Sunday news

By
Sunday, December 14, 2003

*Southeast coastal area of Georgia attracting more tourists
-Brunswick News, 12-13-03

*Shrimp boat hits New Smyrna North Causeway bridge
-Daytona News Journal, 12-14-03

*Destin beach patrols would cost too much, county says
-Destin Log, 12-13-03

Life on the Internet.

Introduction.
Terry Kearns, my partner in Ahoy. Mac's Web Log has brought into focus the subject of people from across the world one becomes involved with in putting together a web site such as ours. It was all catalized by my having a visit yesterday from two people with whom I had corresponded via the net over several years but never met, Peter Flahavin from Melbourne, a Guadalcanal buff, and Bruce Petty, an American author of an oral history on Saipan, who wanted my Battle of Savo Island story for a forthcoming book Voices of the Pacific War.

But, what does one need for a Web Site?
I guess a basic requirement is the need for it to be born. Mine had a long gestation period, and firstly you must have a computer.I did not have the slightest idea about a computer or what it might achieve, until in 1999, my wife Denise suggested it might be a good idea for me to invest in one and get involved. Perhaps unknowingly, I was too much under her feet!!

But we took the plunge, and opened up a Pandora'a Box, the lid of which will never be able to be closed again.

At the time, we were living in the pleasant, dreamy seaside village of Mount Eliza, about 50 kilometers from Melbourne, situated on Port Phillip Bay. I installed a basic PC, and joined up with Big Pond so I could surf on the Internet, literally, a new world suddenly unfolded for me.

My core interest.
My core interest was Naval History, emanating from my own involvement as a 17 year old youth who went to war in August of 1939 as aCadet Midshipman. One traveled the world, met many new people in varying countries, got involved in Britain's fight to survive, was bombed, shot at, returned that gun fire etc.

Over the next 6 years I grew up, was engaged at 19, was sunk but survived, come the Kamikaze menace, stared death in the face a number of times, but managed to outstare that fate. The dropping of two Atomic bombs on Japan quickly ended WW2, I was then present in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese Surrender, and to suddenly realise it was at last all over, and HEY! I HAD SURVIVED.

Building up to my own web site.
As a Naval Officer post war, I had undertaken the first combined course in Royal Navy Schools to qualify as a Torpedo Anti - Submarine Specialist. With 9 RN, 2 Canadian, 2 Indian Officers, I made up the 14 in this group, we traveled England, Scotland and Northern Ireland over 14 months in 1947/47. We spent time learning the tricks of our enemy, submerged in a submarine, back on the surface in an Escort ship, we learned how to hunt and kill them. It went on by day and on by night, we became very clever at finding contact with the supposed enemy Sub, maintaining that contact as she tried to slip away, then to move in and sink the quarry with our ahead throwing weapons.

We tried out tactics for convoy protection with a game on the tactical floor that went on over a week. You had to take all positions on, one day commanding an Escort, the next as the Convoy Commodore etc. The devasting arrival of a smiling WREN, with the news you are sunk Sir! You will take no further part in this exercise, to be studiously avoided.

It was the German U-Boat menace in two world wars that almost brought Britain to her knees, it took the Royal Navy from September 1939 to May of 1943 to get on top of the U-Boats, and we were learning this lesson on our course.

My knowledge gained here and my time in WW2 in the North Atlantic gave me the incentive to both resaerch and write my Under Water Warfare. The Struggle Against The Submarine Menace.1939 - 1945.

I had used the internet to gain information, and my computer to write letters to UK, Japan, and Italy for statistics. It took over a year, and I studied and consulted well over a 100 references, I then submitted my work to the Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc. to be considered for publication. The work was fortunately accepted and duly published, and has since had a second printing. I followed this up with my story about being sunk in HMAS Canberra, and it was published as a Monograph.

I was away, and my computer and the internet had played a major role.

I now turned to researching the subject of German Armed Merchant Raiders of WW2. I was seeking information about these ships from a site on Vancouver Island Canada, which took me its web master John Sauvagenau, he asked for the URL of my site. My response was I do not have a web site, I am not that clever, and would have no idea how to produce one. John kindly offered to build and host a site for me out of Canada, I had to produce the content.

Voila! in but a few days his promise became fact, and AHOY. AS I SAW IT. NAVAL REMINISCENCES became a reality in 1999. The site slowly prospered and I added bits and pieces and John whipped it all into shape.

We went off to Canada  in 2000 to do the Rockies etc, and I went over to Vancouver Island to meet John and stay overnight with him, he had just left me at the ferry to return to Vancouver, when he became desperately ill. John was advised medically to totally give up all his computer activities, this meant death to my site he hosted. I was in limbo, I did not have the password to gain access to Ahoy, and I could not contact John by E-Mail.

I kept goading the provider where my site was located, pleading for the password, at last I at least had that, about this time Terry in Atlanta came up offering to be of help. Terry then took over my old site, and since March of 2000 he has reconstructed it, moved to a new provider, and when we ran out of free space there, he has hosted it from his own domain, reborn as AHOY. Mac's WEB LOG, to attract many visitors from around the world.

But, along the internet road one comes across a host of people and sites who become a part of the patchwork that developed into our web site, and here are some who played a part in that outcome. Some of the people who became a thread in our cloth, weaved into AHOY.

