H.M.S. VERYAN BAY

SOUTH ATLANTIC

~~~

17 OCT 1955 to 14 March 1957

All the following  was written in 2007, some fifty years after the events so some of the facts and memories may be a little wrong.

 Laurence Hardy. Navigating Officer.

 1.               THE SHIP

         Length Overall   307 feet 4 inches

Displacement     2040 tons

Breadth              38 feet 7 inches

Armament          4  4 inch Guns (2 twin mountings) 2          Twin Bofors, 3          Single Bofors, Depth Charges   

                Complement      12 Officers  180 Ratings

H.M.S. Veryan Bay is an A/S Frigate and is the first ship of this  name in the Royal Navy. She is a frigate of the Bay class. The  name “Veryan Bay” is derived from a bay of that name in Cornwall. The crest of the ship is a modification of the arms borne by the Trevanion family, who are very old Cornish family, and until recently owned the Manor of Veryan.

H.M.S. Veryan Bay was built by Messrs Charles Hill and Sons  Ltd., of Bristol. She was laid down in June 1944, and was  completed in May 1945. She then joined the British Pacific  Fleet, until withdrawn to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1947, where  she remained until 1950. In November of that year she was  loaned to the New Zealand Squadron for six months, rejoining  the Home Fleet in May 1951. She was then paid off at  Devonport.

On re-commissioning in March, 1952, H.M.S. Veryan Bay was  designated to the America and West Indies Station. She has since  remained at this Station, with periodic returns to Devonport to  refit and re-commission.

During the last commission on the station, between June 1954  and October 1955, the ship visited both coasts of South  America, British West Indies and part of the Eastern coast of  North America, Canada and Newfoundland.

The ship was re-commissioned with her present crew in October  1955, and after refit at Devonport, sailed for the America and   West Indies Station in March 1956.

Since building, the ship has steamed 237,000 miles.

2.               THE OFFICERS

       Commander J. BITMEAD, D.S.O. – In Command 

        Lieut. Commander A. T. CHALMERS, D.S.C. – First Lieutenant, Gunnery Officer

        Lieut. Commander D. F. JOHNSON – Supply Officer

       Lieut. Commander D. N. LOYNES – Engineer Officer

       Lieutenant L. C. HARDY – Navigating Officer

       Surg. Lieutenant W. B. WRIGHT, M.B., CH.B., M.R.C.P.E. – Medical Officer

       Lieutenant P. J. E. HAMILTON – Correspondence Officer and Gunnery Control Officer

       Sub/Lieutenant R. K. TAYLOR – Anti -Submarine Control Officer

         Temporary Sub/Lieutenant, R.N.V.R. H. T. CARDEN – Electrical Officer

        Acting Comd. Gunner J. R. MLYTHE – Explosives Accountant Officer

          Temporary/Act./Sub/Lieutenant, R.N.V.R. R. MONTGOMERY – Under Training

          Temporary/Midshipman, R.N.V.R. J. N. MURRAY-SMITH – Under Training

It was a very happy ship, all the officers and crew got on well.

3.               DEVONPORT FLAT

Veryan Bay was completing a refit in Devonport Dockyard so Rebeka and Valerie, aged 9 months came down. We had a ground floor flat just outside the dockyard gates and very close to the railway line, so washing got covered with smuts!

On one occasion, at night, a torch followed by a policeman came in through our open window! He advised us not to leave the window open otherwise the next visitor might not be so friendly!

Valerie had a minor fit while we were there which was somewhat alarming. Rebeka was pregnant with Cassandra who was born in April the following year whilst I was in the West Indies, so I did not see her until she was 11 months old.

4.               NAVIGATIONAL SKILLS

The next year was to fully test my recently acquired navigational skills in many ways. I had to plan each trip and ensure we arrived at the stated time; negotiate some difficult ports with dodgy pilots; cope with unexpected bad weather; and generally navigate using sun sights and star sights as there was no GPS in those days.

Before leaving Devonport I had to go to the chart depot and draw out charts to cover all our intended countries.

      5.              WEATHER FORECASTING

Part of my training as a navigator included a two week weather forecasting course. One of my duties was to receive a load of figures which I had to turn into a weather chart, such as you see in newspapers, and then give a forecast to the Captain. I first did this crossing the Atlantic and I think I did just as well as modern day forecasters who so often seem to get it wrong!

