Luke has recently started recording conversations with Colin about his life. These are some excerpts which cover the first part of his life as a sailor.
Colin Millington was born in Hull, on 25th of August, 1937, the eldest of two brothers. His father, Arthur, was a Humber river pilot, guiding large vessels through the Humber Estuary and its surrounding waters. During the war, he was on air sea rescue boats in The North Sea. His mother Alice was a housewife.
At the age of twelve, he passed the exams to go to Hull Trinity House Navigation School, where his father had been educated. This was a school for training the next generation of seamen and the boys wore Naval uniform at all times. They had to attend Holy Trinity Church every Sunday, and the picture above shows Colin in his Sunday uniform with white waistcoat and trousers.
“At sixteen you could write to shipping companies for an apprenticeship.
And I wrote to several posh companies, but didn’t get anywhere, so in the end, the School would find you a berth. I got an apprenticeship with the WJT Adams of Cardiff, and I was sent to join the ship in Sunderland as an apprentice for four years.”
He went onboard the Chulmleigh, a tramp steamer, and his first trip was to Argentina.
“We didn’t take anything, so the ship went out empty. We re-fueled in the Cape Verde Islands, and went to Argentina to pick up grain for the UK. We went to Brazil, loaded bananas for Buenos Aires, and then from there to Fray Bentos and up the river to Rosario to pick up wet cow hides. And then down to Bah’a Blanca to pick up more grain. And back to the UK to Belfast, Liverpool, and the Manchester Ship Canal.”
“We went through the Panama Canal too, then to New Orleans. We took a cargo of pig iron from Antwerp to Japan, because they didn’t have the raw materials as they’d used them all up during the war. Then we went to Vancouver, Australia, and Yokohama.”
“Sometimes it was a three-month trip, sometimes six months, and then when you got back, you could go home for leave. You got a day’s leave for every Sunday at sea. And sometimes, when they crossed the international date line, they used to slow the ship down so you wouldn’t get two Sundays.”
“I didn’t complete the four years because I jumped ship in Australia and lived there for about three months until I got sent home on a cargo ship called The Pine Hill. This would have been in 1956.”
“So I went home and worked with my father, keeping pigs and chickens.
and one day, the police came to the house and said, “Mr Millington you didn’t register for national service.” I said, “Well, no, I was in the Merchant Navy,” and they said, “Well, we’ve got no record of that. You’re under arrest.” So I said, “Oh well, I was going into Hull tomorrow to sign on in the army.” And they said “Oh, right, we’ll give you a lift.” So they put me in the police car, took me to Hull, and I signed on for three years in the army.”
“I joined The Royal Engineers and served in Hong Kong, Christmas Island and Germany, we used to do bridging over the Rhine and mine clearing. When I got discharged, I came home and went back to live with my father and mother. And I couldn’t get on, I was working in the building trade then. It was all right, like. But I went on a trip to Hull one day and I saw the recruiting office, and I popped in and signed on in the Royal Navy.”
“I was an able seaman gunner on The Anzio, which was a landing craft in the Persian Gulf. We used to land tanks for The 17th and 21st Lancers and The Royal Scots Greys and we’d go on exercises with them. We used to go for rest and recuperation in Mombasa, and carried horses from Bahrain to Mombasa in exchange for soil for the Sheik’s gardens. One time we landed in Italy and got the train from Anzio to Rome and went to the Vatican and the Pope blessed the ship and the crew of The Anzio, because there were some Catholics in the crew. And then the crew went on the booze, and caused a bit of a nuisance in Rome. So the police put us on a train back to Anzio, and told us not to come back, basically.”
“After serving on the Anzio, I went to HMS Excellent on a gunnery course and then got sent to HMS Egeria which was an ex minesweepers used as a survey ship. We did a courtesy trip to Cologne and escorted the Royal Yacht to Scotland for the opening of the new Forth Road Bridge, then I was drafted to HMS Diana.”
HMS Diana was a Destroyer and whilst Colin was onboard she was assigned to the Beira Patrol, the international blockade of oil shipments to Rhodesia in 1965.
“When I was on the Diana, the South Africans were sending oil tankers and oil barges to Rhodesia which was illegal, and we had to stop them. But inside the three-mile limit, you couldn’t. So we just had to sit there and watch them.”
In 1966 he married Pat and later that year his time was up and he left the Royal Navy. Colin served 7 years in HM Coastguards and finished his maritime career spending 4 years on oil rig standby vessels.
Rum.
On board ship rum was part of the sailors ration.
“On the Anzio there were soldiers as well as sailors and they used to get their rum ration the same as the sailors. The sailors found out that the soldiers didn’t want the rum, so we used to go down with a can of beer and swap it for a glass of rum. In the end, they stopped the soldiers having rum because there were too many drunken sailors. When they dished out the rum, the sailors would get their measure and then they used to pour what was left in the barrel down the scuppers. But the blokes who used to dish it out, they worked it out and instead they would pour it over the side where somebody could hang out of a porthole with a bucket and catch it.”
Black & white photos by Andi Sapie