Homesick at Christmas

In December 1943, 18-year-old Wren Stoker Rozelle Pierrepont and her friends had been sent to HMS Abatos, the Southampton HQ of Force Pluto (the pipeline intended to supply fuel to the Allies after D-Day). Soon after their arrival, the engines of the Commander’s yacht refused to start. In desperation, their coxswain instructed them to remove all the spark plugs and touch-up their points with lead pencil. ‘We carefully replaced them, pressed the self-starters and the engines burst into life; two seconds later one of them burst into flames!’

Off Netley had developed a serious leak round the stern-glands and water was gushing into the cockpit with the force of a soda-water syphon being manipulated by a thirsty man. […] The Commander’s eyebrows descended into a straight dark line, like a horizon before the storm breaks; and a thunderous explosive atmosphere overwhelmed the whole boat. He swung the wheel round and pointed back the way she had come, and the engines made such a deafening roar that we were unable to catch the terse phrases which escaped his lips.