My Life at Sea

My Life at Sea

Marcus Jefferson Geerts

Published by Paul Middleton at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Paul Middleton

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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All photographs in this book are Copyright Philippa Middleton and are part of the Geerts' Family Archive

Dedications

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED to my grandchildren, Richard, Gerald, and Naomi who has just arrived on the 2nd April 1976, yet another of the important things which have happened to me in April. I first went to sea in April 1937, and I lost my job, for health reasons, in April 1974.

I DECIDED to have a shot at telling a yarn to the kids because I am unable to talk to them normally, and I get very frustrated by my disability, which denies me the pleasure of talking to anyone in a normal fashion. These tales are only those that I would have inflicted on the poor children, and they may be of some interest to them as they grow. At least I hope that they will be able to understand that 'Grandpa Moose' has not always been such a queer old buffer and that I did at one time lead a full and interesting life.

Marcus Jefferson Geerts 1976

I DECIDED TO TRANSCRIBE this autobiography in July 2000, after finding the manuscript stored away in the Geerts' family chest. In the preceding 20 years I had dipped into it at odd times, but never really taken the trouble to decipher properly the 145 odd pages of typescript. When I did so, I was utterly captivated.

MARCUS WROTE THIS IN 1976 after he had suffered a stroke, and felt the frustrations of his incapacity - he had suffered this stroke during the previous year. With his prodigious memory, he then set about the task of writing down on paper the fascinating story of his boyhood in South Africa and his life at sea. The resulting story is a fitting memorial to all those who sailed the seas in the Thirties and during the years of War.

HE WROTE THIS STORY specifically for his grandchildren who were arriving in the Seventies, so I would like to dedicate my work on this to his wife Margaret, or Bumper Moose as she is affectionately known, and John and Pippa his children.

Paul Middleton September 2000

SINCE I STARTED to format this autobiography for the electronic market, and having re-read the text 13 years later, it became obvious to me that the book should be placed in its historical context.

MARCUS GREW UP in the 1920s in the British dominion of the Union of South Africa created in 1910, and comprising the former territories of the Cape and Natal and the republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal. By the time he joined the General Botha Training Ship at 13, the Union had been granted virtual independence from the United Kingdom.

BY THE MID THIRTIES, the South African Party and National Party had merged to form the United Party, which sort reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking whites. But by 1939 the parties had again split over the entry of the Union into World War II as a British ally, a move, which the National Party followers strongly opposed.

THE NATIONAL PARTY was elected to power in 1948 strengthening the racial segregation begun under Dutch and British colonial rule by classifying the population into three races and implementing rights and limitations for each. The white minority controlled the vastly larger black majority. The segregation became known as apartheid.

BY THE TIME MARCUS HAD TYPED this manuscript, the Republic had gained independence, and implemented the Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, signed by Buthelezi and Schwarz in 1974, enshrining the principles of peaceful transition of power, and equality for all. This was to be the first of such agreements by acknowledged black and white political leaders in South Africa. As we now know, the final peaceful transition was finally negotiated between FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela in 1993.

Paul Middleton May 2013

Chronology

Marcus Jefferson Geerts

Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa 8 December 1920

Mother Anne Myburg, Father unknown, adopted at a few months old by Marcus and Florence Geerts, orange farmers

Marcus Geerts starts grocery business c. 1925

Father becomes Mayor of Port Alfred 1928

Visit of Prince of Wales, Opening of Bowling Green, Re-opening of Blaauwkrantz Gorge railway bridge, mother goes flying in Tiger Moth, Electricity Company and new School open during year as Mayor

Six months stay with Stocks family at Mentone Tea Gardens 1929

Watched building of model of Winchester Castle by Harrison 1931

Decision to send me to the General Botha for training 1932

Left home aged 13 to join SATS General Botha under Captain Yardley 1933, leave 1936, National Geographic Society essay prize 1936

Parents retire to Seapoint 1936

Join SS Dromore Castle under Captain Causton March 1937

1st voyage Cape Town - Port Elizabeth - Durban - Lourenço Marques - Beira - Freetown - New York (BAC) - Point Breeze - Cape Town

