H1655 John Walter "Jack" Appleby as a stoker; Royal Australian Navy (RAN) corvette HMAS Inverell, tug HMAS Forceful and cruiser HMAS Australia; eastern and western seaboards and northern waters of Australia; 1941-1946; interviewed by John Roberts

John Appelby talks about his early childhood and education; recruitment into the RAN and initial training in Hobart and the Flinders Naval Depot; graduation as a stoker; assignment to a tug HMAS Forceful in Fremantle; being drafted to new corvette HMAS Inverell; working up and commissioning of the Inverell; convoy duties on the eastern seaboard of Australia and in northern waters; working and living conditions aboard ship; escorting a RAAF ship supplying engineers who were building an airstrip at Milingimbi NT: refitting in Melbourne in 1943; escorting the SS Maetsuycker to Onslow with Bluey Truscott's equipment on board; return to Fremantle in 1944; marriage in 1944; service at HMAS Leeuwin; transfer to HMAS Australia for an eastbound trip to Sydney; guard duties for a court-martialled seaman; comparisons between serving on a cruiser and a corvette; transfer to Leeuwin for discharge; post-war difficulties; training as a teacher under the CRTS; subsequent teaching career; family life and children; War Service Loans; participation in WA Corvettes Association and the Naval Association, and other interests in retirement.

Part of a collection of nineteen oral history interviews conducted by the Royal Australian Navy Corvettes Association of Western Australia. Interviewers included John Roberts, Margaret Rickard, Lorna Dodd, William Gray Ritchie and Jack Shepheard.