Seasick Leaving Port!

Heroes Remember

Seasick Leaving Port!

Transcript

We went on (inaudible), she was an old ship, an old First World War ship. She was a troop ship in the First World War now that’s how old she was. And going out through the narrows in Saint John’s, she was a bit loppy there and I got sea sick right there before we even went anywhere. Howard says, “Boy this is going to be a long trip!” So anyway, after we got outside, when we got out in the deep water it got a little bit better. We broke down three or four times. It took a month to get to England, a whole month. It usually only makes it in six or seven days at that time. You can go now in a couple hours. Well, you’re pretty crowded because there’s six bunks in one room where there used to be one or two and there’s six there. And the food was, I don’t know, it was alright for the first few days but then when the fresh food wore out we had canned stuff like meat. Christmas day, I got to tell you this one, well everybody was looking forward to Christmas. Someone had a bottle of screech, he kept that so we had a few drinks. Anyway, someone went down and seen this chicken down in the cookhouse the cook had cooked and we took it and brought it up and we shared it out. Stole it, it was the captain’s dinner actually. They looked all over the place, they asked everybody to see who done it, but they never did find out.

Description

Mr. Starkes tells of his first experiences at sea heading towards England and the funny things that happen amongst the crew!

Charles Starkes

Mr. Charles Starkes was born in Greenspond, Newfoundland May 24, 1922. Mr. Starkes joined the Royal Navy under the British Forces from his home province of Newfoundland. He trained as Torpedoman on board a British aircraft carrier and took on the roles and responsibilities of an electrician. Mr. Starkes was part of the D-Day invasion and holds great pride for the service he provided during this time 75 years ago. After the war, Mr. Starkes returned to Newfoundland and obtained a Master Electrician license and worked in that field until retirement. Mr. Starkes now resides in Saint John’s, NL with his family.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Recorded:: June 4, 2019
Duration:: 1:52
Person Interviewed:: Charles Starkes
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: France
Battle/Campaign:: D-Day
Branch:: Navy
Rank:: Torpedo Man

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Date modified:: 2019-04-03