Some Rough Water
Heroes Remember
Some Rough Water
We didn't get ashore very much, we, like I say, other than Sasebo
but we did get a, a trip to Hong Kong. We did a patrol and it was
quite long, longer than fourteen days, and instead of sending us
on R&R, which is rest and recreation, they sent, we had a little
trouble with a seam so they sent us down to Hong Kong for
repairs. And on the way down there we went through a typhoon.
Interviewer: Can you tell me about that?
What was your impression of the typhoon?
Terrifying. Religion hit the ship in one great swoop that night,
literally. I was quite sea sick when I was over there, you know,
in fact I was, I think probably one of the few, first people to
use Gravol. They were thinking about sending me home because I
was sea sick but the Gravol worked. But I was up on the gun deck
above the main deck, there was a little shelter there that they
put the gun cover in when, when they were in action stations but
the cover was in there, no the gun was covered so there was four
forty millimetre boxes, shell boxes in there so I got myself a
duffle coat and I crawled in there, there was a canvas down the
back and I crawled in and covered myself up and I stayed there.
But, then they said nobody was allowed on the upper deck.
And the waves were seventy feet high and just terrifying.
But, they came up and made me go down below,
and somebody came out and got me.
Interviewer: How long did that last?
Oh, I would say probably thirty-six hours. We just finished
getting (inaudible), we lost all, all our boats. It took the
davits for the boat and, you know, and just took them and twisted
them right down to the deck, smashed it, well there was about
that much of the boat, motor boat hanging off the, the falls.
Interviewer: And this would be from the wave action,
washing against the side of the ship?
They said that she healed over far enough for the water was
looking through the lookout positions on the bridge.
Wouldn't have to go much further, you know, she'd a upset.
And then we just got out of the storm, like, you got the initial
storm, then the eye of the storm, then the after, and we had no
boats or floats, carly floats were all gone and we were escorting
HMS Glory, which was an aircraft carrier. And the captain on
Glory got a message that there was a Turkish freighter in
distress and my, our captain said we can't go, we had no rescue
gear left at all. And we got to Hong Kong and that's a fantastic
place, we had a real ball there. We tied up in Kowloon.
They healed the ship over while they welded this cracked seam.
We had leave in Hong Kong for about five days.
Related Videos
Quick Response By R.C.N.
North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950. Within a week of that invasion, three destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy sailed from the West Coast for Korean waters.
New Duties
Mr. White recalls his first weeks in Korean waters.
Shore Leave Excursions
Occasional shore leave took members of the crew of HMCS Sioux to some interesting places, including the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
- Date modified: