Part 1

The following is an abstract from that commissions commissioning book (cover above), sadly dates of events and places visited was not included

"THIS IS YOUR LIFE" or "TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST" - AND BEHIND IT!

It began really with the WORK-UP. Time passed quickly during the work-up and much has been omitted in this account. This is generally agreed to be all to the good.
Arriving at Portland after the SHAKE-DOWN, we commenced the SHAKE-UP, followed by the CRACK-DOWN, and then the WORK-UP. Seven weeks, twenty nervous breakdowns and a general feeling of nausea later we were put to the test in our passing-out exercise, by name "HALLMARK"- we passed out. Taking our sad farewell from Portland, F.O.S.T, his staff and the whole festering issue at 1312 GMT we gently edged away to the east at 23 knots (max. on eight engines) on the 9th March.
Portland "crack-up"!

Then came leave. Ten days glorious G.S.L - or was it sick leave?
"....first it's paint the b*****d for Christmas, then it's paint the b*****d for Portland- I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they recall me from retirement to paint the b*****d when she pays off."

4th April 1961, after a fortnight in dry-dock, and a week in the stream furiously painting ourselves overall we sailed for the South Atlantic and South American Station with our first port of call Gibraltar.

Of Gib. let us remember two things. Firstly, it is considered an illegal method to come inboard via the the headrope, and if you are "shot away" at the time you may find this method quite difficult. Secondly " Media Media" and Malagar are very different types of booze to draught Bass-were glad to say.

Next came Bathurst (West Africa), glorious and cosmopolitan Bathurst. One of the attractions here was the organised crocodile hunt. Unfortunately the hunters didn't find any crocodiles so anything which moved in, on or around the River Gambia went in peril of life and limb.

We left Bathurst and rendezvoused with HMS Bermuda and our sister ship LYNX ( who we were relieving on station) and made a grand entry into Freetown. Here we joined Canadian and American naval units to witness history in the making. During our stay we saw the end of Sierra Leone as a colony and the birth of an Independent State within the Commonwealth. Of course we all entered into the spirit of the thing and celebrated the affair with great enthusiasm.

On down the coast for a flying visit to Abidjan to pick up the CinC of the SA&SA Station together with his wife for passage to Luanda and the Cape respectively.
Could this be "Grandad" (All fools and Horses)

Then there was Tema. Tema with it's surf beaches and nearby Accra, with it's African versions of Western night life. Can anyone forget the organised "Grippo Run" to the N.C.O's Club of the "All Black Sappers"? That particular vile "White Rum" with the ultra respectable label on the bottle? "High Life" and variations as performed by our white suited, inebriated would be Fred Astaires?

On the more serious side we took the local service big brass, sevicemen and some politicians to sea for the day. We wer to show them a mock submarine attack with live mortar (Squid) firings. Eventually we did manage to get two bombs away- much to the delight of the representative body from the "Scows, Dhows and Dugouts" division of the Ghana Navy. All was not quite as it should have been on that terrible day.(Squid pic from Brian Waltham)

Lagos was next on our visiting list. Here we met that nice man, the U.K High Commissioner; that was quite a nice cocktail party he threw for us. One small point though, when a steward offers you a cigarette from a silver cigarette box on a silver tray- you are not supposed to take the box as well! It was during this cocktail party that our berthing wires were sheared by the gentleman giving his impression of Stirling Moss driving a cargo boat.

Next port of call was Luanda. This Portuguese Colony was having troubles. the visit went smoothly in spite of the tension and large numbers of armed patrols in the town. It was generally a quiet run due, not only to the political situation, but also to the high cost of living. The only casualties were in the House of Commons where the "Battle Royal" had raged concerning our visit, however we had reached the Cape by the time the Honourable Members had reached a complete disagreement on whether or not we should visit Luanda.

