Two swimming pools filled with sand

Heroes Remember

Two swimming pools filled with sand

Transcript

For one thing, it was small. In our, our opinion, damn small, but... and being small, it was a bit rough. And quarters, there wasn't much in the way of quarters, so there weren't that many of us. But we went, we went down into the hold. We went down to the fire runs, some of us that had been firemen, to look around. And, other than it's smaller, more confined, fewer boilers and stuff, it wasn't a hell of a lot different. We were used to seeing rivets and stuff and you don't see them there. You see wells, if you see anything, and I don't think they had enough lifeboats to accommodate the crew. They might have, I don't really know. But we ate in a mess, but at different times than the crew. And, of course, the crew's never that big on a Victory ship. It was different, totally different. When I went on the Europa, we had state rooms. Like, see they didn't want to ruin ship, to tear out the innards, so the crew were assigned to state rooms. They were assigned two or four to a state room. So, you had privacy or whatever. And on the Victory ship coming home, as I remember it, we just slept in big bays sort of thing, like cargo, empty cargo holds, practically and on cots and it took longer. We could cross, if we were on our own, we could cross in four days easy. In a Victory ship, no, they might do 12, 16 knots, if they're really pushing it and they weren't pushing it. You'd feel the difference in, in the power of the ship itself when it's moving and you're, you're confined. Hell, I don't know... Loaded, I have no idea. It might weigh, I don't know, it might carry... I don't know... 50,000, 60,000 tons of cargo, I'm not sure. Hell, my ship alone, empty, weighed 69,000 tons, for God's sake. My ship was like a little city, we had two theatres, a couple of swimming pools, although they were filled with sand for ballast, because nobody swam in them. But there were two theatres that you could go to. We had a mess. They kept the dining rooms intact. That is, the mirrors and stuff were covered, boarded over, but they kept them intact. And we, they installed tables for us to sit, like long tables. But hell, yeah, my mess that I went to would be, oh, half again as big as this. Like, our crew was over 600 men.

Description

Mr. Stewart compares the spartan environment of the Liberty ship ‘SS Elgin Victory’ to the plush troop carrier ‘SS Europa’

Edward Stewart

Mr. Stewart was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1926. Following his father's footsteps, he attempted to join the navy, but was under age. Drafted at the age of 18, he was selected for naval duty. Mr. Stewart served aboard troop ships during the latter stages of the Second World War, both on deck and in the engine room, and spent considerable time ashore in Germany, France and Denmark. He also sailed on one of the mass-produced Liberty ships. Mr. Stewart eventually moved to Harriston, Ontario, where he worked 38 years for Canada Packers.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 03:15
Person Interviewed:: Edward Stewart
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Europe
Battle/Campaign:: North Atlantic
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: Europa
Rank:: Able Seaman
Occupation:: Deck Crew, Engine Room

Language selection

Two swimming pools filled with sand

Heroes Remember