Chief, Far East Fleet, Admiral SirDesmond Dreyer also came to visitus, and shortly afterwards, throughLady Dreyer's kindness, the FlycoBotanical Gardens were opened to aselect public.

VICTORIOUS sailed from Singa-pore on 16th October to resume thework-up; but first it was necessaryto carry out engine trials. Thesewent well, and it looked as if it wouldbe possible to continue. Thesquadrons flew back to rejoin mother,and work began in company withLOCH ALVIE, ALERT, AMPHIONand H.M.A.S. QUIBERON. Admira lSir Varyl Begg, K.C.B., D.S.O.,D.S.C., who as Commander-in-Chief, Far East controls all threeServices in the area, came to visit usfor a day at sea, and the GunneryDepartment, not to be left out of theact, staged the first shoot of thecommission. RETAINER t h e ntopped us up with `bricks' for the

Exploring the sights of Singapore.

3" and `stores' for the aircraft.Crossed fingers began to relax, butearly on 19th the failure of theauxiliary feed pump on the centreshaft unit proved to be the laststraw. A deputation of F.O.2's staffand ship's officers flew in to conferwith the Fleet Commander, and weall waited onboard to know wherethe repair would be carried out.While we were waiting, TIDE-REACH provided more fuel, andRELIANT passed some 8o tons ofstores. The announcement in theevening that the penny had comedown in favour of Hong Kong for

RAS Liquids .

the repair work was greeted with acheer, and an earnest search forsmall change in forgotten pocketsbegan.

At this point, a word on the sub-ject of the oft repeated RAS maybe of interest. Here is the word (hot)from no less a person than the PinkSalmon himself ...

Before I joined this ship, I hadheard of RAS, but only just. Thenit became part of the turnover, andGeorge said, very nonchalantly, thatthere was nothing to it, and handedme a sheaf of papers the size of thePentacheuch describing how it wasdone. After that, it was a questionof waiting until the first RAS andthen finding that there was reallyquite a lot to it.

Look at it from a weight point ofview. We eat, use or ditch about7 tons of food, stores and containersevery day; all this is replaced byRASes because it is easier that way,hands are available and the ship'sroutine is mucked up in one dirtygreat heap rather than in a lot ofsmall ones.

The planning begins with theVictualling and Naval stores puttingin their demands based on pastexpenditure and the interval betweenRASes. Add to this the quantity ofstores picked up for us by ourfriendly R.F.A. at her last port ofcall, and we have the total. ElectricWhiskers and his wreckers now enterthe scene, and the bods (you) areorganised into teams.

Extraordinary tales are told aboutthe number of loads per hour whichcan be transferred to other ships. In

Stump mast for one of the 18 RAS'swith R.F.A. RELIANT.

RAS Solids. Rigging the . . .

9

Stand by for the next load.

All the best people wear brown boots.

war it is essential to cut down thetime alongside, but in normal timesthe real consideration is how quicklyyou can strike the stuff down intothe holds, not how quickly you canfill up the flight deck with amountain of broken boxes; and theshorter the time the rollerveyor fillsthe gangways, the better. For allthat, the striking rate increased witheach replenishment.

We have been very fortunate tohave RELIANT with us throughoutour time on the station. She quicklygot to know our ways, and has alwaysbeen very understanding - evenwhen finding some items comingback over the forward rig which hadbeen passed on the after rig duringthe same RAS! The total load shehas passed to us is not recorded -but just think of all that beer, forexample, at 100 cases to the ton.The mind boggles at the ghastlythought that it all might have hadto be brought over the side in theold-fashioned way.

There would have been a consola-tion; we would never have leftPompey! . . .

On passage to Hong Kong, wewere briefly in company withDUCHESS, VENDETTA andLINCOLN, the `choppers' flew in anincreasing wind, and the fixed wingaircraft, running up on deck for lackof other exercise, found they couldimprove on the last commission -instead of merely burning liferafts,they managed to blow them over theside!

We heard with pleasure that Lt.Cdr. E. R. Anson, C.O. 801Squadron, had been voted a `Man ofthe Year'. He shared this distinctionwith some lesser lights - the exPrime Minister, a brace of NobelPrize winners etc.

The squadrons partially disembark-ed to Kai Tak airfield on 23rd, and

Gurkhas and

Glamour.

