Description
Mr. Sperry describes storms on the Atlantic and how a man was lost overboard.
Bishop John Sperry
Mr. Sperry was born on Leicester, England, in 1924. He joined the Royal Navy in 1943 and served until 1946 on Destroyer, Escort and Convoy Duty. Upon completion of his tour of duty, Bishop Sperry immigrated to Canada in 1960, serving parishes in Kugluktuk (formerly Coppermine) and Fort Smith. He served as diocesan bishop from 1973 to 1990 and is the author of <em>Igloo Dwellers Were My Church</em>, a memoir of his ministry in the North. An accomplished linguist, he was involved in the Inuktitut Bible translation for the people of the Western Arctic. In retirement, he works with health and volunteer organizations and is Chaplain of the Canadian Forces Northern Region. On July 5, 2002, he was named to the Order of Canada.
Transcript
One of our storms, and in these bad storms the, the crew you're not, they're not gonna fire anything. They've got to man their guns. They hide behind the, the cowling of the guns, but there's one man, he has to be out in the storm anyway. There's a guy, we called him "Knobby Clark," nice fellow. I didn't know him too well, but he was out and he had to have ear phones in case the bridge called him and he had to be in the weather and the ship was rolling around and there was one roll and went down and he, well the gun was up there, he ran, he was had to run down to the edge of the, the ship. We had adjusted the wires and then he went back again and he went overboard. Well, I think the skipper tried to, "We'll never find him, we'll never, never find him." So we lost him. What would, what happened in the navy, unless it was too tragic and then everybody went, they used to get a guy's belongings and auction it off. Well they didn't have very much, he made do with a pen knife, ok. Somebody like offer, "Oh, we'll give him in Canadian." "I'll give five bucks for that," and he put five bucks in and then he give it back, and it goes on and on. And we collected, oh, I would say about fifty, fifty dollars in Canadian money for him and sent it to his mother. They know and then about three or four weeks later we got a letter back and she said, "I was really touched when I read about my son, who's been lost overboard, and thank you very much for your gift. A day after we had this news, in London, we were bombed and we lost all our belongings and so your money came in very useful." And I thought, the poor thing, losing his, a son and a house and everything else.