As the day progressed, they did some live firings with the main armament, then the three ships in the squadron headed west at ten knots ready for night exercises. As the sunset, all the lights were switched off on the upper deck, and canvass screens were put up around the doors these lead to the upper deck so that no one could see the internal lights from the outside of the ship. The only lights visible on the bridge, were those on the compass, and the chart table and the chart table light was red, even the light on the compass, although white, was dimmed right down, so to look at the compass, you really had to stand very close to it. Mike's job at night, was not only bridge messenger, but also lookout, so with a pair of binoculars around his neck, his other vital job was to look out for the other ships in the squadron, but any merchant ships that might be in the area. At 21-00, the Jimmy told the ship's company that they were now at cruising stations, Mike was relieved from his action station and headed for the mess, he had a quick shower, and once dressed again, headed for the galley for some food. At the galley hatch, he grabbed a bowl and with the help of a huge ladle poured himself a bowl of soup come stew, or in naval talk, pot mess, and with a chunk of fresh bread and a cup of coffee, he headed back to his mess and sat at the table to eat. He made small talk with his messmates, then decided to get his head down for a couple of hours, if at all possible. In his bunk, with the curtains drawn, he soon nodded off, only to be awakened at 23-45, but as he got out of his bunk, he felt totally refreshed, he had been on the go, since he had arrived on board, but those few hours sleep, had made all the difference, and now, Mike was ready to do the midnight till 4am, getting himself dressed, he made his way to the bridge.
The skipper was still on the bridge when Mike arrived. "Evening Palmer." he said. "feeling up for a long watch." Mike saluted the skipper, then said. "Yes sir, bring it on." The skipper left the bridge at 00-15, leaving Mike with the Jimmy and the signalman. As the skipper left the bridge he told Mike to shake him at 03-45 ready for the morning watch and to shake the midshipman as well. "Will do." Mike said. " do you want tea or coffee when I wake you up sir." The skipper looked back at Mike in the gloom. "Coffee would be great, white with one sugar if you please." then he left the bridge to get his head down for a couple of hours. Mike remained on the bridge until 04-00, during this watch all was very quiet, the other ships in the squadron were to the left and right of Bossington, and on the radar screen, the three dots were almost in a triangle, three times the Jimmy asked Mike to go down to the galley and bring back some coffee, as he said. "I need to clear my head and keep the rest of you awake. Mike shook the skipper as asked, with a mug of coffee, then shook the midshipman, saying there was tea or coffee in the galley. Once back on the bridge, his opposite number had arrived ready to take over. Telling his relief what he needed to know, Mike went to the Jimmy and reported that he had been relieved. "Very good Palmer, carry on." Mike saluted the Jimmy and headed for his bunk, he slept until 06-30.
As the days passed, the sleepiness nights became more and more, they had action stations almost every evening, from 18-00 till midnight, then they went to cruising stations, even if Mike had the middle watch, the following afternoon should have been a make and mend, or in the modern navy, a couple of hours to get your head down because your sleep had been broken with a 4 hour watch. But as they were playing war games, most afternoons were taken up with fire drills or trying to stop the ship from sinking from a huge hole in the engine room or some other compartment. All for exercise, and all very realistic, but as the war games played out, the ship's company treated each exercise as the real thing. As the days and hours passed, and the exercises got more intense, the lack of sleep could be seen on the faces of everyone, from the skipper right down to Mike who was the youngest member of the ship's company. On the first week of the exercise, Mike was averaging three hours sleep a day, and by the second week, that was down to two and a half hours, but then on the third week, things got better, and most of the lads on board were getting up to four hours sleep a night.
As for the food on board, that was really hit and miss, in the galley the chefs had filled a steam copper with meat and fresh vegetables, this copper was then allowed to simmer away day and night, and if the crew were hungry, they could fill a mug or bowl with this stew come soup, and with a wedge of bread, he could curb his hunger pangs, and when the first copper was almost empty, then the second copper would be filled and replace the first. The coffee pot was also on 24/7, everyone had there own tin or plastic mug, and when thirsty, would top their mugs up and sit at there action stations, or cruising station and with a cup of coffee try and stay awake.
The one thing that made life bearable, was that every other day, they had a mail transfer, every other day, a frigate or destroyer would come alongside, and they would do a jackstay transfer, this allowed stores to come on board, but also mail, If the weather was really calm, then Bossington would go alongside the destroyer of frigate and the mail would be handed over on the end of a heaving line. Mike wrote to Nann every chance he got, but they were very short letters, saying how much he missed her, and the fact this exercise was making him very tired. Mike usually wrote whilst at daily action stations, sat on one of the 40/60 boxes he would put pen to paper, they were some distance from the main exercise area, and any air type action was usually done near the main task force of destroyers and frigates. At night action stations, as the ship was totally dark, then all Mike could do was talk in whispers to the rest of the guns crew, at night in this situation, sound tended to travel long distances, so they huddled around on the deck whispering to each other. When Mike was at his cruising watch, he had no time to write, he was far to busy doing up to three jobs at a time, running the ship's routine, keeping a lookout and run around the ship waking people up, and providing gallons of coffee.
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