THE EASTERN FLEET I33 



master, whose job it is to organise the running of a naval harbour 

 and arrange the berthing of the ships, had an insatiable appetite 

 for the charts and every time a sub-standard chart came off the 

 press it v/as placed on what became knowTi as the 'Harbour- 

 master's pile'. 



E.F. 2, Manza Bay, surveyed by Lieutenant-Commander Cole, 

 R.N.R. before Challenger's arrival, was next printed, and this 

 also required two printings, for a land tint was inserted in the 

 second printing and added greatly to the appearance of the chart, 

 although it was a difficult job, with the paper constantly altering 

 its shape, to make a good registration on the second printing 

 so that the land tint would fit exactly along the coastline in the 

 original print. So much had the printing technique now been im- 

 proved by experience of the difficulties onboard that the 60 copies 

 of E.F. 2 were completed in two nights' work. 



However, with the temperatures as they were in Mombasa at 

 this time, the difficulties of coating the plates in the whirler were 

 found to be almost insuperable, the only alternative being for 

 Sergeant Crowford, the lithographic draughtsman, to draw the 

 printing zinc completely by hand. So for E.F. 3, Port Mombasa 

 and Approaches to Kilindini, a zinc plate was sensitised with a 

 weak solution of nitric acid and alum and then, bit by bit, day 

 and night, Crowford drew on the plate with a brush and litho- 

 graphic ink the complete details of the chart. On a flat bed print- 

 ing press the printing image on the zinc must be reversed as the 

 contact between the chart paper and the plate is direct ; so every 

 sounding and every letter in this chart had to be drawn back to 

 front. 



On ^th January 1943, 6° ^^y^ after the start of the survey of 

 Port Mombasa, 125^ copies of E.F. 3 had been printed from the 

 direct drawing on the plate made by Crowford. This, despite all 

 climatic difficulties, was war-time surveying as it should be done, 

 and Captain Wyatt and his surveyors were pleased with their 

 progress. Then E.F. 4, Approaches to Mombasa, was drawn direct 

 on to zinc, which took only i^ days. 



In 4^ months since the ship arrived in Kilindini she had com- 

 pleted four detailed surveys and produced five charts in quantity 

 sufficient to meet the immediate needs of the Eastern Fleet. 

 Orders to sail for a refit in Cape Town were received with 