Visitors in Hong Kong. Girls

VIC' followed closely on their heelsto a splendid berth strategicallyplaced between Wanchai and Kow-loon. Hong Kong lived up to itsreputation, and, as we found our-selves unexpectedly in time for yetanother `last sea mail before Christ-mas', the P.O.S.B. account s took ahard blow. By the end of our stay,funds were low all round, but evenso the quantity of bulky goods com-ing aboard gave rise to some con-cern. Many visitors came to see theship, and we gave a children's partyonboard for some Chinese orphans.Jenny had been the first to greet uswhen we arrived and was there towave us goodbye. "See you inMay," she called! During our 14days stay, a new coat of paint hadworked wonders with the appearanceof the ship, and down below therepair work had gone famously.

and tea in the hangar.

Jenny .

The `King Dragon Troop' entertainour young guests.

"Kids!"Photographs by R.S.(W) Turley.

"Sampan City."

Side Shows for the children's party on the flight-deck,

Hongkong.

Champagne for a rocket-firing hat-trick.

The Bootnecks had a close look at aVixen.

12

When we left, engines purring,there was some reluctance among theaircraft to rejoin, but by late on the8th of November they were all on,and we were off to Subic in thePhilippines, QUIBERON (by nowknown as the EGPF - ElderlyGreen Painted Frigate) and SALIS-BURY shared a final RAS fromTIDEREACH before she left us forhome.

By now, it was two months sincethe first work-up ended, and it wasdearly time that we got down to itagain. The second was carried outoff Subic, and what a magnificentplace for a work-up it proved to be.Everything we needed was there;ranges, deep water, good diversions

Admiral Scatchard presents the Com-mendation to A.B. P. Speck.

and even wind! It was not bad for

a harbour period afterwards either,but unfortunately we were there foronly two days - just time for arapid change from an Alfa Rangeto a cocktail party drill and on to aBravo Range for leaving. VIC-TORIOUS sailed preceded by ourescorts, SALISBURY, VENDETTAand QUIBERON who, assisted by814 Squadron, prevented ANCHOR-ITE from `sinking' VIC or theattendant RFAs RELIANT, RE-TAINER and TIDEFLOW.

Immediately before the work-upstarted, a Remembrance Day servicewas held on the flight-deck duringwhich a wreath was laid on thewater by Junior Seaman Harvey.

After we left Subic, at anotherceremony on deck, Admiral Scat-chard presented a Commendation toAble Seaman P. Speck, an aircrew-man of 814 Squadron, for his partin the rescue of the crew of theWessex which was lost off Adenduring the first work-up.

Our departure was saddened bythe almost incredible news of theassassination of President John Ken-nedy of the United States; we joinedour American friends in mourningthe untimely loss of a very gallantPresident.

QUIBS' and 'DETTA now leftus, with a seemly show of reluctance,to show the Flag in Japan, and VIC'returned to the Singapore area andthe final work-up: `Old Sarum' hadgone ahead.

We had been spoilt by the blueskies off the Philippines, and nowviewed Singapore's heavy showersand thunderstorms with some dis-taste. However, the heaviest down-pours were reserved for RAS days asusual, and the newly joined one-thirdof the squadrons' personnel foundthere was quite enough sun for theirU.K. type, lily-white skins. Our newcompanions were DUCHESS aboveand ALLIANCE below the waves;with 814 Squadron, they beaveredaway at the A/S game. BARROSAcame to join the fun later, andANCHORITE took over f r o mALLIANCE. Admiral Sir DesmondDreyer came to watch a day's flyingin true all-weather weather, and theCaptain of ALBION also came withthe Commanding Officer of R.A.F.Changi to visit us. Consternationspread onboard when it was heardthat a rat had joined the ship, and a£5 reward was offered by the Captainfor its capture; the hunt began, andfilled a corner of VICNEWS formany days.

Alfa Range at Subic.

So far, no mention has been madeof the Villains of the Piece. Indo-nesia all this while had been makinga great and noisy fuss about the partsof Malaysia in north Borneo; Con-frontation was the cry, and PresidentSoekarno lost no opportunity to pro-claim his intention to `crush Malay-sia'; Malaysia had other ideas. Weplayed no direct part in all this, butit may be partly because of thepresence of VICTORIOUS in FarEastern waters that the belligerentpropaganda campaign was accom-panied by only comparatively minoracts of aggression by Indonesia. Atall events, it was interesting to readin the papers that when we were onpassage down the South China Sea,minding our own business and enjoy-ing one of the rare quiet Sundayson the flight deck, President Soekar-no's arrival by air at Manila wasdelayed by two hours because hisaircraft was routed to keep it outof range of our fighters!! Fullyworked up or no, he clearly had ahealthy respect for VICTORIOUS.

