HMS Tartar 4th Commission 1970 10

We left Mombasa this morning bound for our new station in the Persian Gulf, we would be based at Bahrain and patrol the Gulf from there as we still had quite a large presence in the area in 1970. Mombasa had been an eye opener and a great run ashore, but it was time now to buckle down and see what the future would bring. We heard no stories of bars which must be visited in the Gulf for obvious reasons so we were unsure of what awaited us.

We were ordered to look for a 'shallow' on the way north which had become a danger to shipping, considering what had happened to the Ennerdale I for one was glad we did not find it. Tomorrow we will again cross the Equator but as we were all now certified 'crossers' there would be no celebrations, which is just as well as it happened at 0600 hrs.

Silversands R&R

Jaws look out.

Plum up a gum tree.

It was a tradition to swap or present the ships crest to bars, clubs or military units which had been particularly generous in their hospitality to the ships crew and if you turn up in the right bars on the old edge of Empire you will see many of these, also when possible the ships crest would be painted on to the side of a jetty which was for military use, one striking example is in Bermuda close to Hamilton, the capital, where you will find some going back many years with proud names shown on them. My son a year or so ago, having heard some of my sea stories took the opportunity to visit the Casablanca which still has our crest and had a cocktail in the now 'tired' Nyali Beach Hotel.

I googled Silversands before writing this and to my surprise found another photo of that same palm tree that Plum climbed but with someone else in the photograph, small world.