Lull in Ship Conversation

Heroes Remember

Lull in Ship Conversation

Interviewer: How was the friendship on the, on the ship? The friendship? Excellent in, in most cases, but one thing I always remember, especially when you started out, everybody is very friendly and nice and that. It used to take us about 33 days if we went from Vancouver to Sydney, and coming back was always longer. In fact, one trip, we were 39 days. There's always a two or three week period in the middle of that voyage where you've heard every story, you even get to know people's relations You no longer talk to each other very much. It's very, very quiet And then, when you know that in a couple of days you're going to be in Sydney, everybody starts talking again and everybody is very friendly again. Everything goes back to normal. But it was, it was, I guess, psychologists could tell us what it all was, but it was there very definitely.

Mr. White recalls how the sailors would keep to themselves more for a week or two in the middle of a 30-40 day voyage.

Alexander M. White

Mr. Alexander White was born in Craik, Saskatchewan, on November 15, 1923. His father, a Veteran of the First World War, survived being gassed in Ypres and returned to Canada in 1915. It was his fathers stories of the ships he had been on that began Mr. White's interest in sailing. As he neared the end of grade school Mr. White decided to join the Merchant Navy, and entered training as a radio operator when he had finished grade 12. After training Mr. White was sent to Vancouver to join the crew of a ship still in construction. In June 1943 they left port on the SS Green Gables Park. Mr. White stayed at sea for three years and suffered from seasickness for the first half of those three years. During his service Mr. White guided the ship as it ferried cargo across the North Atlantic and South Pacific either alone or as part of massive convoys. Although there were many close calls, including instances of ships beside them in convoys being torpedoed, the SS Green Gables Park luckily never came under direct attack during the war. Staying with the service for a year after the war ended in order to gain experience, Mr. White received his discharge in 1946.

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:10
Person Interviewed:: Alexander M. White
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Atlantic Ocean
Branch:: Merchant Navy
Units/Ship:: SS Green Gables Park
Rank:: 2nd Class Seaman
Occupation:: Radio Operator

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Date modified:: 2024-12-30