44216: Donald Smith Cromore: At Work (part two)

A brief history of the life of Donald Smith, 15 Cromore. His father was Finlay, son of ‘Big John Muldonaich’, and his mother was Ishbel, daughter of Roderick.

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Gaelic version

When the War started in 1939, Roderick ‘Dhomhnull Choinnich’, Alex Iain, and I were the first three to leave from Cromore. I spent three weeks in a large shed learning rifle drill. I then joined the training ship ‘Iron Duke’. They took us out three miles for firing practice and although the noise was deafening we had no ear protection. That did us no harm. When we saw the papers the next day, we read that the local people were complaining of their windows smashing with the noise. The next ship I was on did the same run as the Suilven is doing now going between North Island and South Island in New Zealand. She was built in Glasgow and was a beautiful ship. She was not long in New Zealand when the War broke out, and she was sent to Cape Town. What an upheaval. She was stripped of everything put into her in Glasgow.

When we left Glasgow we headed for the Western Approaches, and we went back and fore from there to Freetown in Sierra Leone. When we arrived back we got two days off. I came home, but when I went back she had sailed. It took a while before they got me another ship to go on. It was on to a Norwegian trooper I was sent. We sailed from Shetland to Norway but we got turned back. That was fortunate for me because I had enrolled for a torpedo course. I spent some time at barracks before I went down to Cardiff to join an old cruiser that had been used in the First World War. There was only a couple of officers and myself on board. We spent the days on board then came ashore at night. We left not having a clue where we were heading. Eventually we arrived in South Africa, and returned to Liverpool with ten tonnes of gold. Nuggets of gold. I never got one of them. I took ill with pain in my joints and returned to barracks where I was hospitalised for two months. I wasn’t feeling too well when I got out of hospital and so they told me to go to H.M.S Quebec, a shore base in Inveraray. There were marines and soldiers there, training like mad for an invasion. We would go out in the boats with them. When there was a gale they would break off and we would have to tow them back in. That’s how I spent my time for the rest of the war. I was very lucky. I didn’t suffer much.

After the war I returned home to Cromore and started fishing. I got the ‘Dòchas’. I married Marion ‘Snudaidh’ from Cromore, and we lived in Cromore until 1954 when we moved to Laxdale.

I then went out on any boat that needed a crew, helping out here and there. In due course I got a half share in the ‘Ivy Rose’. Murdo C. was a brilliant navigator. He would go anywhere, but when he got tired he headed for Stornoway. He would say, “There isn’t a market in Ullapool today.” I remember meeting the Marvig boys one day as they were heading for Ullapool. We were heading back from Ullapool. I spoke to Duncan but didn’t tell him that there wasn’t a market in Ullapool. That was just as well because there was a market. We had a good crew. We had big strapping men from Point. I remember that ‘Isean’ would cook the herring for twenty minutes. Everyone would tell him he was cooking them for too long, and he got fed up of their moaning. He appeared one day with the herring and said, ” There’s your herring and I only cooked it for five minutes, and if it kills you – tough”. He never heard another complaint about his cooking of the herring.

I was on the first boat that went out with a trawl. Alastair Macfarlane had a trawl on the ‘Evening Star’. I don’t know where he got it, but anyway we joined forces and caught seven crans. A lot of people made a fuss over the trawls, saying it would empty the sea of herring. The fish was plentiful, but didn’t fetch a good price. I remember buying a box of eels from Bucach’s boat and it cost me two shillings per eel. I took them over to Lochs and sold them for half a crown each. I stopped at the Kershader School and the headmaster thought they were very expensive.

We also got prawns. One day I asked the boys to leave me a bag of prawns so I could use them as fertiliser. When I got home there was a big block amongst the prawns. Anyway, I put what I had on the potatoes, and what a difference it made. I got really good potatoes. I don’t plant potatoes any more. I am nearly ninety but still doing quite well. I certainly am.