Dangerous Stoke Hold Makes for Jumpy Nerves

Heroes Remember

Dangerous Stoke Hold Makes for Jumpy Nerves

Transcript

Interviewer: Stokers in the engine room were probably in one of the worst places in the ship to be. Exactly, or the stokehold too. The engine room and stokehold, because you are down lower than anybody else, see. Yeah.. Interviewer: How does that play on the mind of the people in the engine room? How did they deal with that? It a . . . you get sort of built up to it, like action stations. If they get a submarine ping, the action station bells would go and everybody, if you weren't on duty in the boiler room, you were you get an action station you were assigned to and that's where you went. But when an action bell rang and you were on duty in the stoke hole, somebody was assigned to the hatch, that you would go down to the stoke hole, to put the big dogs on the hatch. That wasn't a very nice feeling, to know that your hatch is being dogged down. They, they shut everything down, you know, bulkheads and everything. Well I, I come out of the war with a jumpers nerves, you know, if you'd come up behind me and touch me on my back, I'd jump out of my shoes. And it was because of an alertness that you built within yourself, when you were aboard ship, because of the many different sounds that you have, but there's always one sound different and that's what gives you the start. And your always on the eve of, of something happening and when the strange noise hits, you react. And I remember pretty well you feel, you feel bad when it happens, but there was a gauge glass, and when a gauge glass in the boiler bursts, its just like a torpedo bang. And she just blew and I jumped and I was halfway up on the ladder, out of the stokehold and the petty officer was on my back. Now that's as true as I'm sitting here. That's what happened. We both shot right into a terrified scare, but once we realized, in seconds we realized what it was.

Description

Mr. Doherty recalls how the stoke hold was the most dangerous part of the ship. He then describes how he exited the war with jumpy nerves, having experienced so much, and remembers when he and a Petty Officer on the Guysborough thought they'd been torpedoed.

Ivan Doherty

Mr. Doherty was born on May 4, 1926, in Boston, Massachusetts. His family having originally been from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, decided to return soon after his birth. His father left the family soon after moving to Charlottetown, Mr. Doherty was raised by his mother and grandparents. Soon after turning 15, Mr. Doherty and a friend of the same age, eager for excitement and to see the world, became very anxious to join the Navy. His friends father, understanding that the boys would not be deterred, convinced a recruiter to ignore their age and allow them to join on May 21, 1941. Promising his mother and grandparents to continue with his education, they did not attempt to have him discharged. As he was found to be colour-blind, Mr. Doherty was only allowed to join the Navy as a stoker below decks. After two months basic training, and an 18 month posting in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, he was drafted to the Guysborough, escorting convoys across the North Atlantic, and sweeping the French coast for mines in preparation for the D-Day invasion. In addition to serving as a stoker (Acting Petty Officer), Mr. Doherty acted as a depth charge loader in his off-duty action station. After D-Day, Mr. Doherty left the Guysborough to take a Petty Officer course, but after several delays was drafted to the American carrier, HMS Puncher as a Killick (with the same duties as Acting Petty Officer), escorting convoy ships on the Murmansk Run. Still on the HMS Puncher on VE-Day, Mr. Doherty and the rest of the crew volunteered for the Pacific battle, but it finished before any could enter. Mr. Doherty stayed on the HMS Puncher ferrying troops home across the Atlantic, until he returned home to Charlottetown in September 1945.

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