My Life On The Ocean Waves
Douglas Freeman
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2010 Douglas Freeman
I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Elaine, my daughter Penny, my Mother and Father and all the rest of my family, especially my brother Bill who was in the Royal Navy at the same time as myself, and also to all my friends in the Royal Navy with whom I share a lot of fond memories
TABLE OF CONTENTS - HYPERLINKS
Willemshaven - The Netherlands
Guatemala And Belize - West Indies
St. Petersburg / Orlando - America
Caracas / Venezuela - South America
The Admiral’s House - Portsmouth
INTRODUCTION
I used to tell stories about my time in the Royal Navy to my friends and relations, about the places I’d been to, and the things I’d seen and done. One day I decided to write my stories down and put them all together to see how they would come out. This was done mainly for my own benefit, but as the stories unfolded it looked like I had the makings of a good book, so I just continued writing.
I would like point out that all of my recollections in this book are from memory only, and not from a diary, so obviously I have not recalled everything. I have always regretted not having kept a diary. I also regret not having taken enough photographs, especially with all the beautiful and interesting pubs, “I mean places”, that I went to all over the world.
I enjoyed all of my years in the navy. I would like to reminisce now and pass on some of my stories. Some of them serious, some of them amusing or even funny, but all of them true. It is my intention to make this book light hearted as well as informative, and in so doing, help to give you an insight what it was like to be in the royal navy between 1966 and 1976.
Those were good years for me. The navy had many ships at this time, and there were a lot of countries around the world where they were allowed to visit. So when I say I joined the navy to see the world, that’s exactly what I did, with no regrets and a lot of fond memories.
Anyway, here are my recollections starting with a brief introduction of my life leading up to the day I joined the Royal Navy.
PRE NAVY YEARS
My name is Douglas Freeman. I am the youngest of a family of seven, with three brothers and three sisters. I was born on October 1949 in an old tenement building called the Hard-up Mansions, on Great Northern Road, Woodside, Aberdeen, Scotland. The reason they were called the hard-up mansions was because the company who were building them ran out of money before they were completed, and they only built about half the length of the tenement. Anyway, that’s the story my father told me.
I first got the urge to travel when I was at Woodside Primary School. I was about eight years old, and I remember being in an office at the top of the school building, looking at the horizon out of the window and thinking to myself, I wonder what is over there? I imagined going up to that horizon, and when I got there, there would be another horizon to go to. When I was about ten years old, I satisfied my curiosity by going up to that horizon to see what was over there, but by then the wanderlust was burning within me, and I knew I was destined to travel the world and pass over many horizons.
I left Woodside Primary School at the age of twelve, and went to Powis Secondary School. My older brother Bill, who was just over three years older than myself, had left Powis by then and joined the Royal Navy. I remember my mother getting letters from him from far off places all over the world, telling stories of exciting places. It was then that I decide I would like to join the Royal Navy and see the world just like my brother.
My brother in law Sandy Watt taught me a bit of the guitar when I was about twelve. I didn’t have a guitar of my own, so he used to let me borrow his guitar to learn on. I didn’t learn a lot initially because I just didn’t know what kind of music to play. One day, Sandy gave me a song to learn called Putting On The Style by Lonni Donigan. It consisted of three chords, D G and A7. Within a few hours I was playing and singing that song like I’d known it for years. I picked things up on the guitar a lot better after that and I enjoyed it a lot better too, and as time went by I learned more of the songs that Sandy gave me.
I have a lot to thank Sandy for, because the guitar stood me in good stead during my naval career. I ended up singing and playing my guitar in pubs, clubs and at parties all over the world.
I left Powis School at the age of fifteen, and got a job as a van boy with the Co-op baker in Berryden Road, delivering bread and cakes and rowies to the customer’s doors. I got to know most of the customer’s by their co-op number rather than their name. I remember one day my van driver Dod Swift came up to me and said, 45814 died yesterday, I knew exactly who it was. I stayed at this job for about eighteen months, but during that time I was planning to join the royal navy, just like my brother. It took a while before I got around to telling my mother of my intentions, as I knew she wanted me to stay at home. Because I was the youngest of a family of seven, she didn’t want her youngest child to go away and leave her. I remember seeing the hurt and sadness in her eyes when I told her I wanted to join the royal navy, but she reluctantly agreed and gave me her full backing. My father just left it up to me to decide what I wanted to do with my life, and went along with my decision to join the royal navy.
I went down to the Royal Navy Recruiting Office in Guild Street, Aberdeen, where I took a small entry examination to see if I was suitable for the navy. I wanted to go in to electronics as I was interested in that subject and it was also a hobby of mine, but they said that there were no vacancies for that subject, and they offered me a place as a seaman. I knew my brother Bill was a seaman and also a Radar Operator, so I decided to accept their offer with the intentions of changing branches to an Electronics Technician at a later date. They arranged for me to go down to H.M.S. Condor near Montrose for my medical examination. A week or so later I got a letter through saying I had passed my medical and had been accepted for the Royal Navy. In the letter they gave me a date to join H.M.S. Raleigh in Plymouth, I then realised that my life was about to change forever.
My Mother and Father came down to the Railway Station with me to see me off on the train. I went and got my navy rail warrant changed into a rail ticket, then my father took some photos of me on my own and I asked a passer-by to take a photo of the three of us together for a keep sake. I then got settled on to the train for my long journey to Plymouth. It was a very long journey. I had to change trains twice, and it’s a wonder I didn’t get lost. I was only sixteen and I had never been far outside of Aberdeen in my whole life, never mind travel all the way to the South West Coast of England on my own.
H.M.S. RALEIGH
I eventually arrived at H.M.S. Raleigh the next day, after a long journey lasting almost 24 hours. I was tired and shattered after only managing to grab a few hours' sleep on the way. After I got settled in, I was introduced to the other new recruits, everybody was wondering what they had let themselves in for. We were issued with our bedding and a few other things, then we were given an introduction and welcome to the Royal Navy speech. That evening I went to bed in the long cold mess with about twenty other people feeling lost and homesick, and wondering what the next few days, weeks and years would bring for me, and I fell asleep dreaming of what lay ahead.
We were woken up at 05:30 hrs. What an unearthly time of the morning to wake somebody up. I hate getting up early in the morning. After we had breakfast, we went to a Nissan hut to be told what was in store for us during the coming days and weeks. We were told we were to be here for six weeks of square bashing, which means teaching us discipline, marching and rifle drill etc. I got a bit of a shock with that news, as the recruiting officer in Aberdeen told me I should not be away from home for more than two weeks to start with. I thought great, that would break things up a bit for me, not having been away from home before. Well so much for the easy start I was expecting!
I signed on the dotted line and joined the Royal Navy on May 24th 1966. Junior Seaman First Class (J/S1). We then got issued with our uniforms and all the rest of the kit that you get when you first join the navy. e.g. A little piece of wood with your initials and name on it for stamping all your clothes with. A knife, boots, boot polish, No.8s, “that is your day to day working shirt and trousers you will be marching around in”, and a whole lot of other stuff, including a kit bag to put it all into when you have to travel. We had to wear a blue long sleeve jumper under our No.8 shirt. I’m sure it must have been made out of coconut matting, you used to itch like hell all day, and we were never so glad to get anything off at the end of the day as that horrible jumper. Our blue No.2 uniform, which we had to wear in the evenings, was also made of a very rough material, I used to hate wearing it. I remember getting my first photograph taken with my naval uniform on, I was standing next to a maroon car, and when I sent the photo on to my mother, she wrote me a letter back saying, my, you are getting on well in the navy!