大象传媒

The following story by Terence Robertson is out of copyright and appears courtesy of and with thanks to Mike Kemble, and Captain Frederic John Walker.

The death of Johnnie Walker paralysed Starling; a sudden wave of apathy and disillusionment swept through the ship, although little was said and the daily routine went on without apparent interruption. On deck, the guns鈥� crews lay around their guns, the look-outs came and went, and the quarter masters put the ship through interminable zigzags. Signal lamps flashed and messages went to and fro. Outwardly, it was the same Starling but the usual chatter and light-hearted chaff was missing; even the grumblers were silent. The petty officer often had to repeat a man鈥檚 name before he answered. During drills reports were mumbled and slow where before they had been snapped in rapid, staccato precision; instruments which the men could normally operate in their sleep were handled as though by greenhorns. It was unanimously thought that the only officer who could step into Walker鈥檚 shoes with any certainty of immediate respect would be John Filleul who had served under him for so long that he reacted instinctively to emergencies in the Walker manner. But he was still young and too junior for promotion. A new captain was appointed and Starling went to sea. A month later the captain left the ship having contracted lumbago in Walker鈥檚 leaky old sea cabin. Wild Goose had not yet finished her refit, so Commander Wemyss, Johnnie Walker鈥檚 right hand man for more than a year and the Group captain closest to him, showed his understanding of Starling鈥檚 dilemma by going aboard and addressing the ship鈥檚 company. Then, seizing the opportunity to snap Starling out of her apathy, he took temporary command of both her and the Group for the next trip. The Walker tradition returned, with a difference. Once they had fought because it was their duty and expected of them; now the tussle became a grim vengeful battle to exact personal revenge for the death of their captain. They were not long in finding the enemy. Loch Killin made contact off the French coast and dropped the usual anti-gnat pattern of depth charges. Suddenly, a U-boat surfaced directly beneath the startled frigate, eventually coming up with a rush to lock herself against Loch Killin's quarter deck. To the utter astonishment of the watching Group, the U-boat was literally hanging on the frigate鈥檚 stem. The Germans rushed to the conning tower and turned to gaze open-mouthed at the depth-charge crew and put their hands above their heads as they stepped across the narrow gap on to Loch Killin and into captivity. A few minutes later, Loch Killin shook her tail free of the unwelcome stranger which sank immediately but only after her entire crew of fifty-two had crossed over to the frigate without getting their feet wet. One of Starling鈥檚. crew shouted excitedly: 鈥淚 bet the Old Man鈥檚 rubbing his hands up there.鈥� They sank three more of the enemy before the patrol ended and the Group returned to Plymouth where Wemyss transferred back to Wild Goose. Starling went into dry-dock at Newcastle and the crew were paid off to disperse to other commands. She was still under repair when the war ended. Neither she nor Walker will be forgotten. Recently her cracked ship鈥檚 bell was auctioned and, despite a large bid for HMS Osprey who wanted it for their war museum, Commander Wemyss and several later captains of Starling clubbed together to present the bell to Eilleen now living in Devon. When the Captain of Osprey heard about this he withdrew his bid. Osprey remembers Walker in other ways; a street in the newly-built Naval Housing Estate is named 鈥淲alker Crescent鈥�. Johnnie Walker died when not quite forty-eight. Yet he lived long enough to achieve his ambition, to help defeat the enemy. The official record of the Battle of the Atlantic pays the simple final tribute: 鈥淭he Royal Navy and the nation sustained a great loss in the death of Captain Frederic John Walker. ... A prime seaman and fighter and a brilliant leader, he was without doubt one of the outstanding and inspiring figures of the anti-submarine war.鈥�
THE END.

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