Able Seaman Raymond Burton

“Recollections of my time on the HMCS Merrittonia”

Notes written by the late Able Seaman Raymond Edward Burton (1924 – 2012)

 

Transcribed by his daughter, Elizabeth Wagner, as part of his collection of photos and memorabilia from World War II
 

(I am transcribing my father’s notes the best that I can, being as his handwriting has always been very difficult to read. He also used short forms, with which I am not familiar, so I am copying them exactly, hoping that they will be meaningful to the reader. The only changes that I will make are for spelling or grammatical errors. When there are sections of his notes that I am not able to read, I will use an ellipsis to indicate that I am leaving something out. E.W.)

 

1943

 

Keel laid down 22/11/43
 

Built at Davie Shipyards, Quebec

 

1944

 

Commissioned Nov 10/44
 

Crew - 6 officers, 79 men

Speed 16 knots

4” gun, 2 single 20mm – one on each side of bridge

Twin 20mm on quarter deck

Also, hedgehog on forward deck

24 50lb bombs fired electrically, covers a circle approx. 150 ft. wide
 

Sent to Quebec to pick up ship.

Roy Crookall, Killick or Sergeant signaller, Cliff Harcourt P.O. Engine Room, and myself, AA3 Q.O.(anti-aircraft 3rd class qualified ordnance) to look after the guns.
We were there about 6 or 7 weeks waiting for the men to finish the ship. Finally we got aboard, and all the rest of the crew started arriving.

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Several days of time trials to make sure everything worked OK and then D… shipyard signed off on the papers and we were ready to go.
 

We left about 1:30 from dock and started down the river. This was about 15th or 16th of December.

It started to snow. Big flakes and you couldn’t see a thing. The skipper put out extra men on watch and suddenly the ship stopped. Engines quit. We finally found out our burners were all plugged with sand. There was sand in the bunker fuel. We had a spare water tank that we pumped all the bunker fuel into after straining the fuel. We had to clean all the fuel lines to the burners and to the kitchen stoves before we could get moving, about 1 ½ hours sitting in the centre of the river. Sabotage. Somebody didn’t like us.

We also were very quiet so we could hear another boat if one was in the area. We were told we should have been farther up river before things happened as there may have been a sub waiting for us up river.

 

We got going and made the rest of the trip to Halifax OK. We arrived in Halifax for Christmas.

We took on extra depth charges, ammo, and food as we were to go to Bermuda and hook up with the other ships in the escort group.

 

Big storm. Mountainous waves and the skipper said to me, “Are you on watch?” “Yes, Sir.” “Well, you better get up to the crow’s nest.” I looked at him, and he said, “I mean it. Up there now.” A rope ladder was to be climbed to get to the crow’s nest. When the ship was on an even keel, I climbed fast. Next time I looked down, I was out over the side of the ship looking at water. The ship was rolling. That bit of it came back to normal. I climbed fast again, as I was over the other side of the ship above water. I finally fell into the crow’s nest and the skipper hollered up the voice pipe, “Are you awake up there?” “Yes, Sir.” “Keep an eye out for a sub.” No submarine would be on the surface in that storm. The waves, I’m guessing, would be 30 or 40 feet high. 3 days in that storm. I guess it was going the same direction as we were.

 

1945

 

We arrived in Bermuda New Year’s Day, and the skipper hollers over the loud speaker, “Prepare to abandon ship.” That means all Carley floats, lifeboats. Half of the crew start to get ready to abandon ship, which was the next order. Everybody was in the water. Next order was “Liberty boat to go ashore in 30 minutes.” That’s 2/3 of the crew can go ashore. The other third – we had to stow all Carley floats and the lifeboats ready for sea.
 

One month of exercises with the 4 other ships in our convoy escort group and off to St. John’s (Newfoundland).

 

We made 4 trips to Londonderry, Ireland.
 

1st trip with convoy – approx. 30 (70? E.W.) ships. Rough weather. We met the ships 1 ½ days from St. John’s. The other escorts returned to Halifax to wait for the next convoy – probably 1 ½ to 2 ½ days. Met English escorts about 2 days from Londonderry. Left the convoy, refueled, and took on provisions for the return trip. Picked up a convoy heading back to Canada, from the English group. Met Halifax escort group and returned to St. John’s – 1 ½ to 2 days. Repeat same thing over. After taking convoy 2/3 at B… a… a…, a sub picked 2 ships in centre of convoy.
 

Had just got my dinner from galley, and heard, “Ping. Ping.” on side of ship. Just grabbed life jacket and ran for guns. “Action” bell rang. Everybody to stations. At 4:30, ¼ crew went for supper. The rest of us went to eat at 6. H… until 8:30. Had to leave to get to Londonderry and get ready for next convoy coming home.
 

Coming home, better weather. No big storms. Met Halifax group and turned over our convoy.
 

8 a.m. next day pretty calm, and we got hit by a rogue wave. Low in fuel, we were riding pretty high. Ship got hit on starboard side of bow. Rolled both ways. One degree more and we would have gone down. Goody, goody! Two weeks for repairs. N… w… we looked like a wreck, all the damage.

6:30 in St. John’s, Friday night and Saturday. 1:30 Sunday, took off to meet next convoy. A bit of rough weather, but we only went through the edge of the storm.

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Left convoy for Derry. Passed by U.S. fueling dock and saw 36 subs tied up. 3 or 4 kinds: 1 – 2 man subs, bigger coastal subs and Grey Wolves and Super Subs.

 

Left Londonderry June ’45. Last trip.

Left Derry and had to pass a building that housed Wrens. Some waded out into the river and wanted us to bring them to Canada. They had a pretty good idea that they might not see any more Canadian ships.

Met convoy and made an easy trip home. No big threat from German sub packs this trip.

 

Met Halifax escort and also heard about VE Day. “Up spirits!”, when we arrived in St. John’s.
 

Left for Halifax in a couple of days, and on arrival, learned that they were sending corvettes to Esquimalt, BC. Some had left already, and we were going the next week, but we got word that no more would be going there as we would need a tanker of fuel to refuel us 2 or 3 times going over to Japan.

So, a few days later, we went to Sorel, Quebec, and tied up the ship for sale.
 

“Paid off” July 11/45
 

Purchased by K.C. Irving Oil, Nov 16/45, and while being towed to Nova Scotia, tow line broke in storm, and ship crashed on rocks and sank.