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One trip while fishing on the west side of Iceland, at hauling time I went to knock out the towing block to release the warps. I didn't notice that the block had shattered when I hit it with the crocodile spanner and the chain had come back and hit my arm. So off I went to the winch to ride the warps on the drums. As I put pressure on the riding gear with my right hand I felt a sharp pain in my forearm. We finish hauling and started shooting the trawl away, we hooked the messenger wire onto the fore warp and heaved it in to the ship's side so that the bosun could put the warps in the block . That's when we found out there was no block left, it had shattered intpieceses and dropped into the sea.

All the time we were hauling and shooting away I was in pain with my arm, then we started to gut the fish. As I tried to hold my gutting knife the pain in my arm got worse. That's when the mate said, "Go on the bridge and see the skipper."

The skipper took a look at my arm and said, "You'll be ok, I think you must have bruised the bone. Give it a day or two and you'll be fine." He then gave me a bandage and some cotton wool and told me to go and wrap it round my arm. For the next two days I couldn't use my arm,so I spent my time steering the ship while we were towing the trawl.

All this time the British Gun Boat had been on the east side of Iceland, so our skipper could not get in touch with her, now she was here on the west side so he asked to speak to the doctor onboard. After a short conversation the doctor asked to talk to me, when I told him about the pain and how long I had had it, he asked that I put the skipper back on the radio. The next thing the skipper told me to go aft and tell everyone it was hauling time. We hauled, pulled the trawl inboard lashed it to the rail and started steaming for Eskifjoraur in Iceland. It was a small community in one of the many fjords on Iceland's coast line.

When we tied up at the dock,there was an old truck waiting to take me to the hospital. The skipper said, "When you find out whats wrong come back and let me know."

I was taken to the hospital where my arm was x-rayed, the doctor showed me the x-ray and one of the bones in my fore arm was cracked. So with that he wanted to set it in a plaster cast, I told him first I had to tell the skipper, so I went back to the ship and told him my arm was going to be put in a cast.

"Ok," he said, "get your gear we can't wait for you." I went below got my sea bag and all my gear and climbed ashore. As I did they let go and sailed back out to sea.

I returned to the hospital, had a hot bath and had my arm put in a plaster cast. The doctor told me a plane would arrive in the morning to fly me to the capital Reykjavik, he also added, "Weather permitting." Well the next morning it was snowing great big snow flakes ( three to a bucket) so no plane would land today, it snowed for three days. On the fourth day the plane came and off I went to Reykjavik. In the plane where two other injured fishermen, one from Hull and one from Grimsby, who had been picked up from another coastal community. When we landed we were met by an agent for the fishing companies who we worked for.

It was winter time so it was freezing and we only had our go ashore suits on, so the agent took us to a clothing store and we were told to pick out a heavy winter coat each. The Hull lad and myself picked a sheepskin lined anorak each. The Grimsby lad didn't have a suit just pants and a sea jersey, so he asked if he could have a suit instead, the agent agreed but said if he had the suit he couldn't have an anorak as well. He gave us two hundrecigaretteses as well to last till we flew home to England, he then took us to the seaman's mission, booked us in and told us he would come back for us on Wednesday as that was when the next flight to England was.

It was Monday afternoon so we had to wait a day and a half. Well, the next day, we went for a walk around the docks to have a look at the Icelandic trawlers that were in port. As we walked along a lad on one of the trawlers heard us talking adn shouted to us. He was a Grimsby fisherman sailing out of Reykjavik. They had landed their catch in Germany and then sailed back to Iceland. He invited us aboard for a drink but warned us to watch our step as the planks on the deck were being caulked and tarred. We went below and to our surprise he pulled a case of whisky out of his bunk, he'd bought it in Germany. So the party began. After a few hours we had to get back ashore. As we staggered along the deck the lad who had got the new suit, slipped on the tar down he went. By the time he got up again he and his new suit were covered in black smelly tar. He saw the agent and asked him for another new suit, the answer was no, so he had to wear his old pants and sea jersey.

the next morning we flew home to England, about two weeks later my ship docked in Fleetwood so I went down to the dock to meet her in. The next day, when the ship landed, we all went to the office for our money. Most of the deckies were my mates and, because the company had stopped paying me the day I was put ashore and I didn't have much money to pick up, they said "Come on we'll take you out on the booze." They did and I didn't have to pay for a drink all afternoon we were in the pub. All the time they kept saying, "Sign back on the ship, your arm will be ok." In the end I was pretty well sloshed, so they got a taxi and off we all went to Dr Yule's on Poulton Road.

When I saw the Doctor and told him my arm was better, he cut the plaster cast off and began to squeeze and press my arm all the time saying, "Does that hurt?" Well, I had had a skin full so I couldn't realy feel a thing. So he signed me off and the next day I signed back on the ship, I had put a claim in for sick pay off the government before I went to sea but when I got in dock at the end of that trip, there was a letter saying I didn't qualify for anything because I had gone back to sea too soon. So I got a broken arm and lost two thirds of a trip's money, how daft can that be, but I still say they were the days.