I joined the navy. The farmers had an awful time to keep hired people. This was during the war, you see. Oh, it was quite a time.

Navy Run

Well, I enlisted. I was in the navy. I tried for the army two or three times but they turned me down. You see, I always looked pretty young-looking and I was only a little scraggy bit of a fella. And they turned me down in the army. I tried the 105th and I tried the 12th Railway Construction and they turned me down. I was under-age, see? And I was giving my right age and that went against me.

But I was getting wiser all the time. I went to the navy. I put two years on: I said I was 18. At that time there was two fellas up the road here, Aubrey McLennan and Angus MacLeod. They joined the navy and they give their right ages. At that time they had boys [under 18] in the navy. Well, the boys only got 50 cents a day and the men got a dollar—ten. That was the going rate. So, being wise to what these fellas went through, see, I put two years on. Oh, I had no trouble. They took me right in the navy. I had no trouble at all.

I was on the Niobe, and then I was drafted from the Niobe to the F estubert. Iended up on the F estubert. My discharge papers says that I was in the Seagull Patrol... . We was out there looking for submarines... , and convoying ships. Well, we convoyed them halfway across the Atlantic and the British Navy would meet us and take them in to Europe.

Halifax Explosion

See, I was cook at the mess that day. Every seaman had to take his turn as cook at the mess. That is, to get the meal ready, take it up to the cooks, and then do the washup... . And I was the only one in the fo’c’sle, that’s in the lower fo’c’sle.

I was there standing in the looking glass andI was after having a wash and I was combing my hair. And this bang went. This thump went. You see? There was two emergency hatches on both sides of me and these two hatches came up and struck me under the oxter‘.

We went out to the front and I thought it was a shell that went in our magazine. So I goes out the officers’ way, and up there up to the bridge. I met the captain coming out of his cabin and he says, “What happened?” I says, “I don’t know.” So I stepped out onto the deck on the starboard side

1. armpit

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