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- HMS Devonshire 1964- 66 Commission
HMS Devonshire 1964- 66 Commission
- By Robby G
- Published 05/6/2008
- HMS Devonshire
- Unrated
The Flag and Exercise Warrior to Australia
Trials having established that our month in the dry dock had cured all our troubles we were all set for our long awaited trip south but we were in for a surprise. ARK RO YAL had had a fire in the boiler-room and would be unable to sail for Australia—thus we would be Flagship! The first problem to be solved was one of accommodation. We searched for the “planned maintenance office” that KENT had used for the Admiral’s Secretariat but decided that we hadn’t got one so we converted the Routine Office instead.
Thus, on 7th November, we hoisted the Flag of F.O.2 again and sailed
—minus several M(E)’s—what a time to be adrift! We settled down to being a Flagship quite well—the biggest worry was the Admiral’s car parked beside the starboard Seacat—would it reach Australia without being struck by a bucket of gash?
Having crossed the equator, stirred the Christmas Pudding and sent off all our Christmas cards we settled down to Exercise Warrior. This was being fought out between Capitalist Blue Forces led by Mr. Frenzies and the People’s Democratic Republic Orange Forces led by Dr. Meccano. We featured for both sides during the exercise which took place mainly in the Coral Sea but continued as we gradually progressed southwards off the east coast of Australia.
Sydney
26th November was a glorious Australian summer day as the forces that had taken part in the exercise assembled outside Sydney harbour ready for the ceremonial entry. DEVONSHIRE led the way past the Heads, under the famous bridge, round Cockatoo island and finally alongside at our berth in Woollamaloo Bay.
It was good to get ashore in Sydney—we soon got used to the smallness of the schooners of beer. King’s Cross seemed familiar, the R.S.L. Clubs made us very welcome and although the weather deteriorated after our arrival no opportunity was lost to visit the famous beaches at Bondi and elsewhere along the coast of New South Wales.
Our first experience of Australian hospitality more than came up to expectations, invitations started to roll in and many of the Ship’s Company “got their feet under the table” as a result of phone calls to the Ship asking for “two nice sailors to come and have a meal with us”. The local libraries became very popular although little reading was done. Our display at “Roselands”, the shopping complex in the Sydney suburbs attracted tremendous interest, particularly among the many immigrants from U.K. We had many visitors too—a beauty queen and the M.C.C. Touring team being given the greatest welcome. We had our problems
—invitations to the official reception had been made on the basis that it would be held on the Flight Deck of ARK ROYAL—A and B Gundecks were packed to capacity even with EUR YALUS alongside.
Finally it was time to leave—; last taste of oysters, a final raffle ticket at “The Rock ‘n’ Roll” and were off. The helicopter and the landrover departed under their own propulsion systems to have adventurous trips to Melbourne. For those who went by sea the big complaint was that the trip wasn’t long enough—we barely had time to recover!
Melbourne
Soon after our arrival alongside Station Pier, Captain Leslie arrived and took over Command from Captain Williams, who left by air to London and MOD. Navy.
Although in many ways Melbourne was so different from Sydney the volume and generosity of the hospitality was the same. We had alt excellent
sporting day at H.M.A.S. CERBERUS and the wonderful facilities near Melbourne enabled the golfers, surfers and sunbathers to indulge to their heart’s content. “Australian modified Tropical Routine” helped to make the time pass all too quickly and on 15th December we sailed—into the teeth of a howling gale.
Although our passage across the Australian Bight was enlivened by exercises our thoughts were naturally enough turning towards Christmas and particularly to our families. A Carol Service was held on board led by our enthusiastic choir and this was followed by a programme of Christmas messages recorded on tape by our families in the U.K.
