​

Europe was in the grip of World War 2. A convoy lay out at anchor in the Firth of the Clyde Scotland. The ships, were silently awaiting their next overseas assignment.

I sat on a weathered bench overlooking the old cobblestone quay, observing the scene. My ship had returned from carrying troops to the Japanese theater of the war in the far east, and I was on standby duty for about two weeks until my leave became due. Each morning I would lower the boat and steer a course through the convoy to the quayside to pick up any mail from the Post Office. The mailbag lay beside me, ready for the return journey. It was a relief to get away from the confinement of the ship for a short period each day, especially after such a long voyage.

 

I looked beyond the ships to the other side of the Firth. The rolling hills were unusually clear, and my thoughts wandered to the rural countryside around the village in England, where I was born, and the family still lived. The quietness of this particular setting was overpowering, serving as an insight to what he would experience when he finally got home.

A glance over my shoulder at the old clock on the building across the street, told me that it was time to get back to the ship.

 

Picking up the mailbag I walked down the cobblestone incline towards the security gate. The guard, acknowledged my wave with a nod of his head, indicating that it was okay to go through. It was a high security area but I had only been stopped on my first day through the gate, after that, being a regular visitor required only a wave of the hand to enter and exit.

As the engine burst into life I began to concentrate on the trip back to the ship. On approach, it looked deserted, which was usual with only a skeleton crew aboard.

After securing the boat I made my way on board my footsteps echoing as I walked through the empty corridors. There was a note pinned to my cabin door. “Report to the Bridge immediately on return”,.

 

I quickly changed into my uniform, my mind filled with anxiety, It was wartime, wondering if anything had perhaps happened to my family.

The bridge was deserted except for an officer bending over the radar console.. “you wanted to see me?" "No, people are here to see you, they are waiting in the boardroom."

Taken aback, I turned towards the alleyway leading to the boardroom, which was tucked away behind the bridge house adjacent to the captains quarters. Anticipating the worst, I approached the polished entrance door, hesitating long enough to try and pull myself together, before knocking. After a few seconds the door opened, revealing an army officer partially blocking my view of the room, but I was aware that there were others inside.

 

The officer stepped aside to let me in. A large, heavy looking rectangular table, dominated the center of the room, surrounded by swivel chairs. Three men were sitting at the far end of the table and the officer who had let me in joined them. One of them was also wearing army uniform, the other naval, all high ranking officers. The uniformed men, appeared to be clean cut and distinguished looking.

 

The fourth man was wearing plain clothes, his rumpled dark suit highlighting his soiled shirt collar. Slightly balding, and of small stature, he seemed completely out of harmony with the rest of the group. One of the officers pointed to a chair at the opposite end of the table. "Sit down Bonner." I noticed that they all had documents in front of them.

 

My attention was constantly drawn to the little man in plain clothes probably because he looked so out of place, but there was something more compelling about him. He had very pointed features, his thinning hair was slicked back, accentuating the sharpness of his face. He moved his head in short quick movements which gave him a menacing appearance. Having been brought up in the country, I had no difficulty in putting this man into my own visual category. He looked just like a ferret, so in the absence of a name, to me he would be "the ferret man."

 

The room had by now fallen into silence, and I began to feel the scrutiny of four pairs of eyes from the other end of the table. I was feeling very uneasy, my muscles had become tense, and the palms of my hands were beginning to sweat. The silence became more compelling by the second and after what seemed an eternity, I just had to break out of it's grip.

"Why have I been asked to come here, I blurted out?" The ferret man responded like lightning, shouting in a shrill aggressive voice.

"You will answer questions, not ask them!" I was taken by surprise at his attitude, but I had no time to respond as they all in turn started to ask a barrage of questions, punctuated by periods of silence.

 

As more and more questions followed, my mind began to deteriorate to the point where I had completely lost track of events that were taking place. It seemed hours since I had first come into the room. My mouth was dry, and my  voice  beginning to get hoarse.

The questioning had now developed into a full blown interrogation, and voices were raised in a frightening way, causing me to make contradictions to my answers. When my memory could not recall what they required, the ferret man would resort to bullying in an attempt to extract a response. The others were mild in comparison, especially one of the officers, who was constantly trying to tone down the verbal attacks.

 

"You can see that the man is trying to do his best, back off and let him answer," he would say, but the ferret man would not give up, confirming that my original assessment of him had not been wrong. The vicious killing nature of the ferret was now beginning to surface.

