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Not long after arriving at Stanley, the skipper got on the loudspeaker,
and gave us a talk on what would be our role whilst in the South Atlantic.
Our main objective was to show our presence there, but also to show the
flag as the skipper called it, to as many ports as we could in the east
coast of the Continent. Little did we know what that meant, and how many
people were in fact interested in seeing the Union Jack. For a start, we
were the first British ship into Argentina, after Peron was ousted. As a
matter of fact we could see quite a few battle scars as we entered many
of that countries ports. And what a turn out at every one of them too. There
were that many people on the dockside, we had to have the local Gendarmes
as well as their naval patrol, to keep the people at bay.
And every one of them I think, wanted to take a sailor home to dinner, or
in some cases to stay the night. You name it, even the ugliest one of all
on board, had the time of his life. One lad, a lad by the name of Mat Briggs,
was offered a terrific position at some big shots factory. If, he would
marry his daughter and stay there. I don't know why, but he knocked it back.We
all loved it there, and I can tell you this, it was very hard indeed, trying
to get a sub for us three killicks in the Engine room.
A lot of the time it was just the eight hours off, then
straight back on watch again.But I must admit, I didn't really know what
a B.B.Q. was until I got over there.
Can you imagine twenty or so whole sheep being done at the one time around
a big fire? They were a bit crafty though some of the locals, they usually
planned the B.B.Q. before a soccer match, knowing our lads were a bit partial
to the little drop of the red stuff that went with the meat. Thus giving
them an advantage on the field. Not that they needed it, they usually had
the better team, and we finished up with the losers trophy.
Argentinean Football Team
I can remember one port where they even flew in some players from elsewhere
to play against us. Lucky for us, that man Maradonna was only a boy at the
time. I think because we were a British ship, they thought we had a team
full of Busby's babes on board, and had just come from Wembley. But we enjoyed
it even though it was the loser's trophy all the time.
Another great stopover we had, was in Montevideo, and It was here while
we were ashore one night, that John Northcote a stoker on my messdeck and
myself, met this lady who turned out to be a well known actress. She told
us she had an invite to the ships companies dance that night, and would
we do her the pleasure of being her escort for the night. Well we both jumped
at the chance, and said we would be honoured but first she said that she
had to go back to her place, so she could change. When we eventually got
to the dance, you should have seen the faces on the officers, when she was
introduced. She forgot to tell us that her invitation had come from the
wardroom.