Later on, down in the Falklands there were no forecasts and I had to use what is called ‘single observer forecasting' where one watches the barometer, the wind and the clouds and makes an intelligent guess as to what weather was brewing.

     6.               OUR ITINERARY (see attached)

This was a fascinating voyage of exploration going to the West Indies, through the Panama Canal, down the west coast  of South  America, through Drakes Sound, to the Falkland Islands. From there visiting Argentine, Uruguay and Brazil and then across to South Africa and eventually home via many ports on the west coast of Africa. All this in 364 days.

7.               CLASSICAL CONCERTS and COUNTRY INFORMATION

Before leaving Devonport I went to the Naval Library and borrowed lots of classical and semi-classical records and during long days at sea used to broadcast over the ships loudspeaker system a selection with verbal introduction. This actually went down quite well with the crew who probably had had no previous experience of this sort of music. I also found books on Peru, Chile and the Argentine which I read and then gave a short introductory lecture to the shop’s company prior to arriving in each country

     8.               DEVONPORT TO THE FALKLAND ISLANDS

 This was a fascinating voyage in itself taking two months and nearly 9000 miles. Nowadays one would pay a fortune to a            cruise company for this privilege. ‘Join the Navy and see the World’ was coming even truer for me!

First call was Bermuda followed by Kingston, Jamaica then through the Panama Canal, an experience in itself

Crossing the Line

Crossing the Equator is always an event on board naval ships and his was no exception. The ship’s company rigged up a canvas swimming pool and then lathered each of the officers, including the Captain, with a huge shaving brush and ‘shaved’ them before pushing them backwards into the pool. I captured this on cine film, but did not escape the full treatment myself!

We then sailed  down the west coast of South America calling into Antofagasta and Callao (the port for the capital Lima) and Chilean ports. My memories of these are rather scant!

The most scenic was the long transit through the Channel between islands and the mainland using charts dated 1897. I was more or less on duty for 48 hours, napping occasionally.

 9.               THE FALKLAND ISLANDS

These lie about 250 miles to the east of the southern end of South America., at latitude of 51 degrees south (London is 51 degrees north)

         a) One of the reasons for our presence in the Falklands was to be the ‘Guard Ship’, ostensibly protecting the Islands from invasion

On one occasion we had the British Naval Attaché to the Argentine on board for a week and he said that it was only a matter of time before the Argentineans invaded but that the Foreign Office would not listen to his warnings.

The population in those days was about 3000 of which 1500 lived in the capital Port Stanley and the rest were spread around the outlying ‘Camps’, as they are called, where sheep are farmed. There were about half a million sheep.

Many of the residents were of Scots or Welsh descent, certainly not Argentineans.

Every month or so there was gathering in the Town Hall, which we called ‘Old Bags Night’ and this was the only occasion the officers fought to be the Officer of the Watch and not to have to go ashore!

The Governor was an interesting and hospitable person who invited some of us to dinner from time to time. He had a full sized billiard table and we used to close the full- length curtains and play a riotous game of billiard fives.

b) The FITZROY

She was a ship which came ten times a year to deliver mail and stores to the islands’ communities.

I was invited to join her for a trip round the Camps. This was very interesting. The ship had no radar and frequently there was thick fog, making accurate landfalls difficult. The captain had a simple technique of having a man in the bows throwing stones ahead. If the stone went ‘splosh’ that was alright, if it went ‘sqidge’ it was hitting the kelp (seaweed) that surrounded the shores and he went astern, if it went ‘ping’, hitting rocks, he went full astern! Thank goodness that when we went round in Veryan Bay I did not have rely on such basic methods as we had radar of course.

c) THE BIRD POPULATION

There were a huge quantity of various sorts of penguins and I  took some fascinating cine films of them. There were also  albatrosses nesting on little mud nests, and I was able to get  within a yard or so to take pictures.  The geese were also numerous, mainly upland geese, and on one occasion we went ashore armed with .303 rifles with a .22  tube and stalked the grazing geese and shot them for a welcome change of diet from the inevitable mutton.

 d)       CAMP VISITS

We did four trips round the islands visiting the various outlying settlements, called Camps. The inhabitants were delighted to see us as they lived very isolated lives amongst their thousands of sheep.

