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So for those of you who are interested in a little history that you won?t learn on the Discovery Channel; pull up a chair by the fire, light your stogie & I'll 'swing the lamp.'
The first Argentines we received onboard were from the Fishing Vessel Narwhale. They had been on a long fishing trip & had arrived back alongside in B.A. & where expecting to go home & show their wives how much they loved them. On the jetty they were met a Lt Cdr of the Argentine navy, who ordered them at gunpoint to set sail with him onboard for the Falklands, to spy on the British ships & planes, using the cover of fishing.
The crew didn't have a choice & they carried out their orders. The British sussed this out after a while (probably when the exclusion zone came in) & sent a Harrier out to sink it. We were told the pilot had dropped a 'practice bomb' next to the boat to disable it. It did the job but unfortunately killed the radio operator, the rest of the crew receiving minor injuries. They were picked up & sent to HMS Invincible, where they were treated in the Sickbay. As they would have filled the Sickbay beds, they were soon transferred to us.
They arrived officially as patients but because of the minor nature of their injuries they didn't need hospitalization so were put in an accommodation space below decks. As they were mobile we had to guard them, as they were technically prisoners of war. I was allocated to tend & guard them on 6 hr shifts. Before they arrived I went through this accom & removed all sharp or potentially dangerous equipment, including removing the metal hanger rails in the lockers, in case they tried to use these items as weapons. Now before you all fall off your comfy chairs & choke on your stogies; we didn't know their background story, we knew some of our guys had already died & although we were having a P&O cruise, for most involved this wasn't a holiday. Plus being brought up on a regular diet of British war escape movies probably greatly exaggerated the threat in my imagination. I mean they weren't going to tunnel out! They weren't likely to try & take over a Red Cross ship but hey, I was 22yo & about to meet the enemy.
As they crew had been well treated on the Invincible, they relaxed very quickly in their new surroundings. A couple spoke English well enough for normal communications & we soon got into an easy routine. I dressed their minor wounds; we provided cards, games, books. They had their meals delivered & they weren't allowed to leave their cabin. They were below the waterline if we were torpedoed or hit a mine but then so was I. My duty in such an event was to guide them to their lifeboat (open wooden boat designed for use in the Med, not the South Atlantic in mid winter). I didn't mind this in the least as I would be heading that way anyway! My secondary duty was to then return inside the accom & go to the Intensive Care ward, collect a patient that was on a ventilator, with someone (I assume) & carry them to a lifeboat & then continue to ventilate them with a hand pump. To be honest I was never sure about this idea. The general rule on ships is once you get to your lifeboat you don't go back inside. If you need a ventilator you are Triage group 4 (clinically dead) & in a ship sinking scenario that didn't seem like a worthwhile exercise. Luckily I never had to make such a decision.
With the exception of the Lt Cdr (who just sulked most of the time & was more nervous than the others about his welcome back in B.A.), the Narwhale crew were not sailors or soldiers & had just been caught up by events, we naturally held no animosity to them & as we played cards or chess. I became rather good at the defensive game, as I believe do prisons in HMP's, when the length of a game is not an issue. We talked about their families. They hadn't been able to speak to them before they left & they were worried as they knew the news of their vessel sinking had been reported on the news. The Red Cross had passed their details on to the Argentineans authorities so their families should have know they were OK but they were really worried they would be punished/penalized in some way when they were sent home for their 'failure.' The Lt Cdr, who just sulked most of the time, was even more nervous than the others about his welcome back in B.A. Remember this was the time of the 'disappeared,' thousands taken by the Junta who were never seen again.
The only time they were really worried onboard, was when we were buzzed by low level warplanes. I said, 'don't worry they are harriers'. 'No', they replied 'they are Skyhawks'. They were visible shaken & frightened. They were quite convinced that their own planes would fire on a Red Cross ship & they might suffer ship wrecking a second time in so many weeks. This caused me to be a little worried too. I would have worried more if I had known straight away what was going on, on the Bridge.
