The galley was on the upper deck on the port side for’ard, it was only five by three feet and five feet high. It had a small wood stove and if you sat on a little bench you could just shut the door. It was a fantastic spot to be when it was blowing a gale in the winter time, and the whole thing would shudder when a sea broke over the top.

39. Summertime cooking was done with just your head poked in the galley, and it was amazing just how good we ate on those ships. I must say that Irish Stews, Rabbit and Beef Stews and. Pidgeon pies were always popular, the Cliffs on Yorks Peninsular in St Vincents Gulf were abundant with really good pidgeons, and tney were quite meaty, and naturally there was always plenty of fish and crabs.

40. Some of those ports like Port Julia, black Point and Port Price were only shallow and the tide used to ebb and leave you high and dry, and I have seen as many as eight ketches all tide bound waiting for the higher tides up to six or seven days, and we always had a lot of fun among the crews. When you finally floated on there would be a real race back to Pt Adelaide because first back was first in line for the next order.

41. When I look back I think that is why so many of them foundered.

42. They took unnecessary risks to try and get higher up on the list for another order.

43. Page 8 - Life in the depression days was never dull, we had no money but always managed to have a lot of fun. The C.Y.M.S. ( Catholic Young Mens Society ) and C.O.M. (Children of Mary) were very active, and both organisations combined to put on dances, picnics, Balls, fetes etc. I was never allowed out of a night right up until I joined the navy except to go to a C.Y.M. function, many a time I used that as an excuse to go out, Mum I think was a wakeup, but Dad would have killed me if he found out.

44. It was during the depression yes when there was no work for seamen, that Bob and I got a job with E.D. Mathews Ltd Butchers of Port Adelaide, 7am to 6pm monday to friday and 6am to 2pm saturdays, I dont ever recall getting holidays the few years I was there, and the whole time for 63 hours per week ₤1 per week and by todays currency that was a little over three cents per hour.

45. When Bob got too old and was looking for a rise he got the sack, and for a while I was the only one working in the family and I gave Mum 17/6 per week ( her only income ) and the rest of the family used to get Government ration tickets for meat groceries and bread. Mum &Dad were married in the Sacred Heart Church Semaphore, it was close to the Dominican Convent where we all went to school.

46. The whole family were active in the church and its social activities, and actually in those days our whole lives pivoted around the Church, we were all altar boys, and Sunday Masses were 9am and 11am and to go to Communion you had to fast from midnight and you could not even have a glass of water, and that situation did not change until after I had left the Navy in 1950. During the war we did get dispensations, like general absolution and the was no fasting at all, If you happened to be going into action and there was a Catholic Chaplain on one of the snips, he would stand on the bridge and give the whole fleet a General Absolution, and I assume Army chaplains would co the same.

47. In those early days our main social functions would be work on saturday till two, race home clean up , down the Port Adelaide Sailing club and out sailing all the afternoon out to a C.Y.M.? at night, then on Sunday all hands to Mass, and that was always a full dress function suits ties and the whole works, and on Sunday afternoons it was a walk down to Semaphore beach, again In full sunday best, everybody would walk along the esplanade and up and down the Semaphore jetty or sit on the lawns listening to the Port Adelaide Municipal band giving a recital in the Band Rotuncia, nobody had any money, but enjoyed life, and nearly every sunday you would fall in love with a different sheila, but usually the romances petered out by the end of the day. Should you appear with the same sort two sundays in a row you were classified as going steady.

48. Every sunday night was the family and friends gathered around the piano at home for a great old sing song. They were happy days and we had something that seems to be missing today.

49. Page 9 - During the winter months when there was no sailing it was all Aussie Rules Football, and we were all supporters of the Magpies (Port Adelaide Football Club ). I played for the C.Y.M. and we were known as the Sacred Heart Football club, I also played for the Birkenhead Football club for a while, and they talk about violence at sport today, well many a time as soon as a game finished the umpire would sprint off the field grab his clothes and go for his life before the crowd got to him, and there was always fights among the spectators, but of course there was practically no media coverage of those incidents like there is today, I can recall taking Agnes to see Carlton play Richmond at Canton, and we were right in the middle of a crowd brawl, we even got separated, and I could not find her for a while after it all settled down with plenty of help from the cops.

50. At one stage I was in the scouts , and was a patrol leader in the Largs Bay sea scouts and our scoutmaster was a Jim Needle, and he also owned a twenty one foot (at the waterline) yacht called the “Tern”, they were a restricted class, half decked in with about a half a ton of lead on the keel. The Twenty Ones as they were known were- the senior class in the Port Adelaide Sailing Club and I thought I was someone when I got in the Tern’s crew. The competitions operated among the classes much the same as they do today.

51. During Easter each year the larger yachts and some motor boats with most of the clubs members used to sail up St Vincents Gulf to a spot about fifteen miles north of the Outer harbour to a place we knew as Revilo around the Middle Beach area, the whole shoreline was very thick with mangroves, but the was a small creek that run in for about three hundred yards to a beautiful white beach, and we would camp there and sail back on Easter Monday. It could be quite dangerous getting into the creek if it was blowing a gale, because the seas would break right over the mangroves, and there was quite a surge in the creek.