On one occasion we were anchored, in Port San Carlos I think. I had been ashore to dine with the locals and came back on board about 2200. I looked at the barometer, which was falling, the wind which was getting up and was already about 15-20 knots. I told the Officer of the Watch to hoist the boat; told the engine room to come to immediate notice for steam and called the Captain. By that time it was blowing a gale and we were starting to drag our anchor as the holding ground was very poor.

Eventually we had to slip the anchor and back out of the creek as we had not got the power to turn into the wind before we ran aground. That was quite a hairy experience!

e)        LATCHETTS

I have mentioned that we only received mail every month in the Falklands, Rebeka knowing this sent me a cable proposing to move into Latchetts. I could not remember what the house looked like and also had no intention of leaving the Navy. So as Danehill is 60 miles from Portsmouth, which was likely to be my usual base I did not think it was a very practical idea! So I wrote back explaining my thoughts. However she did move in, renting the house from the Danehurst Estate for £250 p.a. 50 years later we were still there, so how right she was!

 10.           VISITS TO ARGENTINE URUGUAY AND BRAZIL

We mad a number of visits to the Argentine and were always very well looked after, there never seemed to be any animosity.

One visit was to Rio Gallegos where the tide rises and falls by over 45 feet at spring tides. The estuary is vast and the charts old. We picked up a pilot who only spoke bad Spanish. I had to follow leading marks to keep in the correct channel. When the leading marks were not in line I altered course to bring them back into line and the pilot told me to steer to port, rather than to starboard which I was doing. This was incorrect to my mind so I stopped the ship whilst we had an argument in Spanish; the result was that he stalked off the bridge leaving me to carry on!

After eventually anchoring in a wide expanse of water I went out in a boat and took soundings all round the ship to ensure that at low water we would be safe. Thankfully at low water we were anchored in the middle of a channel with huge sand banks on either side of us.

We did not call at Buenos Aires but traveled up the River Plate some 100. Miles to Rosario, an interesting trip and this time the pilot was competent.

Our visit to Brazil was interesting. We moored at Santos which is the port nearest the capital Sao Paulo. As always we were entertained extremely well and responded with a cocktail party on board for all the local dignitaries. The British Consul was exceptionally friendly and took me to wonderful jewelers who had a superb collection of amethysts. I bought a bracelet and an unset stone to give to Rebeka, sadly these were lost by our local jewelers.

 11.           SUEZ – CALLED TO SOUTH AFRICA

We were in Recife in Brazil when the Suez crisis erupted and we were told to proceed to Simonstown, the Naval Base at Capetown. This was quite a long way and at economical cruising speed of 13 knots took us over a week

I took the morning watch (0400 to 0800) every day as I had to get up anyhow to take star sights to fix our position. It was a very pleasant trip in good weather with nothing in sight except the occasional frigate bird which can be thousands of miles from land. We arrived in Mid November

Whilst based there we visited East London and Port Elizabeth and also Inhabume in Portuguese East Africa. The locals at that last port challenged us to a clay pigeon shoot; we managed to muster a team of four including me who was the only one who had had much experience of shooting. We lost but they insisted on presenting us with a pewter cup which I still have.

I had some good times in Capetown, going up Table Mountain of course. And visiting some of the young vineyards in the area.

It was  summer there and we had some excellent parties, on one occasion I remember swimming at midnight in our birthday suits!

12.           BACK TO BLIGHTY - CAPETOWN TO HOME

About mid-January we left to work our way home via various ports on the west coast of Africa (see itinerary)

I had a book written by Gunther called ‘Inside Africa’ which gave short descriptions of each country. Once again I was able to give a short lecture to the ship’s company before each port. The countries visited included Portuguese West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, The Belgian Congo and Sierra Leone which was British. They each had very distinct colonial styles.

At each port we would be invited to a reception ashore and return the compliment by having a cocktail party on board. I was able to trot out what Gunther had said about the country and then stand back hear how wrong his was. A very useful icebreaker!

In Libreville we played a local side at Rugger, on the equator.

We were taking out to fish for Tarpon and had a wonderful day catching about twenty all weighing around 15 to 20 lbs, these went in the freezer and provided some excellent meals over the next weeks.

We eventually arrived back in Devonport, flying a paying off pendant (after 364 days away.

The ship paid off and we all went home.

That was when I first met Cassandra, our second daughter, who was then 11 months old.