Across the Atlantic

Heroes Remember

Across the Atlantic

Transcript

I was lucky I never got seasick. Never got sick, the first day we was out I felt a little dizzy and after that was it so where we went, everywhere you looked there was guys spewing and sick, so when there were so many of them sick they couldn't go eat so we had free of the mess hall, we could go any time at all. And the sea was still rolling. And it was so comical, they had this big dixie's, these big tea, things to put your tea in, you know they are huge teapot, the thing stands about that high with hot tea in it and the ship would roll. And that thing would come down, sliding down, try to grab it to stop. And the tables, they have an edge on them so nothing would come on your lap, everything would run. So then we had to help clean up the kitchen and stuff see so we liked that because go and help clean up the kitchen you got all kinds of extra food that we could have. Then we'd wait and once the tables slide we'd jump on the tables and everything would slide off the table. So they had ropes, they put extra ropes all around so you could hang onto the ropes see, you could walk around but after a while she levelled out.

Description

Mr. Cromwell tells about his journey across the Atlantic and how not becoming sea sick earned him an abundance of food.

Everett Sylvester Cromwell

Everett Cromwell was born on December 12, 1921 in Weymouth Falls, Digby Co., Nova Scotia. He was the fifth of ten children. At age twelve, he left school to work in the woods because his father, also a forestry worker, had fallen ill. Both of his parents were soon deceased, and the ten children stayed in the family home supporting one another. Mr.Cromwell supported the family by working for a local farmer and then in the local lumberyard. He enlisted in June, 1941 in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. After basic training in Halifax, Sherbrooke, and Camp Borden, he sailed aboard the Louis Pasteur to England, arriving on December 23, 1941. Two weeks after the D-day raid, Mr. Cromwell arrived in France with the 2nd Division, Motor Transport. For the duration of the war, his unit was responsible for transporting fuel, food and ammunition to the Front in support of the Allied advance on Germany. After being discharged from the army and returning home, Mr. Cromwell, recently married, reenlisted because it was ‘steady work’. He and his family were to experience institutionalized racism in Halifax, being denied accommodations because of their black heritage. This in contrast to the fact that he felt equal in all respects as a member of the Army. Mr. Cromwell and his wife, Elizabeth, currently reside in Shelburne, Nova Scotia.

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