. . . a gallon of rum and five guineasin sixpences stirred into the Christmas

pudding.

Preparations for Christmas beganto vie with the flying; F.O.2 and theCaptain, ably assisted by Junior NavalAirman Howes and Junior AssistantSteward Jones, poured a gallon ofrum and five guineas in sixpencesinto 3½ cwt. of Christmas pudding -all good stirring stuff. Meanwhile,strange noises could often be heardfrom the forward dining hall - itseemed that a Panto was rehearsing.

The work-up ended with a spellof round the clock flying, and thenas a final fling before the aircraftslipped ashore for the Christmasperiod VIC' took part in KIT KAT,a joint air defence of Singaporeexercise. VICTORIOUS aircraftplayed on both the attacking and thedefending sides and won.

Our return to Singapore dockyardfor an S.M.P. and Christmascoincided with a major change in theship's programme. So far, we had

been on a General Service Commis-sion (G.S.C.) - normally six months`Home' leg followed by a twelvemonths East of Suez leg. This hadbeen turned back to front at thestart of the commission, and we hadalmost reached half-time East ofSuez; now it transpired that VIC'would not complete the G.S.C., forshe was needed in the Far East.Speculation was rife. Would we, forexample, return to Pompey for adocking and then sail east again?The possibilities were endless.Eventually, the ship's company heardfrom the Captain that VIC' wouldre-commission by air in Singapore,and that this would start in August'64. This was a blow to the moreavid rabbit-hunters - you can't takea camphor-wood chest home by air!There were also those who, for onereason or another, didn't fancy them-selves as birdmen - after all theyhad joined the Navy; it was an-nounced that requests to stay on forthe next commission would beconsidered. The debates continued,and, before we knew where we were,Christmas had arrived.

The Panto - what luscious girlsl

Just before Christmas, the`Victorians' staged their Xmas pan-tomime-Alanladdin. The show wasa great success, largely due to theefforts of Lt. Lawrance, who playedthe name part; he was supported byan enthusiastic cast and some brilliantarrangements by the Royal MarineBand. The entry of our dainty 'over-zone' fairy produced the biggestlaugh, but the author Lt. Cdr. Hainesand the producer Cdr. Bateman, mustbe congratulated on a show which

13

went with a zip from beginning toend.

On Christmas eve, a carol servicefor the Fleet and the Dockyard washeld on the flight-deck; some twothousand came to sing. For verymany of the ship's company, this wastheir first Christmas away fromhome. Despite the unseasonabletemperature, it was celebrated in thetraditional manner, and by the timewe sailed on 2nd January, 1964 forsome private flying in the local areawe were suffering from the effects ofthe New Year as well.

The cobwebs were all brushed awayby the middle of the month after aperiod of exercises which included ajoint Army support exercise, COCK-TAIL, and which we shared withH.M.N.Z.S. T A R A N A K I andH.M.S. DIANA, LINCOLN andANDREW. DIANA came with uswhen we turned our backs on theFar East for a while and set off fora visit to Mombasa. F.O.A.C.planne d to join us there, and holdour operational readiness inspection- hucking out and buffing up be-came the order of the day - butthere were other villains waiting tochange all that, and they began toshow their hands when the Govern-ment of Zanzibar was overthrown by

theLine

14

Crossing

Neptune's Courtin session

a coup d'etat, and the Sultan wasbanished from the island.

For the moment we were able toenjoy our passage in company withDIANA and the faithful RELI-ANT; OLNA kept us topped up withfuel. On the evening of Saturday18th, as the ship approached the`line', Neptune's heralds cameaboard, and with due ceremony andvery fishy music proclaimed that HisMajesty would be visiting the Shipnext day and called on the Captainto make all proper preparations. TheCaptain replied in verse bothcourteous and corny, and the Heraldsdeparted over the bow again to carrythe gracious message to His Majesty.