2nd voyage Cape Town - Port Elizabeth - Durban - Lourenço Marques - Beira - Tamatave Madagascar - Port Louis Mauritius - Beira - Cape Town - Freetown -Baltimore - New York (World Fair) - Cape Town

3rd voyage Cape Town - Port Elizabeth - East London - Beira - London

Meet Lynn, Margaret Lindsay 1938

Join SS Dundrum Castle under Captain Pace 1938

Hull - New York - Beira - New York (BAC and stay with Wynn family) - Cape Town - South African ports - Freetown - convoy to Hull 1939

Join SS Roxburgh Castle under Captain Smythe 1940

1st voyage Southampton - Lobito Bay - Cape Town - Southampton

2nd voyage Southampton - Cape Town March 1940

Join British Genius and leave South Africa for ever 1940

Cape Town - Freetown - convoy to Methil - London

Navigation School and The Blitz 1940

Caledonia to Boston to collect Gemma November 1940

Join Gemma under Captain Wardell 9 November 1940

1st voyage Boston - Halifax

1st convoy Halifax - storm - Halifax for repairs

2nd convoy Halifax - storm - St Johns - sinks December 1940

3rd convoy St Johns - engine failure - abandon ship - tow to St Johns

4th voyage St Johns - lost - Hamilton Bermuda - steal train - Port-of-Spain Trinidad April 1941

Lady Drake to Boston April 1941

Christian Holm to UK May 1941

Passed 2nd Mate exams July 1941

Engaged to Margaret Lindsay July 1941

Join SS Empire Meteor August 1941

1st voyage London - Clyde - convoy to Halifax - New York (BAC) - load munitions - Halifax - convoy to Loch Ewe Scotland - Reykjavik

2nd voyage Convoy PQ2 - Dvina River - Archangel 31 December 1941

Join SS Empire Mavis at Molotovsk and iced in January 1942

Asthma attack - execution of stores thief by Russians - A/A guns after party - trouble - tooth extraction - Molotovsk - Iceland - Hull left April 1942

Married Margaret at Abbots Kerswell July 1942

Joined SS Norman Star under Captain Maclean August 1942

Liverpool - convoy to Halifax - storms - convoy to Trinidad - meet Gemma - Rio de Janeiro - Montevideo - Buenos Aires - Tres Puntas - Punta Arenas - Straits of Magellan - Valparaiso - Antofagasta - Panama Canal - Key West - aground - collision - scrape - Norfolk and repairs - Halifax - convoy with Illustrious to Liverpool

Passed 1st Mate exams 1943

John Geerts born 1 May 1943

Queen Elizabeth Glasgow to New York - train to Oakland - San Francisco

Join SS Empire Anvil under Captain Lee 1943

1st voyage Long Beach - Panama Canal - Norfolk - convoy with Emperor to Belfast - Glasgow - Holy Loch February 1944

2nd voyage Holy Loch - Gareloch to join Task Force for training April 1944

3rd voyage Glasgow to join Force 'O' - Slapton Sands for training - Glasgow

4th voyage Glasgow - Portland to join Force 'O' 4 June 1944

Operation Neptune D-Day

Omaha Beach - Plymouth/Southampton 6 June 1944

50 Round trips up to end of November 1944

Join Batory under Captain Deyjakofski December 1944

1st voyage Glasgow - Red Sea - Bombay - Glasgow February 1945

2nd voyage Glasgow - Reykjavik - Glasgow April 1945

3rd voyage Glasgow - Gibraltar - Naples - Algiers - Glasgow June 1945

Join SS Fort St Croix under Captain Whalley July 1945

1st voyage London - Tampa - Boca Grande - Panama Canal - Melbourne - Port Pirie - Wellington 16 December 1945 - Cape Horn 3 January 1946 - Antwerp - Plymouth 11 February 1946