52. In 1938 we set sail as usual from Port Adelaide on Easter Saturday morning, and we were about ten miles into the gulf and we had two spinnakers flying on the Tern when without warning we were hit by a southerly buster, and within seconds both spinnakers just ripped apart and disappeared, we got a split in our mainsail, so we had a hectic hour getting things sorted out and keeping afloat, however we managed a jury rig with the remains of the mainsail, and we were able to get ashore, but unfortunately it was on a weather shore with thick mangroves and if you went over the side mud up to your waist. We stayed stuck in the mud got the boat shipshape while the tide went out, and were ready to float off on the tide early hours of sunday morning when the gale had eased and finally made Revilo about daylight. While all that was going on we were not aware that the gale caused hundreds of thousands of pounds damage to Victoria and South Australia.

53. Page 10 - During the gale many yachts went missing, and a search was made, and eventually all were found except the Tern, the radio station stopped on air all night, Rosaries were said at home, and Dad and Tom were just about to leave in the Edith Alice when they received word that we had been found. When we arrived at Revilo there was a policeman there who had ridden a horse through the floods looking for us and it was not long before he made it back to a telephone and there was a radio newsflash that we were safe and well.

54. Outside of Jim Needle who owned the Tern, and a chap called Rutherford I cant remember any of the other chaps who were on that trip with us, Jim Needle and Rutherford were very strong members of Toc.H, and I wanted to join that organisation with them, but my parents would not let me because of’ its close association with the Church of England, and it is interesting to note that I met The Rev Tubby Clayton the founder of Toc.H when I was in London in I948.

55. I never ever went sailing in the Tern again because a few weeks later I left South Australia and joined the Navy.

56. Another interesting experience about sailing, was the South Australian Yacht Squadron always sent down to the Port Adelaide Sailing Club for extra crews when it was blowing a gale, and I went out in a yacht called the Noralli, she was a yacht similar to those you see in the Admirals Cup, and believe me that was an experience that every sailor would dream of, no light nylon sails in those days they were all canvas, and everything had to be done by hand when you came back your hands would be red raw, and I think it was after those races that I learnt to drink beer, so I suppose I learnt that regular habit about the age of’ sixteen, prior to that mixing with the types we had to on the ketches, there was always a sip forthcoming out of somebody’s bottle, but at home nobody dare have a drink before the official age of twenty one.

57. I must make mention of the Port Adelaide Waterside Workers strike, I dont recall the date, I was only a young lad at the time, and I dont remember what it was all about, but it was a bad one, and it bordered on a civil war, and it took Port Adelaide many years to get over it

58. The authorities bought the unemployed Italian farm workers to Port Adelaide by train under police escort and used them as scabs to try and break the strike. I can recall on a couple of occasions unloading alongside a steamer on the Lulu discharging wheat and. we had scabs on board stacking the wheat into slings which were hoisted a board the steamer using her derricks, and without

59. Page 11 - warning hundreds of the striking waterside workers would appear from nowhere and attack the scabs working on the ship, they had all sorts of weapons like stones sticks and iron bars and it was a free for all with the scabs climbing up riggings with wharfies after them and those that did not dive into the drink to escape were soon joined by their mates who were tossed in. The police were powerless to act until re-enforcements arrived, but by that time the wharfies were gone. We were always ready, and as soon as a blue started we used to hop in the dinghy and row out into the middle of the Port Adelaide river and watch the fun.

60. When we lived in Aldgate we got very friendly with an Italian family, and the father and one the Sons turned up as scabs, so that was the end of that friendship, and to my knowledge my family never spoke to them again.

61. It was all so bitter, and except for one woman I dont remember one fatality among the many casualties. The Woman was killed by a police horse who attacked her. I saw many skirmishes with mobs and mounted police, and the horses could break up a mob quick and never injure anybody, it was fantastic to see them in action, and I am sure the horses enjoyed it. When they picked the woman up they discover she was clutching a hat pin, and several wounds were found on the horse.

62. During the strike there was a variety concert in the Waterside Workers hall to raise money for strike relief, it was always a silver coin to go in, and it was on every saturday night for months. My brother Tom got a six piece jazz band together, he and Jack played the violin, and bob played the drums, and now and then I helped out on the drums and the triangle. Payment was always a case of groceries which the band used to share out.

63. Another thing during the depression years when everybody was out of work and the ketches were laid up Dad organised all of us boys and our mates around the district and we built a tennis court behind 73 Fletcher Rd, the yard was just big enough to take a court, and using some cheap lime Dad got hold of and mixing it with ashes from the Osborne power station which we were able to get for free, we built a tennis court, and it was great to have something like that in those days, we had to share rackets and shoes , and eventually formed ourselves into a tennis club, and because the house was always called Pengana, we were known as the Pengana Tennis Club, we played in the local association, and many times were premiers, and that surface of just ashes and lime lasted for many years and with a few lights hanging about we had many good social functions on it. I have been back to have a look in recent years, the yard is still there but the tennis court has been dug up.

