octor, both Electrical Artificers (EA) joined HMS Hecla
at the Clyde and were in the same Mess. It was Ted Coleman's first ship
and everything was new and strange.
He described how they spent their off duty hours playing tombola
(bingo), various games, "walking" (pacing up and down in the resticted
space while talking with a companion) and in the evening watching an
occasional film show. As they passed the Canaries they were lectured by
the Medical Officer (MO) on the danger of touching any metal in the
tropics, particularly gun barrels, "anyone reporting sick with hand
burns would be considered to have a self inflicted wound." They took on
fuel at Freetown, Sierra Leone, betwee the 29 April to 3 May
which gave an opportunity for a run ashore. Les Proctor noted that "the
better areas were built with Victorian style houses as distinct from
the huts on stilts, which were typical of the basic native quarter,
where the women only wore skirts." The MO had lectured them on
hazards ashore ending with "I know you think this a waste of time but I
also know that some of you chaps would put your pricks where I wouldn't
put my walking stick" but his advice was ignored by some.
For most of the 900 men on Hecla this
would be the first time they had "crossed the line" and Neptune
welcomed them to his domain with the traditional ceremonies. Ted Coleman described how:
sailmakers, oh yes the Navy still had sail makers years after the last
sailing ship had been laid to rest, had constructed a huge canvas
swimming pool. The chippies had made a platform complete with barber's
chair designed to tip its occupants backwards into the pool after being
lathered asnd shaved with a giant wooden mock razor, to be baptised by
The Captain and
his senior officers were given a regal dispensation from the ritual
humiliation by the God of the Sea but most took part good humouredly.
Some of them would not live to cross the line again:
"We crossed the line during this trip
and of course held the usual Ceremonies, myself having crossed on
divers occasions was one of Neptune's Court. We all made our costumes
out of rope etc and we looked pretty good when we took charge of the
ship but by the time we had initiated a few of the novices with soap,
pills and medicine (cascara and quinine) & ducked them in the bath
we were beginning to get a bit bedraggled for I went into the bath
myself about every five or ten minutes, about every other bloke
initiated tried to take me in with him, however they were all well and
truly dealt with you may depend, the more they struggled the better we
liked it & the more the spectators who had been through enjoyed the
Brown, SBCPO (reported as "missing presumed killed", on 11-12 November
1942) in a letter to his brother dated 10 May 1942.
Crossing the Line Certificate drawn by Donald A. Preece Leading Supply Assistant, "missing presumed killed" on 11-12 November 1942 Signed by Neptunus (Chief Petty Officer Goddard, bosun of the Hecla)
and his consort, Amphitrite (Johnny Harber, the Master of Arms, one of the survivors rescued by HMS Venomous when Hecla was torpedoed) Courtesy of Fred Lemberg
On the 15 May Heclarounded
the Cape and as it crossed the Aghulhas Bank just east of False Bay struck a mine at 15.59 hours killing 21 of the crew (with 3 missing and 116 injured).
Had Edward Coleman not left his lonely workshop below the
armoured deck five minutes early to go to the heads he would have been
amongst those killed:
were staggering up from below, most of them blackened and dazed ... one
of the leading rescuers was Harry Holcomb ... I well remember him going
down over and over again to the decks not actually flooded to get men
out. He was later decorated for his bravery. Regretfully, his award was
made posthumourosly, he was killed in a later accident."
would normally have been standing by my locker at that time getting my
washing gear but had stayed and finish a job. My locker was squashed to
half its size and had I been there I would most certainly have been
'killed in action' as were the fellows I normally saw at that
Bill Clayton