I went to a Labour Exchange and got a job as a clerk with the railways in an office near Marylebone Station. The job involved records of freight carried on the railway and was incredibly boring.
At the same time I moved from the Victory Club to lodgings in West Hampstead. The landlady was a hard-faced woman. She had four other lodgers that I remember; we all had separate rooms so it must have been quite a large house.
The next few weeks were probably the most miserable of my life. I discovered that life in London was very different from the occasional visit - and I had a financial disaster. I kept records of greyhound racing results at London tracks and came up with what I thought was a sure-fire system. One Saturday night I went to the dogs at Wembley to test the system and lost most of a week’s wages.
Monday saw me at a pawnbroker's shop near Charing Cross station where I pawned my watch and binoculars so I could pay the hard-faced landlady her week's rent. They were not in pawn for long. Since then I have not visited either a pawnbroker or a greyhound track.
A young man at my work had been in the Merchant Navy and I think it must have been talks I had with him that made me think in that direction.
I stayed at the railway job for only six weeks and went back to Brigg.
I took a job with an electrical contractor; for most of the six weeks with him the main job was wiring new houses being built at an air force base at Swinderby between Lincoln and Newark. This involved travel of almost an hour each way in the back of a van and I hated this job, too. At Dad's suggestion, I wrote to the shipping company Alfred Holt at Liverpool. I was called to Liverpool for an interview and given a job as ship's electrician. I did not know that a chance meeting in Liverpool would change my life.
At first I worked on ships at the Birkenhead docks where cargo for the company's ships was loaded, and I stayed in lodgings arranged by the company. This was with two sisters, the Misses Wolfenden, whose late father had been a chief engineer with the company. The younger sister, in her forties and working in an office, was the archetypical sour spinster but her elder sister who looked after the boarders was very different. The house shone and the meals, in spite of rationing which was still in force, were good.
I also did a spell on nights on a ship called the Deucalion. I lived on board and only had to get out of bed if needed. I was free during the day and during that time had two trips to Haydock Park races and also saw Laurence Olivier's film of Shakespeare's Henry V.
My first voyage for Alfred Holt's Blue Funnel line was only as far as Glasgow in the Astyanax; all Blue Funnel ships were named after the Greek heroes of Homer's Odyssey. When ships returned from foreign voyages their crews went on leave and temporary crews manned the ships for coast-wise voyages. We went to Glasgow to load cargo for the ship's next foreign voyage.
I had to be in the engine room when leaving harbour and when the order to start the engine was given I nearly jumped out of my skin. The Astyanax was a motor ship driven by a diesel engine and to start the engine a blast of compressed air was driven into the cylinders and this created a very loud noise. All my previous experience had been in steam ships.
Thanks to my Seaman's Record Book, which I still have, I know the return trip from Liverpool to Glasgow was from 4 November 1949 to 11 November 1949.
About all I remember of Glasgow was going to see Scotland play Wales in a soccer match at Hampden Park.
Then it was back to the shore gang, probably spending most of the time at the Misses Wolfenden, and having a few days at home at Christmas time.
On 30 December 1949 I went to Glasgow by overnight sleeper to join the Peleus. Arriving about breakfast time on New Year's Eve I was whisked off to the shipping office to sign on. New Year's Eve is a time of celebration in Scotland and I was looking forward to a few beers ashore in the evening but by lunch time the Peleus and I were sailing down the Clyde bound for Liverpool where I signed off on New Years Day, about 30 hours after signing on.
More memories from Cliff to come on Brigg Blog...
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