These Skyhawks had found us out of position & on the Bridge they heard them on the radio reporting our position & asking for permission to fire. We had agreed with the Red Cross in Geneva that we would patrol the border of the Exclusion zone & the small survey ships, Hydra, Hecla, Hecate, would ferry casualties out to us & then we would take the casualties to Montevideo for disembarking. The Argentineans sent across the River Plate to Argentina & the British returned on a flight via Ascension Island, to the UK. One of the many Red Cross rules is that combatants could not re-join the fight from a neutral country. So we never received any British troops with minor injuries, e.g. a sprained ankle, which would have lead to being sent home & not returned to theatre. Anyway it was decided as impractical to remove the best operating facility from the theatre so we sent the Red Cross a message that we were going into San Carlos water to collect casualties from the casualty clearing station, Ajax Bay (known as the Red & Green life machine) but without waiting for permission. San Carlos water became known as Bomb Alley & is where several of our ships were hit & sunk. The survey ships then did the Montevideo run & we decanted to them once or twice a week.
We had spent the night before reassuring our parents & loved ones that we were going to be safe miles away at the Exclusion zone & the next morning the BBC reported that the Uganda was in Bomb Alley. I don't know what this news did to the Argentineans but it sure upset some parents. The Capitan received a satellite call from an angry mother of a Naval Nurse, asking why he was endangering her daughter! Ah the benefit of instant comms.
On the Bridge they breathed a sigh of relief, when permission to fire upon us was denied. This story was later related to us by our own ?sky pilot? (Vicar) who spoke Spanish & was our main interpreter & had been on the Bridge.
I personally didn?t think we would be attacked as the Argentines had much world opinion on their side, which they would surely have lost if they had deliberately sunk a Red Cross ship; which after all had many of their men onboard.
So here?s a photo of a couple of my Argentinean friends. For the couple of weeks we were together we shared the same risks, the same food & a few beers, not exactly Abu Ghraib! Second pic is a map of the islands & showing our working patrol.1982-04-14.423329_393390064008502_100000125362434_1759735_757244905_n.jpg 1982-04-14_06.jpg
The first Argentines we received onboard were from the Fishing Vessel Narwhale. They had been on a long fishing trip & had arrived back alongside in B.A. & where expecting to go home & show their wives how much they loved them. On the jetty they were met a Lt Cdr of the Argentine navy, who ordered them at gunpoint to set sail with him onboard for the Falklands, to spy on the British ships & planes, using the cover of fishing.
The crew didn't have a choice & they carried out their orders. The British sussed this out after a while (probably when the exclusion zone came in) & sent a Harrier out to sink it. We were told the pilot had dropped a 'practice bomb' next to the boat to disable it. It did the job but unfortunately killed the radio operator, the rest of the crew receiving minor injuries. They were picked up & sent to HMS Invincible, where they were treated in the Sickbay. As they would have filled the Sickbay beds, they were soon transferred to us.
They arrived officially as patients but because of the minor nature of their injuries they didn't need hospitalization so were put in an accommodation space below decks. As they were mobile we had to guard them, as they were technically prisoners of war. I was allocated to tend & guard them on 6 hr shifts. Before they arrived I went through this accom & removed all sharp or potentially dangerous equipment, including removing the metal hanger rails in the lockers, in case they tried to use these items as weapons. Now before you all fall off your comfy chairs & choke on your stogies; we didn't know their background story, we knew some of our guys had already died & although we were having a P&O cruise, for most involved this wasn't a holiday. Plus being brought up on a regular diet of British war escape movies probably greatly exaggerated the threat in my imagination. I mean they weren't going to tunnel out! They weren't likely to try & take over a Red Cross ship but hey, I was 22yo & about to meet the enemy.