My fear of him was now giving way to resentment and anger. Projecting my voice directly towards him I shouted the words as loud as my failing voice would allow. "I refuse to answer any more of your questions until I know why I am here!"

 

It was as though his words had triggered a bomb. The ferret man leaped to his feet, his chair spinning round with the force of his movement, and in a split second he was crouching in front of me looking down at me, his twisted face pressed so close that I could feel his hot breath. "You'll do as you're told, or take the consequences!" he shouted, in that same shrill, menacing voice.

I slumped down on the table, my arms folded over the back of my head. The aggressive atmosphere had been so intense that I was expecting blows to be rained down on me, but none came. Silence descended in the room.

 

One of the officers stood up and walked over to me "Come with me," he said in a soft voice, proceeding to help me to my feet, then guiding me to a small door in the corner of the room, "stay in here for awhile," opening the door to let me inside, "we'll call you when we are ready," and with that parting remark, the door closed behind him.

 

I looked around. The room was probably a locker-room, very small, but completely empty with no windows, and dimly lit by one small lamp, giving just enough light for me to make out it's confines. I stood shivering from head to toe, a reaction from the previous encounter. There was no chair to sit on, so I lowered myself down into the corner of the room opposite the door, pulling my knees up to support my body into a sitting position. By now, I felt sick and mentally exhausted.

 

Why are they doing this to me? I just could not comprehend what had taken place in the other room. My mind and body were completely shattered, crying out for rest. After awhile, I let the exhaustion overcome everything. Things looked pretty grim to me at that moment. My muscles started to ache and I slid further along the floor with my back into the corner of the room to try and get into a more comfortable position. The recollection of time began to slip away from me. A loud knocking on the door abruptly interrupted my dazed mind. I recognized the voice of the ferret man. "Come back in here Bonner."

 

I staggered to my feet trying not to stumble as I entered the room, maneuvering my way over to the now familiar chair. My eyes were not yet fully used to the lights of the boardroom, but I was aware that the ferret man was on his own. My heart dropped down to my boots in despair, as I knew that whilst the others were present, there was hope. At least, one of the officers had appeared sympathetic, but now everything seemed hopeless, with only ferret man there.

 

He was now wearing a trench coat and trilby hat, which in my eyes made him look even more menacing. What would happen next? All the questions had centered around my background, my upbringing, family, friends and activities, practically from the day I was born, up to the present. I remembered how violent things had got when I could not remember a part of my past that they wanted to know. The answer, "I don't know" always provoked fierce repercussions.

 

I still had no idea what it was all about. My confidence had been completely destroyed. The ferret man pointed his finger directly at me, shouting. "You have been supplying harbour passes to enemy agents in Gourock!"

I was completely and utterly shocked, finding just enough energy to say in a wavering voice, "No, no, I haven't!"

"Don't lie to me Bonner, we have the evidence to support it." I was still struggling with the impact of the accusation. What evidence did they have? I asked myself, my mind racing out of control.

The ferret man reached into his trench coat pocket, producing a number of shore passes. “Are these yours?"

 

I moved closer to get a better look, recognizing his signature. "Yes, they are."

The ferret man promptly scooped up the passes, returning them to his pocket. "You have been deceiving the guard at the gate and keeping the passes to give to German agents," he continued, "if you don't tell us who they are, we will charge you with spying for the enemy, and you must know what the penalty is for that!" He paused! “Death by Firing Squad”

 

​

"We'll now get to the bottom of this," he said, pausing to catch his breath, and placing a pistol on the table next to him "Yesterday, when you were going ashore, up the incline to the gatehouse, you dropped your wallet and shore passes fell out on the roadway. Someone picked them up for you, didn't they?"

"Yes," I replied in a wavering voice.

"Well, that person was one of our agents, he kept some of them for evidence."

This last statement was a breath of fresh air to me. I remembered the incident well. At last, some of the events of these last hours were falling into place. All I had to do now was convince them that I had become friendly with the guard at the gate, who had failed to take the passes, consequently, they had collected in his wallet. This nightmare would then be all over.

 

The ferret man had by now regained his composure, and  was beginning to posture myself for more interrogating, but at that very moment the door opened, revealing the two navy officers entering the room. Ferret man snatched up his pistol, but not before they had noticed it. Both exchanged glances. Ferret man, picked up his hat and without a word, walked out of the room, banging the door behind him.