64. Page 12 - Royal Australian Navy

65. I left home on the 14th June 1938, signed up as a Steward at the Birkenhead Naval Depot, and that same evening I was on my way by train to begin my training at Flinders Naval Depot at Crib Point Victoria. I tried to join the Navy as a Butcher, but to do so I had to join another branch of the service and wait my turn when a vacancy came up in the supply department as a butcher, and little did I know that I was going to have to wait two years before I changed over.

66. I was not at all happy about being a Steward, and I was getting concerned that I might have to serve out my twelve years in that department, and it was a sigh of relief when my transfer came through.

67. In looking back I do not regret getting caught up as a Steward, Officers were strange creatures, because prior to the war they were absolute snobs and looked down on junior ratings as an inferior race and they treated them with arrogance and contempt. There were a few gentlemen among them, but I would suggest that by and large because of their training with the Royal Navy they became like that. The war changed it a little, because most reserve officers who just joined for the war never got the chance much of getting like that, but those who tried to carry on in that manner became absolute PIGS (a lowerdeck nickname for officers).

68. Discipline was most essential in the Navy, and while it may have appeared to be carried to extremes, you got to learn just how vital it was, because one man in a crew of a thousand not doing as he is told could put the whole ship in danger of being lost and I must say that permanent Officers particularly were highly trained knew their job and as sailors they had our complete confidence and respect. Most lower deck personnel spend their whole life in the Navy completely awed by officers, but having mixed with them as a steward and learnt what makes them tick, it made it very much easier to understand them and get on with. After my initial training in Flinders Naval Depot, I was drafted to the Flagship HMAS Canberra, and I knew that I must have been doing all right, because if you were below standard you would not be allowed to put your foot on the Flagship. I joined the Canberra in Hobart on the 25th February 1939, I went down to Tassie on the passenger ship Taroona from Melbourne to Launceston and on to Hobart by train. My trip in the Taroona I will never forget, it usually took just a few hours, but a gale blew up in Bass Straight, and we were seventeen hours late arriving, but that was only a taste of things to come.

69. Page 13 - The Canberra in those days was the pride of the Australian fleet, and I was to have a very happy sixteen months in her, and I was very sad later on during the war when she got sunk, because many happy memories and some really good mates went down with her.

70. Besides my job as a steward, like everybody else I had an action station, and hours every week had to be spent in training for your particular action station, and my first job was in a cordite handling room as a crew of one of the eight inch gun turrets, then later on I was trained in the use of a Demerique, ( I am not sure if I spelt that right) and it was an instrument not unlike a sundial in looks, and it was used in gunnery for getting the correct range on a target, and I thought I was just it up on he wing of the bridge of the Flagship with brass hats all about operating it, thank God when I look back that I was not there when the target was firing cack at us.

71. Another action station I was trained in was assisting in the operating theatre of the sick bay, and once again thank God we never got any patients. My final job was as a telephone operator in the damage control, and I always felt that was the safest job in the Ship, down two decks and amidships, and again I particularly thank God, because I was sent back to Flinders to changeover to a Butcher, and when the Canberra got sunk a shell landed in the damage control and wiped out all the operators.

72. Just prior to the war in the Canberra we were on our way to Bali, and on the 24th August just as we were passing Wessel Island in the Gulf Of Carpentaria we were ordered back to Sydney, and on the 28th August we were back in Sydney after averaging 28 knots on the return trip.

73. I was 21 on the 31st, and had met a blonde, so with her and a bottle of gin I celebrated my twenty first on the Showboat cruising round Sydney Harbour. Just three days later on sunday evening 3rd September with the same blonde walking in one of the Sydney streets I was pulled up by the cops about 7:30 and little did I realise then that within two hours I would be on the Canberra doing 30 knots out through Sydney Heads going to war.

74. The cops told me that all Naval personnel had been recalled to their ships and to get back immediately. The blonde and I made our way down to what was man of war steps (the Opera House is on that sight now) and motor boats were running a shuttle service to the various war ships at anchor in Farm Cove. It was a touching scene to see the hundreds of people there saying goodbye to the sailors. I have never seen or heard of that blonde since, she was a nice lass, and I have long since forgotten her name.

75. When I got back aboard about 8:30 the Canberra had steam up and was all ready to slip her moorings, and at 9pm we heard that famous announcement by (Chamberlain from England “This country is now at war with Germany”.

76. We immediately slipped our cable and went chasing four German merchant ships that had sneaked out of Sydney Harbour during the early hours that morning.

