IX 



War at Sea 



IN October of 1940, with the surveys of Iceland complete, 

 Challenger sailed southwards for a refit period in England. 

 Almost as soon as she put to sea the winds began to blow 

 and a gale harried the ship the whole way across the grey wastes 

 of ocean between Iceland and Scotland. The wind howled relent- 

 lessly in the rigging, the ship heaved, pitched and rolled, the seas 

 thumped against her side and blanked the portholes with green 

 and white as the waves rose towards the upper deck. The men 

 below in the mess decks cursed with rage as they wearied of 

 constantly bracing themselves against the rolling of the ship. 



In the Pentland Firth on the forenoon of Sunday, 3rd November, 

 the ship joined a convoy bound for the east coast across the 

 Moray Firth and round Kinnaird Head. The Senior Officer of the 

 convoy escort, sailing in the anti-aircraft cruiser Curacao, ordered 

 Challenger to take up station as rear ship of the port column ; at 

 about 6 o'clock that evening a merchant ship named Eros joined 

 the convoy, having come from Invergordon : she had recently been 

 torpedoed and the repairs made temporarily to her bows were 

 plain to see. She took up station astern of Challenger. 



As dusk closed in, the convoy crawled on at six knots on a 

 south-easterly course about seven miles off Kinnaird Head. Soon 

 the sound of aircraft could be heard and gunfire was seen from 

 Curacao, who had moved out to a position about three miles on 

 the port side of the convoy. A few minutes later the men at their 

 A. A. defence stations in Challenger saw a twin-engined float-plane 

 coming in low on the port beam. The two pom-poms on the port 

 side were soon in action; seconds later there was a thud, and 

 looking astern those on the bridge saw a huge column of water 

 and smoke rising on the port side of Eros to the height of her 

 masthead ; the plane passed out of sight astern in the gathering 

 darkness and grey, low cloud. 



Soon the attacking aircraft was in sight again, coming in on 



98 



