THE WEST INDIES 6^ 



onboard he ordered a 'brass hat' from Gieves, the well-known 

 naval tailor of London. It took two months, however, before this 

 necessary item of uniform reached the ship in Grenada, and the 

 Captain had been wearing it only a fortnight before it blew 

 overboard in a sudden squall while the ship sailed from St. 

 George's. For a further two months the Captain had to revert 

 to his plain-peaked cap which he had worn as Lieutenant-Com- 

 mander. 



About ten days later the Captain was going ashore at Grenada 

 when he saw a rascally native boatman wearing the missing 

 'brass hat' , only a little green in places as a result of its immersion 

 in sea water. This almost naked boatman proudly continued to 

 wear the hat as he plied for hire round the ship during her 

 subsequent visits to Grenada, he being the Commander while the 

 Captain remained a 'two-and-a-half. 



There were other diversions to be fitted in with the minimum 

 of delay to the general progress of the survey; His Excellency 

 the Governor of the Windward Islands requested a passage from 

 St. George's, Grenada, to Kingstown, St. Vincent, and this was 

 carried out with the appropriate ceremony ; the ship had to visit 

 Trinidad for oil ; the schooner Jane Victoria was stranded on a reef 

 off the east coast of Carriacou and was refloated by Challenger; 

 the ship's divers recovered 30 fathom of anchor cable lost by 

 S.S. Cornwallis off St. George's ; four days' suminer leave was given 

 to the crew, who billeted themselves in the Quarantine Station 

 for the purpose. Her Majesty's Surveying Ships are, first and 

 foremost, vessels of the Royal Navy, and as such expect from 

 time to time to carry out duties more normal to General Service 

 Ships. 



On Monday, 14th October, the Governor of the Windward 

 Islands was once again embarked, and while the boats' crews in 

 camp at Tyrell Bay were completing the Grenadines survey, His 

 Excellency visited in Challenger some of the smaller islands of the 

 Windward Group. Finally he landed at Kingstown, St. Vincent, 

 on 17th October, where he was to attend a Legislative Council 

 meeting to put through certain changes in legislation. 



Ever since the commencement of the Italian-Ethiopian dispute, 

 feeling had been very tense among the peoples of the Windward 



