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The Memory Project interviewed John Mardling, a veteran of the Second World War in about 2010. The following recording (and transcript) is an excerpt from this interview. Born in Harwich Township, Ontario, in 1921, Mardling served in the Merchant Navy from 1943 to 1945. In this testimony, he recalls trips to Scotland, England and India during the war, and encountering submarines during voyages across the Atlantic (see Battle of the Atlantic). After the war he settled in Chatham, Ontario, where he worked 38 years at Ontario Steel (Arvin Meritor). He was a member of the Canadian Merchant Navy Association, the Royal Canadian Naval Association and the Royal Canadian Legion. Mardling died on 4 September 2013 at the age of 92.
Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.
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Transcript
I'm John Mardling from Chatham, Ontario. I was in the Merchant Navy. I went in 1943 in March, and came out in August of '45. I went to engineering school at Prescott, and was sent to Halifax after eight weeks and into a Manning Pool, and there I went aboard the Allan Barker. I was a Coal Passer for the first trip. Second trip, I was a full-fledged Fireman. We went to Scotland both trips. Then I stayed at the Montreal Manning Pool for the winter, and made a trip on the Fontaine Park to India. It was a smooth crossing. The man that was the Donkeyman for the ship got sick and had to go ashore, and the Chief Engineer moved me up from a Fireman to a Donkeyman. That's kind of a Chief Petty Officer. Had a headquarters of our own up with the Bo'swain and the Carpenter. Made two trips to England after that. One up the Manchester Canal, and the other up to Newcastle, where I got appendicitis and was operated on in Newcastle General Hospital. Several times on each trip, especially in the Atlantic Ocean, we would encounter submarines. We knew they were there because the Navy would drop depth charges around us and around through the convoy. It was a marvelous thing to see a hundred and fifty ships going across, and each one keeping their distance, both forward and back. In the convoys I was in, we never saw any of them sunk. We were very fortunate because sometimes there would be as high as sixteen lost in one convoy. But the ocean does get rough. All in all, I was glad to serve. When I talk to the Navy boys, it seems like we were sitting ducks out there, but then we did have good quarters to sleep in, and dry. Those fellows on the little Corvettes, they were wet all the time. It's wonderful how so many people came from the farms and the factories, never seen the ocean before, and they go out on there and take their jobs and did a wonderful job. They really need to be remembered.
