David Burdett on Navigation

Then we had to go to Newcastle to pick up a Light Ship to tow it back to Harwich. That’s right. The ‘Winston Churchill’ had gone for annual dry-docking in Newcastle and so we’d all been sent on leave.

The ship was ready to come back into service, so we all travelled up to Newcastle and re-joined, and as we were there, the Light Vessel was ready to have been…also had its annual survey and repair work done it was ready to be towed back to Harwich which is the base for Trinity House.

We took it in tow, and I was on the wheel as the …. steering the ship as a Cox. I wasn’t a Quartermaster, but I was, in fact steering the ship at the time. As we sailed past Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, and I said to the Officer of the Watch, “The steering is funny, it’s different.” So, he went to the wing of the bridge, looked behind us and he said, “I’m not surprised, we’ve lost the Light Ship.”

So, he pulled the whistle which was a signal to the Light Ship to drop its anchor. So, the Light Ship dropped its anchor so it wouldn’t drift away and then the Captain got in touch with the Yarmouth Depot because what had happened is the joining link connecting the Light Vessel cable chain to our tow chain had parted and it was …we needed one of these special shackles.

So, we contacted Yarmouth, “Do you have one of these shackles in stock?” “Yes.” “Ok, I’ll send the motor boat in to pick it up.” When the boat returned with the shackle, the crew of the motor boat were very excited and said, “Have you heard the news?” “We’re going time on, time off.” “What do you mean, time on, time off?”

Trinity House was changing the system of operating the ships, the crew…a crew would join a ship and work on it continuously for a fortnight, anywhere and everywhere and then the second crew would take over and the first crew would go on leave for a fortnight. So, it was a fortnight on, a fortnight off. As soon as I heard of that, I got excited myself.

We connected up the Light Vessel, towed it into Harwich and we got there on the Sunday afternoon and I got hold of pen and paper and wrote a letter to the Superintendent asking if I could have a job as an Officer with Trinity House as I had the appropriate qualifications. And, put the letter in and just waited. And, three weeks later there was a dispute between two Officers, which ended up with one of the Officers being dismissed.

The next thing I knew was, I got a letter, right, we will appoint you as a Second Officer of Trinity House and it was quite a dramatic change because the Officers had their dining saloon and you walked in through these plate glass double doors with a Trinity emblem carved on them and you had waiter service. I thought, this is the life for me, two weeks on, two weeks off and living like a lord at sea