The officers were fully dressed, it was apparent they were not intending to stay as they did not remove their coats. One officer spoke. "Are you alright Bonner?"

"Yes Sir."

"I suppose you have been wondering what this has been all about?" "we know that there are enemy agents operating in the area. They try to get information about troop movements to the convoys. There has been a breach in security recently, so when the incident of your passes became known, British Intelligence thought they had found the leak. The whole case has now been investigated, there are no grounds to indicate that you are involved, consequently, you are free to go."

 

I felt the relief beginning to surge up inside. Grappling once again with the complete turn of events I sat motionless, trying to dispel the disbelief that I was also feeling. This has got to be some sort of trick! "Perhaps you should get yourself something to eat Bonner?"

I pulled himself together. No it’s not a trick they were telling him the truth!

“Yes Sir.” And with that I stood up and moved towards the door, momentarily turning to face the officer. “Thank you, Sir.”

 

Once outside, I felt the urge to run as fast as I could to my cabin, but I restrained myself. As I skipped down the first stairway, the relief from my ordeal was gaining ground. Turning the corner to gain access to my cabin I was abruptly confronted by the ferret man standing only a few feet away. He had obviously been waiting for me. I stopped in my stride, the relief drained away from him as the ferret man moved closer.

The corridors were deserted and dimly lit. I was expecting the worst, and clenching my fists, postured myself in anticipation. Looking at me he snarled. "Don't think you have got away with it, we can charge you with spying for the enemy anytime we want. There's enough evidence to implicate you. The military have let you off the hook, but we haven't, never forget that." With that devastating remark he disappeared into the darkness of the corridor.

 

I lay on my bunk. Glancing at the clock I realized that it had been about fourteen hours since going up to the bridge. My stomach had passed the urge for food so I just lay there trying to  come to terms with what had happened.

My cabin mates were all on leave. Thank heavens for that! I could not have coped with the social chatter, someone would have surely awakened to ask the obvious questions. No names had been given of his interrogators, I only knew that they were from both Military and British Intelligence. I had been left with no fear of the military, but the ferret man's departing words were still ringing in my ears.

What if they did decide to bring charges? What if it became public? My family would be humiliated. The whole village would isolate them and I shuddered at the thought. I'd done nothing wrong, but this seemed of little consequence. The whys and wherefores continued to buzz around in my brain as I began to relive the encounter with the ferret man. The silence of the cabin finally took over lulling me into a troubled sleep.

 

"Wake up Will, wake up!" It was Blondie Bishop, the medical orderly from the dispensary. "You've overslept and they're going crazy up there!" I opened my eyes and looked up at Blondie's white hair and mustache. He was shaking me by the shoulder, and the movement was creating pains in my upper body, resulting from the blows I had received the night before.

"Where were you last night? Nobody could find you, why have you slept in your uniform? you're late for duty" I was in no mood for questions and using the urgency of the moment to avoid answering, I pushed past him to change into my work gear, and took off as fast as my delicate condition would allow to pick up my shore pass. Leaving him standing with a blank look on his face.

​

There has been a change of instruction Bonner regarding shore passes." the Military Policeman remarked as he was date stamping the pass. I looked directly at his face, listening intently to his voice, trying to get a hint of whether or not he knew anything about the previous day's incident, but there was no indication. I felt better.

As usual, there was very little activity on the quayside as I tied the boat up to a bollard. It had started to rain slightly, prompting me to pull up my collar as I made his way up the cobbled incline.

 

Passing the spot where my passes had fallen out of my wallet my heart began to pound. I was terrified at the thought of meeting the guard at the gatehouse knowing he also would have been interrogated. The customary wave would not be given, or received. My fears were short lived however, as I became aware that there was a new man in the gatehouse. Giving up the outgoing portion of my pass I made my way up to the level of the street. Pausing before turning toward the Post Office, I scanned the street in both directions. Was I being watched? There was no sign of the agent that had helped me gather up the contents of my wallet. Everything appeared normal, but wasn’t that usually the case? Trying to shrug off the anxious thoughts that came over me, I went about my daily routine. During the remainder of my stay at Gourock, I re-lived the trauma of my interrogation many times over.

 

Could my future have been predicted I would never have believed that life as I knew it was soon about to be dramatically changed.

​

​

​

​