72 CHALLENGER 



On 2oth July, 1937, Challenger sailed from Bermuda for Ports- 

 mouth, Commander Baker having returned to the ship to take 

 over command from Jones. She re-commissioned in Portsmouth 

 and returned to Trinidad to complete the surveys in that area. 

 This work in the Gulf of Paria was finished by February, 1938, 

 the ship having spent Christmas alongside the new wharf being 

 constructed at Port of Spain. 



Surveys at Barbados were left to detached parties, while two 

 deep-sea sounding cruises were carried out and a visit made to 

 Bermuda for a quick docking to remove the barnacle growth that 

 had once more accuinulated on the ship's hull during her period 

 of working in the Gulf of Paria. 



The Leeward and Windward Islands form a crescent from 

 Puerto Rico to Trinidad through which merchant ships use well- 

 known passages; and one of the most popular of these is the 

 Sombrero Channel east of the Virgin Islands and lying almost on 

 the direct route from England to the Panama Canal. A small, 

 low, dun coloured isle known as Sombrero Island lies in the 

 north-eastern approach to this channel, and a light upon it, 

 maintained by dues paid by British shipping companies, shows the 

 way through the island chain. To fix accurately this focal point 

 is of considerable importance, and Challenger^ s last task in the 

 West Indies was to land an astrolabe observing party on this 

 island to take star sights to locate its accurate geographical 

 position. 



When Challenger sailed from Sombrero for Portsmouth, she 

 left a part of the world of which her officers and men had many 

 happy memories of bathing picnics, sundrenched beaches, cool 

 rum drinks, and cheery parties with the many friends they had 

 made there. Life was good in the West Indies in the days before 

 the war. It was to be 12 years before Challenger returned to the 

 Caribbean where she had spent so much of her early life. 



