THE EASTERN FLEET 143 



It was planned to survey the islands, the lagoons and the reefs 

 with a view to using the anchorages and laying down an airfield. 

 A party was assembled for this purpose at Colombo and consisted 

 of Lieutenant E. E. Croome from Challenger with a Petty Officer 

 Surveying Recorder, and three A.B.s to do the hydrographic 

 survey; there were also Royal Engineers and a Flight Lieutenant 

 to site the airfield. The party sailed in a fast minelayer, complete 

 with every item from Bren guns to tin-openers. They were to 

 be left some weeks on Cocos and it was by no means certain that 

 they would not be visited by the Japanese during the period. To 

 make their presence less conspicuous from the air they took no 

 survey boat but relied on 'local resources', a familiar and dreaded 

 term to the ears of any hydrographic surveyor. 



It was upon these atolls that Mr. Darwin wandered with 

 Captain FitzRoy from the British naval survey ship Beagle in 1 842 

 and pondered upon the construction of these low islands lying 

 around a shallow lagoon ; whilst outside the lagoon Captain Fitz- 

 Roy had showed by his lead line soundings that the bottom fell 

 away precipitously to very great depths which he could not plumb. 



Darwin and FitzRoy had met Captain Ross, who had settled 

 in the islands about 1835^ with his family and a former ship's 

 mate who had served with him. Soon Ross was employing as free 

 labour the Malay slaves whom a Mr. Hare had imported a few 

 years before. The islands have remained in the Ross family ever 

 since and the descendants of these Malay slaves are the inhabitants 

 of Cocos-Keeling today. The surveyors found the natives leading 

 an orderly and pleasant life, and despite the lack of outside 

 provisions and many articles of daily use, due to their remote 

 position and war-time difficulties, their standard of living appeared 

 to be above that of many dwellers in the East, based as it was 

 upon coconuts and pigs. 



Almost on arrival Croome 's crew went sick with some form 

 of dysentery and he had to search the village alone for a boat and 

 a Malay crew to man her. The craft he finally found was a hard 

 chine boat, with a high freeboard and an unpredictable engine. 

 In this he went to sea for the hydrographic survey, first within 

 the lagoon, then through the entrance channel and along the 

 outside of the wave-battered reef. A Malay steered while his com- 

 panion coaxed the engine and a very brave and seasick R.E. 



