TORRES STRAITS l^S 



March, when for days at a time the smaller vessels of the team 

 were forced to remain at anchor in the channels waiting for the 

 winds to moderate. U.S.S. Mesquite arrived in March and, as a 

 result of the survey, laid buoys and erected navigational beacons 

 along the selected route. 



Challenger returned now to Trincomalee in Ceylon and it 

 proved to be a nightmare passage across the Indian Ocean. The 

 main boiler room fan broke down, and the auxiliary fan was not 

 found to be up to the work. The temperature in the boiler-room 

 rose to 1 60 degrees and the stokers working there were able to 

 do tricks below of only about half an hour's duration before they 

 had to be brought on deck to cool off. The ship's speed was down 

 to about 3 1 knots and it often seemed to those onboard that they 

 would never cross that stifling ocean. However, at Colombo, 

 which was at long last reached, these defects were made good 

 and the ship once again returned to survey off Trincomalee. 



V.J. Day found the ship in Singapore, bringing the charts up 

 to date by fixing the numerous wrecks and obstructions that had 

 accumulated during the time of the Japanese occupation and by 

 re-surveying those parts of Keppel Harbour and the approaches 

 to the Naval Base that were likely to have altered during the war. 

 Relieved at Singapore by H. M.S. White Bear, which had been serv- 

 ing with the Eastern Fleet during the recent Burma and Malayan 

 landings, Challenger sailed with the minesweepers to carry out 

 what was termed a 'rehabilitation' survey of the river bar and 

 approaches to the port of Saigon. From there she went on to 

 Hong-Kong for similar work, and a complete new survey of the 

 whole of that port was made. In January, 1946, she was re- 

 surveying the approaches to the North Borneo and Sarawak ports 

 of Jesselton, Brunei Bay, Labuan, Muara and Kuching. Many of 

 these places had been the recent scenes of fierce fighting and were 

 cluttered with wrecks, while the river approaches to others had 

 changed during the war years. Such surveys facilitated the import 

 of food and clothing, which at this time was a vital necessity in 

 this part of the world where the local populations had suffered 

 so badly and for so long at the hands of the enemy. 



These were the last surveys of the commission, and in March, 

 1 946 , the ship once again reached Portsmouth with her paying-off 

 pendant flying. 



