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Photograph of Ray Lorrison

Ray Lorrison

Ray belongs to: Royal British Legion Seaman's Mess

Ray was born in Moon Street, South Shields. After leaving school Ray went to cookery school before going to sea with the merchant navy in March 1937. He left the sea in 1953.

Ray was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 30 November 2005. The interview took place at the Interviewee's living room and lasted 39 minutes and 44 seconds.

Photograph of Ray Lorrison
Photograph of Ray Lorrison

The Atlantic convoys and Captain Walker

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"And we were made commodore which was in the centre of the convoy"

And we were made commodore which was in the centre of the convoy, not quite at the head of the convoy because the destroyers…there was a destroyer, outstanding he was, called HMS Walker. About three days out from Halifax- four days, four days out from Halifax and it was just turning dusk.

We were sitting on the decks when all of a sudden the outside column, the first ship was a tanker carrying grain. It just went ‘boof’, flames all over, another one behind us and then all of a sudden the one in front of us on the left, on the port side, just went into flames and as we were going past, the flames went underwater, the ship was in flames at the front. You could see the crew running along the fly deck. Of course a lot of them jumped off the side into the water. You just didn’t know what to do.

And then HMS Walker came through them, he couldn’t stop for them, they were dead in the water, with the flames. And he went right through the flames and came to the back end of the tanker and he, we could see him as we were moving forward, taking the survivors that he could take off and the other poor guys, dead- had to be. But when we got back to Oban the destroyer used to go, if there were two, one used to go and the other one followed and they went around, making sure there were no mines or anything like that.

At that particular time, we got to know that he had picked up 120 survivors of the sunken ships. He was a great man.

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This memory has these themes:
Danger | Wartime | Work

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