77. Page 14 - It was a couple or weeks before we returned to Sydney, and we had no luck in finding those ships, they just scattered and eventually they all got back to Germany. We had no radar at that time. and the oceans of the world were wide open spaces in those days, one ship went down to Antarctica, holed up down there for a while and eventually made her way home. That epic voyage was made into a popular movie a few years ago. When we got back to Sydney In early October we refuelled then took off again with our flotilla of destroyers (Stuart, Voyager, Vampire, Vendetta and Waterhen) for a work up exercise, some of the destroyers crews were still in civilian clothes having joined the Navy days before, and little did they know that they were not returning to Sydney and within a few weeks had joined up with the British Mediterranean Fleet.

78. By this time we were engaged with the Australia and the Sydney, looking for the German pocket battleship who was sinking many allied merchant ships in the Atlantic and Indian oceans, we were to begin our troop convoys in January, and we did not want her running loose while they were going on, however we chased her out of the Indian ocean, and there has been many movies made since how the British ships chased the Graf Spee into Montevideo where she scuttled herself on 13th December I939.

79. We returned to Sydney, and after a short period we sailed for Wellington New Zealand to start the first troop convoy to the Middle East. On arrival in Wellington, New Zealand was celebrating their Centenary with a Exhibition and the manageress of the Luna Park section of that exhibition was Mary Pay, she later on married my brother Jack, so needless to say, I had bundles of tickets to go on any side show on the grounds.

80. We left New Zealand in January 1940 in company with the Zealandia a NZ cruiser and we escorted the passenger liners Queen Mary and the Empress of Canada loaded with Kiwi troops to Sydney and waiting for us was the restof the convoy and they included the British battleship Ramillies, and the cruisers Sydney and Suffren (French) also the passenger liners Orien, Orcades, Oronsay, Strathaird and a few smaller ones, and those ships were packed with Aussie troops, all told there were thirteen thousand troops in eleven troopships, and we set off for the Middle east, and on the way we were joined by another cruiser Australia.

81. Half way across the Indian ocean we left the convoy and returned to Australia and then on to New Zealand again to start the third convoy (the second was already on its way. We called in at Littleton the port of Christchurch to pick up the troopship Andes, and I was on the wharfe when she sailed, and it has to be the most touching experience I have had, there was a Maori battalion on board, and lining A deck were a company of Army Nurses. As the ship started to move the whole wharfe packed with people sung the Maori’s Farwell, and when they had finished the whole ship sung it and you could hear it fading away in the distance. There would not have been a dry eye in the area. Later on we and with the Andes called at Wellington to pick up a couple of other ships, and head for Sydney and the rest of our convoy.

82. Page 15 - On arrival in Sydney we joined up with the rest of the convoy including the Ramillies and the Queen Mary who had returned from the first Convoy. The Moratania and the Aquatania both famous British passenger ships of that era were also in that convoy. When we were about to enter the Gulf of Aden because of the danger of Italy entering the war, the Queen Mary was ordered back to England via the Cape of Good Hope, and we escorted her down the African coast through the straits of Madagascar and on arriving at the Cape the South African cruiser Shropshire took over from us, and we returned to Australia. It is interesting to note that when the Canberra was sunk later on, the Shropshire was handed over to the Australian Navy as a replacement. Both ships were sisterships of the same class (Kent Class).

83. On arrival in Sydney I was transferred to the six inch cruiser the Adelaide, and done a few weeks relieving as the Butcher, and on my return to the Canberra my official change over to a Butcher came through and I was drafted back to Flinders Naval Depot and arrived there on 18th June 1940, so it had taken me two years to get into the Supply Branch as a butcher, and I never ever got sent back to cruisers again.

84. By the time I got back to Flinders, it had changed from peace time to a war time training establishment, and even women (WRANS) had entered the picture, and it took a while for the troops to accept them, and that is when I met Steve, she was a regulating Petty Officer (Policewoman). After the war she married a dairy farmer named Hayard, Agnes and I both went to their wedding, and in later years with Tom and Laurie we visited them on the farm in Neerim South in Victoria, and stopped with us at the Motel.

85. Also at that period in Filinders Gordon and Peg Salton were living in the married quarters, Gordon was a physical training instructor and he was a Mareeba lad.

86. Father Roche was the Catholic Naval Chaplin down at Flinders, and my whole period in the Navy was being actively involved with the various Chaplains, and I got the nickname as the Bible Bashing Butcher Bastard, I did not appreciate it at the time, but became quite proud of it later on and even today in RSL circles I still get it.

87. I enjoyed that stay in Flinders, because I was able to slip over to Adelaide for many weekends by plane, I also played a lot of tennis and football, and every afternoon we used to do the three mile cross country run, but spoilt the gain we got out of it by spending too long after in the wet canteen.

88. After ten months it was back to war again, and I was drafted to the supply and repair ship. Ie Platypus. She was a coal burner and a left over from the 1914-1918 war when she was a submarine mother ship, and she had to be the worst ship in the fleet. When I look back I did not know how lucky I was, because many of my butcher mates got killed in the more glamorous ships, but we were attacked many times and except for some near misses we came through without a casualty.

