Model Boat Mayhem

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length.
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: HMS Fox mutiny?  (Read 1388 times)

Jonty

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 894
  • Location: Hoselaw - facing The Cheviot (Scottish Borders)
HMS Fox mutiny?
« on: November 15, 2009, 01:34:38 pm »

  tonyH's thread about the 1918 German naval mutiny jogged my memory about another (supposed) mutiny.

  Near Diyatalawa in the Sri Lanka hill country you can see the outline of a running fox on a hillside. Underneath is ‘1913 - HMS Fox’. Locals say this was done by mutineers from HMS Fox who had to carry the white stones up there. It is still known as Fox Hill.

  I've never found any reference to a mutiny on HMS Fox. I do know the Royal Navy had an R & R camp in the pleasant climate here. The Sri Lankan navy still has a presence here, and they may maintain the inscription - as does the Pakistan army the British regimental badges on the fort in the Khyber Pass.

  Is the mutiny story true, or was the inscription done in the same way as those in Loch 'Orrible?

  Another one for you naval history buffs is the story of German U-boat landing in Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was then.
Logged
I eat my peas with honey,
I've done it all my life;
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps 'em on the knife.

DickyD

  • Full Mayhemer
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 9,423
  • www.srcmbc.org.uk
  • Location: Southampton UK
    • SRCMBC
Re: HMS Fox mutiny?
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2009, 01:56:48 pm »

The Boer War occurred in South Africa between Great Britain and the Dutch colonist of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State in the years 1899-1902. As a result the British transferred many of their prisoners to various countries and colonies under their domain in South and South East Asia.

One of these countries that they brought their prisoners too was Sri Lanka (Ceylon). A batch of these prisoners is believed, was brought in the ship "HMS FOX" On one such occasion, when the HMS FOX had docked in Ceylon the Captain and the crew having come to Diyatalawa in 1913 had struck up the idea of having their ships insignia displayed on a hillock in Diyatalawa.

The Captain and the crew of HMS FOX having gone up the hillock, had been able to get the Boers to assist them to place white stones to depict a FOX and below it the name of the ship HMS FOX followed by the year 1913.

This gave rise to the particular hill being called the Fox Hill and to this day this hillock is called the Fox Hill.
Logged
Richard Solent Radio Controlled Model Boat Club http://www.srcmbc.org.uk
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Page created in 0.084 seconds with 21 queries.