Terry Kearns, Atlanta, Georgia. USA.
Terry would have to sit at the very pinnacle of my Totem Pole. Without his rescue operation, I would, and could not exist. I was, and am, totally dependent upon his dedication and expertise to put AHOY on the internet, and to keep it ticking on a daily basis. We have developed a quite unique and remarkable friendship, it reaches out to cross the vast Pacific Ocean, then it traverses from the US West Coast across his country, down to the south at Atlanta.

There is a 14 hour time difference, which in Australian Eastern Summer time, adds yet another hour, we work in different days, as I need to be, to keep up with my Web Master, I am always working a day ahead of Terry.

On our Home Page is a site where one may bring up two clocks, one giving the current time   here in Melbourne, the second giving the time then applicable in Atlanta. Terry and I have had two telephone conversations and it was wonderful to hear his voice, we talk by E-Mail almost on a daily basis, even though we are actually thousands of miles apart, that does not seem to be the case. We are indeed very close, wrought through a friendship united to bring Ahoy and its content to a wider audience, I say THANK YOU to both, but Terry, I SALUTE YOU TOO!

People in the United Kingdom.

Michael Phillips, and his wife Jane from Plymouth. England.
Michael runs a Naval History site and his wife is an expert on Lord Nelson and his history. Mike was the first site to link to my old AHOY site. He often set me on the right path to unearth some material that I needed to track down.

Leigh Bishop. England. www.deepimage.co.uk
Leigh is a British Diver and Underwater Photographer of renown. He has dived on the Titanic, the Wilhelm Gustloff, and in 2002 was part of a team that found U-767 sunk in the English Channel in 1944, to have but one survivor. I requested permission to reproduce some of his photos of this U-Boat wreck which he graciously gave me. He noted the one survivor was unnamed, and I was able to supply that name. Recently, I was told by Walter's son - in -law from Vancouver that Walter was still alive and well in that city.

We have the basic story how he escaped from 230 feet below the ocean surface, and hope through some posed questions to fill out that story and bring it to the world via AHOY. Only made possible through the wonder of the internet, and the friendship developed via E-Mail. Thank you Leigh.

Steve Harris, Maritime Site England.   http://www.geocities.com/uksteve.geo/marine.html 
Steve operates a Maritime Site in England with a wealth of information, he also awards either a Gold or a Silver Award for non commercial Maritime Web Sites he deems worthy of an award. AHOY was awarded a Gold Award which we proudly display on our HomePage. Steve is a Marine Insurance Broker, and has been a Lloyd's Underwriter for 20 years. If I have a tricky Merchant Marine question, Steve is one of two, to whom I turn for the answer. This site has its place in our fabric.

Billy McGee's Britrish Merchant Navy at War 1939 - 1945. www.british.merchant.navy.co.uk
Billy runs this site, go here for details of the British Merchant Ship in WW2. It also carries a wealth of links to other useful sites. Billy has assisted me to track down Australian Merchant Sailors who became German POW'S after their vessel was sunk by a German Armed Raider. I was trying to help with these names for a War Memorial being build at Ballarat, Victoria, to be opened in February of 2004, which will carry the name of every Australian Prisoner of War, from every conflict in which Australia has taken part.

Billy is my second source for unusual questions about the Merchant Navy as a whole. I thank him for helping build up AHOY with the information he has given so freely.

Nicholas Bracegirdle. Bristol England. E-Mail: ASMACS3@dpa.mod.uk
Second son of the late Commander Warwick DSC** RAN R'td. who was our legendary Gunnery Officer in HMAS Shropshire in WW2. Nicholas has given me approval to reproduce on AHOY,  his Father's stories, and those of Chief Petty Officer Arthur Cooper. We are richer from knowing Braces, and for bringing his exploits to the public who may come across them on our site. Thanks to Nicolas for being a part of our growth as we widen our appeal and record History that should not be lost.

Mike Kemble. Sutton Coldfield, England. http://www.mikekemble.com
Mike has a great WW2 site, and is a fan, as am I, of the late Captain Johnny Walker RN. the finest U-Boat Killer of WW2. Mike came to me to ask if he might reproduce a Photo on my piece about Captain Walker on AHOY. I was delighted to agree, it is the norm for me to be asking people if I may use some item on their specific site. Nice to have it happen in reverse. We appear to have many common interests with our two web sites, and I am sure this association will but grow in the future.

Andy Gale. E-Mail: jeandy@bigdude.freeserve.co.uk and Sandy Christie. E-Mail: SCChristie@aol.com both live in UK.
Our talking to each other came about because Andy posed a question for me about Commodore Dowding  of the infamous Convoy PQ 17, about which I had written in my Under Water Warfare book. Sandy was able to chip in with info on the Commodore, so it had led to a series of messages back and forth, which appear in our letters pages on AHOY, all helping to widen our net.

It is quite amazing the questions that come to us from around the world, I should add, both Terry and myself are delighted to have all this contact.  I can feel Terry wriggling with absolute pleasure over there in Atlanta, whenever we get a particularly unusual question put to us.

I need then to get off my behind, and go to work to find the answer, if it is not within my