Bryan, was it Palau Tioman that you stopped for your Banyan - thats where we used to stop when we were on patrol in the south China Sea.
Beautiful island - where they filmed "South Pacific" - now its a mega holiday resort.
The only problem there were sea-urchins, one of our radio operators got a spine through one of the tendons in his "morse key" hand and
the hand twisted up like a claw - he had three in the base sickbay at Terror. I think Butterworth on Penang was where the Aussies had an
airbase during the confrontation with Indonesia.
Geoff
Geoff, no better place to recuperate than "Terror"! Seen it recently on "Earth"? All those lovely houses that were built (on stilts) for the dockyard mateys....still there, but occupied by more deserving inhabitants. (Univerity students who actually study).
Truth to tell, the self indulgent "life-style" of the UK ex-pats was pretty disgraceful. I suppose the indulgences given to the Army and Air Force "supporting staff" was equally indulgent.
I'll try to explain my reasoning:-
As I've said before, the Admiralty Dockyards were neither run by or controlled by the Navy. They were run by the civil service side of the MoD (or the War Ministry....comes to the same thing). And they make the rules.
Dockyard employees are by definition classified as civil servants, be he/she a tea maker or highly qualified marine engineer. Same rules apply.
When the highly qualified chap was seconded to (say) Singapore he would be given a nice detatched house (on stilts) and be sort of expected to indulge in a lifestyle appropriate to his rank. Understandable.
But then the lower echelons began demanding similar facilities. And they make the rules.
So it wasn't all that long before families who were recently living in some small terraced house in Plymouth (or Portsmouth or wherever) were suddenly catapulted into a lifestyle previously unknown to them. The obvious happened in a lot of cases. I realise that the term "Ideas above their Station" is offensive, but that's what happened. Creepingly, the ex-dockyard mateys saw themselves as the "cocks of the walk"...and who was to stop them. They made the rules.
About 200 yards from the "Stores Basin" where ships tied up, was (and still is) a large and well appointed swimming pool, complete with thatched bar area and eatery bar. They make the rules.
For many years (even now probably) there was no swimming pool available to crews of visiting ships. And there was this lovely inviting place within a few yards of your ship. Not allowed. Dockyard employees and families only. They make the rules.
This was always socialism gone mad.
What's a Dockyard for if not to help and succour the weary crews of the ships berthing there? But to be banned from simple places like a swimming pool always struck me as being a touch of "We are in charge now, so sod off".
In HMS "Terror" any officer from any ship was welcome at the "Terror" restaurant. As good as many 4 star hotels. Ratings and POs had to use a cafeteria. But even the lowliest dockyard matey and his family could use the restaurant. They make the rules.
If nothing else, it was a case of "bring up the drawbridge, jack, I'm all right".
And I'm not talking about the behaviour of modern matelots, I'm talking about when they had to go ashore in uniform and be inspected before they were allowed off the ship.
In no way am I an egalitarian, but it was during those days of watching what amounted to sheer spite that made me realise that giving someone unequipped to deal with "power" only causes misery. But they made the rules.
This attitude prevailed in the RFAs that had a "Stonnery" contingent. For all sorts of reasons they never really came to grips with the reality that they were under the command of the ships Captain, and not their Union representative. They didn't make the rules this time.