89. Page 16 - I joined the Platypus at Garden Island in Sydney Harbour on 14-4-41, as a point of interest, since those days Garden Island has been joined to the mainland by the Captain Cook Graving Dock.

90. Some years after world war one, Platypus was permanently at the Island as Headquarters for the Naval Base. At that time she was a coal burner, and she was being refitted to act as mother ship in Darwin for the corvettes and many other smaller vessels operating in that area.

91. We sailed from Sydney about the middle of 1941, and called into Bowen on the way up to take on coal, and on arrival in Darwin we soon became involved in the Darwin way of life, and it certainly was not a place that Australia could be proud of. Nobody knew taut there was a war on, and when a store ship arrived the wharfies would unload the beer first then go on strike until they drunk it all, and that went on right up until the first bombs dropped on the 19th February 42. We were anchored off the wharf about a half a mile, and the corvettes would lay alongside of us for about three days, have a boiler clean store up and away again on patrol. It was quite a tense situation, because we knew Japan was going to strike, but where nobody knew.

92. Platypus was armed with one breach loading four inch surface gun of 1914 vintage, one lewis lewis and one vickers machine gun about thirty 303 rifles and not enough tin hats to go round, and they did not issue the tin hats till bombs were atual1y falling about he ship, and whats more you had to sign for them. Darwin was not prepared for a war it was more like getting ready for a picnic. We had very little ammunition, and we were using that surface four inch as an ack ack gun, but I have always said that it saved the ship, because when the Jap pilots saw those type of shells coming up at them it made them treat us with caution. The dive bombers were coming down almost to mast head before letting their bombs go, and we still dont know how we escaped, and any body who was actually on Platypus escaped and the ship came through without a casualty. I think the ship was encased in a shield of Hail Mary’s, you could not say them fast enough. The ship was lousy with Masons, and I think they all joined in too.

93. I am not going to go into details about what happened in Darwin, I have read Darwin 1942 by Timothy Hall and first published in 1980 by Methuen Australia Pty Ltd 31 Market St Sydney 2000, and that account is very accurate, I am just going to touch on a few things as it affected us.

94. We were desperately short of supplies, ships were our only lines of communication to the south, and when the ships did arrive there was always trouble with the wharfies, and they did not seem to care less whether they unloaded the ships or not and we were not allowed to unload them ourselves. Frustration is a minor word for it.

95. Page 17 - Since I have already made comments about Darwin, I have again read the book Darwin 42, and I cannot fault any statements that were quoted in the book, we all knew that no serious attempt was made to prepare for any attack on Darwin, and we did not know till years later that the John Curtin government had planned to throw us to the wolves with the Brisbane line, and it became a situation in which it was every man for himself, but because of the strict discipline in the Navy we were kept together, and after the 19th February when we went ashore because our ship was damaged by dive bombers and was unseaworthy and out of ammunition, we were addressed by a senior Naval Officer who told us that the Navy was going to defend Darwin at all costs, so by daylight on the 20th February we were organised into a group and in our small way to help repel any Jap invasion that might be launched.

96. While waiting for the worst we set about preparing the defences and we had barbed wire everywhere. We took over deserted houses, and carried on where the occupants left off and blew through the day before. My job while all this was going on was to keep the supply of fresh meat up to all Naval installations and the various ships still afloat in the Harbour. I never had to do much cutting up, the Army butchers were slaughtering the cattle and buffalo, and a Naval Supply Assistant Allen Hassell and myself had a 30 cwt tray top truck, and our job for many weeks after the raid on the 19th February was every morning to go out to the Vesty’ s meat works and stores and collect our quota of meat groceries and deliver them to the Naval ships and establishments.

97. Allen and I always kept a shovel in the back of the truck, and if the air raid siren went we would dash to the nearest beach and dig a slit trench in the sand and get our heads below ground level before the bombs started falling. Often the bombs dropped all about us, but the amazing thing was that the truck never got hit once or suffered any damage. We both had rifle’s and bayonet’s and tin hats and we always kept a box of 303 ammunition in the truck, and we were in a unique situation, and as long as we kept the stores moving we were on our own to do whatever we wanted to do, I remember at one stage I was put in hospital with dengue fever, and during air raids we had to get under the beds, and that was the most horrible experience for any body to cop, and I could not get back to my hole on the beach quick enough.

98. When we went ashore we only had our white uniforms, and we became a sitting s1ot for Japanese fighter planes who used to enjoy strafing anything they could see moving, so we boiled up a huge vat of thick black coffee and put our uniforms through that. It turned out a very dark streaky looking colour, but very effective. We were a motley looking mob and it was many months before the Navy decided to go into khaki.

99. Page 18 - While all this was going on and we were playing at soldiers ashore, the Platypus was still anchored in the same spot a sitting target for any future attacks, the Captain the engineers and a skeleton crew had remained on board, and we had managed to round up a few rounds of ammunition, and while she was attacked many times for some unknown reason they could not hit her, the engineers were working round the clock to get the engines repaired, and we knew that once we could get under way we had some sort of a chance. One day with a party of seaman I went back aboard to clean out the cold rooms, they were packed with meat and vegetables and had been closed down for two weeks without power, we had to wear respirators and when we opened the doors we were greeted by maggots as big as a finger, and the stench that quickly spread through the ship was almost unbearable. We tossed it all over the side, and it was then that we realised how many sharks there were in Darwin Harbour. However after a couple of days the job was done and the cold rooms were ready for when the power came on again.

