The Monkey Code

Heroes Remember

The Monkey Code

Transcript

Now, when you finish basic training, they put you in what they call a manning pool. It’s a place there where the, if a ship is looking for some replacements of somebody that’s coming off that ship, you get drafted aboard that ship, and you’re on that ship, you’re on that ship until you’re going to get off it. I, we got drafted aboard a destroyer, an old four-stacker destroyer, the HMCS St. Croix. That was in September 9th or 29th, I just forget, in September anyhow, and they tell me, they were telling me, “Look, in the manning pool,” the older hands were saying, “it’s getting near Christmas and, you know, if you get aboard that destroyer and go aboard that destroyer, she’ll be coming in for a refit. You’ll be home for Christmas, be home for New Year’s.” Oh, man, oh man, that was right down my alley. I couldn’t wait ‘til I got aboard that ship. When I went aboard the ship, at 18 years old, and I looked at the ship, and I looked at the men that were on the ship there, and I’m telling you the God’s honest truth, and I’ve told this story a 101 times, I swear to God, that all those men who were aboard that ship were doing life imprisonment. And they opened up the prison doors and told them, “Look, you’re doing life in prison. If you want to go to sea, we’ll count your time in the navy as a time served in prison.” There was some pretty tough guys, tough guys, elderly guys. They had beards, and they had them cold steel grey eyes. That’s, that’s what used to get me. And I was only a young fella, like I said, and they all had knives, and they all had anyhow, we got aboard the ship and that evening, the fella, one of the older hands said to me, “Come here.” I said, “Yes, sir.” I went over, and he said, “Welcome aboard the ship.” And I said, “Thank you.” And he said, “You know the monkey code?” And I said, “What?” He said, “You know the monkey code?” I started to think, God, the monkey code. “No,” I said, “I don’t know nothing about a monkey code.” “You see nothing, you hear nothing, and you say nothing, and you’ll be alright. Keep your nose clean and you’re all right.” And that was the code of the ship. Once when you were with them, the greatest bunch of guys in the world. But if you were against them, they made things tough for you.

Description

Mr. Gray discusses his initiation to life at sea, aboard HMCS St. Croix.

Earl Gray

Mr. Gray was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, on May 6, 1924. As a child, he lived in poverty, despite the fact that some of his family worked in the local steel mill. Although there was a large naval presence in Sydney early in the war, Mr. Gray enlisted in the army, only to be released as an under aged recruit. Six months later, he successfully enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. He first experienced life at sea aboard the HMCS St.Croix, a destroyer assigned to convoy duty. After four voyages, Mr. Gray joined the minesweeper HMCS Vegreville, whose responsibility it was to sweep mines between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. After joining the 31st Minesweeping Flotilla in Portsmouth, England, HMCS Vegreville took part in the sweep of the English Channel as part of the D-Day assault. After the war ended, Mr. Gray was married within a month of his return home. He still resides in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

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