At 06-00 on the Monday morning, Mike was piping the ship's company to wake up. "Wakey wakey rise and shine, you've had your sleep now I want mine." As Mike made the pipe, Shinner looked on a smile on his face. "You're going to have to think of another one mate," he said. "All this lot will do is rollover. Mike nipped down to the galley and grabbed a couple of egg and bacon butties and two cups of tea, Mike knew, that although they would both be relieved very soon, they would shortly be going to action stations again, they would have no real time to eat breakfast, Mike would have to remain on the bridge, and Shinner would be back on the wheel. At 06-45, the pipe was made, special sea duty men close up, within minutes, the skipper was on the bridge and the ship would soon be ready for sea. With the anchor now stowed away, and the cable all cleaned off, the three ships moved slowly out of the bay and headed back to join the other ships in the exercise. As the three ships left the bay, action stations was sounded and Mike made his way to the 40/60 and sat on one of the ammunition boxes, they made small talk for the first half an hour or so, and were then told, they had to get ready for a jackstay transfer with H.M.S. Loch Leven, as she was a frigate and had all the required gear, she would provide the jackstay, all Bossington had to worry about was the inhaul.
The plan was, that all the minesweepers would go alongside Lock Leven, do a full transfer of mail, stores and fresh bread, then once all had been stored up, carry on with the exercise. Bossington was to go first. Making her way towards the frigate, she was told to come starboard side, with a gap between the two ships of some 40 feet, the connection was made, the jackstay and inhaul came over, with the distance line and telephone cable, Jammie connected the jackstay to the quick release shackle and the ship was ready. As the jackstay was a thick rope, it needed a lot of men to handle it, and with a crew of some 250, the Loch Leven was very capable of doing that, the inhaul was only needed to pull things across, so the 40/60 guns crew were more than enough to do that job, plus one man on the distance line.
The first thing to come over was the mail, they say a sailors life is a happier life through his letters from home, and in most cases, it's true unless the girl at home cannot stand the separation and sends the sailor a letter, known as a dear john. This can be devastating for the sailor involved, and can also cause a lot of headaches for his messmates, sleepless nights while they watch over him, in the hope he will do nothing silly. But in most cases, mail from home bought good news, happy events and wonderful thoughts of what awaited him when he got home.
After the mail, there was a bit of a delay while the stores were bought on deck, while Mike and the guns crew were waiting, they were watching what was going on next door, Miike noticed that the end of the jackstay had been secured around a couple of bollards on the Leven's upper deck, just below the bridge, he tried to shout over, but there was too much going on, plus the noise of the two ships. The stores were now moving again, and Mike was now involved with the inhaul, so his mind was totally involved with that. It was then that someone shouter. "Alarm aircraft." It came from the bridge of the Loch Leven, at the same time, the Loch Leven started to shear away to port, as the jackstay was connecter to both ships, something had to give. Loch Leven was still turning to port and her stern was coming round very fast, at the same time the jackstay was being pulled tighter and tighter so that Bossington was being pulled over at a very dangerous angle. Mike being the first man on the inhaul made a grab for the steel mallet next to the jackstay post, clambering up, he tried to disconnect the jackstay, it took three attempts to free the two ships, however, the collision was inevitable. As the Loch eleven was free, her back end hit the Bossington's rear with such a thump, you could hear the cracking of wood for miles, also, with the jolt, Mike was thrown from the post onto the deck like a rag doll, as all this was happening, Jammie who had tried to help Mike, by holding his feet whilst he was on the post, had with the ship rolling over had slid across the deck and was now hanging on with grim death to the middle guardrail, looking at the water below him. By this time, Bossington had slowed to a stop, the other two minesweepers had seen what had happened and came alongside to offer assistance, but the skipper said they were fine, and that they should carry on with there own transfers and continue with the exercise.
The Jimmy came down onto the upper deck and saw that the situation was not good, the guns crew were able to haul Jammie back on board, he had a badly bruised back and deep lacerations to his thighs and lower legs. As for Mike, he was out cold, after hitting the deck, he hadn't moved, in fact, the guns crew thought he was dead. The skipper came down from the bridge leaving the midshipman on the bridge to relay messages to the wheelhouse and engine room. After kneeling beside Mike, he did a few checks and eventually found a week pulse, then asked four of the guns crew to put Mike in a stretcher and take him to his mess, and from there he was transferred to his bunk. After giving Mike a good look over, they found no blood, so it was assumed that he had just knocked the wind out of himself when hitting the deck, and all that was needed for him was a bit of rest. However as the Jimmy was doing the checks with the skipper looking on, they noticed that the two middle fingers on Mike's right hand were laid on the back of his hand facing up his arm, both were badly broken, with Mike totally out of it, both the skipper and Jimmy together placed Mike's fingers back where they were meant to be, and then with a couple of homemade splints bandaged the whole hand to keep everything in place.
Mike came round an hour or so later, wondering where he was, and how he had gotten to his bunk, he tried to get up, but was told to stay put, as he made to move, a bolt of pain went from his fingers to his brain. "Bloody hell, that hurt." Mike looked down at his right hand and saw that his fingers were very swollen. Taff Jones who had been told to keep an eye on Mike left the mess and returned with the Jimmy, the Jimmy then told Mike that the two middle fingers were broken, but apart from that, he had no other injuries. Mike asked what had happened. "Well Palmer." the Jimmy said. "Your quick action, stopped us going over, and it looks as if we as a crew, have come out of this almost unscathed. Apart from your broken fingers, and Leading Seaman James cuts and bruises, things are ok. I can't say the same for the ship though, all the port side rear is stove in, and we are taking on more water than we are pumping out, but there is an ocean going tug on its way, and she has more pumps to help out, and she will take up back into Sliema. So, until she arrives, we will help the pumps with buckets, we are not letting our ship sink without a bloody good fight." The Jimmy patted Mike's shoulder. "You stay and rest, you're a crazy bugger, but you did the ship proud today." Mikie lay back on his pillow and closed his eyes, his whole body ached, he tried to sleep, but he was in so much pain, it was impossible. Shinner came into the mess to see how his workmate was, and when told, Shinner went to his locker and gave Mike a couple of tablets to take. "Here you go mate," he said. "Take these, they will ease the pain." Mike took the tablets, and within a short time was sleeping like a baby. Mike woke up at around 6, his mouth was dry and he was hungry, he felt a lot better, apart from the fingers, those were throbbing like crazy, but he got up. Shinner went to the galley and bought Mike back some food and a cup of tea. Sitting at the table with the rest of the lads, Mike asked what had happened, he remembered climbing the jackstay post, he also remembered the jackstay parting from the ship, because like he said, I had to hit that dammed shackle a good three times, he also remembered being held by the legs. "That was Jammie." Tony Martin said, "He also realised the problem, but you beat him to it, had it been the other way around, it would have been you going through the guardrails." Mike looked across at Jammie in his bunk, he was under heavy sedation, he was laid on his side, his back and legs bandaged up, since the accident, he had been asleep. Mike, it would seem, had been very lucky.
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