Page 26 - CAMPAIGN Winter 2021

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CAMPAIGN Winter 2021
Reader’s Story
A Cutter's Life, Operation Grapple
1956-57 part 2. Part 1 was published on page 13 of the Summer 2021 Campaign magazine. We have still, sadly, not been able to trace the author of this fascinating story. If you wrote this, please get in touch with us so that we may give you credit.
“We spent Christmas 1956 anchored off Malden Island; the officers by tradition served up quite a good meal but who did the washing up,
I have no idea. I went ashore with some of my pals, landing on the beach, then wandered around the island dressed in only white light weight shorts and sandals. That was a big mistake. A small light railway ran down the middle of the island with constructions looking like filling points for travel for Guam. It was also said that pigs were on the island – feral of course, left from the days of the long-gone owners.
We wandered into an area occupied by birds in their hundreds; terns,
I believe. They started to do arial attacks. I shouted, “Run!” The guys didn’t need any persuading – off we went!
The ship made a long journey to New Zealand for repairs. Passing Niue Island on our way, a signal from the island asked us to call. “Sorry”, was the reply, “we have a randy tom cat on board, see you on the way back.”
The ship arrived off Auckland, passing islands on the way in it. It was my birthday – twenty years old. It was tradition to visit mess decks and to have a glass of rum. I never really liked the drink, so I only took small sips, or “sippers”, as it’s known.
We went into the dockyard and the dry dock to start repairs on HMNZS Philomel. I had sobered up and decided to go ashore with my pals. First, we went to a hostelry and ordered beer, which came in a schooner with three glasses. It was cheap by our standards, but the beer was watery and tasteless.
Off we went to the City of Auckland. One of the lads stepped into the road against the signal given by the policeman on point duty. Oh dear... He was pulled to the side of the road and given a right rollocking. The rules were much stricter than in the UK.
A visit to the Waitemata hotel was
a disaster for me; the police raided the premises to sort out underage drinkers we decided to hide in the toilets. We found you had to be 21 years of age to consume alcohol... The police found us, checked our paybooks, finding our correct age so we were transported back to the ship where we were handed over to the officer of the watch - the Bosun, an officer from the lower deck.
“Stand there all of you!” came the command from the officer. After some time, he said, “Go back ashore and don't get caught again.”
We had six weeks in Auckland - most of the ship’s company took station leave; quite a few stayed on board ship. I went ashore and with
other lads found jobs. We mustered in the local docks every morning, working on loading and unloading cargo ships. The pay was very good but eventually we all returned to the ship ready to prepare for the journey back across the Pacific to the island and what was yet to come. We did make an overnight stop at Nuie island. I did not go ashore but the lads on returning said they had been made very welcome.
Back to the work of going round the islands to place whatever in their backyards... Fanning Island and a trip to Starbuck Island. There was nothing on the island - just coral
- it was very small. One could see across the island to the other shoreline. We had a bit of a banyan party on the island with a lot of tinned beer, then it was time to leave. Two of our crew had got themselves boozed up and decided they wanted to stay behind. Big mistake, there was no fresh water on the island no trees, bushes, nothing. We sailed round the island many times trying to persuade the lads to come back. They refused many times but eventually gave in and the ships pinnace picked them up.
A mighty explosion on our portside was made by the RAF giving us an exhibition of the largest conventional bomb dropped in the war. This was to compare with the nuclear bombs yet to be detonated.