Roy Cocker

Re my time on board Veryan Bay (2nd Sept.1946 to 3rd April 1948).

I had various jobs as an A/B. including spells as Bosuns Mate, P.Os. mess man and O.Arts Mate. I was cinema operator for much of my time on board. I was in the football, hockey and water polo teams.

I first joined from H.M.S. Gould in Colombo as an Ordinary Seaman after previously serving on H.M.S. Victorious as a Boy Seaman and H.M.S. Argonaut as Boy and Ordinary Seaman.
My memories of my time on Veryan Bay. are rather sparse as so much happened in my time in the Navy in the years that followed.
The first thing that comes to mind was that I was a Pompey rating drafted to a Guzz ship. I remember Stripey Ham, who was Leading Hand of my mess and Ken Boydell, who Was P.Os. mess man with me for part of my time aboard.
Incidents I remember are a visit to Amoy to deliver a load of Chemicals (DDT) to spray the city with. We were not allowed ashore and I as cinema operator was showing a film on the quarterdeck when hundreds of sampans pulled alongside laden with people who joined us in watching the film.
We visited Japan and returned to Hong Kong laden with Bone China Tea and Dinner services. Mine cost me 100 Woodbine cigarettes at a place called Kamakura and I still have it Intact today.
We went to Batavia and had the privilege of taking Lord Killern, the U.N mediator to a meeting between the Dutch and Indonese who were fighting for independence. We did not see too much action except on the football field and in the bars in the City but we were awarded the Naval General Service medal for our efforts.
We were later sent to the Med to assist in the stopping of ships transporting thousands of Jews from all over Europe to Palestine. We had a number of incidents, the biggest for us being the boarding and capture of a ship called Northlands carrying about 2500 Jews.
We had a couple of smaller boardings and spent quite a lot of time shadowing ships as they moved around the Med. Again we were awarded the G.S.M. for our part in that bit of history.
The photo below was taken when we went to Venice along with an American ship for the hand over of Italy back to the Italians from an occupation government.

I coloured the photo myself at the time and am quite proud of the work I did with a paint kit of that era.
Hope this helps a bit with your records and that my senility has not distorted my memory too much.

Cheers from P/ JX 581653 Roy Cocker.