大象传媒

Our Skipper, Captain Warburton-Lee was a real task master, intent on maximum efficiency and many times I fell foul of him when he was taking his walking exercises on the upper deck adjacent to the torpedo tubes. Seeing something secured that displeased him, he would blast me with verbal abuse saying something like: "Tied up like a bloody bunch of flowers!" etc. I lived in mortal fear of him!

Nearly every Sunday we would have a church service, even at sea if it was quiet enough. The pipe always went out: "Prepare for'ard messdecks for Church Service" To supplement it and the singing we had an old dilapidated organ which always had to be rigged up for the Paymaster, Lieutenant Stanning, the Captain's secretary, to rasp out some strange gurgling sounds, accompanied by the lads attempting to co-ordinate with the sailors' hymn "For those in peril......"

The organ was kept in the tiller flat and every Sunday it was the bugbear of a Leading Hand and Two to get it up and transport it across the irondeck to the for'ard messdeck. Then after the service the reverse procedure. But one evening on leaving the Clyde, our buffer Tubby Cock, standing aft near the depth charge rails, called a couple of the depth charge crew over and told them to open up the tiller flat hatch and get the old organ up. "What for?" they asked. "Just do as I say and ask no questions!" was the reply. This was done while a couple of lookouts peered around the after super-structure in case anyone came sauntering aft. It must be remembered the Officer's cabins were aft, but as we were leaving harbour most of them were on the Bridge.

The next thing: "Over the bloody stern with it!" and over it went. The last I remember of it was seeing it floating away down the river in the wake of the ship's propeller stream barely visible in the late winter evening! Tubby called us together and swore that if anyone leaked out anything about what had happened, he would flog the living daylights out of them. We all grimly swore to secrecy. Sunday came and it was harbour routine. The pipe rang out in the forenoon: "Rig Church in the for'ard messdeck!" Three men opened up the tiller flat and after a vain search reported to the 1st Lieutenant Commander Mansell that "The organ wasn't there!" He said "Surely it must be!" and went to look for it himself. In the end he had to knock sheepishly on Captain Warburton-Lee's cabin door to say we had lost the organ!

The Skipper was outraged and quickly told No One to clear the lower deck and search for the organ. Then the Pipe; "Clear lower deck. Everyman on board, search for the organ!" Down in the boiler room, engine room, storerooms, magazines, between decks, the upper deck - the search went on, The Chief Buffer organising with a will, but eventually the search was given up.

Somehow the service did not seem the same now that the old music box was not there. We missed it, little did we know then, that there were not many more services to come!

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