Dennis Blue

A recent (1998) photo of Dennis with his wife Doreen. At last a "Captain" of the Balaklava Croquet Team. Seen here at the book launch of "A History of the Balaklava Croquet Club" which he and Doreen co-authored.

Dennis served on Veryan Bay as an RP3 (radar plot third class) during 1945 and 1946

Dennis writes -
The Veryan Bay may well have been sent straight out to the Far East after her completion but she took a long time getting there. If commissioned in May '45 it took her five months to reach Malta which suggests extensive sea trials either in U.K. waters or at Gibraltar.
I became a crew member in mid October '45 when she reached Malta where I was temporarily shore based. She sailed on or near 15th October, destination Hong Kong. We enjoyed a brief visit to Alexandria then through the Red Sea with another brief stop at Aden. While in the Red Sea we did considerable gunnery and depth charge practice with live ammo, the war being over by then I guess there was no shortage of such ordnance.
Next stop after Aden was Colombo, Ceylon then on to Singapore. There we rendezvoused with a landing craft that we were to escort to Hong Kong.

This began the epic voyage referred to elsewhere. We ran into a typhoon lasting two or three days. The landing craft broke down and was taken in tow, however the cable parted two or three times and finally she was left to her fate alone. We ourselves thought that each roll would be our last.
Eventually we crept into Manila harbour filled as it was with the U.S. fleet, to them we must have looked like a second hand home made toy. Our captain, a two and a half ringer went ashore in his cutter to be greeted by a U.S. military policeman with "hey Mac this ain't no liberty pier". As Les will remember in those days a Lieutenant Commander R.N. was the earthly equivalent of The Divinity Himself, his thoughts at the time would have been interesting to know but he kept them to himself.

Refused permission to stay we put to sea within hours and set sail for Hong Kong This was at or near Xmas '45. From Hong Kong, with an interpreter aboard we were sent on patrol around the island Hainan. This was at the height of the civil war between the Chinese communists and the Kuomintang. Hainan then was a sparsely populated rural type community without major urban areas. A landing party of three including the interpreter went ashore and failed to return, causing I must say, much hilarity and mirth among the lower deck hands. The following day an armed party of eight led by the Gunnery Officer went ashore only to find the original three locked up in the local primitive hoosegow, the day was saved when all returned safely without a shot being fired. Although we mere peasants were never fully informed of the details surrounding the incident, we assumed that the island was under the control of the Communists. You will recall later on HMS Amethyst was involved in a similar but much more serious affair during the conflict.

Another incident during our couple of months based at Hong Kong occurred while on anti-pirate patrol H.K.was then still a British Protectorate and a passenger ship travelling from H.K. to Singapore had been taken over by pirates masquerading as passengers. The Veryan Bay was sent to assist but late in the evening we were astonished to find ourselves flanked either side by a large motorised sea going Junk. A short but fierce debate over the loud hailer ensued between ourselves and these two vessels and when they finally moved off into the darkness we assumed that our captain had politely refused their offer to take the ship for themselves.
Later on during the night, the officer of the watch thinking he detected movement ordered the port and starboard searchlights to be manned and sure enough there were both of them bearing down upon us once more. One division of the crew was called to action stations and that was the end of the matter. The passenger ship? I hear you ask. Don't ask me what happened, my knowledge of Mandarin then was the same as it is now. It is as they say all Greek to me. What words were used by both sides in the matter are not known to the writer although I don't think it was 'have a good day'.