Empress of Japan / Empress of Scotland / Hanseatic
I joined the Sea School which was situated at its temporary wartime home in Woolley, West Yorkshire at the age of 13 in 1943 and left for Sea Service in 1946 to join the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company of Calcutta, with a school voucher for £20 towards buying recommended kit from their recommended supplier.
Useful stuff for the Tropics such as a Serge Uniform, a "Bridge Coat" (Which Scott of the Antarctic would have liked), two sets of Number 10's with high collars (in case we entertained royalty).
There where three of us new Apprentices travelling together.
Such items where dispensed with rather quickly on arrival in India in favour of jeans, boiler suits and white cotton shirts and trousers.
I have my original Certificate of Discharge book which says that it was issued in Hull on the 6th March 1946 and that I signed on my first ship Rajput as an Apprentice on 15th March 1946, but this is impossible because the journey outwards consisted of a full days journey by train to Liverpool, then about 10 days to 14 days on the Empress of Scotland to Bombay, followed by a week in Bombay, then 3 days across India by train to Calcutta.
The only thing that I can think of is the date 15th March is the day that I joined the Empress of Scotland, it could also mean that I signed on as a supernumerary for the voyage?
On the Empress was a mixed bag of Colonial Civilians and MN people going out to do their bit for the Empire, we did not come in contact with the troops.
Accommodation was tight, 8 of us to a cabin; however I was used to that from Sea School.
A thing that I do remember was the food, never had it so good during the war, there was nothing to do on board except eat and sleep, a peculiar thing was at the head of the grand staircase (which divided off into left and right at the top) was a very large frosted glass panel which had a Japanese design on it (a legacy from when the ship was called “Empress of Japan”) and when we ascended the staircase we could see a long row of bare feet pressed up against the glass, of the people sleeping on the other side, perhaps there was worse accommodation than ours!
We called at the usual places, Port Said and Aden before Bombay.
Port Said was our first piece of excitement, when we where boarded by lots of people selling every thing from Carpets to Carvings and other trinkets, and in particular the “Gilly Gilly” men performing their close up Magic Tricks, instead of saying Abracadabra when performing, they said Gilly Gilly.
Some time later, I remember being shown a photograph cut from a newspaper of the Empress back in Liverpool and the new load of troops had thrown cargo nets down the ships side and they where climbing down them in protest against their conditions on board.
Some time later we were told that the A.S.N.Co., Engineer Superintendent had been travelling on the ship and he said that he had seen us but had not considered it necessary to contact us on board or when we landed in Bombay, this was done by an Indian Clerk from the Bombay office.
During our week in Bombay we just wandered around day and night getting used to our new environment and we where of course almost broke.
The usual hole in the wall street shops where lit by "Aladdin type" oil lamps, the kind with a little burning wick hanging out of the spout, and one night a gentleman tried to set fire to my shirt by running the flame up and down it, and so it was “Welcome to India”.
The Indian Clerk booked us a train carriage for Calcutta suitable for our Chota Sahib status, it had wooden let down seats which doubled up as beds and iron bars at the windows, he also hired a sleeping bag each from "Thomas Cook's" on Bombay Station there was no corridors.
We shared the carriage with two Indians who brought their Servant with them (who slept on the floor).
The journey as such was uneventful, left Bombay on the Wednesday night and arrived in Calcutta on the following Saturday afternoon.
Did not stop at night time because of the Dacoits, but during the day it was about every two hours to do the necessary such as buying food etc., and to let the Station Sweepers in to rearrange the piles of dust, the two attached photos show typical scenes on the stations, you can see the bars on the windows, the men with large tins on their backs are Char Walla’s.
The train journey across India can be very interesting because of the wide range of scenery encountered, such as Farm Land, Forest, Desert and Mountains, and not always uneventful, I might mention that on another couple of occasions that I remember from other train journeys across India in better carriages than before.
One was when we where travelling through cultivated areas, was to see dozens of Monkeys each about the size of a two year old child scattered about the area and pulling up the crops and stuffing their faces with big handfuls of the stuff. I doubt if the farmers did too much about it, because Hanuman is the monkey god.
Another time was when the train stopped at Nagpur in Central India, I left the compartment to walk to the Buffet Car at back of the train and a Policeman seemed to go berserk and started shooting his rifle down the platform, I was grabbed by the Buffet Car staff and bundled without further ado into the Dining Car, the door was slammed shut and the window shutters closed and we pulled out of the station.
No idea what the outcome was, just one of those things.
Arrival in Calcutta at Howra Station was astonishing to my eyes, to see what seemed to be a seething sea of people dashing in every direction, and then the verbal and pushing war between the Official Station Porters (who wore a little brass plate stating the fact) and the Unofficial one’s, fighting for the privilege of carrying my bags.
A distracting sight was that on one wall of the Station, it was plastered with photos of people who had been found dead in the streets with the hope that they might be identified by some one; it was obvious that some had met a more unfortunate end than others.
The chaos on the platform was sorted out by a clerk from the office who conveyed us to the Kiddepore Seaman’s Club to wait our various ship postings
But it was an interesting start to a working life for a 16 year old boy.