100. Back ashore plans were in the planning stage for an evacuation when the Japs had landed, we knew that we would lose the ship unless she could get under way, and the plan was for the officers to lead the way in the two staff cars, the truck was to be loaded with stores, and we the troops had to fall in behind the truck and march out of Darwin four deep.

101. I am quite sure that if our Captain and Senior Officers who were on Platypus had of been with us there would have been a better plan than that.

102. Our Supply Department consisted of about twenty five men including supply assistants writers and the butcher, and we had a Supply Lieutenant named Jim Donahue (I dont remember if that was the way his name was spelt,) and like us he was disgusted with the plan, so he proceeded to have us trained by the army into a commando group, we made haversacks out of sand bags, and each sack had three empty beer bottles of water, fishing lines, vegemite, salt, tin mug, tea, matches, medical kit, and a few rounds of spare ammunition for our 303 rifles.

103. When the balloon went up we knew that there was going to be no marching four deep with Jap fighters strafing anything in sight, it was going to be a scatter into the bush, and Lt Donahue had worked out a rendezvous which we were all familiar with around the Humpty Doo area, we were all certain that Australia was going to fall very soon and our plan was to head out into the Gulf land area and carry on a guerrilla campaign as long as we could, and we all agreed that that was better than being captured by the Japs. I have often wondered how we would have got on, but having a plan in what we were convinced was a hopeless position was a good morale booster.

104. Page 19 - Up till Anzac Day 1942 Darwin was in one hell of a mess we were running desperately short of supplies, no ships were getting through, and the air raids had become quite frequent. General Douglas Macarthur passed through on the 17th March, and we were getting our fair share of refugees from the Philippines and Indonesia, and at that stage we thought it was hopeless, but the arrival of Macarthur in Australia was the turning point, he immediately scrapped the Brisbane line, and proceeded to set out to save the whole of Australia.

105. We were all very depressed, and we had no fighter protection, and the Jap planes were doing what they liked, then along came Anzac Day and I am never going to forget that day, we were all gearing ourselves for the next air raid when all of a sudden the Air Raid alarm sounded off, and next thing there was low flying fighters everywhere, and there was a tremendous cheer went up, they were American P40 Kitty Hawk fighters, and they had arrived on the Darwin station, and from then on we had fighter protection, and every raid from then on we saw more and more Japs being shot down and he air raids were not so frequent. Our slit trench on the beach was a great spot to watch the dog fights going on.

106. Things began to improve after that, there was always the threat of a Japanese invasion, but we at last started to get supplies and ammunition and the Platypus was made seaworthy again, so about June 42 we returned to the ship and I felt much happier on the water than crawling around in the bush, and after about sixty raids we left Darwin and headed for Cairns where we set up a Naval base there.

107. An interesting story of the many in Darwin was that we were engaged in sending supplies to our commando’s who were still holding out in Timor, and we used all sorts of small vessels to make the trips, and when I used to pack the stores I gathered every magazine I could find, and they were mainly Womens Weeklies and include those in the parcels, and I had forgotten all about it till one day after the war I was in a pub in Melbourne, and I was having a drink with a stranger who told me that he had been one of those Timor commandos, and he said that what they used to look forward to was the Womens Weeklies that were among the supplies they were getting, and it was a fantastic feeling to feel that you had done some small thing that was appreciated.

108. On checking back on the 19th february and that first raid, the Japs were the same force that hit Pearl Harbour, not so many planes, but in the attacking force 36 fighters, 71 dive bombers 81 high level came from Carriers, and they were joined by 54 land based bombers from Ambon in Indonesia, 242 planes all bold and best described as a pretty but bloody awful sight. That was our biggest raid, the other fifty odd were no bigger than 27 bombers and twelve fighters, and occasionally there were seven bomber raids with a few lighters.

109. Once we left Darwin, except for minor skirmish with the odd one or two planes, our ship was never attacked again, and had I have known that, I could have enjoyed the rest of the war, but like every body else, you just lived from day to day waiting or it to happen. If anybody ever tells you he was not scared, he is a bloody liar, but you

110. Page 20 - did learn to live with it, many chaps cracked up, and it was not a very nice sight to see, and I think that those of us who believed in God regardless of what religion we followed were lucky, because we had something to hang on to, and we as Catholics because of our additional deep devotion to Our Lady we were much more fortunate, and She became the best friend I had, always was and please God always will be.

111. Darwin was left behind in late November of 42, and except for a bit of trouble with a Japanese plane just off Weasel Island in the Gulf we arrived in Cairns to set up another Naval Base and carry on with our job of looking after the Corvettes and other small craft that the Navy had, and we were able to live a more normal life.

