HISTORY


so close to the continent, that was the last really busy time in the harbour. People were too scared to use the channel and stopped coming. He had no work.” The Port Officer threw work his way when he could, asking him to pilot small trawlers when his services weren’t really needed, just to make sure he had some income coming in. But it wasn’t enough. “My Dad went to see the Port Officer in 1940 and told him that we were down to our last £5 and he would have to leave to join the Merchant Navy again,” says brian. “The officer looked at him and asked him just to stay one more week.” One more week lasted longer than he thought. “We were one of the few homes to


have a phone because of Dad’s job,” says Brian, “and the next week the phone rang. I’ll never forget him putting down the receiver and saying, ‘I’ve got to go to the Navy Headquarters’, which was where the Angel restaurant is today. He went and was told the supply convoys would be stopping in Dartmouth from then on. They asked my father to find another nine pilots.” His immediate future secured,


George brought in the best men he could find (including a Scoble i’m pleased to report) and then got on with the job at hand – sometimes helping to pilot more than 30 vessels in a convoy into the Dart for safe harbouring – first


from the U Boats and then from dive bombers as the war progressed. “They did shifts from 1am till 1pm,”


he says, “He worked hard and they all had to be very skilful bringing in so many ships. In those days, there were some very big ships coming into the Dart, up to 400 feet and they didn’t have bow thrusters and the like as they do today. They had to use the tide, the wind and even use the anchor to bring the ships into position. I’ve been told my father was an extremely good pilot and I don’t doubt it with the ships he had to navigate up the river.” George piloted boats involved in the infamous Exercise Tiger back into harbour after they were attacked in Lyme Bay. When asked about the ship he had just brought in, with half its stern blown to smithereens, he simply told his


family, “there’s something big going on out there”. “War to me was exciting, because


I was in my teens,” says Brian, “but my father worked with the Yanks and helped in the preparations for D-Day – he saw the tanks and heavy machinery which they took to France come down Victoria Road and across the Royal avenue Gardens. it was a difficult thing they did.” George carried on as pilot until 1966 when he retired, a content and well-respected man of the sea and the River Dart. “I was very proud of him, of course


I was. He was a good sailor and a great pilot,” said brian.•


BeLOW: The four pilots outside Dartmouth yacht Club with Brian age 8 on his father’s knee in 1934


Timber Decking


Glass Balustrading Stainless Steel


Redefine your outlook 79


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