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Some Rough Water

Heroes Remember

Some Rough Water

Transcript
We didn't get ashore very much, we, like I say, other than Sasebo but we did get a, a trip to Hong Kong. We did a patrol and it was quite long, longer than fourteen days, and instead of sending us on R&R, which is rest and recreation, they sent, we had a little trouble with a seam so they sent us down to Hong Kong for repairs. And on the way down there we went through a typhoon. Interviewer: Can you tell me about that? What was your impression of the typhoon? Terrifying. Religion hit the ship in one great swoop that night, literally. I was quite sea sick when I was over there, you know, in fact I was, I think probably one of the few, first people to use Gravol. They were thinking about sending me home because I was sea sick but the Gravol worked. But I was up on the gun deck above the main deck, there was a little shelter there that they put the gun cover in when, when they were in action stations but the cover was in there, no the gun was covered so there was four forty millimetre boxes, shell boxes in there so I got myself a duffle coat and I crawled in there, there was a canvas down the back and I crawled in and covered myself up and I stayed there. But, then they said nobody was allowed on the upper deck. And the waves were seventy feet high and just terrifying. But, they came up and made me go down below, and somebody came out and got me. Interviewer: How long did that last? Oh, I would say probably thirty-six hours. We just finished getting (inaudible), we lost all, all our boats. It took the davits for the boat and, you know, and just took them and twisted them right down to the deck, smashed it, well there was about that much of the boat, motor boat hanging off the, the falls. Interviewer: And this would be from the wave action, washing against the side of the ship? They said that she healed over far enough for the water was looking through the lookout positions on the bridge. Wouldn't have to go much further, you know, she'd a upset. And then we just got out of the storm, like, you got the initial storm, then the eye of the storm, then the after, and we had no boats or floats, carly floats were all gone and we were escorting HMS Glory, which was an aircraft carrier. And the captain on Glory got a message that there was a Turkish freighter in distress and my, our captain said we can't go, we had no rescue gear left at all. And we got to Hong Kong and that's a fantastic place, we had a real ball there. We tied up in Kowloon. They healed the ship over while they welded this cracked seam. We had leave in Hong Kong for about five days.
Description

Life aboard ship was not always smooth sailing, especially in stormy Pacific waters.

William White

Mr. White was born Feb. 12, 1930. His father, a coal miner by profession, fought in both the First and the Second World Wars. The family moved to Nanaimo when Mr. White was about 1 year old. From a very young age Mr. White had wanted to join the Navy. He realized that dream when he enlisted on March 1, 1948. He set sail from the West Coast on the HMCS Sioux for Korea, in June of 1950. On the way to Korea they stopped in Hawaii to receive some anti-submarine training. Bt he says they never really received much training until they came under American control in Korea.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
02:57
Person Interviewed:
William White
War, Conflict or Mission:
Korean War
Location/Theatre:
Waters off Korea
Battle/Campaign:
Korea
Branch:
Navy
Units/Ship:
HMCS Sioux
Occupation:
Storekeeper

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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