hotograph of USS Hughes on right (Courtesy of Simon Skelhorne)
In September to safeguard against a possible breakout of Tirpitz from its base in Norway the USN sent Task Force 4 to Iceland. This comprised the aircraft carrieer, USS Wasp, the battleships USS Mississippi and USS Wichita, the depot ship USS Vulcan, and a screen of four destroyers.
HMS Hecla at Havelfjord in the Summer of 1941 Courtesy of Dr Peter Hetherington
Two USN destroyers of the Benson / Gleaves Class and the destroyer depot ship, USS Vulcan (on right) at Havelfjord, Summer 1941. Photographed by Eric Pountney, Wireless Telegraphist on HMS Venomous
Christmas 1941 the ship's company's own "Hecla Players" put on performances of Outward Bound by Sutton Vane, a huge success on the London stage in 1923 and on Broadway in 1938-9 but a rather ominous choice for HMS Hecla:
"The play is about a group of seven
passengers who meet in the lounge of an ocean liner at sea and realize
that they have no idea why they are there, or where they are bound.
Each of them eventually discovers that they are dead, and that they
have to face judgment from an Examiner, who will determine whether they
are to go to Heaven or Hell."
Three of the eleven who took part as players or back stage
assistants would not live to see another Christmas: Eric C. Bond,
Ordinance Artificer, Donald A. Preece,
Leading Supply Assistant (and talented artists) and Cyril B. Boyle,
Electrical Artificer, died on the night of the 11 - 12 November 1942
when Hecla was torpedoed off the coast of north Africa.
The programme was printed aboard HMS Vulcan, the American destroyer depot ship which had joined Hecla at Havelfjord in September.
USS Vulcan replaced Hecla
as the depot ship for the convoy escorts and in early 1942 Hecla returned to the
Clyde for a short refit. With Capt E.F.B. Law RN in command, Hecla
left Greenock on the 15 April 1942 as part of Convoy WS.18 "outward bound" for South Africa
to join the Far Eastern Fleet, a welcome change from the tedium of Havelfjord.
Edward Coleman and Les Proctor, both Electrical Artificers (EA) joined HMS Hecla
at the Clyde and were in the same Mess. It was Ted Coleman's first ship
and everything was new and strange.
He described how they spent their off duty hours playing tombola
(bingo), various games, "walking" (pacing up and down in the resticted
space while talking with a companion) and in the evening watching an
occasional film show. As they passed the Canaries they were lectured by
the Medical Officer (MO) on the danger of touching any metal in the
tropics, particularly gun barrels, "anyone reporting sick with hand
burns would be considered to have a self inflicted wound." They took on
fuel at Freetown, Sierra Leone, betwee the 29 April to 3 May
which gave an opportunity for a run ashore. Les Proctor noted that "the
better areas were built with Victorian style houses as distinct from
the huts on stilts, which were typical of the basic native quarter,
where the women only wore skirts." The MO had lectured them on
hazards ashore ending with "I know you think this a waste of time but I
also know that some of you chaps would put your pricks where I wouldn't
put my walking stick" but his advice was ignored by some.
For most of the 900 men on Hecla this
would be the first time they had "crossed the line" and Neptune
welcomed them to his domain with the traditional ceremonies. Ted Coleman described how:
sailmakers, oh yes the Navy still had sail makers years after the last
sailing ship had been laid to rest, had constructed a huge canvas
swimming pool. The chippies had made a platform complete with barber's
chair designed to tip its occupants backwards into the pool after being
lathered asnd shaved with a giant wooden mock razor, to be baptised by
The Captain and
his senior officers were given a regal dispensation from the ritual
humiliation by the God of the Sea but most took part good humouredly.
Some of them would not live to cross the line again:
"We crossed the line during this trip
and of course held the usual Ceremonies, myself having crossed on
divers occas