142 CHALLENGER 



craft in a motor launch, while Jimmy Greenshields, happily com- 

 manding a massive American diesel craft, brought in the second 

 wave, a fitting ending to the Challenger^ s activities on the Arakan 

 coast. 



On 6th March the first large vessel, s.s. Engbj, entered the river 

 by the new channel and berthed at the military base at Tek Naaf. 



Lieutenant Grattan received a Mention in Despatches for the 

 fine work done by his team, and the Supreme Commander South- 

 East Asia wrote to the Naval Commander-in-Chief as follows : 



My Dear Commander-in-Chief, 



I wish to express my deep appreciation of the splendid work recently 

 carried out by the Naval Survey Party which surveyed the Naaf River Entrance. 



By locating and charting a deep water channel the Survey Party has made 

 it possible during the monsoon season for seagoing ships to enter the Naaf 

 River and reach Maungdaw. The alternative, if no action had been taken to 

 locate the channel, would have been for vessels to discharge at Cox's Bazaar 

 and for stores to proceed from there by road, thus placing a great additional 

 burden on Road Transport during the difficult monsoon season. 



I shall be glad if the Officers and Men of the Survey Party can be informed 

 of the great value their work has been to the soldiers fighting in the Arakan. 



(Signed) Yours sincerely, 



Louis Mountbatten. 



On Christmas Day, 1943, Captain Wyatt was once again in 

 Challenger on his way to Palk Strait to take in hand more surveys 

 of that area, which was required for use as operational training 

 grounds. The area entailed over 300 square miles of sounding. 

 Much of it was out of sight of land so that a triangulation scheme 

 had to be established using moored beacons, instead of the usual 

 landmarks, connected to the shore survey. This work was com- 

 pleted between the ^th and 2^th January, 1944. The surveyed 

 area was tinted in red on the existing small-scale chart of the 

 area and forwarded to the C.-in-C. to show him what good pro- 

 gress was being made ; his comment was that it did not look much 

 for three weeks' work! 



About this time the strategic importance of the Cocos-Keeling 

 Islands was realised, lying as they did utterly alone in the Indian 

 Ocean, about 600 miles from the Japanese-occupied territory of 

 Sumatra. 



