Short Story: "The Coaling Ship, Durban"

The Coaling Ship, Durban, South Africa, June 1943

By Doug Harrison, RCNVR and Combined Operations, 1941 - 1945

The S.S. Silver Walnut. Photo credit - D. Harrison

Doug Harrison writes extensively - in his memoirs and submissions to Combined Ops books - about his trip on the Silver Walnut in May and June of 1943, which took him and several other Canadians in Combined Ops (members of the 80th flotilla of Landing Crafts, Mechanized) around Africa via Cape Town on their way to the invasion of Sicily in July of the same year. In a story submitted to St. Nazaire to Singapore: The Canadian Amphibious War 1941 - 1945, Volume 1, he includes the following two paragraphs about one of the Walnut's many stops along the way:

Durban Harbour

The Silver Walnut lay safely in Durban Harbour. But ships are not meant to lay safely in harbour and near the end of the third week of June 1943 we moved slowly into the Indian Ocean and headed north alone, and without much fear of enemy subs. The Canadian sailors aboard had become accustomed to every creak of the Walnut as the deck plates and bulkheads stretched and complained of the easy-rolling sea, and the vast load in the cargo holds.

At times we began to discuss where we and our landing craft might be going and what ‘was in the wind.’ On trips such as this, our names and other information pertaining to us would be known to naval authorities in Britain so that in case something happened to us, our next of kin could be notified. This was heartening....

Later in life, Doug Harrison wrote the story below - about something he saw in Durban, from aboard the Walnut, something he couldn't shake - for his hometown newspaper, The Norwich Gazette. To my knowledge, it was never published, so appears here for the first time.

Coaling Ship

The place was Durban Harbour, S. Africa, and the time was mid-June 1943. There were several old freighters resting on their spring lines, some of which were waiting for block steam coal to be loaded in the holds, one way or another.

Iron stanchions run around all freighters, and through the holes in these stanchions run two cables, the lower cable is to rest one boot on and the top one is to rest your arms on lightly while you have a cigarette and flick the ashes into the ocean.

This is what I was doing on our ship one sizzling hot morning when I was brought wide awake by a loud 'Crack'. With eyes wide open this is what I saw, and if you can't read about cruelty and mans' inhumanity to man stop reading now.

I can best explain by asking you to see in this large dockyard a large boxing ring, and the four corner ring posts are big men dressed in white uniforms, white pith helmets and black shiny shoes and gaiters. The men also have a rifle held firmly at their sides. The referee is on a raised platform dressed exactly the same, but instead of a rifle he has a large whip or black snake and it was the Crack of this whip that woke me up. They were coaling a ship from a large pile of coal near the referee.

There was probably a total of eight black men, with nothing on but loin clothes. Two were filling bags with coal which were placed on another black man's back and he ran across the dockyard over sharp cinders and coal, and up the swaying gang plank, where he dropped the bag of coal which was then emptied by two more black men. The runner took an empty bag and ran back to the pile. If the pace slowed the whip Cracked, sometimes very close to the men.

Dirty Work: Coaling the USS Georgia c.1917-1918. (Photo from collection

of Gunner's Mate F. B. McQueeney, USN - Courtesy of Patricia Lee)

I don't know how long I watched as the coal bags bumped up and down on the backs of the black men. As I said, it was terribly hot there, and there were no breaks for water and the whip kept on Cracking. The pace had to be maintained and those ships probably took hundreds of tons of coal. The men carrying coal exchanged places with the men filling and emptying bags. I'm sure one shift of Black men could not coal a ship.

I watched the referee, and his whip came very close to striking the workers, but I didn't notice anyone hit. The scene was one of perpetual movement, and I finally left, unable to stand anymore. My comrades did not remain as well, the Crack of the whip was very scary - something out of the ages.

The discussion on the mess deck was that the black men had been connected to some crime and this was their punishment. Maybe we had witnessed apartheid*.

*Apartheid (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ɐˈpartɦɛit]; an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart", literally "apart-hood") was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994. (Wikipedia)

Editor's note - Doug Harrison and his comrades in Combined Ops were likely not witnessing apartheid, as defined above, but - even worse - "something out of the ages."

 
Please link to Short Story re Sicily, The Long Way 'Round (i.e.,A Voyage Around Africa to the Invasion of Sicily, Operation HUSKY)