No, no. And then there's quite possible that, let's say we're
sailing from Halifax, and we would have to be in a
geographical position, at 10 o'clock tomorrow night. The Master
sailed under sealed orders. When he left Halifax, I guess they
knew where they were going, but they knew that they had to be in
that geographical position, at 10 o'clock tomorrow night. And
when they got in that geographical position, then he had another
big envelope that he opened up and got his orders from there.
Then, we would have probably other ships join the convoy like that.
And all we would have . . . yeah go ahead . . .
Interviewer: So say you went in a zig-zag?
No, not . . . no, not with a, not with a big convoy like that.
I never, I never went in a zig-zag, but when we were trooping,
and we went in zig-zag courses, sometimes then. But it would be
very, very difficult and dangerous for a whole convoy,
to get on a zig-zag course. But very often, we would get one short
blast, and if you're the commodore ship, you know what
you're doing and you give one short blast. And the fellow next
to you, he would give a short blast. And that meant 45 degrees
to starboard and then if you go to port, certainly it would be
two, two short blasts. And you would have to alter course like
that sometimes. And when we were travelling in on the convoy,
in bad weather, foggy we'll say you were travelling 500 yards apart.
Each ship was 500 yards, from port and starboard, the head and
the stern. So we'd, we'd pull, we'd tow a fog buoy. It was like
a sleeve towing from that vessel ahead and when I would be
getting up close to him, I'd see the water shooting up. You
couldn't see the ship, but you'd see the water shooting up.
You'd know that you were approaching close. He was either slacking
off, or you were gaining a little. So then the officer to watch,
he would go to the phone and call to the engine room
and say "Down one" that's a rev.,
or "Down two", or "Up one, "or "Up two," whatever it might be.
And then certainly when you go to make a 45 degree turn, with a
whole convoy, that's very tricky, you have to know what to do.
Because if I turn my ship the same time that you turn, I'd be
here and you'd be over there. I have to watch you.