An Interview with George Crewe, Telegraphist, RCN

More Tales from a Terra Firma Tar

George Crewe's Time On-Board....Part I

© Anne Gafiuk 2013

Website - What's in a story by Anne Gafiuk

After George’s training stories appeared in The Bulletin in October and November 2012,

he received a call:  "Where are your stories about being on the water?” 

The following are only a few of his tales.

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George Crewe began his seven year tenure with the Royal Canadian Navy in 1940 when he was only 17 years old.  How he hated school, despite being an excellent speller.  Of course, six weeks of basic training plus eight months of instruction kept him learning.

When George finished his courses, he was the first person out of twelve in the wireless operators to be drafted to a ship. “I don’t know how I got drafted first.  My marks were not the best, I know that!” he chuckles.  “I was slated to go to Ottawa as a Wireless Operator, receiving and transmitting messages to and from Ottawa .  I am so glad I didn’t get that posting.  Somehow, they drafted me to The Quinte with a signal that said, ‘He’s already been selected.’” 

“There were seventy-five guys on The Quinte:  the seamen, communications, stokers; they are the main ones. The Quinte was my love as far as the ships were concerned.

“I was the second youngest kid on The Quinte.....but I was the youngest in the communications branch.  When we went to sea, I was kind of dumb to the situation.  There were three of us on watch – plus the chap in charge.  When we first started, I always got the dirty-end of the stick.  They always figured it out – the other two guys and the fellow in charge – I always had the twelve to four watch...in the afternoon....the afternoon watch...and I would have the twelve to four watch in the middle of the night.  That is the worst watch going!  I stood it for three or four months. Finally I rebelled and I told them, ‘This isn’t fair!’  We have the dog watches where they split between four and eight o’clock at night.  They go four to six and then six to eight, so that splits the watch.  I wanted to do that, so I could get a half decent sleep!  I had them over a barrel and they had to do it.  I said, ‘Hey, we have to start doing things the way they should be done.’  The guy that was in charge?  He went along with me, so I made out alright.”

Discussing when he first went to sea, George laughs, “Seasick?  I ate very well in the Navy.  Three down and three up!  It was deadly! I never gave it a thought when I was ten years old,” referring to when he was young and reading his beloved book, My Picture Book of Sailors.  “My first bout of seasickness was about two hours after we left Esquimalt on The Quinte up to Prince Rupert on a shake down.  The ship was brand new on a test run to make sure everything was working.  It was a bad spot because it was quite shallow on the outside of the island.  The waves were just continuous.  I can remember I was on the very first watch.  I was in a room without windows.  I could feel the ship.  I had a cardboard box sitting alongside me – boy, did I ever use that!  I was sick for three or four months.  There was another chap – he was a fisherman from Newfoundland .  It was a toss up to see who would get sick first!”

“I used to give the crew a hand,” explains George, when others onboard were doing the painting on the outside of the ship.  “I wasn’t supposed to.  In the Wireless, you were not supposed to do something where you might hurt your hand....but I helped them out because it was something to do.  On a small ship, you get to know everybody.  That was one advantage:  I knew everyone and everyone knew me.  I made friends.”

When asked about some of his adventures while onboard The Quinte, he ponders for a moment.  “The only thing that ever happened to me is we were in a storm and I happened to go out on deck.  The depth charge had got loose and there were a couple of guys wrestling with it and I went to help them.  I slipped and broke my collar bone.  It rolled over my toes...I have two toes now that don’t move!  They were crushed.  And I broke a tooth.  We were at sea...we didn’t get in for another two or three weeks.  I didn’t even go to sick bay.  We didn’t have an attendant or medic on board.  I remember falling and slipping and hitting my tooth on the bollard.  And I hurt my back.”  George laments his injuries back then, chalking them up to his physical issues of today.

“I can tell you another story of a funny break. I got lots of breaks....as far as not being lost or anything like that.  I was aboard The Quinte....we just finished a refit and we were going from Lunenburg to Picton to get some equipment on board.  They were installing at Picton.  This was in the end of 1942 and when we left Lunenburg, I was on the radio.  The captain said, ‘I’ve got to send a message.’ 

“I said, ‘Well that’s fine.’ 