At ten fifteen on Sunday morning,the ship stopped, and the RoyalCourt embarked, to be met by theCaptain, guard and band when the

after lift brought them up to theflight-deck. An intercepted eyewitness report contained the follow-ing telegraphic remarks:-"Scenes spectacular. King, attendedby court officials, inspects gayguard.Muchfun. Band plays specialanthem. Neptune welcomes Flat-top. Procession formed. Leadingchariot King and Flattopcaptain.Numbertwo Queenie and Exec.Triumphant procession martialmusic due solemnity. Arrive stageprocession halts. Court forms upon stage. King welcomes Captainand crew. Historical proclamation.King invests Captain with Star ofNeptune. Invests others. Much fun,Sees ship's criminals. Awardspunishments carried out withoutappeal. Welcomes Novices. Ritualcarried out by Barbers, Doctors,

Policemen, Bears. Muchfun. SomeNovices reluctant. King departswith soggy court. Interview later onFantail. Muchbeer. Awl Kort inhi spirits. Muchmorfun."The ceremony was remarkable for

the number of cameras recording it,which accounts for the reluctancementioned in the report - they allhad expensive equipment slungaround their necks. The afternoonwas spent by many quietly taking thesun; it had been a busy morning.

We were now near Gan, and onMonday morning 849 were at theirmost popular task once more - theybrought off twelve bags of mail.Despite Jan's cartoon, the mail hasalways arrived safely, and withremarkable speed to the remotestplaces.

15

Gan proved to be a splendid placefor flying - enough wind, un-restricted air space and, with theship operating right alongside thediversion, all aircraft had to do wasto widen their final turn a bit andthere they were. News reached usthat an Army revolt had broken outin Tanganyika and we waited to seeif it would. affect our programme.H.M.S. CENTAU R embarked theRoyal Marines of 45 Commandofrom Aden and sailed to join H.M.S.RHYL off Dar-es-Salaam as a pre-cautionary measure; there are manythousands of British nationals inTanganyika, and their safety was in

16

. . our landing parties were trained . . .

doubt. Although it was not certainthat there was a direct connectionbetween the Zanzibar revolution andthe trouble in Tanganyika -perhaps it was just that it was theRevolting Season - the Govern-ments of Kenya and Uganda fearedthat the contagion might spread totheir territories and so asked Britainfor help in maintaining law andorder; VICTORIOUS was orderedto sail for Mombasa. Our diversionparties ashore at Gan were hastilyretrieved, and off we went.

Two days later, after 45 Com-mando had landed from CENTAURat Dar-es-Salaam and disarmed the

Captain Compston welcomes members of the TanganyikanGovernment on board H.M.S. VICTORIOUS.

mutineers, at the request of PresidentNyere, and other British troops hadstabilised the situation in Kenya andUganda, VICTORIOUS was pro-ceeding `with all despatch'. Our rolewas uncertain, but on passage ourlanding parties were trained for alanding by helicopter. DIANA wentahead at 29 kts to Mombasa, and ourreplenishment group, RELIANT,RETAINER and OLNA were left tofollow on behind. TIDESURGEmet us off Mombasa, and we spentthe night of Sunday 26th cruisingclose inshore with the island andensign staff floodlit.

After one day at Mombasa, wewere ordered to Dar-es-Salaam totake over from CENTAUR. Duringthe next few days, we re-embarked avery buoyant 45 Commando (theefficiency of their operation hadmade them extremely popular notonly with the European and Asianbut also with the African commun-ity in Dar'). The 16/5 Lancers andtwo R.A.F. Belvederes also came onboard; it was a bit of a squash forwe also had our own squadrons em-barked, and `A' and `B' hangars be-came one vast Cdo. bedroom. Therefollowed a period when the `fireextinguishers' were kept at the readyin case there should be a furtheroutbreak of the `brushfire' which hadbeen so quickly extinguished.

While we remained at anchor offDar-es-Salaam, there was no shore

The Royal Marine Band entertains at Dar-es-Salaam,

45 Commando, Royal Marines forms,with 40 and 42 Commando, the 3rdCommando Brigade. The unit hasserved since 1960 on the Yemenborder and at Kuwait and in May1963 trained in northern Kenya. Afterquelling the mutiny of the Tanganyi-kan rifles, and embarking in H.M.S.VICTORIOUS, the unit returned toits base at Little Aden by helicopter

lift from H.M.S. ALBION.