Pippa Geerts born 2 February 1946

2nd voyage March 1946 Tilbury - Newport - Gibraltar - Suez Canal - Red Sea - Basra - flight to/from Baghdad - Khoramsharr - Bahrain - Port Sudan - heatstroke - Avonmouth

Navigation School and passed Master Mariner exams 1946

UCL staff in London and Southampton

Join Baltavia under Captain Whalley 1947

Shuttle voyages London - Kiel Canal - Gydnia and back

Join Baltraffic under Captain Paddy 1948

Short voyages Immingham - Gydnia - Immingham and back

London - Gibraltar - Limassol - Tel-Aviv - Haifa - Izmir - London 1948

Ill with ulcer and leave the Sea for good 1948

Joined Marley Tiles 1948

Lost job for health reasons April 1974

Died 15 February 1982 R.I.P.

Chapter 1

My Earliest Memories

My earliest memory is of the farm at Harpers Halt near Grahamstown where my father was trying his hand at orange farming. I was born in Port Elizabeth and my real mother was named Anne Myburg, but my father was unknown, and when I was only a few months old, I was adopted by Florence and Marcus Geerts, recently from the UK.

They were devout Christian Scientists and I was brought up in this faith for the whole of the time until I was to leave home at the age of 12. They were good people and I spent a normal happy childhood under their loving but very strict eyes.

My only memories of the farm, are of mountains of oranges on the grading tables, and in those far off days I recall seeing my first car going along the top of the ridge opposite the farm, on its way to Port Alfred, which was where we found ourselves going when my father sold the farm and went into the grocery business. I must have been about five at the time. Port Alfred was, and doubtless still is, a lovely little township lying astride the Kowie River near its mouth. It had a white population of around 2,000 in those days, and with its beautiful beaches, lagoons, sand dunes, and surf, it was not surprising that it was a very popular holiday resort.

Our new home lay on the top of the hill on the East bank of the river, and was a large building with a galvanised iron roof, and we got our freshwater supply from this roof. There were big tanks at the corners of the house and all the water went straight into these tanks. We had no other water supply and had to use an old-fashioned tin bath for our weekly bath. It was not unknown for us to have a drought and then we really were in trouble and had to use the sea or lagoon, so we spent a great deal of time in the water.

Our shop was a large single story building with a covered veranda at both the front and rear. Our living quarters were at one end, and another shop and my bedroom at the other. I had to go through the shop on my way to bed. I loved the old fashioned smells of the store. Unlike today when everything is tightly wrapped, all groceries were in bulk, and the combinations of all the many foods plus the leather and plug tobacco and the materials in the drapery section, made the shop a truly wonderful place to walk through.

The building was on the slope at the top of the hill and so we found that we had some vast and intriguing cellars, which Dad used as storerooms. We also had a huge garden, mostly natural lawn, with a view over the Victoria Hotel and a wide vista which took in the East flats, the river, the slopes of the West bank, and of course miles of the beach and sea.

It was a perfectly beautiful place to live and especially to grow up in. There was so much for a boy to do, that I always found plenty to amuse myself. My parents however, with their strong views, kept me on a fairly tight rein, and often I found myself kept at home because they would not have approved of say, boys and girls going on mixed bathing or picnic parties.

About a mile from the mouth there was an old Black man who ran a small dinghy as a ferry across the river. As the only bridge was at least a mile further up-river this ferry was a boon when we went to call on my mother's friends on the West bank. I was never given the choice, but as these friends had an aviary with a number of the most beautiful birds that I had ever seen I never really complained. Most of her friends were connected with the Church and all seemed richer than we were - they always gave us the most wonderful teas, which seemed to have made our three or four mile walk worthwhile. I am afraid that the only picture I have in my mind of the Blackburns, the ones with the birds, is of a pair of very old women all in black - not really surprising as they were old and they did always wear the same old black clothes. They had never married but they acted as guardians to a young lad, who they had sent to the SATS General Botha which had a fairly tough reputation for training boys for the Merchant Service. When he was at home on leave I would listen in rapture while he told us all about his life on the Botha at Simonstown - little did I ever dare think that I would eventually follow in his footsteps. However that was for later, as yet I had the sun, sand and the bush to occupy me in my out of school hours.

