HMS Dartington 1962 - 1964
By Dave (Syd) Morris
Radio Operator (Tactical) on H.M.S. Dartington 62-64

We are extremely grateful to both Dave (Syd) Morris and Laurie Johnson for letting us publish these pictures. Laurie Johnson, an ex GI, was an AB on H.M.S. Chawton 61-63.  Dave Morris was the Radio Operator (tactical) on H.M.S. Dartington 62-64 and although they overlapped they didn't know each other as H.M.S. Dartington never worked with Chawton during the confrontation.  Dave and Laurie have only relatively recently discovered their connection in both serving in the 6th Minesweeping Squadron. Pictured left, RO1 (G) Pete Meakins (standing) and RO1 (T) Dave (Syd) Morris (seated).

When I joined Dartington on 4th November 1962 she was in Hong Kong along with Woodbridge Haven and 6 other sweepers from the 6th MSS plus Mahamiru (M 1127), the Malaysian Navy ton class. From Hong Kong we sailed to Bangkok for a group visit thence back to Singapore. From Singapore, Dartington sailed for one of the 6th MSS regular tasks - anti piracy patrol around Borneo.
 

The picture right show ship's company of Chawton preparing for their first transit up river to Brunei.  You will note that there are not a lot of arms about. When we were in Brunei (Dartington and Houghton) curfew was 1800 and to go ashore you had to be armed (bit unusual for sailors!).  The two ships combined their small arms and it still didn't add up to a large amount - it was first come first served for liberty men.  Once we had run out they used to whistle a tame Percy pongo, who was living in the warehouses on the jetty, to accompany us and look after us whilst we had a run ashore.

Fair exchange really as we used to show them movies in the evenings.  During the day however we used to wander ashore in sports rig to play football on the kampong and then have a few wets in a bar before wandering back, unarmed and unescorted.

Although we took arms ashore I don't recall if we actually had ammunition. When we were in Kuching we had two upper deck sentries, both armed with Lanchester SMGs and two full magazines.  However our instructions were that if we were fired on we were not allowed to fire back. We had to rush below and wake the duty officer and request permission to return fire!

During the patrol we called at the usual places - Kuching, Jesselton (now Kota Kinabulu) Sandakan and Tawau and on completion of the patrol we returned to Singapore. In mid/late December 1962 Dartington along with Houghton relieved the two Brunei sweepers, Fiskerton and Chawton. We remained in Brunei during the whole period of this patrol.
 

Once the Brunei rebellion had been quelled and the troubles escalated to the `confrontation', patrol operations moved from Brunei and Kuching became the base port for the sweeper patrols. The 'confrontation' put paid to any further `jollies' in the way of visits. While in the Borneo area, Dartington mainly called at what became the usual operational visit destinations - Kuching, Sibu and Labuan. In addition we called at Song (?) and a place referred to/called Turtle Island for brief R & R in the way of beach banyan/barbecue. This came to an end when the Far East Commander sent a signal telling ships to desist from visiting Turtle Island as it was interfering with the turtles' copulation! We also called at a couple of small uninhabited islands for exercises and evolutions. Pictured left is Sippers the ship's dog during the confrontation period.

Dartington photographed up river somewhere, but can't remember where it was. It was the furthest we had ever ventured up river and I believe it was possibly the furthest any sweeper had been inland. We usually only went on a regular basis up river to Kuching, Sibu and Song(?). This place was really in the middle of nowhere.  The banks of the river were quite high and where we came ashore (about where the photo was taken from) there were buildings high up on the bank with a clear indication of previous high water marks on their sides.

We played football against an army team here.  The pitch was solid rock; one touchline was a smooth rock face and the other was the monsoon ditch on the far side of a tarmac path. As the pitch was used as a helo landing area we had to erect the goalposts before we started and take them down again afterwards. Periods off patrol were normally spent in Singapore and each sweeper underwent refit and dry-docking at regular intervals. In Singapore the sweepers docked in the AFDs (Admiralty Floating Docks). Dartington's refit period in Singapore was during April/May 1963 but we had a lucky break when due for our docking.

We were programmed for docking November/December 1963 but there was an industrial dispute at Singapore dockyard so we were sent to a commercial yard at Hong Kong. This meant living in Tamar whilst the ship was up a slip in the commercial yard. The shore facilities afforded by the shipyard company to the ship's company and duty watch were luxury compared to what we were used to.

We usually berthed at the town jetty (extreme right). This was a substantial wooden affair with a warehouse type building separating it from the town centre and the open market. When proceeding up river to Kuching the first jetty we came to was a Shell jetty where we always stopped to top up with fuel before proceeding up river. On some occasions on Dartington by the time we had refuelled it was too late/dark to proceed up river and we were stuck there until the next morning when we moved up river at first light. This unfortunately further curtailed our already all too brief stay in Kuching before proceeding out on patrol again.

Further up river from the Shell jetty was a large commercial jetty that we only used once. It was quite a way from Kuching town and isolated. The photograph is pre-confrontation and shows two unidentified ton class sweepers with what is probably Woodbridge Haven. It would appear that the jetty and surrounding area are still under construction.