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Chapter 6 - page 1

1946  - 1953 Southampton

My parents made the move back to Southampton whilst I was at Berkhamsted during term time so I saw nothing of it, but by all accounts it ran fairly true to form in my parents life, chaotic.   In those days there was no ‘relocation’ money from the Company, no help of any kind, it was not expected.   Our furniture had survived the war in storage (as had every house we lived in, my father had been offered the house in Chetwin Drive for £400 but declined to buy it saying it was too risky!)   Mother and Geff made the journey down to Southampton in dad’s 1938 Morris ‘8’, one of those quirks of memory, its registration number was BCR 536, ask me my own car number today and I haven’t the faintest idea.   The journey can only have been hell.   Mickey and Lucky or two pet mongrels, completely untrained and yes spoiled as well loathed cars and howled the entire way.   They made an overnight stop at Rugby and stayed with an old friend of mother’s from Royal Academy days, Milly Dracey, she wise sole declared her friend Ruth and Geff were welcome, not the dogs!   They were boarded with a local vet for the night, he was warned (as we did everyone) they were escape artists sans pariel, and as usual he didn’t believe what he heard.   Geff was called out later that evening to catch his two unruly dogs that had escaped and where now having a whale of a time amongst the pots of paint in a builders yard!
I returned home on holiday from boarding school to find us living in a large Edwardian house that had been divided into two flats.   We had the ground floor of ‘Mayfield’, so named I suppose because it looked onto the common with its abundance of May trees.   During the summer months these trees are covered in clusters of white tinged with pink flowers to turn into masses of red berries in autumn.   Considering that housing was at a premium my parents had been fortunate to find such a place but years later dad told me that, as so often happened in his life he had found a delightful thatched cottage for sale but they had at the last minute shied away from buying, afraid of the costs.
‘Mayfield’ was a barn of a place chiefly now remembered by me for the chill on winter’s mornings and it’s spookiness.   The Highfield district of Southampton had been built up in the late Victorian and Edwardian years, the names of the roads gave the game away, Khartoum, Omdurman, Nile and so on recalling the British in the Sudan and Egypt with the relief of Khartoum by Kitchener, yes one of the roads bore his name.   Somehow, probably it was already there, our road Highfield Road had escaped whoever named the other roads vast imagination.  The house had been occupied by the army during the war, the lower half of the passage walls and doors were painted an tasteful chocolate brown (for gloom ‘Mayfield’ was in a class of it’s own) but one could still see beneath the purpose for which the military used the room.   My sister was very pleased when she found that our bathroom was for ‘Officer’s Only’, the upstairs flat occupied by a Mr. Wills and his family had the ‘Other Ranks’ loo!   Mr. Wills was the manager of the Shipping Federation, the organisation set up by the government for distribution of merchant seaman.   I suppose it is typical of British life that although we shared the house with the Wills family for ten years or more we never got beyond the ‘good morning’ stage of relations and never socialised. His Christian name was George, he had two daughters, Betty and Helen but I cannot recall and maybe never knew his wife’s name.   She died within a couple of years.
It is over fifty years ago, I see the Bechstein concert grand piano in the lounge bay window, the lounge and dining room were one large room as my parents preferred to keep the wooden dividing doors open.   ‘Mayfield’ was a ‘spooky’ house, many years later when dad was semi retired and working in Cape Town I never liked staying there on my own.   There was a tale told about the house that it was unlucky for women.   Both Mrs, Wills and my mother died in the house at very young ages and later my sister and Lynette who also had stayed there both died very young of identical cancer.   Enough of spooks, it is time to go back to my father’s story.

