Next stop was Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas Islands. Nassau is barely 200 miles from Florida and the shops had prices in pounds and US dollars. I think it was in Nassau (but it may have been Bermuda) that two girls invited me and a shipmate, Buck Taylor, to their house. The sisters looked like Europeans but their mother was black.
A party from the ship were invited to the house of a Major Simpson, a retired British army officer who lived permanently in Nassau. Wth his wife he entertained us to tea and possibly stronger drinks.
Nassau was the only place on the cruise where we were not alongside a jetty and so we had to go ashore by boat. As in every port, the ship was open to visitors and a crammed vessel brought out many of the locals to be impressed by Britain's naval might. I wish now that I had kept a diary because I no longer recall how long we spent in each port; I think it was three or four days at each of them. The whole trip was only six weeks so each stay must have been fairly short.
Then it was off to Hamilton, Bermuda, where we were tied up at a wharf barely 50 metres from the main street. Sadly I have no recollection at all about Bermuda. When we arrived back at Portsmouth it was time for two weeks Easter leave.
In May 1946, the first anniversary of the end of the war in Europe was celebrated throughout Britain and the Birmingham was sent to Cardiff.
As we were going through a lock to get into the docks I heard a broadcast of the One Thousand Guineas, a race over one mile for three year old fillies. The King's horse, Hypericum, bolted just before the start and ran a considerable distance before she was caught and brought back to the start. The preliminary gallop must have been beneficial as she won the race. Any other owner would have had his horse scratched.
A large party of us were given a civic lunch, which I remember as being of a frugal nature, at the City Hall and I think a party of sailors from the ship took part in some sort of ceremony. The ship was open for visitors and I was looking through the port in the artisans' mess when I saw two attractive girls coming up the gangway. A messmate and I rushed to the gangway and asked the girls if they would like a guided tour, an invitation which they accepted.
Later I had a date with one of the girls; I have forgotten her name.
Soon after Cardiff came the summer cruise along the east coast.
First stop was Hull; entering the River Humber I saw our boyhood Mecca, Cleethorpes, from the sea. From Hull I was able to have a day in Brigg, catching the ferry to New Holland and then a bus to Brigg.
There was a beer shortage in 1946 but some of us found a pub called The Alma, named for a battle in the Crimean War, where we were allowed through the door which was locked for all but regular customers.
Then it was on to Scarborough where we were anchored some distance from shore. Every summer Scarborough puts on a musical show in the evenings in Peasholme Park and many of us were given free admission.
On one occasion I was returning to the ship at night in bad weather and the officer of the watch decided it was too dangerous to allow us to board the ship, so we were sent back ashore to fend for ourselves.
With several ship-mates I went to the bus station and stretched out for the night on the bench-type seats on the top deck of a double decker bus.
The next port was Hartlepool, a town of which I remember nothing, but from where I went to Newcastle-on-Tyne to tour the factory of A.Reyrolle, makers of high voltage switchgear.
Ron Botteril, my chief, was friendly with a girl he had met while on a ship being built at Newcastle during the war; her father worked for Reyrolle and organised the tour for a group of us.
High voltage switchgear, up to 132,000 volts, was a subject about which I knew nothing. I did not know then that later in life I would become very familiar with the products of the Reyrolle factory.
More memories from Cliff to come on Brigg Blog...
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