HMS Knaresborough Castle
Raymond Mace

Memories of a crew member of HMS Knaresborough Castle

I joined HMS Knaresborough Castle at Blythe in 1943 and served as a Torpedo man, although she didn't carry Torpedoes my work covered electrical/depth charges and explosives, mostly electrical though.

We sailed around to the Isle of Mull to "train up" and work as a team, and for the rest of the war we were escorting convoys to Gibraltar. It took us about two weeks going out and the same coming back, as we had to steam out of the Clyde, over the top of Ireland and out into the Atlantic Ocean and past the Med and double back at night, because of spies in Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

HMS Knaresborough Castle

" My wife and myself, we married when I joined the Knaresborough"

Raymond Mace, Gibralter

Tony Watson (ships writer), Gibraltar

Working party: Raymond Mace on (the left) with Tony Wheeler.

Crossing the Line: King Neptune - Back row 1st on the left; Barbers- 3rd & 5th in back row & 1st in front row; Bears - 2nd in back row & 3rd in front. Their job is to arrest the crew members and to dunk them in the water tank when the barbers have finished shaving and giving them a hair cut (pretend).

 

I think that we did about 7 or 8 convoys, probably about 30 or 40 ships per convoy, in columns and rows formed into like a big square. There would be 3 destroyers in front, 2 frigates and corvettes on either side with 1 corvette covering the rear. Sometimes, if the convoy was very large, there would be a small aircraft carrier (auxiliary carrier) with us. The leader of the group would be the middle destroyer at the front and he would be in front of the others, and all ships would be searching and sweeping with their Asdic/Radar & Visual. When contact was made one destroyer or corvette would deal with it while the others closed ranks.The main armament used for an attack on a submerged submarine would be the "Squid/Hedgehog" & Depth charges, and it could take some time, more often just giving them a sorehead and terrifying them.

The armament on the Knaresborough Castle was slightly different: we had the 4 inch gun up forard followed by the triple mortar (what was known as the Squid) just aft and on the deck above the gun 2 orliken canons each side on the Bridge Wings, and where the Knaresborough differed, was that instead of Boffers we had 2 power driven twin orliken cannons, the ammunition drums being loaded with different types of shell: armour piercing, incendiary excreta, so that whatever you hit it was going to do a lot of damage. Then there was the 2 Depth charge throwers, one each side, followed by the Depth Charge Racks. Depth charges were usually fired in patterns of 5 or 7 - say 1 from the rack,1 from each thrower and 2 from the rack again - total 5 .

We had a particularly bad one [convoy], in which we lost 3 landing craft. We had a terrible storm, and we had about 12 of these craft in with the Convoy, being escorted to Gib for landings in the Med I assume. The 3 came into difficulties and had to be abandond which meant that the crews had to be rescued. One of the other ships (a Castle class Frigate) rescued 2 crews and our ship (the Knaresborough) rescued one crew (about 8 men in the crew). I think that we took most of the night rescuing these men, nearly losing our own life boat crew in doing so. We had storm damage which kept us in harbour (In Addrosian) for a couple of months. While we were in Addrosian the Ship had a couple of dances to chear us up. God that was a rough winter.

Convoy work was very boring most of the time. The ship was very small and cramped with equipment, so there was not room to do much. Winter months we were below decks mostly (apart from watch keeping) because of the weather. Summer months we were able to get on the upper decks (just like being on a cruise!). When below decks in off duty times we would play board & card games, mend clothes, darn socks and write letters. I myself was making a model galleon out of match sticks, it was almost completed when it got damaged beyond repair (weeks of work gone in seconds).

When we got into port, the bigger ships would sometimes put on entertainment for us ie film shows/concerts where the crews would dress up and put on acts like singing, telling jokes and monologues, anything for a laugh. Most ships had there own projector, so weather permitting we were able to put on our own film shows sometimes.

After the war in Europe we sailed down to Freetown, spending about ten months there.The Americans were ferrying some of their troops back home, so they stationed several small ships across the Atlantic, in case any planes came down. We steamed to a spot and just drifted and steamed around that area for 3 or 4 weeks. While we were drifting I fished for Basking and Blue Sharks I think that I caught about 8 altogether. When I left the ship I left a Fishing Hook which was about 12 inches long on the ship hidden in the Low Power room.

Spent Xmas there [Freetown], didn't seem a bit like it as it is on the Equator and was so hot.

There were two entertainment things worth mentioning: one was the "Crossing the Line" ceremony, which took place when crossing the Equator line (while we were working out of Freetown), in which all the crew that hadn't crossed the line had to go through this ceremony.

Crossing the Line: King Neptune's Court which charged and allocated punishment to each crew member that hadn't Crossed the Line. Neptune's Court was made up of crew members that had already crossed the line, nobody was excused, officers and men all took part.

A very big tank is made up of waterproof tarpaulins, the tank being about 12 ft long, 6ft wide and about 3ft deep, with a platform across one end on which there was a throne for King Neptune and a chair for the crew member who hadn't crossed the line. King Neptune and his men (about 6) climb over the bows of the ship (as though they have just come out of the sea) and they are covered in seaweed. King Neptune is wearing his crown and carrying his trident and each of his helpers is armed with scissors, open razor, comb, shaving brush and a bucket of foam. All of these things were at least 3ft long! The crew member is placed on the chair next to King Neptune who questions and insults him then covers him in foam, shaves him, gives him a hair cut, scrubs him and tosses him in the tank and gives him a good ducking. Then on to the next one, officers and men alike.

HMS Knaresborough Castle Football Team

The other one is called "Uckers" - it is the same as Ludo only on a giant scale. A big ludo board is drawn on the deck (same colours as the ordinary board) about 20ftx20ft using giant counters and dice. The players are all dressed up as clowns or any funny clothes and do all sorts of funny things while the game is in progress. If [you] get a good crowd it can be quite hilarious.

The ship was a good seagoing ship, it stood up to some very rough seas almost standing on her ends at times and also stood up to quite a bit of pounding when we were depth charging submarines.

"A rest day and picnic in a nice little cove, tried to learn how to manage one of the native's canoe but kept turning over."

I remember receiving parcels from Knaresborough for which we were truly grateful. I wonder if there are people around up there that did the Knitting for us. All those years ago I do remember and appreciate what the people of Knaresborough did for us.