Remembrance Day: An AB Seaman falls into The King’s Arms Pt 1

That my father, an AB or Able Bodied Seaman (and later a Leading Seaman upon SS Silver Walnut), wrote a collection of stories about his WW11 navy experiences is perhaps a small miracle.

He almost didn’t make it through one skill-building training exercise.


In a book entitled The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945 he tells about a night exercise that took place near Troon, Scotland (50 km. SW of Glasgow).

His craft (an ALC) ran aground on a sandbar and he, along with two others, jumped into the water to rock the boat.

“So we worked our a---s off to free the ALC,” he writes, “and we were successful.”

“Bailey and Koyl were able to get (back) aboard. I wasn’t and they drove off and left me out in the water. I thought, how is the flotilla commander going to find me? This is unbelievable!”

Fortunately, after the landing exercise was finished (about two hours later), his commander returned to the area, and with the help of an Aldis lamp, found dad swimming on his back in nothing but his uniform pants.

Some of Dad’s final words on the subject read, “I don’t know how he knew where to locate me. My hands were all wrinkled and I felt all in.”

I mention the misadventure in next week’s column.

However, I leave out what happened once dad’s ALC returned to home base.

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Stay tuned.

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