“Our days in Liverpool were coming to an end with the war nearing its end in Europe and Channel ports available once more.   But to begin with in the transfer we had to operate between Southampton and Liverpool.   For a time things were difficult because nobody seemed to know just what ship was going where.   Eventually our organisation in Liverpool was closed down and the job of starting all over again in Southampton had to be undertaken.   Here I think it worth mentioning, that Liverpool from the Company’s point of view was a great success.   A great deal was due to the friendship shown to us by all those people in Liverpool.   It may also be said in passing that during the war, and for some time afterwards I was unable to take any leave due to work except for a week when I was obliged to have my teeth extracted and dentures fitted.   My wife too had suffered from the rigours of the war.   At first she had been left in Southampton with two small children to care for during the air-raids, taking them up and down to an air-raid shelter.   Then in Liverpool due to work we often were out late at night for if there was any work one of us had to be about for the art of getting work done, if only to show your face, was to let the men know you were willing to share any danger or discomfort with them.   My wife’s health had suffered, and the doctors told me she had a heart complaint which in the end would prove fatal.   Nevertheless she continued acting as a telephone receptionist throughout the war at all times day or night when I was away from home, for, because of security the Marine Superintendent was the only one to whom messages concerning movements were sent.   My wife was a very gallant lady.
With the end of the war in sight, thoughts began to take shape about resuming trade with South Africa and resumption of the Mail Service.   Times had changed.
I received a request to put my views in writing as to the possibility of resuming the Mail Service in due course.   In the meantime I had been in touch with Southampton on the subject, but the opinion there was pessimistic about any return to a turn-round in the time we had accomplished before the war.   (The time from arrival (docking) to departure (sailing) of the Mail Ship)
The general view was that conditions had so altered with the men, that a return to our pre-war turn-round could not be accomplished.   The time given was 17 days against the pre-war 13 1/2 days.   My view however was that what had been accomplished could be done again.
I was sent for in London, there I explained that we should have to use our wits to match the new situation and perhaps the use of mechanical means to discharge cargo.   I also explained that until I was back in Southampton and had a  full grasp of the situation again I could not say just how this would be accomplished but I was sure and confident it could be.   It may be of interest here, that when I saw the managers I asked them their estimate of outward cargo per week, and was told they thought perhaps in the region of 4000 to 5000 tons per week.   I queried this figure but was told they could not say, but they thought round about this amount.   I also pointed out the question of dry docking in the time would have to be faced and overcome.
We eventually returned to Southampton.   It was more than starting from scratch, offices, stores, rigging lofts had been taken over by various government departments and it was difficult to know with whom to deal with to get them back.   It seemed the only thing to do was to acquire and repossess them and to argue afterwards, and this is what we did.   It was also apparent that we should start up our shore organisation again including the Shore Bos’un’s gang without delay so as to be a going concern once more.   We knew for instance, that if we had the Shore Bos’un’s gang going again we could accomplish much for it is the only gang without lines of demarcation.
 
(This is a reference to the ‘job demarcation’ insisted upon by the trade unions in Britain after the war.   It plagued British industry until the 1980’s and did much to change Britain from being an industrial to a service nation.   In brief, if a screw had to be put into wood only a carpenter could do it.   If in metal then it had to be a fitter or boiler maker an so on.   There was many a strike caused by managers trying to get men to cross the demarcation lines.)

We were told that it would be about a year before the ‘Cape Town’, the first mail vessel would be reconditioned for the Mail Service.   In the meantime a trickle of trade was reopened with South Africa by the ‘R’ vessels, while passenger vessels were still occupied as troop transports.   That period was a trying one for servicemen going home to be demobilised were in no mood to continue with the same discipline as under active conditions - they were going home.   There were many incidents of servicemen walking off transports saying they were not satisfied with conditions but although other vessels were having trouble of this nature, we managed to avoid it by seeing that there were no ‘pin-pricks’ to irritate the men.   For instance, the beds were made up and so the troop decks looked not only clean but inviting.   A hot meal was; aid on soon after they embarked, this we were able to do without fuss.   The men had a sense of well being and became relaxed.   I believe we were the only company that had no incidents with returning servicemen."