Happy Memories :

         Being perhaps the last living crew member I felt it my duty to share some memories of this special ship.

         Not many ships have appeared on a stamp, on a dollar coin, in a book, and in a film.

         In 1943 the 2nd World War was not going well. German raiders were raiding for supplies and sinking food ships heading for Britain. Germany was trying to starve Britain into capitulation.

         The Achilles took part in the first successful naval battle in the 2nd World War. This was in December in 1939.

         It’s well trained, and rapid fire gunnery, played a major role in the scuttling of the German Pocket Battleship the Graff Spee.

         In 1946 Achilles was my home. For seven weeks we cruised around 10 New Zealand ports opening the ship up to visitors.

         The event is well worth a read in the book,  “HMNZS Achilles” written by Jack S Harker.

         Because of the popularity of this vessel when in a port we were swamped with numerous visitors. We had no privacy. We couldn’t even go to the heads (toilets) without visitors popping their heads in to see what was going on.

         During this cruise I was the Rum Bosun. It may sound a great job but it was stressful.

         When ‘up spirits’ was piped over the sound system and the many Messmen were  racing to get their rations for their mess. I was struggling with the figures trying frantically to work out their rations.

         Woe betide you if you got the figures wrong – possibly a keel hauling – I was scared to find out.

         The rum issue varied from day to day depending on how many men were on duty, how many were ashore, how many were sick, or of any one had turned 17.

         Each rating over the age of 17 was entitled to draw one gill of rum each day.

         If you were ‘Temperance’ and you didn’t draw your ration you were entitled to the sum of three-pence per day.

         Petty Officers and Chiefs drew it neat.  Ratings had it diluted with two parts water. Commission Officers were not entitles to draw rum.

         It was a memorable tour with many highlights, including a visit to Milford Sounds.

         I played for the ships rugby team and we had games in some of the ports we visited.

         One special memory was in Bluff.  We played a game against a team called Drummond. The field was frozen and when we broke through the ice there was mud.

          What a sight we were at the end of the game when  players and village  supporters all gathered around and shared a large  wooded keg of beer, and half a keg of raw Bluff oysters.

         We returned to Auckland for servicing of the ship before departing  to England for decommissioning.

         We departed on 29th May 1946 heading for Sheerness to drop our ammunition before making for Chatham dockyard. This was a leisurely  cruise taking 10 weeks to arrive in the United Kingdom.

          It was interesting to see how much damage was done during the war. Darwin was a mess with bomb craters and sunken ships.

         When in Colombo I was given the job of supervising the unloading hundreds of cases of tinned pears.

         When I had finished this task, there was an official enquiry to find out why there was such a discrepancy between the numbers loaded  and those unloaded.

         Tinned fruit was a luxury in those days . The ship’s company had gorged on the pears all the way to Colombo.

         I have never been able to find out what we were doing carrying New Zealand tinned fruit to Ceylon and who received them.

         Ships had been sunk in the Suez Canal and their remains had been dragged up on to the bank.

         In the Mediterranean we stopped a merchant ship and searched it for illegal Jewish immigrants heading for Israel – how times have changes.    

         Malta had many bomb craters after masses of  air raids.

         The UK was still undergoing heavy food rationing.

         The country was not in good shape but we lived well while on board ship.

         While visiting we were popular if we took chocolate, soap and tinned food as gifts. These we could buy from the ships canteen until it was closed.

         I was one of the last four New Zealanders on Achilles during the decommission process. We had to account for everything movable. It was a big task decommissioning a ship.

         Many years later I revisited Achilles when it arrived in Wellington. It was spotlessly clean and in great shape.    This time my old home had a new name, it was “INS Delhi” India’s first flagship.

Geoffrey Moss(mossassociates.co.nz)

Source: “Rolling On” can be downloaded FREE from our website.

“The best memory is that which writes kindness in marble and injuries in dust.”