Ships at anchor at the Ascension Islands
Half Way to the Falklands. Here the task force gathered to sort itself out. Canberra stayed just over a fortnight, after the first few days putting to sea every night to avoid possible attacks from limpet mines.
The fleet was at anchor. An alert watchkeeper aboard Canberra spotted an Argentinean tanker about two miles from the fleet. The 12-4 engineers were on watch at the time. The engines were shut down, the boilers had only half a bar in them to keep them warm. It normally takes about three hours to warm through steam plant prior to the engines being ready to use. Well the navy decided that the tanker may have dropped midget submarines with the intention of sticking limpet mines to the ships hulls and issued an emergency sail order. You can imagine being 30 feet below the water line with the possibility of someone sticking mines to the other side of the ships hull from where you are standing. Galvanised into action the engineers, six of us, broke all the rules and the steam turbines were rotating within 15 minutes of getting the order. This meant that the Canberra was the second ship to sail in the fleet. A source of astonishment to many but of immense pride to the engineers on watch. Its Amazing what you can achieve when you need to.
Murky weather
The weather was at times best described as foul. Thick freezing fog and rough seas were often our only companions. Visibility was often to low to even make out our escorts. We spent many days steaming around in a square waiting for our next orders. Eager for news we waited each day for messages or briefings. A friend of mine from the Royal Navy was aboard and had the role of taking communications from the radio room to the bridge. As an officer I was allowed alcohol and spirits. The troops were rationed to two cans per day. With a small amount of haggling an arrangement was reached through which he kept us up to date with events, provided they were not classified, in exchange for a few beers or a bottle of whiskey.
One evening we were told that the Argentineans may have located Canberra and we were to swap TRALA (God knows what that stood for) zones with the Atlantic Conveyor. Image how we felt when next day we learned that the Atlantic conveyor had been hit with an exocet missile. Luck was still with us but we felt sadness and a twinge of guilt. Fellow seafarers died again that night.
Troop Briefing
Friendly rivalry existed between the NCO's and the engineers. We sneaked into their mess and placed a tin of beer on their bar and then proceed to join hundreds of straws together linking their mess with the officers wardroom. When the NCO's traced the straws they found us unsuccessfully sucking with all our might to get the beer from the can. We drank all of the stockpiled beer that night.