Chapter 2

Schooldays in Port Alfred

Going to school was fun, and I had a fairly long walk away down the hill and then almost to the railway station - it seemed a long way to a seven or eight year-old. The hike was mostly along deserted roads with nothing but green and dense bush on both sides of the rough road - it was always rather an adventure and as the weather was almost always perfect the journey was never done at high-speed either way.

We found all kinds of things to divert us, bird's nests, flowers, the occasional harmless tree snake; these were only a few of the many reasons that would find us rushing madly for the last quarter mile so that we were in time for the bell. I am surprised that we did not ever think of playing truant - I expect that we had so much to occupy ourselves with both before and after school that the idea never entered our minds.

It also never entered our minds that there were no Black children at the school either. We all had Black playmates, children whose parents worked for our parents, and there seemed to be a happy and stable relationship. The Blacks were not only good hard workers but they were also very proud - as far as I can remember after all this time there were never any signs of the strains which were to come later. Perhaps it is a pity that the whole question of racial relationships in South Africa has become a sort of stick used by many a politician to divert people's attention from their own troubles - especially now that many of the internal affairs of the Republic of South Africa can be seen to be resolving themselves - so long as they are left alone.

Our Cars

I recall the day my Dad arrived home with his first car - a brand new Willys-Overland, - it was a magnificent piece of machinery, all bright and shiny, with his brass headlamps and huge great wheels. It was an open tourer with a canvas hood that required an acrobat to get it placed in the right position. My poor little mother was only 5 ft tall and it soon became apparent that she would be unable to drive the monster until she had worked out an intricate system of cushions and pillows - once this had been sorted out off she went in a cloud of dust.

She loved that old car, which incidentally, happened to be the first car in the town. It is strange to think that in those days there were no driving tests and one just bought a car and drove away as best as one could. I don't know whether there was compulsory insurance or not. I would not be surprised if there were not, as it all seem to be very slap and dash. I was very proud of that lovely old car, and it came as a great shock when some time later my dad ran it under the rear of an ox wagon and wrote it off.

In the meantime we had a lot of fun. Our major treats were an occasional trip to Grahamstown - to this day I cannot understand how we could have taken so long - it was only 30 miles or so. Although the roads were wicked we would set off at the crack of dawn, have a picnic breakfast near Bathurst 10 miles along the way, then press on finally arriving at our destination at around lunchtime. We always stayed overnight usually with the Mansfields, friends of my mothers from the Church at Grahamstown, as all of our friends were connected to the Church in some way or another. There was so little traffic in those days cars would sometimes stop so that the proud owners could enquire about the road conditions ahead and discuss their cars, before going on their way. We could do the whole journey from Port Alfred to Grahamstown and pass maybe half a dozen cars, but probably 20 or so wagons. How times have changed.

After the disaster in which dad wrote-off the Willis, and in which he was fortunately unhurt, he decided to buy a Model van. I believe they were the only vans available at the time. This he did, it arrived, and he promptly told one of the shop 'boys', a man named Milton, to get on with driving it. The sides were covered with the words Geerts Stores in big gold lettering, the rest of the van was of course Henry Ford's famous 'colour of your choice, provided that your choice was black'.

It looked very smart but to everyone's surprise Milton was able to drive after only a short lesson. This however, put my mother's nose out of joint, and it took some time before my dad could calm her down - it was not really settled until dad bought another car and mother could get behind the wheel once more - suitably cushioned of course. The new car was also a Ford, and by now there must been at least a dozen of the same models in Port Alfred.

The Mayor and the Prince

Dad was very active in the town's business affairs and in 1928 we all had to live with what he would call his 'year of office' as for that year he had been voted in as mayor. He was very well liked and I like to think that he did a lot of good around the town. I do know that he took his job extremely seriously, especially as that year, it happened to be the year we were to be honoured by a 'visit from royalty' as my father would say. It was as if we were to experience the second coming, an equally important occasion.