A man for whom the war could at times seem distant, Ralph was a Deck Hand aboard the Bromelia, a fishing vessel based in Grimsby that was one of the Fishing Fleet set up by the government three years previously. 

          The difference between the Royal Naval Patrol Service and the Fishing Fleet was that the government recognised the need to keep the fishing industry going, but also recognised that certain vessels needed to be converted to help protect the country.  However, only a small percentage of vessels were actually suitable for these changes to be made, and these constituted the R.N.P.S.  The remnants stayed as fishing vessels in the fishing fleet, and although this meant that the Fishing Fleet sailors were on the whole safer to go about their daily seafaring trips it didn’t mean that were entirely secure.  It is quite probable that the Bromelia sank as a result of hitting an enemy mine in the North Sea as opposed to direct enemy fire, but again as both the ship and crew were lost no-one can be quite sure.