This letter was sent to my grandmother Mrs. Peddie to tell her that The Ministry of War Transport had informed them that my dad’s ship had been sunk by enemy action and while there were fatalities my dad was safe and waiting transport home. I would never have been born if he had not come home. My nana used to tell me it was the most important letter that she had ever had – she kept it in a tin box and got it out to look at often.
Roedd fy nhad yn awdur toreithiog ac yn ysgrifennu am bob llong fasnach yr hwyliodd arni. Roedd ganddo falchder mawr yn ei wasanaeth i'w wlad a gwisgodd ei fedalau gyda balchder. Teimlai bob amser nad oedd y masnachwyr yn cael eu cydnabod yn briodol am eu gwasanaeth — ac yn anffodus yr oedd wedi myned heibio erbyn iddynt osod delw yn Lerpwl — doc yr ymwelai ag ef yn fynych iawn. Roedd fy mhlant eisiau eu copïau eu hunain o'i anturiaethau môr ac fe ysgrifennodd nhw'n ofalus ar gyfer y ddau ohonyn nhw. Rhoddodd ei fedalau iddyn nhw a chael copïau a mân-luniau i mi.
Un o'i hoff chwedlau oedd am long yn cael pla o lau gwely a phawb yn taflu'r holl fatresi dros y bwrdd! Roedd yn arfer chwerthin a dweud bod yr hen ddywediad maffia o 'fynd i'r matresi' yn cymryd ystyr gwahanol iddo.
His books are a direct record of his time at sea and the ships he sailed in. They make fascinating reading. When he passed, we had a plaque put on a beach head bench that included the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem ‘Have you ever stood on the bridge at midnight- not the bridge of a babbling stream but the bridge of an old tramp steamer deep laden and broad of beam’.
My birthday is 6th May (1951) and I’m 74 this year and with it being the 80 anniversary of VE day on 8th May I thought it would be poignant to share this information about my dad who survived being shipwrecked.