THE EASTERN FLEET I 39 



About half an hour after daybreak on the day following her 

 departure from Fadiffolu, and when the Captain had just gone 

 down to have his morning bath, a submarine was sighted on the 

 horizon. The Captain rushed to the bridge with only his bath- 

 towel about his waist, and even this was in imminent danger of 

 slipping off. He sized up the situation : with no guns larger than 

 Oerlikons and the low speed available there was no hope of a 

 successful action, and all that could be hoped for was that the 

 submarine would see the mock gun on Challenger' s forecastle and 

 reach a similar decision. All eyes were on the low, ominous, 

 distant shape. The minutes ticked by and the submarine made no 

 move to close the range. For a whole hour the ship's company 

 awaited the attack that never came. When the masthead look-out 

 had at last lost sight of the submarine the Captain made a large 

 alteration of course and broke W/T silence to report. On arrival 

 at Colombo, it was learned that the submarine was a British one. 



The First Lieutenant's gun must have been very realistic, how- 

 ever, for one of the first persons to visit the ship on her arrival 

 was the Port Gunnery Officer who had been passing the ship and 

 had come onboard to inspect the 4-inch gun which he saw she 

 carried. 



One day the Fleet Royal Marine Officer passed a Sergeant and 

 Corporal of Marines in a Colombo street. There was something 

 unusual in their salute which drew his attention to them and 

 he called them over. They had never had one day's training since 

 that first day in the barracks at Chatham and it was an easy task 

 for the officer to find faults with their uniforms and the way they 

 were wearing them . He questioned them as to their unit and said 

 that in all his days as a Royal Marine Officer he had never seen 

 two such unorthodox Marines. They would be called in for guard 

 and drill duties forthwith. Captain Wyatt got wind of this painful 

 interview and saw that unless he acted swiftly he would lose his 

 lithographic draughtsman and his printer. Consequently he sent 

 for the Fleet Royal Marine Officer and the two Marines were 

 spared the guard duties which they had not been relishing. 



Two more sounding boats were on their way out from England, 

 and a motor launch was allocated for survey duties. Extra men 

 were recruited from the Fleet for training in Challenger to man 

 these craft. By now the ship was at Trincomalee, where there 



