Very Special Ships. Arthur Nicholson
this water one nation would want to rule it’. In addition to the boredom there was also sometimes ‘chokker’, the feeling of being fed up with life, with fellow sailors, with the Navy or with a long voyage.
On 20 May, land was sighted as the coasts of Spain and Portugal came into view, including miles of sandy Spanish beaches. Seagulls began following the ship as she neared the Straits of Gibraltar and sighted Africa on the starboard side. Then the Rock of Gibraltar itself was sighted, described by travel guide Osborne as ‘a stupendous sight – I can see why it’s never been taken off us’. The Latona docked in the harbour that afternoon, but there would be no run ashore for the passengers and crew; instead the ship refuelled and loaded stores and provisions, more Oerlikons and mail for the Middle East. That morning, the German airborne invasion of Crete began.
The next day the Latona sailed from Gibraltar at 06.00, but not for the Malta and the eastern Mediterranean, as some aboard assumed. Instead she sailed back through the Straits and into the Atlantic, bound for Freetown. As she headed south, the heat became terrific. She passed the Azores, zig-zagging all the while to avoid German raiders or U-boats.
On 24 May – the day the Bismarck sank the Hood far to the north – the Latona was passing the French port of Dakar in Senegal when ‘the Skipper seemed to think something was up’, sounded Action Stations and increased speed to a reported 39 knots. At least the passengers were duly impressed; Signalman Osborne wrote, ‘Oh! Boy did we go, like an express train as though a million devils were after us’. The British and Free French had made an unsuccessful attack on Dakar the previous September, but the French let the Latona pass without retribution.
On Sunday the 25th, the men of the Latona could see the greenery of the land getting closer and closer and at midday the ship anchored at Freetown, only to see many ships already there, including the battleship Nelson and the aircraft carrier Eagle. The ship tied up alongside the giant Nelson, whose bulk deprived the Latona of any breeze there might have been and worsened the already hot climate. Apart from inspecting the Nelson, the men spent time trading clothes for souvenirs with the locals in their boats. The locals were well used to carrying on this business and were even ready with old English variety songs to entertain their prospective customers. The stay was not a long one and at 19.00 the Latona weighed anchor and set sail for the island of St Helena, Napoleon’s final home.
On 27 May – the day the Bismarck was sunk off France – the Latona was within eighteen hours of St Helena when she was given orders to return to Freetown. Apparently she had missed an Admiralty signal she should have received at Gibraltar and had to turn back. On the return voyage, she was very short on fuel and had to reduce speed to a crawl. The buzz aboard was that they would refuel at Freetown and would continue to Gibraltar and through the Mediterranean. An albatross began to follow her on the way to Freetown.
On 29 May, on her way back to Freetown, the Latona held her first ‘crossing the line’ ceremony, complete with a bath of seawater, King Neptune and his queen, the police and a dunking chair. Captain Bateson welcomed Neptune as he ‘appeared’ on the foc’sle, having come up the hawse pipe. The novices were thoroughly soaped by Neptune’s barber before being chucked into a canvas tank manned by ‘Bears’. This exercise took an entire afternoon and no one was spared, least of all the ship’s First Lieutenant.14
The next day the Latona arrived back in Freetown, only to be sent back in the direction of St Helena and the Cape the same day. A prospective voyage through the Mediterranean was supposedly not in the offing due to the battle then raging in Crete.
On 2 June, the Latona arrived at St Helena, anchoring at 08.00. This green island reminded Signalman Osborne of an English village with its English-style homes, English-speaking inhabitants and modern motorcars. Their stay there was a brief one, however, and the Latona sailed at 14.00 for Simonstown in South Africa.
During the next few days of the voyage, news arrived of the fall of Crete and of the severe losses and damage suffered by the ships of the Mediterranean Fleet in the battle. Some on board the Latona were glad to have missed sailing through the Mediterranean.
As the ship sailed farther south, Telegraphist Banner enjoyed some ‘magical nights under the huge stars of the Southern Hemisphere’, as the ship ‘drove along in velvety darkness with a phosphorescent wake streaming out astern’. The heat was such that it was much more comfortable for men to sleep on deck, as long as the men were up before morning cleaning stations. Looking up from the deck, one could see ‘the masts and funnels outlined against an amazing backdrop of stars, swaying gently to and fro’.15
The Latona passed Capetown during the night and arrived at Simonstown at 08.00 on 6 June. On arrival leave was piped and some made up for bypassing Capetown by taking a train there. After a trip along a beautiful sea front and by lovely villages and towns, they arrived at Capetown, with Table Mountain in the background. ‘Jack’ was welcome everywhere; he rode everywhere free, had free drinks, enjoyed large meals for very little cash and generally received royal treatment.
Signalman Osborne wanted to live there, which may have been the point of the royal treatment and wrote that he could understand why eighty men from the battleship Nelson had deserted there. As Osborne concluded, ‘All good things end’, and the men returned to Simonstown and the Latona. Or most of them did, anyway; a Leading Telegraphist did not return and was rumoured to have been picked up later in Johannesburg.16 His absence would increase the workload of the remainder of the W/T staff, which sometimes had to double up to cover an inexperienced ‘Hostilities Only’ rating, Barham.
On 8 June the Latona sailed at high speed from Simonstown for Durban, but was battered on the way by heavy seas. Durban was reputed to idolise ‘Jack’, but the Latona only stayed long enough to refuel and her men were largely denied the hospitality of Durban. On Friday the 13th the Latona arrived at Mombasa in Kenya in time for the rainy season and on cue rain came down in buckets the whole time she was there. In the harbour, the battleship Barham was repairing damage suffered during the battle for Crete. The Latona left early the next day for Aden. On Thursday, 17 June, the Latona arrived at Aden, dubbed by some on board as ‘the hottest place on Earth’. She departed that day and sailed into the Red Sea, with Arabia on one side and Africa on the other and reached Port Tewfik on the southern edge of the Suez Canal on 19 June. Her voyage was finally nearing its end.
A Latona ‘Crossing the Line’ certificate. (Author’s collection)
At dawn on the 20th, the Latona started a slow passage through the Suez Canal, passing wrecks, fortifications and airfields along the way. She passed through the canal and arrived at Port Said the same day and unloaded her cargo, after a journey of thirty-six days.17 During the voyage, according to Captain Bateson, ‘We arrived before we were expected everywhere we called’.
A cartoon of the Manxman by Lt J C Cherry in 1942, evidencing his pride in her being able to take on any job, in common with her sister
At Port Said, the passengers and crew were allowed a swim and ice cream could be purchased from an Egyptian boat. That night the Latona sailed into the Mediterranean, bound for Alexandria. She was supposed to arrive at dawn, but because of an air raid that night the approaches had to be swept for mines first. The Latona finally arrived at Alexandria at midday on 21 June.
At Alexandria, she joined the Mediterranean Fleet and almost immediately came a signal from Admiral Cunningham’s flagship to paint ship, supposedly in ‘Mediterranean gray’ with only her funnels a ‘duck-egg green’. The Latona’s slightly older sister, the Abdiel, was already a veteran member of the fleet and soon they were carrying out exercises together. The Latona carried out a minelay with dummy mines to try her hand at the art she was designed for. During nightly air raids on Alexandria,