Atlantic Crossing
Heroes Remember
Atlantic Crossing
Transcript
Boarded the ship in Halifax in March, 1944. It couldn't have
been March, March ‘95 I guess, or ‘45. And I was seasick right
there while the boat was tied up to the dock. It was Louis
Pasteur and of course, apparently, it had been built a little
bit off keel so it rolled. And of course the idea was to change
course every 2 or 3 minutes so a sub couldn't get lined up on
you, and every time they changed course well we rolled.
Seventeen days from Halifax to Liverpool, it was a long trip.
And we were in there in general just as thick as you could get
people because there was, say a room like this, we had people
sleeping on the floor and there was people sleeping on the
tables and then there was hammocks. So there was as many
people in there as you could get.
Interviewer: You know the Atlantic can be pretty rough.
Well especially the last two days going, getting in towards
Liverpool it was, it was rough. I can remember of course one of
my details was at midnight to get up and swob off all the vomit
from the stairs. So here I was with a pail picking up vomit and
I'm standing over it filling it up myself. The ship went with a
big valoop like this and the bucket went skidding right over and
into a bunch of guys that were sleeping on the floor. Well it
had Lysol and stuff in it, you know, you can imagine what the
smell in there all night. I just disappeared pretty quickly.
Description
Mr. Ryder speaks of the rough time they had crossing the Atlantic aboard the Louis Pasteur.
Lloyd Ryder
Mr. Ryder was born in 1922 in Whitehorse. In his childhood the Whitehorse population was 300 in the winter and 600 in the summer. In 1939 that all changed when war was declared, in a short time after war was declared the airport in Whitehorse was expanded and the American Army arrived and started to build a highway. Mr. Ryder joined the service in 1944 following his father's footsteps from the First World War. He was hoping to join the air force but that did not happen so he joined the army.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 02:04
- Person Interviewed:
- Lloyd Ryder
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Atlantic Ocean
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Canadian Scottish Regiment
- Rank:
- Private
- Occupation:
- Infantry
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