The Brutal Murmansk Run-- Part 3: Loved Crow's Nest Duty

Overriding most everything was the fear of that mighty cold water.  If you were unfortunate enough to go in, you only had three minutes to live.  Then there were near-constant alerts where you had to stand battle stations in usually wet and freezing conditions.  Mr. Polowin recalled one time at his station for a whole day.

Sometimes they would get a break with what was called "reduced alerts", where, to keep the crew alert, the heating inside the ship was turned off.

With luck, they would make it back to Scapa Flow (which was closed in 1956) and then the process would be repeated.  In total, he made four of these trips.

In rough seas, they would stick knives in wooden tables to hold their plates in place.  Being young often meant crow's nest duty for Polowi, but he liked it, "You were above the spray and usually didn't get wet."

--GreGen