Coinciding with our arrival at Simonstown, South Africa was due to become a Republic on 31st May, and there were threats of national strikes and large scale demonstration.
The S.A.N and the Army were being brought up to strength very rapidly and deployed to counteract any acts of "civil disobedience", but as all of this had no effect on the all-time best price of one shilling (5p) per very large tot of brandy and "DARYLS", "CATS" and the "NAVIGATORS DEN" were open for business as usual, we were not particularly disturbed. Independence came and went and still brandy was one shilling per tot.

After an official visit to Capetown, during which the whole crew were invited to a special showing of the film "The Bulldog Breed" and a "Grand Dance" presided over by the Lady Mayor, we sailed for the island of St Helena.

(Cartoon......"Kayndlee take you cotton pickin fingers off my arse, young man")

St Helena & Dependencies

St Helena is a lone mid-Atlantic island, a mere 47 square miles in size, situated at Lat. 15º 55’ S and Long. 5º 45’ W., 1200 miles west of Angola, its nearest mainland. The island’s capital and only town is Jamestown, with a population of 1,302, out of a total population of 5,644. There is as yet no airport. The people having always depended on shipping, an airport is now due to be built by 2012.

St Helena was discovered by the Portuguese in 1502 and has been a British colony since it was first settled by the East India Company in 1659. It was home to the exiled Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte from 1815 until his death in 1821. In 1834, the island became a Crown Colony and is still a British Overseas Territory.

Ascension Island, 700 miles to the north west of St Helena, and Tristan da Cunha, 1200 miles to the south west, were occupied in 1815 and 1816. Ascension Island’s capital is Georgetown and the island has a total population of 1,122. Tristan da Cunha has a population of 284.

Under the provisions of the 2002 British Overseas Territories Act, the people of St Helena and Dependencies have finally been granted the right to full British citizenship and once again enjoy a right of abode in the United Kingdom. 

*Many thanks to Dr Alexander Schulenburg of The St Helena Institute, permission to copy this article. http://www.archeion.talktalk.net/sthelena/

We were to bring back to Capetown a body of legal gentlemen who had been deciding the fate of some perhaps not-so-legal gentlemen, who though natives of Bahrein, had been taking a little holiday at the British taxpayers expense on that delightful ex-prison island of St Helena. ( those very Bahreinies have since received compensation for wrongful imprisonment to the tune of £45,000 from the British Government)
The islanders entertained us with enthusiasm laying on a dance which rose from doubtful beginnings to the heights of dizzy success-mainly due to the amounts of alcohol consumed.

During the stay our S.O, Lt Godfrey, was seriously injured in a car smash and we had to return to the Cape leaving him and our Medical Officer on St Helena.
The boredom of the sea passage back to the Cape was relieved by the quizzes in which our "legal" passengers gave us great entertainment. it is said that their stay onboard influenced matters at the Captains Table?

When we arrived back in Simonstown work began on stripping down the engines and general maintenance. Just about when the "Black Watch" had all the bits and pieces strewn all over the jetty and everyone was preparing to go on weekend we were told we would be making a mercy dash back to St Helena with a South African Neuro-Surgeon and a nurse in order to help the S.O.

The engineering department began heaving all the bits a pieces inboard again and fitting them into place. They were, to their everlasting credit, still putting odd pieces in when we steamed at all despatch to St Helena.
The much maligned Communications department helped a little here by putting the Neuro-Surgeon in voice contact with the doctor ashore in St Helena whilst we were still over 1,200 miles away so that they could discuss the S.O's condition and take suitable action.

All ended well. We returned to Simonstown and the S.O and his wife, who had been given a compassionate passage to St Helena by the fastest possible means in the interim period, were put ashore amid camera flashes of the National and local South African newspapers.
Now came a period of frenzied activity in order to get the ship ready for the East Coast cruise. During this cruise we were to fly the flag of the CinC SA&SA once more. ( obviously another jolly for this under-worked, over-staffed Admiral. On Leopards first commission at the Cape he had a nice jolly around the Seychelles).