William DiMaurizio (Second World War) (Primary Source)

Transcription

(Service in the Canadian Merchant Navy)

We were pretty worried. We were looking around to see if we could see anything coming out of the water, but we didn’t see anything. They (the merchant ships) were all at an equal distance from each other. The slowest, the slowest ships, were astern. If they were too slow to follow the convoy, they’d say “You’re on your own.” They would leave the ship all alone, and that’s when it would sink. The slowest one was at the back and they would let it go. Then the others would sink. The speed they were doing was about ten knots, no more. They weren’t fast ships. A merchant ship isn’t as fast as a large passenger ship. If you were on duty, you stayed on board. But if you weren’t on duty, you could go out and explore the nearby towns.

In those days, it was a big change going from Canada to England. In England, especially in the winter, there’s a lot of rain. It’s a gray climate, and frankly, not the weather for me. No, it wasn’t like the army or the air force or the navy. No, it wasn’t. There was respect for the officers. Then I found out that the officers were good sailors. Some of them had 25- or 30-years’ experience. Some of the captains were old, others had sailed all their lives. No, I thought they were good.

At sea, there were all sorts of things to do, especially if the ship was older. They called it “chipping.” It’s a sharp little hammer, and we had to pick at the rust and then put a little paint on it. They did that. After that, they’d do an hour and a half on deck, steering the boat. They called that the wheelhouse. They would do that for an hour and a half and then change again. Another guy would take over. A lot of people think it’s the captain who steers the ship. But the captain walks around to see if everything’s okay. The marines steered the ship with an officer. Then there was an officer who was in charge of the “map” to figure out where we were. It was the same thing every day.

In total, there were 42 of us. Forty-two marines, marine officers and here there were seven Canadian Navy marines because we were armed. We had two cannons. One in the bow, and one at the stern and machine guns in the middle. That was to measure how far to fire. It was the military marines who directed the fire. And in those days, everyone helped to pass the ammunition and so on.

If it hadn’t been for the Merchant Navy, the Germans would have taken over Europe. Because we were the ones transporting ammunition, vehicles and food for the troops. We were the ones who did most of it, but we were never recognized. It’s not right. We should have been recognized, but no, it was over. It was like, well, the war is finally over, and they didn’t need you guys!