As they crew had been well treated on the Invincible, they relaxed very quickly in their new surroundings. A couple spoke English well enough for normal communications & we soon got into an easy routine. I dressed their minor wounds; we provided cards, games, books. They had their meals delivered & they weren't allowed to leave their cabin. They were below the waterline if we were torpedoed or hit a mine but then so was I. My duty in such an event was to guide them to their lifeboat (open wooden boat designed for use in the Med, not the South Atlantic in mid winter). I didn't mind this in the least as I would be heading that way anyway! My secondary duty was to then return inside the accom & go to the Intensive Care ward, collect a patient that was on a ventilator, with someone (I assume) & carry them to a lifeboat & then continue to ventilate them with a hand pump. To be honest I was never sure about this idea. The general rule on ships is once you get to your lifeboat you don't go back inside. If you need a ventilator you are Triage group 4 (clinically dead) & in a ship sinking scenario that didn't seem like a worthwhile exercise. Luckily I never had to make such a decision.
With the exception of the Lt Cdr (who just sulked most of the time & was more nervous than the others about his welcome back in B.A.), the Narwhale crew were not sailors or soldiers & had just been caught up by events, we naturally held no animosity to them & as we played cards or chess. I became rather good at the defensive game, as I believe do prisons in HMP's, when the length of a game is not an issue. We talked about their families. They hadn't been able to speak to them before they left & they were worried as they knew the news of their vessel sinking had been reported on the news. The Red Cross had passed their details on to the Argentineans authorities so their families should have know they were OK but they were really worried they would be punished/penalized in some way when they were sent home for their 'failure.' The Lt Cdr, who just sulked most of the time, was even more nervous than the others about his welcome back in B.A. Remember this was the time of the 'disappeared,' thousands taken by the Junta who were never seen again.
The only time they were really worried onboard, was when we were buzzed by low level warplanes. I said, 'don't worry they are harriers'. 'No', they replied 'they are Skyhawks'. They were visible shaken & frightened. They were quite convinced that their own planes would fire on a Red Cross ship & they might suffer ship wrecking a second time in so many weeks. This caused me to be a little worried too. I would have worried more if I had known straight away what was going on, on the Bridge.
These Skyhawks had found us out of position & on the Bridge they heard them on the radio reporting our position & asking for permission to fire. We had agreed with the Red Cross in Geneva that we would patrol the border of the Exclusion zone & the small survey ships, Hydra, Hecla, Hecate, would ferry casualties out to us & then we would take the casualties to Montevideo for disembarking. The Argentineans sent across the River Plate to Argentina & the British returned on a flight via Ascension Island, to the UK. One of the many Red Cross rules is that combatants could not re-join the fight from a neutral country. So we never received any British troops with minor injuries, e.g. a sprained ankle, which would have lead to being sent home & not returned to theatre. Anyway it was decided as impractical to remove the best operating facility from the theatre so we sent the Red Cross a message that we were going into San Carlos water to collect casualties from the casualty clearing station, Ajax Bay (known as the Red & Green life machine) but without waiting for permission. San Carlos water became known as Bomb Alley & is where several of our ships were hit & sunk. The survey ships then did the Montevideo run & we decanted to them once or twice a week.
We had spent the night before reassuring our parents & loved ones that we were going to be safe miles away at the Exclusion zone & the next morning the BBC reported that the Uganda was in Bomb Alley. I don't know what this news did to the Argentineans but it sure upset some parents. The Capitan received a satellite call from an angry mother of a Naval Nurse, asking why he was endangering her daughter! Ah the benefit of instant comms.
On the Bridge they breathed a sigh of relief, when permission to fire upon us was denied. This story was later related to us by our own ?sky pilot? (Vicar) who spoke Spanish & was our main interpreter & had been on the Bridge.
I personally didn?t think we would be attacked as the Argentines had much world opinion on their side, which they would surely have lost if they had deliberately sunk a Red Cross ship; which after all had many of their men onboard.
So here?s a photo of a couple of my Argentinean friends. For the couple of weeks we were together we shared the same risks, the same food & a few beers, not exactly Abu Ghraib! Second pic is a map of the islands & showing our working patrol.1982-04-14.423329_393390064008502_100000125362434_1759735_757244905_n.jpg 1982-04-14_06.jpg
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