Freemantle
We arrived alongside a day before “The Ark” due to further misfortunes that had delayed her departure from Singapore. One result of this was that at the barbecue organised by the local R.S.L. Club a call was made to the Ship for reinforcements—even DEVONSHIRE couldn’t cope with being so outnumbered by girls! Perth and Fremantle responded magnificently to the local radio station’s appeal to “have a sailor for Christmas” and the invitations poured in. So much so that on Christmas Day there were few, other than the Duty Watch, to sit down to the fabulous Christmas dinner provided by the General Mess. Following the tour of the Messdecks by “Captain” Lightbody and other senior officers spirits were high, which resulted in one Junior Rating who shall be nameless, attempting to “borrow” the ensign from the Merchant Ship astern of us. He was apprehended by their vigilant gangway staff and it took two hours of negotiation and vodka drinking at top level to convince the Russian Captain that no insult was intended. The Captain and Commander missed Christmas Dinner as a result!
Everybody has their own memories of Christmas Day—whether it was sailing on the beautiful Swan river, swimming in the sea in a shade temperature of 103° F. (only there was no shade) or doing the “Conga” on board in the heat of the afternoon sun—some may even have ventured to Rottnest island! All will certainly remember our departure when many hundreds of our newly made friends came to see us off. The jetty and harbour mole were packed with the crowds all waving, some tearful, car horns hooting. We left minus a dozen or so of the Ship’s Company for whom the welcome and hospitality received during our stay had proved too much of a temptation.
We were in company with Ark! A rare occurrence and the trip back was used to the full extent in exercising our proper role as a D.L.G. Due to the flying programme ARK ROYAL, now carrying the Flag altered the days of the week, which caused so much confusion that our Navigator’s Yeoman had to explain it all in print:—
THIS WAS THE WEEK THAT IS……….
Monday was to have been known as Sunday. Sunday was to have been known as Monday but owing to the wind and rain Sunday was known as Monday and Monday was known as Monday also. Furthermore, Tuesday was known as Saturday and Wednesday which should have been Sunday was known as modified Sunday. Hence Thursday must be known as Monday—but Monday was known as Monday so Thursday cannot be Monday. Therefore Thursday shall now be known as Tuesday which was Saturday. This being so will enable Friday which should follow Thursday to become Wednesday, as Wednesday follows Tuesday—which was known as Thursday. So Friday will now be known as Wednesday— thus enabling Saturday to be known as Thursday—which should have been known as Monday but as Monday was Monday then Thursday must be Saturday. Hence the saying “Never on Sunday” but as Sunday was to have been known as Monday .
However this didn’t prevent the arrival of 1966 on time and we went alongside in Singapore on 8th January to start D.E.D period.
Trials having established that our month in the dry dock had cured all our troubles we were all set for our long awaited trip south but we were in for a surprise. ARK RO YAL had had a fire in the boiler-room and would be unable to sail for Australia—thus we would be Flagship! The first problem to be solved was one of accommodation. We searched for the “planned maintenance office” that KENT had used for the Admiral’s Secretariat but decided that we hadn’t got one so we converted the Routine Office instead.
Thus, on 7th November, we hoisted the Flag of F.O.2 again and sailed
—minus several M(E)’s—what a time to be adrift! We settled down to being a Flagship quite well—the biggest worry was the Admiral’s car parked beside the starboard Seacat—would it reach Australia without being struck by a bucket of gash?
Having crossed the equator, stirred the Christmas Pudding and sent off all our Christmas cards we settled down to Exercise Warrior. This was being fought out between Capitalist Blue Forces led by Mr. Frenzies and the People’s Democratic Republic Orange Forces led by Dr. Meccano. We featured for both sides during the exercise which took place mainly in the Coral Sea but continued as we gradually progressed southwards off the east coast of Australia.
Sydney
26th November was a glorious Australian summer day as the forces that had taken part in the exercise assembled outside Sydney harbour ready for the ceremonial entry. DEVONSHIRE led the way past the Heads, under the famous bridge, round Cockatoo island and finally alongside at our berth in Woollamaloo Bay.
It was good to get ashore in Sydney—we soon got used to the smallness of the schooners of beer. King’s Cross seemed familiar, the R.S.L. Clubs made us very welcome and although the weather deteriorated after our arrival no opportunity was lost to visit the famous beaches at Bondi and elsewhere along the coast of New South Wales.
