I got the OK from my parents, and next morning I was at the Barking yard of Mr Harris and carrying a bag with my clothing in it.

On seeing the small amount in the bag, Mr Harris took me to a clothing store and bought me a new suit (my first ever),new shoes, socks, shirts and underwear. He told me he would deduct a small amount of money from my wages each week to pay for them.

A dozen men and I travelled to Portishead in an old coach owned and driven by Mr Harris. On arrival we were found lodgings which were paid for by Mr HarrisFive men and myself were accommodated in a house at 26 South Road, a ten minute walk to the power station.

Mr Harris told me that I would no longer be the tea boy as we would be using the canteen facilities in the power station.

From then on I would be an apprentice painter under the guidance of the foreman Mr Jones. Bill Jones taught me painting and sign writing.

Unfortunately after about two months at Portishead Mr Harris and company went into liquidation and so we all returned to our homes in September 1936.

This was a turning point in my life because if I had remained in the job, which I liked very much, I would no doubt have been there when the war began and would possibly have been drafted into one of the services.

A few weeks after the war began I met Bill Jones in Grays and he told me he was again working for Mr Harris. The company had been re-formed with Government assistance and now had contracts to camouflage oil refineries and factories.

THE SEA BEGINS TO CALL

Born and bred in Grays, Essex with three miles of docks at Tilbury, I was fascinated by the ships using using the port, and I often went there during my school days to view the ships and their working.

The shipping lines using Tilbury in those days were mainly Australian and Indian traders. The passenger ships of Orient Line, P & O Line, British & India Line and Bibby Line, and the cargo ships of Ellerman Line, Harrison Line, Brocklebank Line, Clan and Houston Line and various tramp steamer companies.

On leaving school at 14 I was employed in various different jobs, none of which lasted long. But when I was into my 15^th year I got a job as Mate on a sailing barge which was owned by Goldsmith of Grays.At the time they owned about sixty sailing barges.

This was to be the beginning of my sea career and connection with shipping which lasted for fifty years.

The sailing barges I sailed on were Scorpion, Norman, Ailsa, Thetis, Geisha, Decima, Esterel and Celtic. We traded to many ports on the East Coast and down channel from the Thames and Medway . Ports included Maldon, Colchester, Mistley, Ipswich, Snape, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth. Norwich, Wisbech and the Humber. There was also Dover, Shoreham, Weymouth, Portland and Isle of Wight.

Of the barges which left for London as we arrived, all were caught in the gale and their crews were rescued by lifeboats from Lowestoft and Aldburgh. Of the barges that sailed themselves across to the Continent, one went ashore on the coast of Germany and the others to Holland. The GRECIAN of Goldsmith’s was lost.

My next barge casualty was DECIMA which sank during a gale on 17^th November, 1940. The Skipper was Ernie Milbourn of Grays and we had loaded timber in London for Manningtree.

Passing off Southend a gale sprang up so we anchored just below the pier to await finer weather. But as the tide turned we lay athwart the river and very soon the seas were washing over the barge, causing the lashings on the deck cargo of timber to carry away.

The cargo was soon gone overboard and water entered the holds through damaged tarpaulins.

On sending up distress flares the Southend lifeboat came out to us and as the barge was sinking we had climbed into the rigging to await rescue.

The lifeboat had safety nets suspended over her sides so when she was closed by we jumped into them. We were given a very welcome and generous glass of rum and taken to Southend Pier.

Before jumping into the lifeboat I had kicked off my sea-boots in case I fell into the water. So I arrived home in Grays wearing socks only.

No compensation was ever paid by barge owners

Later I sailed in ESTEREL ,again with Ernie Milbourn as Skipper. A few weeks after the DECIMA loss we were bound for London from Ipswich with grain when we ran aground on Buxey Sand during bad weather. This time we were rescued by the Clacton lifeboat.

DECIMA and ESTEREL were salvaged and returned to service and I was later asked by the Editor of a sailing barge magazine to write an article. Below is my offering.

A Postcard Home

Some of my most treasured souvenirs of my four-and-a-half years in barges are the postcards I sent home to my parents in Grays-and which ,thankfully, my father carefully preserved over the years.

The messages they conatin may be short and to the point, but they instantly take me back over fifty years to the pre-and early war years. They provide memories not only of the barges in which I sailed, but also the Skippers of the craft, ports visited and cargoes carried.

I went into barges in my fifteenth year and it was a very hard life, especially in winter time.

The young Skippers would push and punish their barges by sailing in atrocious weather conditions, but elderly Skippers liked an easy life. For most of them this meant working the Thames and Medway only,where they could drop anchor when darkness came and so have a good nights sleep.

Most elderly Skippers carried elderly Mates who were not too interested in earning too much.

Barge crews were paid by the freight, and the quicker the turn-round the quicker the money was in hand.

Of the money earned from a freight, half the amount was taken by the barge owners and the other half was shared by the crew. Two thirds for the Skipper and one third for the Mate. So in effect the Mate received one sixth of the total earnings.

Of course, we supplied our own food and bedding, and had to contribute to any expenses such as towage by a tug or horse, and port dues etc.

Hard times were experienced by all if there was no work. I remember endless days at anchor off Grays or on the ‘starvation buoys’ at Woolwich where 20 barges could be seen on any day.

I began my career on the stumpie barge SCORPION skippered by Charlie Smith of Rochester.

When SCORPION was going alongside the ship UFFINGTON COURT in Surrey Commercial Docks in 1937, I saw a puppy fall from the quay into the water and I quickly rescued it. I gave him the name Uffington but later changed it to Tiger. I kept Tiger on various barges for three years then gave him into the care of my parents in Grays.

Also in SCORPION we went to St Katherine Dock to load from a small ship just arrived from Spain, then embroiled in Civil War. The cargo was rotting sacks of hoof and horn, but many of the sacks contained large bones rumoured to be human bones from the battlefields.

This undesirable freight was taken to a glue factory at Queensborough and I remember how relieved we were when it was discharged as it was crawling with live maggots.

Also we spent a very uncomfortable night alongside the factory with dozens of rats running around the decks of SCORPION. The factory was rife with rats.

Many of the freights in SCORPION were of coal from Queenborough to Key Glass works in New Cross.

From Greenland Dock we entered Surrey Canal and were then towed for 1.5 miles by a horse on a towpath, to the glass works.

Other coal cargoes were from Beckton Gasworks to Sharps toffee works at Maidstone. Boxwood waas taken from Surrey Docks to Faversham through the Swale, and Naval stores from Woolwich to Chatham Dockyard.