THE EASTERN FLEET I37 



Fleet were now being planned, and as well as surveys to be made 

 there was an expansive programme of operational charts to be 

 produced and the re-printing of existing charts on the Station, 

 for to send to England for every chart requirement at this stage 

 meant endless delays. Although Challenger, with sufficient small 

 craft acting as tenders, would probably be able to handle the 

 surveying side of the work, her small press was quite inadequate 

 for the chart printing requirements which were now growing 

 day by day. What was now wanted was a shore organisation to 

 cope with the printing, distribution and correction of locally 

 produced charts. Captain Wyatt was the Fleet Hydrographic 

 Officer and he was ordered to prepare such an organisation which 

 would serve the Fleet as the war crept down the Straits of Malacca 

 and into the China Sea. 



How Captain Wyatt organised the Hydrographic Office in 

 Colombo and arranged for the printing of chart maps by the 

 Survey of India and the Survey of Ceylon and how he set up a 

 Chart Production Unit working first at Dehra Dun and later at 

 Kandy is not really the story of Challenger. But from now on his 

 attentions were divided between his Colombo office and the ship, 

 which carried on under her temporary captain, Lieutenant-Com- 

 mander Bill, during his long periods of absence. Some of 

 Challenger's men, including Petty Officer Long and the Royal 

 Marines, were landed to assist with the production work which 

 was now carried on with the more modern equipment available 

 there, while the faithful old flat-bed press lay shrouded in canvas 

 covers and forgotten on the ship's forecastle. 



The work in the Seychelles had been going forward steadily, 

 with brief periods for recreation ashore in Mahe, where the 

 officers and men were welcomed by the friendly people. Cricket 

 matches became a weekly feature of life, after which iced beer 

 was served from the pavilion. The prisoners from the gaol were 

 usually there and watched the matches although they were sup- 

 posed to be cutting the long grass around the field, but there was 

 a war-time shortage of warders and they were in charge of a 

 charming rascal who was himself a prisoner, but who used to sit 

 and drink beer with the sailors. 



One evening, when the work for the day had been completed 

 onboard, a sing-song developed in the wardroom, the songs getting 



