20 NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2010


Ticking all the


ILLEGAL drugs seized? Humanitarian operations? Defence diplomacy?


✔ ✔


✔


HMS Manchester has pretty much ticked all the boxes during her seven-month deployment to the Caribbean – and she is not due home until a third of the way through this month. We have reported on her two major drugs busts,


August and November editions, preventing cannabis and cocaine with an estimated street value of almost £20 million from reaching users.


● ABs Sandy, Smith and Faint pay their respects on board HMS Manchester on Armistice Day


how Cdr Rex Cox drove his ship hard through “sporty” heavy seas for 900 miles on the coat-tails of Hurricane Igor in case help was needed in Bermuda (it was, but only an aerial survey as the storm had weakened by the time


And in October we told you in our


it brushed the islands). And in the same article we told


you of the work the sailors were doing ashore with community groups in places like Barbados and the Turks and Caicos Islands. So, with all the boxes


ticked, what else is on the list? Well, plenty more of the same really – which is why the Busy


herself on yet more “sporty” passages, this time surfing the wake of Hurricane Tomas as it threatened to wreak havoc across the Caribbean. The warship was in Barbados


Bee found


was much confusion as to what needed our immediate attention – it was getting to last light when we arrived, so firstly we had to ensure there were no casualties that needed immediate attention,


anything we might have to do would be soon hampered by nightfall. “Our first job,


when the call came to dash 100 miles north west to Soufrière, the former capital of St Lucia, now a town of 8,000 people. LET(ME) ‘Tracy’ Chapman takes up the story: “On Monday November 1 at


2230 we were ordered to sail from Barbados at 0900 on the 2nd, to make a hasty passage to St Lucia, which had been in the path of Hurricane Tomas, and as a consequence some areas had been devastated. “So that evening I immediately


with an ‘all hands in’ approach, and as soon as we fired up the generator and the lights came on, everybody’s spirits lifted, and the noise level increased as people started talking and laughing – it was a satisfying job, when the people were thanking PO Rogers and myself and saying ‘good job’ as we walked around the church. “Myself and PO Dixon, another then wired a second into another building


engineer, generator


started making preparations for the kit I knew I would have to consider taking with me, being one of the few members of the ship’s company trained to operate emergency equipment such as the ‘jaws of life’ cutters and spreaders, which the fire service use, and also the thermal lance cutting device and RAMSET rivet tool, which will punch through steel plate. “On the morning of the 2nd more kit preparations took place, whilst we made passage, and I also tried to find any snippets of information that might allow us to make more specific preparations. “At 1500 I was told six of


“This task was completed swiftly people.


which was being used as temporary shelter for approximately 200


however, was to rig up some lighting in a church as the biggest and main


building, because


that was being used as a hospital/ childcare centre and also a base for the aid workers that had arrived, and were preparing food for the people seeking shelter, so with full power back to the building they could use it to its full potential. “We then found a room to base


ourselves and all of our equipment in, and settled for the night as the aid workers and police said there was nothing more we could do until first light. “In


● CPO Robbie Roberts with the local petrol station manager on St Lucia, as pictured by CPO Whiskey Walker – who is himself pictured (right) helping to clear mud from the basement courtyard of the hospital in Soufrière, St Lucia


● HMS Manchester’s Lynx drops supplies at Soufrière on St Lucia – the ship can be seen on the horizon to the right Picture: Lt Cdr Tim Bailey


the heavy rescue team would be going ashore, myself included, which I was happy about because I wanted to get ashore and make a difference to people who had been struggling for a number of days already. “Then we were given eight minutes notice to make any personal preparations because we were to be on the helicopter that would take us up the volcano to the small remote village of Morne Fond St Jacques, and we would be staying over night. “Once in


the village, there


night’s interrupted rest (someone had to keep putting fuel in the generators), we made plans for the day to get two teams together to search for persons reported missing, whose homes had been washed away by landslides and the swollen river. “We searched the 100-metre area around where this man’s house used to be, assisted by one of his friends, and thought we may have found some remains of the missing man after about 20 minutes, when a foul smell was discovered, but it turned out to be pigs’ entrails.


“The search continued in the sometimes waist-deep mud for around three hours, and then moved along 400 metres of the river downstream, during which time the team came across personal possessions and more pigs, but unfortunately no sign of the missing man. “When we returned to our HQ


the morning, after a


● ETME Williams working in the ruins of a house at Morne Fond St Jacques


Picture: ETME Roycroft/ETME Chaarlie Jones


said it was his uncle who was missing, and showed us where his house used to be – it had been demolished by a landslide from


● HMS Manchester sailors conduct football coaching at the Amos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St Vincent


for a water re-supply, our Officer in Command, Lt Cdr Thompson, informed us of another site where the locals needed help trying to locate another missing person, so an ad hoc team of the heavy and light rescue teams was put together and went off about three miles around the volcano to another small village of about 12-14 homes where a whole family lived in close proximity. “We were met by a man who


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