‘A Matter of Surviving’

We don’t want to lose our country. Everybody say the same thing. We don’t want to lose our country. We have to do our best. And then everybody get friendly. When we leave Halifax everyone would get friendly. If you happen to be get sick, seasick, don’t worry we’ll do the job for you. Go to bed and things like that but when it come to my turn to go and chop ice at 4 o’clock in the morning and come up and do my duty the rest the day in the galley. I mean, we have to, we have to get. The captain used to come up there when we leave Halifax and hit the ocean he announce it on the mic, “This is a matter of surviving. We got to survive this trip.” And every trip I make, I make twenty-two trip across the ocean. And then, after you get there ashore, when you’re a cook you’re just like a nurse in Canada, you got a job everywhere. You’re not worried for a job. So, I went to England, and I make about, oh I don’t remember exactly six or seven trip back and forth. But then we used to come up in the ship after everything. We was not working for the government.We were not active service. We were working for department of transport and every time we get to Halifax they pay us off and then we have a place called the money booth. We go there and we figure we might get a couple days. Pay off in the morning, then there are one at night. Because they couldn’t get anybody to be in the Merchant Navy, they couldn’t get no staff. They get every kid, like I said, thirteen years old, he was there six months before me.

The crew was mixed crew. It was a Danish ship, because I learned quite a few Danish word, and they would all talk English but the crew was mixed but the officers were all English and Danish. But we get along fine, we get along fine, we get along fine. Was nobody I mean tried to show their weight or their rank or nothing like this you know. Of course, we respect the officer and that’s it. Respect everyone, the other, yeah. After getting I get in to be the chef though that was immediate respect. “Good morning chef,” and that’s all it took. Yeah, yeah. Yeah we get along fine for that part. We get along fine.