Don Cleavin – First time on board

You don’t really feel claustrophobic. If you’re claustrophobic, you don’t go in there, you stay away.

The Stoker’s Mess on Tally-Ho was right back at the tail end, and of course it was a bit like a railway carriage.

On the port side, they had three tables with bunks on either side of the tables.

The bunks were quite nice looking actually, in nice, polished wood frames you see. Much better than the later Classes of boat.

When I went into the Stoker’s Mess I thought ‘this is the bloody Ward Room isn’t it?’

Everything looked so nice. Clean, polished woodwork it looked really nice. But I learnt about it afterwards and they’re not quite that good.