South Yorkshire Times, November 13th 1943
Globe Trotter At Seventeen
Mexborough Seaman’s Travels
A Mexborough youth who, although only 17, has already seen a good deal of the world, is Ordinary Seaman Alan Taylor, now on leave with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Taylor of 117, Wath Road, Mexborough.
Ordinary Seaman Taylor joined the Merchant Navy when he was 15 about a year after leaving Roman Terrace School. He was at sea school for six months, and went to sea when 15 ½. His first voyage was round the coast of Africa, and since then he has been globe-trotting to New York, Cape Town, Durban, Aden, Bombay, and back to New York, Trinidad, South Africa, Suez, Alexandria. He was at Sicily three days after the invasion, and followed the troops into Salerno. Italy.
He likes the life afloat in big cargo ships and except when he first went aboard, has never been sea-sick. Exciting episodes he remembers were at Bombay in 1942, when there was rioting and Gandhi was arrested, and the picking up of 1,200 survivors from a ship which had been sunk. Two of the survivors where with O.S. Taylor at the sea school.
When his ship called at New York, O.S. Taylor went to see his uncle. Mr. Joseph Taylor, who lives about 150 miles from the city. His uncle used to live at West Melton, and went abroad after the last war. Although the ships he has been in have never been hit, there have been some near misses, and, as he puts it, there have been incident« enough to scare anybody to death O.S. Taylor was born at Wombwell, and before coming to Mexborough six years ago lived at Wath for two years.