First Voyage
Heroes Remember
First Voyage
There in Halifax we went to the manning pool
there and they had requirements for
personnel aboard a ship that was going on
the North Atlantic and another ship
that was going to the West Indies.
And we drew a card for who was going
where and I got the North Atlantic run.
The ship I was on called the Elk Island
Park was named after Elk Island which is an
Island out here I believe in Lake Winnipeg.
On the bridge, I'll never forget it,
there was the head and the antlers of an elk.
Somebody must have shot it or donated
it or whatever, but it was always,
it was up on the bridge.
We were mustered up in Bedford Basin
which you're probably familiar with and
the convoy proceeded out through the
Halifax gate and I can always recall an
old timer standing on deck with me saying,
“Well, anything can happen now!”
and I really didn't know what he meant
and it was going through the steel gate
which was in the water to protect submarines
from entering into Bedford Basin.
So we were on our way and that first
night there was lots of noise and activity
being below decks as a trimmer
and the stoke hold. You could hear the
vibrations and the sound and the noise
and after my watch was over,
I was on the 12 to 4 watch,
when I came up on deck at first light
much to my surprise there was an
aircraft carrier right along side of us and
he hadn't been there the night before and
this aircraft carrier was a, it was called a,
we called them “Baby flat tops.”
They were ten thousand cargo vessel that
was stripped of the upper deck and
then they put a flight deck on board
so it carried three aircraft, I believe.
There were a ferry sword fish and
as I was looking, it was first light and
as I'm looking out at this ship,
they were taking on board these ferry
sword fish which were just sort of
hovering over the deck.
They had a top speed of I think about
95 miles an hour so they weren't very fast.
Obviously they were out on patrol
because of all, you know, what I was
hearing during the watch.
People talk about the Battle of the
North Atlantic being the longest battle
of the war and obviously I experienced
that because here it was,
I think it was March or February, March,
the latter stages of the war, there's still
all this activity going on and this is six
years later after September the 3rd,‘39.
Related Videos
Enlistment and Training Profile
Mr. Colcomb describes receiving gunnery instruction and boiler theory, but no practical instruction, before qualifying for engine room duty.
Foul Weather and Risks
Mr. Colcomb describes forming up a convoy in the fog-shrouded St. Lawrence River and being nervous because his ship was loaded with munitions. He also describes an incident during that crossing in which a tank lashed to the deck breaks loose and is re-secured without any damage occurring.
Firing the Boilers
Mr. Colcomb describes in detail the make up of an engine room watch, and goes on to describe synchronism required among the crew to keep the boilers properly fired.
- Date modified: