Lieutenant Commander G.C. Wright, RNZN (Rtd)
Because I had middle watch, I would get to bed at about 10 past 4 in the morning and would be up again at 7.30. So there was about 3 hours sleep. There was poor ventilation, very high humidity and high temperatures. Not very comfortable.
Sometimes we carried an interpreter, not very often. We had more trouble with them fitting in with our ships company than actually being a help. We found in the end if you put a couple of bullets in the water, the 'fishermen' understood what you were talking about, they knew what to do and they did it pretty quickly.