96 CHALLENGER 



eventually resulted in a boat's coming inshore for them and by 

 midnight Hall was in the Captain's cabin giving him a shake. He 

 sat up in his bunk, wearing his pyjamas, and read the letter, an 

 expression of fury slowly spreading across his face. 'My God,' he 

 said at last, 'if they think that's what we're going to do while 

 the enemy carries out an invasion they're very much mistaken. 

 Have a boat alongside for me at 0^30. Good-night.' The letter 

 had, in fact, carried the news which the Staff Officer had told 

 Hall, and had further instructed Challenger to carry on with her 

 survey of Hvalfjord. 



At 5^.30 in the morning a little group of officers saluted as the 

 Captain, grave faced and tense, descended the ladder into the 

 waiting boat. Meanwhile all preparations were being made on- 

 board to get under way, and for action ; the two small guns were 

 being provided with ammunition. The officers and men moved 

 around with a curious sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs ; 

 Tone survey vessel goes down fighting against supreme odds' — 

 some imagined their obituaries to read in the papers at home. 

 Half an hour later the Captain was back onboard, coming up the 

 gangway with a half sheepish, half furious expression on his face. 

 The little group of saluting officers awaiting desperate orders saw 

 a ghost of a smile pass over his face. 'A bloody Army Exercise,' 

 he said. 



The following months of July and August were also spent in 

 and around Hvalfjord, surveying for the boom and the controlled 

 minefield near the entrance. Their old friend the Trinity House 

 vessel Patricia arrived to lay the navigational buoys in positions 

 indicated by Challenger. But at last these surveys were all com- 

 plete, and by ist September the ship lay at Reykjavik awaiting 

 further orders. These soon arrived and gave instructions for the 

 carrying out of surveys of three fjords on the east coast of Iceland. 

 H.M. Ships Hood and Repulse had recently been lying in Reydar- 

 fjord, but now it was desired to use three of the smaller fjords, 

 all of which were incompletely surveyed ; these were Seydisfjord, 

 Akureyri in Eyjafjord and Hrutafjord. Secure anchorages in Ice- 

 land were invaluable, for ships based there could dominate the 

 Denmark Strait and the Iceland-Faroe Channel through which the 

 enemy raiders had to sail to reach the high seas. The survey of 