Our first experience of Australian hospitality more than came up to expectations, invitations started to roll in and many of the Ship’s Company “got their feet under the table” as a result of phone calls to the Ship asking for “two nice sailors to come and have a meal with us”. The local libraries became very popular although little reading was done. Our display at “Roselands”, the shopping complex in the Sydney suburbs attracted tremendous interest, particularly among the many immigrants from U.K. We had many visitors too—a beauty queen and the M.C.C. Touring team being given the greatest welcome. We had our problems
—invitations to the official reception had been made on the basis that it would be held on the Flight Deck of ARK ROYAL—A and B Gundecks were packed to capacity even with EUR YALUS alongside.
Finally it was time to leave—; last taste of oysters, a final raffle ticket at “The Rock ‘n’ Roll” and were off. The helicopter and the landrover departed under their own propulsion systems to have adventurous trips to Melbourne. For those who went by sea the big complaint was that the trip wasn’t long enough—we barely had time to recover!
Melbourne
Soon after our arrival alongside Station Pier, Captain Leslie arrived and took over Command from Captain Williams, who left by air to London and MOD. Navy.
Although in many ways Melbourne was so different from Sydney the volume and generosity of the hospitality was the same. We had alt excellent
Although our passage across the Australian Bight was enlivened by exercises our thoughts were naturally enough turning towards Christmas and particularly to our families. A Carol Service was held on board led by our enthusiastic choir and this was followed by a programme of Christmas messages recorded on tape by our families in the U.K.
Freemantle
We arrived alongside a day before “The Ark” due to further misfortunes that had delayed her departure from Singapore. One result of this was that at the barbecue organised by the local R.S.L. Club a call was made to the Ship for reinforcements—even DEVONSHIRE couldn’t cope with being so outnumbered by girls! Perth and Fremantle responded magnificently to the local radio station’s appeal to “have a sailor for Christmas” and the invitations poured in. So much so that on Christmas Day there were few, other than the Duty Watch, to sit down to the fabulous Christmas dinner provided by the General Mess. Following the tour of the Messdecks by “Captain” Lightbody and other senior officers spirits were high, which resulted in one Junior Rating who shall be nameless, attempting to “borrow” the ensign from the Merchant Ship astern of us. He was apprehended by their vigilant gangway staff and it took two hours of negotiation and vodka drinking at top level to convince the Russian Captain that no insult was intended. The Captain and Commander missed Christmas Dinner as a result!
Everybody has their own memories of Christmas Day—whether it was sailing on the beautiful Swan river, swimming in the sea in a shade temperature of 103° F. (only there was no shade) or doing the “Conga” on board in the heat of the afternoon sun—some may even have ventured to Rottnest island! All will certainly remember our departure when many hundreds of our newly made friends came to see us off. The jetty and harbour mole were packed with the crowds all waving, some tearful, car horns hooting. We left minus a dozen or so of the Ship’s Company for whom the welcome and hospitality received during our stay had proved too much of a temptation.
We were in company with Ark! A rare occurrence and the trip back was used to the full extent in exercising our proper role as a D.L.G. Due to the flying programme ARK ROYAL, now carrying the Flag altered the days of the week, which caused so much confusion that our Navigator’s Yeoman had to explain it all in print:—
THIS WAS THE WEEK THAT IS……….
Monday was to have been known as Sunday. Sunday was to have been known as Monday but owing to the wind and rain Sunday was known as Monday and Monday was known as Monday also. Furthermore, Tuesday was known as Saturday and Wednesday which should have been Sunday was known as modified Sunday. Hence Thursday must be known as Monday—but Monday was known as Monday so Thursday cannot be Monday. Therefore Thursday shall now be known as Tuesday which was Saturday. This being so will enable Friday which should follow Thursday to become Wednesday, as Wednesday follows Tuesday—which was known as Thursday. So Friday will now be known as Wednesday— thus enabling Saturday to be known as Thursday—which should have been known as Monday but as Monday was Monday then Thursday must be Saturday. Hence the saying “Never on Sunday” but as Sunday was to have been known as Monday .
However this didn’t prevent the arrival of 1966 on time and we went alongside in Singapore on 8th January to start D.E.D period.