Riot Breaks out Over Tripe

When we got to Vancouver, we were, the train stopped in the dockyards in Vancouver and we were marched straight on the boat. And the first thing I knew there was a riot on the boat. And I didn’t know what it was all about so, but the guy says, “Come on let’s get off the boat. There was a bunch of so and so’s on the boat, let’s get off this boat” And the reason for the riot was that it was on an Australian ship, the Awatea, and the meal, we hadn’t had no food. We had breakfast and we had no food since then. By this time it getting to 7 or 8 o’clock at night. We had nothing to eat. They fed us boiled onions and tripe. If you’ve ever had tripe? Have you ever heard of it, do you know what it is? And that’s why the riot was. Well, tripe is supposed to be the sheep’s guts. Apparently in England it’s supposed to be a delicacy. And it didn’t look very appetizing to us. It didn’t taste very good. Bunch of guys got off the boat. Well, naturally they, the army called in the Provost Corps. At that time we didn’t know it was military police, it was just known as the Provost Corps. And they locked the gates and we couldn’t get out of the compound anywhere, out of the wharf compound. And then there were some who were charged with rioting and a few others were, but they said we will treat, get to that when we get to our destination. And we were told to throw all our badges away, take them off, our hat badges, our buttons off our uniforms, take them off , and don’t let whenever the ship is going to dock, don’t let them know where we’re from or where we going. So anyway, when we got, about four or five days later, we got to Hawaii, maybe five days later, I don’t know, I forget by this time. We got to Hawaii and the ship docked for fresh supplies, water and as it was getting moored into the docks these Hawaiian Honolulu girls they were on the dock and they were entertaining us with their grass skirts and Hawaiian dancing and you name it. And everybody on that ship was on the top deck, hanging off the rafters and looking at these girls. And when the ship was ready to leave we all emptied our pockets and threw all the coins and all the Canadian coins and all the Canadian dollars we threw on the dock. Those girls, we were way gone, and we could still see the girls picking up the coins that we had left. So, what we said right away, what’s the idea of us hiding our badges? They knew we were Canadians.

Mr. Friesen describes the food related embarkation riot in Vancouver, and the Awatia’s not-so-secretive stop in Honolulu, Hawaii on the voyage to Hong Kong.

Isaac ‘Ike’ Friesen

Isaac ‘Ike’ Friesen was born on a farm in the Russian Ukraine on October 19, 1920. His father died while Ike was an infant, leaving his mother to run the farm. At the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution, Mrs. Friesen sold the family farm and emigrated to Winkler, Manitoba, later moving to and buying a house in nearby Pomcooley. Mr. Friesen attended the four room school across the street, completing grade eight before becoming a farm laborer to help support his mother. He eventually tried working on a sugarbeet farm in Carmen, Manitoba, but quickly decided joining the armed forces was a better option. He tried to join the Royal Canadian Navy, but was deferred to the Army. He took basic training as a member of the Eighteenth Manitoba Reconnaissance Regiment at Shilo. He was designated as “D” - unfit for overseas service, until being recruited by the badly depleted Winnipeg Grenadiers where his status suddenly became “A1.” Once the conflict in Hong Kong ended with the Allied surrender, Mr. Friesen worked as a laborer at Kai Tek airport. He was eventually shipped to the camp in Niigata, Japan, where he labored as a stevedore. After being liberated and returning to Canada, Mr. Friesen, as the result of a chance meeting while hitchhiking, was offered and accepted employment with what is now Shell Oil.