112. I could write a couple of books about Cairns in those days, and while there we saw a big change come over the war with the battle of the Coral Sea on 4th May 43, had we have lost that then Australia would have fallen, .and I wonder where we all would have been today if that had of happened, however God was good to us and from then on the fight back began in earnest.

113. Most people in Cairns and for the rest of the country for that matter did not really know that a war was going on, and after the lessons learnt in Darwin the wharfies were still going on strike and causing big delays with our stores we needed to keep our ships supplied. They would arrive down from patrol duties in the forward battle areas and we would repair them give them boiler cleans load them up with stores and ammunition while the crews had a couple of days leave, then with in three days they were off again back in the thick of it again. We would sometimes have as many as five or six laying alongside at the one time, and it became very hectic keeping them moving.

114. Social life began again in Cairns, and I took up an active interest in the Church again, and became interested in the Legion of Mary, and on St Patrick’s Day I first met Agnes, and got to know her crowd and became more or less a part of the Eaton family, they were very good to myself and my mates on the ship, and little did I know Ghat it was the beginning of a life time relationship. I have told many stories about my war time days with Nanna, Agnes and Joyce that was a real bright spot in my life, and as I have said so often, if I had my time over again just let it be the same.

115. When we first arrived in Cairns I got some leave and it took me six days by train to get to Adelaide, and six days back. While there I became engaged to a lass Joan Morter, and we were to be married in December 1945, but her twin brother Frank who I had been very friendly with over the years got killed by the Japs in New Guinea on Friday 13th April 1945, and after that there was a big change in the Morter family, and there was no room for outsiders, so Joan and I drifted apart, and a couple of years later I met Agnes again when she was on holidaying in Sydney and that is how I settled back in Cairns in 1950 after I left the Navy.

116. Page 21 - At one stage there were over thirty thousand troops in the Cairns area, and many thousands more up on the Tablelands, some in training, and others waiting for movement orders. A lot of these troops were Yanks, and believe me the town was kept alive with thousands of Yanks and Aussies, and only a handful of girls, and very little grog, so entertainment usually consisted of beating up a few Yanks. One night in particular there was a very nasty incident, the A.I.F. and the Yanks fought a pitched battle, and the Provosts cleared the town for three days, and you had to have a special pass to get into the place. I was one of the lucky ones, I had one because of the job I was doing, and Cairns for those three days was the most peaceful I ever saw it.

117. Sack Street later renamed Grafton Street was between Spence St and the wharf the red light district, and the girls used to sit in the doorways waiting for customers, and when the troops were on overnight leave in Cairns, Sack Street was the most popular gathering spot.

118. Eventually we built a Naval Ease in Cairns, and it was called H.M.A.S Kuranda, and it was on the sight where the Harbour Board Building now stands, and it took in that area around the Fogerty fountain. A special wharfe was built for the Platypus, and it is still called the Platypus Jetty. We had an anti submarine boom stretched across the channel from a point opposite the hospital across to Browns bay, that area was also heavily mined, and they were controlled from the shore, so there was no chance of anything sneaking in.

119. The Yanks had a Catalina Flying base at Smiths creek and every day scores of them would taxi and take off opposite the Cairns wharves, and they would patrol way out Into the Coral Sea and as far north as New Guinea, an awful lot of them got shot down, and we used to count them going out in the morning, and then count them coming back in the afternoon, and many a time less than half of them came back, Agnes and I knew a lot of those fellows, they were fantastic guys, and it was a sad time when those you knew did not return.

120. During the battle of the Coral Sea, the Mareeba aerodrome was in full swing, and you could hear the bombers labouring for altitude with their full load of bombs, and they flew right over Cairns, and at the same time large numbers of the Catalina flying boats were taking off on the Cairns inlet.

121. On the 20th June 43 my Father died In Adelaide, he was aged 58 I was unable to go home, but the Eaton family were a great comfort to me during that period, they had only lost their Father a few months previous.

122. If ever you go out to see Grandfathers grave in the Cairns Cemetary, if you walk along that row about eight graves further on, you will see a grave marked Aline Gordon 9th July 43, I can just re member that at the time many of us went to her funeral, she was a lovely lass, and very popular, but I cannot recall our interest, and whether she was a typist employed by the Navy, or whether we were friendly with her parents I just cant remember, but I do know that it was a very sad occasion for all of us. I only discovered her grave since I have started on these notes.

123. Page 22 - While in Cairns, besides having my normal job to do on Platypus, I was also in charge of all the contents of Cold rooms that we had scattered around Cairns, and besides meat, we carried a lot of medical stores and also a large quantity of beer which belonged to the Officers messes and being in charge of grog in those days of rationing was an asset, although the Navy was looked after quite better than the other services, and each day there was a special session for the Navy in the R.S.L. clubrooms.