“The message read:  ‘The forecast is for a big storm.  We have not got enough oil if we run into trouble.  Request permission to come into Halifax and oil up.’ 

“They sent the message back. ‘Sorry. You’ve got to keep going.’ 

“We kept going.  We got off Cape Breton Island ....roughly to St. Peter’s and the canal is there and we ran out of oil. We got pushed up against the rocks.  Punched a hole in...and we just finished refit......”

George pauses for a minute, overcome with emotion, then apologizes, tearfully, before composing himself to tell the rest of the traumatic experience. “We ran out of oil and luckily...... there was another tug and two barges in the same area.  And they got in the ‘same boat’. Except the tug couldn’t control the barges and they got pushed up on the shore.  We managed to get in safely and got everybody off.  The captain and I were the last two to leave.  When I sent the signal, I tried to raise Halifax .  There is something called the ‘skip distance’.  It has something to do with the atmospherics.  And the only station I contacted – and it might be hard to believe – but it was Simonstown , South Africa !

“They picked up my signal and gave me a receipt and they transferred it to Gibraltar, to London to Halifax .  And I had a reply back within half an hour.  We had at least two or three hours before it sunk...everyone else was off except the captain and me....when I got the final signals sent, he and I could get off.  In my opinion, you are young and full of beans...you don’t even think of being at risk.

“We stayed with the ship for two or three days and we went back to Halifax by train from St. Peter’s.  When we got back to Halifax , the ship’s company was sent this way and that way and every way.  I never saw anyone afterwards.  It wasn’t that they didn’t want us talking about it.  You were lucky if you met up with the same people twice.”

George explains how there was an inquiry about one week after the incident at sea.  “I was in on the inquiry because I was the operator.  When I went in there, they asked me exactly what happened.  I told them, ‘If we got permission from COC – Commanding Officer of Atlantic Coast and let us come in for oil, we would have been fine.’  Boy, they tossed me out of that investigation just like that.  I don’t think I was in there more than five or ten minutes!

“Now let’s jump ahead four or five years:  I am on The Warrior.  Admiral Mainguay was one of the bigwigs in Halifax at the time of the inquiry.  He was coming along inspecting us.  And he stopped in front of me and he said, ‘Your face looks familiar.’

“I said, ‘Yes sir.  You were involved in an inquiry.  You did not partake.  You were just an observer, I believe.’  I told him of the instance. 

“He said, ‘I remember that.’ 

“About two days later, a signal comes aboard The Warrior.  I was drafted off The Warrior onto the admiral’s yacht!”

When George was just about ready to be discharged and only had about a month to go, still he did not know how he got onto the yacht, the Admiral came down to the wireless room and said, ‘I just want to say good-bye to you.’ 

“I wasn’t afraid to talk to anybody.  ‘Sir,’ I said. ‘There is something I’d like to know.  Why am I on your yacht?  Everyone on here is either a Petty Officer or a Chief Petty Officer and I am a Leading Tel....everybody is a higher rank.’ 

“He said, ‘I’ll tell you.  I remember your conversation on The Warrior and it made me think back to the time you were on The Quinte.  I admired your thoughts on that.  And not scared to say what you think.  I thought you’d be a good guy for my crew.’ 

“I was there for about six months at least.  That was the only time he came to talk to me.”

George has another tale to share about the Admiral.  “He had a Siamese cat. When we went to sea, when he wanted to go fishing or go out on an inspection somewhere, he would come out on the jetty, he’d have this doggone cat sitting on his shoulder, and come to the top of the gangway – he’d holler down, ‘Sparks, come get my cat!’   ( Sparks was a name given to anyone who operated a radio.)  And I would have to take this rotten cat down into the wireless room and it would stay in there with me.  The radio was right in front of me on a desk and the cat would sit on top of it as it was warm because of the tubes; it would glare at me like, ‘I dare you’, like he’d know what I was thinking!  And often I would pick that son of a gun up and throw him on the floor.”  George starts to laugh. 

George adds with a serious note, “I thought I would never come back,” but then says, laughing again, “And that is why I never got interested in girls!”

And the stories continue:  some about more incidents on the ships George served on and yet others about the people he met, including some girls....stay tuned!

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