Whatever was the case, he joined the British India Steam Navigation Co. (later
to become part of the P.&O.Group ) in 1928 at age seventeen and served as a
cadet for 4 years learning the trade - and being general dogsbody of course -
splicing and serving ropes, cleaning, painting, watchkeeping , basic navigation,
and generally getting the feeling of how a sea-going ship works. Incidentally,
sea-sickness did pursue him throughout his service, though he discounts its
frequency and effects. In those early years he served in cargo and passenger
ships working out of the U.K. to Indian and East African ports until 1936 when he
was to work coal and general cargo ships between India , Sri Lanka, Burma and
Malaya.
A feature of officer service in the Merchant Navy was that, though you might
pass examinations, qualifying you for more senior positions, you did not
necessarily obtain the appropriate promotion until years later. So it was that in
1932 he obtained his 2n d mates certificate but not until the following year was he
appointed 4th officer, and from thence gradually climbing the promotion ladder
until he was to become 1s t mate in 1939 (for which he had qualified in 1936)
shortly before the outbreak of the 2n d World War . At that time he was due to
return to the U.K. to take his Masters Certificate but events overtook him
delaying for 7 long years his completion of this qualification. He had however, as
early as 1936 joined the Royal Navy Reserve and was as a result immediately
called up for active service as soon as war was declared. He was to be
commissioned as sub-lieutenant and subsequently as Lieutenant to serve on the
armed Merchant Cruiser H.M.S.Hector (14,000 tons).
A word about armed Merchant Cruisers. It had been recognised that although
we had a large and powerful peacetime Navy, the demands made on it in times
of war would be greater than its ability to meet them in view of our world-wide
Empire and Commonwealth commitments. One of the ways of plugging the gap
was to utilise merchant shipping capable of being converted for war service.
Thus fishing trawlers and pleasure steamers were used as minesweepers, boom
defence vessels etc. Armed merchant cruisers were simply large merchant
vessels whose design made them suitable to be armed, mainly with 6” guns and
some anti-aircraft weapons for this purpose. They had no armour plating and
were no match for enemy surface ships in pitched battle. They did however
perform a very useful service.
So Alan joined such a ship in October 1939 where he supplemented his normal
watch-keeping and navigational duties (there was no radar available in those
days) with responsibility for a battery of three 6” naval guns. After the usual
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