124. As the Japanese were gradually pushed back, and the fighting went further north, the Platypus was ordered to leave Cairns and go to Melbourne, and we arrived there on 5h June 1944, and we laid at Princess pier Pt Melbourne for several weeks while we were converted from a coal burner to Oil, then we took off from there and headed for Morotai in the Celebes to again look after our Corvettes who were operating in that area. On the way up we called at Townsville, Pt Moresby, Madang, Biak then on to Moratai.

125. We had quite a few anxious moments on the trip, and I will always remember going ashore to Mass on Madang, because while Mass was on there was a lot of shell and small arms fire started up, and my mate said to me what is that, and I told him not to worry they were probably having a practice run, and an Army Sergeant in front of us turned round and said practice be buggered, thats the Japs and Aussies getting stuck into it. That would have to be the smartest I have ever seen of a Church party returning to ship.

126. Biak was a Yank Navy motor torpedo boat base, and while there we topped up with stores from the yanks, the Yanks loaned us a truck, and I went up to the stores, and they had everything. I met an Aussie Army Sergeant up there, and he told me to forget my list work out what I wanted back the truck in ready to load and wait for his signal to start loading. As soon as we heard the Air Raid sirens we were to ignore them load up and get out of it and sign for nothing. You should have seen those Yank storemen clear those buildings and head for the jungle when the sirens sounded off, we had the place to ourselves, and as soon as we had loaded up and on our way back to the beach somebody sounded off the all clear and it must have been that Sergeant.

127. Moratai was a busy place, and there were hundreds of ships, invasion barges, submarines and every type of small patrol boats, and ashore there were thousands of Yank and Australian troops getting ready for the invasion of Borneo.

128. It was a terribly hot place, just over the Equator, and at night we had to keep all the portholes closed because the Japs disguised as natives would sneak up and toss hand grenades through any open port hole they could find. When the invasion fleet took off, it was a fantastic sight, some Jap planes came snooping around, and every ship opened up, and within minutes a clear sky looked overcast with all that flak overhead. We tried to work it out, every one of those ships had twenty or more bofers, so that had to be ten to twenty thousand bofers going off at one time. No ship got hit, and our fighters soon had things under control.

129. Page 13 - Morotai after the invasion fleet left for Borneo quietened down - we were kept busy moving stores, and large numbers of Japanese prisoners were being bought into that area, and they had to be fed too. I remember one day in July a Yank Destroyer arrived in Morotai with a captured Japanese Hospital Ship, she was fully loaded with wounded, and when she was boarded and searched it was discovered that she carried a full load of fully armed troops disguised as patients, and as they came ashore they were made strip, and not one of them had an injury.

130. Come August 15th 1945 the feast of the Assumption was really the day to remember, we did not know too much about the Atomic Bombs, and as far as we knew the war was going to go on for many months yet, Moratai had become quite safe and secure, and we were showing pictures at night on our upper deck, and on that memorable night we were watching a picture called the Great Waltz, it was about nine pm, and without warning every air raid siren sounded off, and all the Ack Ack batteries started up, and we all dived for our action stations and before I even got half way to my station every light ashore and afloat including every search light were switched on, and over the load speakers came a voice screaming out that it was all over and that the Japs had surrendered. I cant describe the scene, it was just unbelievable, and there was not a dry eye in the ship. There were men who appeared to be the big tough fearless types just sitting down crying like babies, and they could not care less, they were just letting it all out of their system. Officers only were only allowed to drink on ships, but that night our Captain turned it on for the whole ship.

131. The next day my boss the Paymaster gave me a break and let me join one of our Corvettes the Junie, and she was on her way to take the surrender of various Islands around the southern tip of the Philippines including the Talaud Islands, I went ashore with the landing party armed with a Tommy Gun, but the Japs gave us no trouble at all, once they surrendered they were harmless, and even lined up where we landed and bowed to us as we stepped ashore, we rounded up all the officers and those we knew had committed atrocities, loaded them on board and took them to a holding camp at Manado in the Celebes, and several of those were later executed as war criminals including the Japanese Commandant Colonel Koba at Beo and one of his junior officers named Yànai, they had done some terrible things to our troops they had as prisoners.

132. Today there is a lot of controversy about the Yanks using the Atomic Bomb, and all I can say if the Japs had of been fought to the finish many thousand more Allied, troops were going to be killed, and had Japan or Germany for that matter had of got the bomb first then they would have used it, and I am absolutely certain that the Yanks had no option, and the results we see so often on TV has saved the world from destruction, because they are all now too scared to use it.

133. Page 24 - I rejoined Platypus after a couple of interesting weeks in the Junee, and we were kept busy right up until we sailed for Sydney at the end of November 1945, and as you can imagine Moratai was very busy with all sorts of ships landing refugees from Japanese occupied islands, and I have always been suspicious about the Dutch in that area, most of those refugees that I saw were quite well and healthy, but all other nationals suffering from malnutrition and various other sicknesses, and the allied prisoners of war were in a terrible state, and I can still understand why today there are many people who cant forgive the Japanese, and if they ever got the upper hand again they would be just the same.