Realizing What They Went Through (Part 1 of 2)

Heroes Remember

Realizing What They Went Through (Part 1 of 2)

Transcript

It was particularly in Peregrine, was where I saw, well there were a lot too in Sydney, but in Peregrine, these fellas, you know and I’ve never forgotten it, I almost get kinda, very emotional about it now because I realize what they went through. We, we didn’t, we weren’t in any danger at all. The men who came in off the ships, we treated a lot of them with terrible skin conditions. They were covered with scabies. They had broken feet, all broken out, because those fellas, you know when they were, they, they didn’t get their clothes off. Interviewer: Yeah, I know. It’s unbelievable and in actual fact and Art Wallace, if he had opened up, he could have told you what it was like living on those Corvettes. They lived, he says, “We lived like rats.” That’s what he said. And I know that they, they told about the bread, you know, when it was, it was pretty good when they left, left port you know and then gradually it was getting green you know and they’d have to cut it around the green. And, as far as water was concerned, you know, they just, they couldn’t, they just had little bird baths just they’d be given just a tiny wee bit. And, one of the fellas told me too that when he was aboard ship they’d, he used to get into one of the, the lifeboats or something to sleep. They had hammocks as you know, they strung their hammocks all over, and because he was really claustrophobic about being down below, the stokers were the ones that, there was no way they would get out, and they knew that. And if you could imagine them, you know, stoking the fires and everything like that, with knowing that, well if we get it, I’m done. At least anybody up on deck could possibly get out, so. But on those ships, as I say, they were constantly, you know, in U-boats, you know, and the communication, you can’t imagine, nothing like today. They, they just, you know, even from ship to ship it was, it was, they, they did it, but nothing like instant or anything like that. They had to guess a lot.

Description

Ms. Duncan talks about some of the people she treated, and the types of things they had been through.

Barbara Duncan

Barbara Duncan was born August 27, 1926 in Barrie, Ontario. Her father had participated in the First World War and when she decided to enlist, he figured it was the natural thing for her to do. She had tried to enlist when she was seventeen and a half but was told to finish school and try again when she was of age. When she finished school and turned eighteen she enlisted immediately. In September 1944, she was sent for training at HMCS Conastoga and from there was sent to the base in Sydney, Nova Scotia. From Nova Scotia she was off to HMCS Peregrine for five months and then off to Vancouver where she worked in the sick bay of the HMCS Discovery. After the war, she received her diploma in physiotherapy and upon graduation, gave birth to her first of five children.

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