A Soup Bowl Full of Rum

Heroes Remember

A Soup Bowl Full of Rum

Transcript

I remember having an awful time in the wireless office. I was on reading a routine, when this … when it broke into plain language to all ships at sea. I had the message for years and years that I copied down. I don’t know where it is now, but … “To all ships at sea, the war in Europe is over. Splice the main brace. God bless the King.” And that was it. Everybody gathered in the mess deck and the rum was ladled out to all from an oaken cask with, “God bless the King” on the side of it. And the old man at that point said that he didn’t believe that the water was entirely free because he said there’s some hot heads out there that are just waiting for a chance to do their thing. So he said, “If you hold off on splicing the main brace, I’ll make it up to you when we get into port.” So, that’s what happened. We didn’t splice the main brace until we got into port. Now at that time, they had the riots in Halifax and we couldn’t get into Halifax. So they sent us down to Shelburne, Nova Scotia where we tied up in the middle of the harbour. And the old man had - I don’t know whether they were kegs of beer or milk cans of beer - brought aboard and spotted aboard, around the ship in strategic places. So you could drink the beer. And that’s when we spliced the main brace and everybody lined up in the seamen’s mess. And the paymaster was there and he was ladling it out as if it came out of his own pocket. And every time somebody showed up that was on the captain’s good books, he’d give his arm a little nudge and he’d get a little more rum. So I had, I think by this time, the paymaster was a little cheesed off and he figured why fight it? And he was ladling it out as hard as he could and I got a soup bowl full of rum. And I remember leaving, and the navigating officer was officer of the watch that night, and he said to me, “Don’t, please don’t get too loaded, ‘cause,” he said, “If I have to get a message ashore” he said, "I'm going to need you." So I locked myself in the wireless office with my bowl of rum, turned on one of the receivers to some nice music and proceeded to write a letter to my fiancé, ‘cause when I got home on leave the next time, she hands me this letter and says, "What does this say?" I said, "I don’t know." She said, “How come you don’t know?” I said, “Well, it was pretty rough at sea that day." So I said, "I can’t read it, forget it." I guess I’d had a little more to drink than what I thought, ‘cause I couldn’t read the letter. I don’t know what I said.

Description

Mr. Irwin describes events on board HMCS Prince Rupert on VE Day and having to wait until dropping anchor in Shelbourne, Nova Scotia to ‘splice the main brace.’

Robert Irwin

Mr. Irwin was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 9, 1921. He lost his father in a car accident while a boy. Because his mother had to work, he and his brother were taken under the wing of the local YMCA, where they both became excellent competitive swimmers. Once old enough, Mr. Irwin worked on the lake boats on Lake Superior. Shortly before enlisting, he also worked for General Electric, where he was promised a job upon his return from active service. Mr. Irwin trained as a wireless operator and, after doing shore duty in the Halifax communications centre, joined the frigate HMCS Prince Rupert, which was assigned to convoy duty. Mr. Irwin spent his entire time at sea aboard this vessel. Notable events during his duty include a possible sub kill off Ireland and the rescue of survivors from a torpedoed British warship in the same action. After leaving the service, General Electric made good on its promise, and Mr. Irwin pursued a 40 year career with them. He now resides in London, Ontario.

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