leave except for sports parties; bath-ing from a nearby small island be-came very popular, and the sailingdinghies were in great demand.Previously, sailing had been limitedto a small team of enthusiasts;matches had been sailed in HongKong against both the Army and theR.A.F. and we had taken part in boththe Changi to Singapore passage raceand the Far East Inter-ServicesMeeting, but for the friendly matcharranged by the large and thrivingDar-es-Salaam Yacht Club there wereplenty of volunteers! We weredeclared to have won after our kindlyhosts had fiddled the points. TheRoyal Marine Band was also landed,for `soothing' duties, and was a greathit. We entertained members of thepress, and the Captain received aparty of local VIPs - includingmembers of the Tanganyikan Gov-ernment - on board. There was nofixed-wing flying, except when welaunched a couple of Gannets toform a communication Flight ashore,but the flight-deck was by no meansidle. Each morning, every availableinch of space was taken up withCommandos parading and training -coming up on the lifts in battleorder, hopping in and out of heli-copters with all their gear, shatteringtargets in the sea around the shipwith small arms fire, cleaning theirweapons, etc. Our new teeth clearlyintended to keep the cutting edgesharp, and we were duly impressedboth with their obvious efficiency asa fighting machine and also withtheir devotion to the military dutyof sleeping for every minute nototherwise usefully employed.

Eventually the tension ashoreeased sufficiently, and we departedfor an S.M.P. at Mombasa. On theway, we disembarked most of ourfixed-wing aircraft to Embakasi air-port (Nairobi). The comical sight ofthe day was the C.O. 893 leaping outof his U/S aircraft, racing to an-other, scrambling in and being half-way through starting up before hisobserver had even opened his hatchto get out of the first one. The re-quired number of aircraft got offfirst time despite the many dayswithout flying - no hold ups - noone U/S after starting - strange isit not!

ALBION arrives at Mombasa.

Our stay at Mombasa was notablefor the bus trips which were organ-ised to the Game Reserves, for theenormous quantity of wooden carv-ings bought by the ship's companyand for the friendly welcome wereceived. You had to be up betimesto see the game in action, but manythought it worthwhile; as usual, Janhad a point to make. The beacheswere also popular, and, with only ashort boat trip from the ship's berthto the shore, Mombasa proved to bea very good spot to spend a fort-night's S.M.P.

ALBION arrived, and our `lodgers'left, taking 84 Squadron with them;we thought that it might be a longtime before the squadron returnedto us, but in fact, after spending tendays working with the Cdo., backthey came - almost unrecognisablein their khaki and floppy hats.ALBION then took `45' back to theirAden base.

The large number of ships assem-bled at Mombasa and the hospitalityof the Mombasa Yacht Club gave a

Mombasa from the air.

17

Belvedere playing cranes. Our RM `lodgers' leave for ALBION.

further fillip to sailing. Our boatswere kept at the club throughout ourstay. A match was arranged betweenthe Fleet and the club, for whichH.M. Ships and R.F.A.s pooled theirboats and the club provided a similarnumber; crews were mixed. It wassomething of a nightmare to organ-ise, but provided a splendid after-noon's sailing. The second raceended at DIANA where beer wasprovided on the foc'sle, and as dark-ness fell everyone returned to theclub for a barbecue. On the finalTuesday, a Naval match was sailedin dinghies, whalers and Picolosbetween the escorts and the `bigships', who managed to preserve theirdignity.

At sea once more, there was amoment's anxiety when we heardthat the Buccaneers were not allwilling to start, but our primaballerinas were at last persuaded thatthe time really had come to quitNairobi, and we were soon `allaboard' and off eastwards again, thistime to take part in Exercise JET 64in the area between the NicobarIslands and Penang. ESKIMO, whoremained behind, sent in her farewellsignal; . . .

F.O.A.C., who should havejoined us at Mombasa, had beenforced to change his plans once morewhen we were choc-a-bloc; the`villains' could gloat over that suc-cess, but what about their politicalachievements? The governments inE. Africa were reluctant to recogniseany master plan behind the unrestthey had suffered. They might beright in this, of course, but it isworth noting that the disturbancespreceded a planned visit by Mr.Chou En Lai. Had he expected anall red reception during his tour?The prompt action of the electedgovernments of these countries intaking the necessary steps to preserveorder and to prevent chaos (includ-ing their appeal for British aid)seems to have disappointed him. Hecancelled his visit! We were honour-ed to have been asked to help ourE. African Commonwealth partners

18

So, think of us you legions,as you leave for other lands,

If History is in the making,it's left in steadfast hands,

We wish you peaceful sailing,and hope that you won't mind

If we spend our time consolingthe girls you've left behind.