Navigating on the eve of war
THE CRUISE OF
NAROMIS:
AUGUST IN THE
BALTIC 1939
G.A.Jones
Published Golden Duck, 2016, £8.99George Jones was 21 years old and working in
Birmingham when he volunteered for the RNVSR. On
1 August 1939 he was approached by a previously
unknown member of the RNVR London Flotilla and asked
whether he’d like to join a small motor yacht going to
Danzig (Gdansk). George
agreed; a passport was
arranged for him (he’d
never been abroad before)
and 10 days later he
was on his way.
Friday 11 August 1939
The Stock Exchange was
just about closing for the
weekend that Friday night in August as I turned down into
Walbrook towards Cannon Street Station. I must have been
a strange sight with my yellow oilskins and red sea-boots,
and many a respectable banker’s clerk may have felt mildly
shaken. Yesterday I too had been a stockbroker’s clerk and
had just completed my three years’ articles. Today I had put
shares aside (for a few weeks, as I thought) and was on my
way to help take a yacht to the Baltic... A yacht to the Baltic!
- exciting words and something I had always wanted to do.
British yachtsman did not go to that delightful cruising
area as much as one would expect and, for
me, it was breaking fresh ground.
I met Skipper on the train to Ramsgate and
later, when we reached the Royal Temple
Yacht Club, the rest of the crew were ready
for us, the last of the stores on board and
everything shipshape. It was a supreme
moment this, sitting out on the veranda of
the yacht club smoking a pipe with a last glass
of English beer within reach, watching the
lights, the bustle of the holiday crowds. How
we should have appreciated that noisy press
of Londoners and those piercing lights had
we known it was the last time we should see
those things in England for years. Out in the
harbour the black shapes of the boats stirred
restlessly in the gentle swell that came
through the pierheads. Beyond all this
was the sparkling anticipation of the morning to come.
Skips (himself a City banker) had got together a black-
coated crew. Bill, the navigator, was a barrister in the
Temple. Mike was a medical student and there was Jock,
a stockbroker, christened ‘Fattie’ from the start. He was a
wonderful person, large and
always roaring with laughter.Saturday 12th August 1939
We left next day at 0915. The
morning was perfect for
making a passage after many
weeks of cloud and rain. The
log was streamed at the
North Goodwin LV and we
laid a course ESE at a steady 7 knots. This speed was
maintained quite easily in a slight sea and following breeze.
The day passed in the usual rather monotonous way of sea
passages. Interest is confi ned to the next meal, the log dial
and fi nding a comfortable place to get your head down on
the upper deck. My admiration for seamen like Gerbault is
unbounded but I am not personally persuaded that there is
very great enjoyment in sea passages. The whole joy of
‘messing around in boats’ to my mind, is confi ned to the
boats themselves, the places you go, the people you meet.
There’s the joy of getting the best out of your
boat, the excitement of a fi ght to windward,
the contentment of summer days trimming
your sheets to catspaws and trawling for soles
along the edge of the mud. There are frosty
nights on the saltings, waiting for the ducks,
and then on to the sea itself. In small doses it
is the only thing: in large brimfuls it loses its
charm and becomes an old bore.
The West Hinder was abeam at 1405,
the log recording 34.5 miles. A tug was
streaming off the stern of the light vessel,
probably swinging compasses. Two hours
later the Wandelaar was sighted to starboard
and Naromis was on a course of 100º.
Presently we sighted the Belgian coast and by
1800 we were off Zeebrugge working up
against the tide. It was late evening when weLittle did we think that the
Huns would be in Flushing
within the twelvemonth
GEORGE JONES (1918-1983)
learned to sail on the River
Deben. After the war he
founded the East Coast
Yacht Agency. He’d had a
short piece accepted by
Yachting Monthly before he
joined Naromis and was
later a regular contributor
to the magazine’s Coast
Notes section.A BOOK AT BUNKTIME