Brian Wood – Turning up for first patrol with a full kit bag and case

Simon: Can I take you back to the first time you went onboard.

The submarine?

Simon: Yeah, you’d been Surface Fleet and then ok you’d been drafted to submarines.

A nightmare. ‘Cos when they drafted me from the Dolphin, the Stoker’s Block down to the Jetty to join the submarine, of course I took my kit bag, my gas mask, the whole thing on a trolley down to the Jetty, went down onto the submarine casing and said, “I’m joining.” You could see all my kit on the Jetty and then he piped up the Chief Stoker to come to the casing. “I’ve got this young lad thinks he’s joining the submarine with all his kit up here” and he said, “Oh dear.”

The Chief Stoker came up and he says, “Right, ok, you’ll be living back aft, I’ll get the Killick up here” and he was a six foot six Australian. Cor, bloody hell, Andy Andrews, and he says, “Show this young lad back aft and where he’s going to put his kit, ‘cos see that trolley? That’s all his kit on the Jetty.”

Simon: Had you figured at this point that you’d got too much, or …?

Yeah, it was a big, huge kit bag and a green case, a holdall. “Right” he said, “Come with me” and he takes me down, he takes me and he says, “That’s going to be your bunk” and it was right back aft and there was a torpedo alongside it because they used to have torpedo back aft in them days, and he says, “This is your locker” and it was just a little stool like you’re sat on. Jesus wept.

He said, “Do you think you’re going to get all your kit in there?” like. “Come with me” and he took me … ‘cos the submarine crews had Messes inboard and you had lockers and beds up inboard obviously, so I went back the inboard Mess then. “That’s your bunk, that’s your locker. We’re sailing in a couple of days. All you need to bring with you is your overalls, a set of eights. Don’t even bring your uniform ‘cos you’re not going anywhere. Don’t bring your flat hat ‘cos that’ll turn yellow.” So, I thought, Gawd, what life is this like?

Simon: So I mean literally it was just overalls.

Yeah, and if you’d got any old jeans or a T Shirts ‘cos you’d be wearing ‘Pirate Rig’ and I thought what’s he on about, ‘Pirate Rig.’ He said, “No, Pirate Rig is just any old civvies that you don’t mind destroying ‘cos you’re not going to do much washing onboard either.”

He said, “Any old clothes that …” of course we’d just been allowed to wear civilians in the last couple of years, so I did have some civilians. They soon got wrecked.