29 May, on her way back to Freetown, the Latona held her first ‘crossing the line’ ceremony, complete with a bath of seawater, King Neptune and his queen, the police and a dunking chair. Captain Bateson welcomed Neptune as he ‘appeared’ on the foc’sle, having come up the hawse pipe. The novices were thoroughly soaped by Neptune’s barber before being chucked into a canvas tank manned by ‘Bears’. This exercise took an entire afternoon and no one was spared, least of all the ship’s First Lieutenant.14
The next day the Latona arrived back in Freetown, only to be sent back in the direction of St Helena and the Cape the same day. A prospective voyage through the Mediterranean was supposedly not in the offing due to the battle then raging in Crete.
On 2 June, the Latona arrived at St Helena, anchoring at 08.00. This green island reminded Signalman Osborne of an English village with its English-style homes, English-speaking inhabitants and modern motorcars. Their stay there was a brief one, however, and the Latona sailed at 14.00 for Simonstown in South Africa.
During the next few days of the voyage, news arrived of the fall of Crete and of the severe losses and damage suffered by the ships of the Mediterranean Fleet in the battle. Some on board the Latona were glad to have missed sailing through the Mediterranean.
As the ship sailed farther south, Telegraphist Banner enjoyed some ‘magical nights under the huge stars of the Southern Hemisphere’, as the ship ‘drove along in velvety darkness with a phosphorescent wake streaming out astern’. The heat was such that it was much more comfortable for men to sleep on deck, as long as the men were up before morning cleaning stations. Looking up from the deck, one could see ‘the masts and funnels outlined against an amazing backdrop of stars, swaying gently to and fro’.15
The Latona passed Capetown during the night and arrived at Simonstown at 08.00 on 6 June. On arrival leave was piped and some made up for bypassing Capetown by taking a train there. After a trip along a beautiful sea front and by lovely villages and towns, they arrived at Capetown, with Table Mountain in the background. ‘Jack’ was welcome everywhere; he rode everywhere free, had free drinks, enjoyed large meals for very little cash and generally received royal treatment.
Signalman Osborne wanted to live there, which may have been the point of the royal treatment and wrote that he could understand why eighty men from the battleship Nelson had deserted there. As Osborne concluded, ‘All good things end’, and the men returned to Simonstown and the Latona. Or most of them did, anyway; a Leading Telegraphist did not return and was rumoured to have been picked up later in Johannesburg.16 His absence would increase the workload of the remainder of the W/T staff, which sometimes had to double up to cover an inexperienced ‘Hostilities Only’ rating, Barham.
On 8 June the Latona sailed at high speed from Simonstown for Durban, but was battered on the way by heavy seas. Durban was reputed to idolise ‘Jack’, but the Latona only stayed long enough to refuel and her men were largely denied the hospitality of Durban. On Friday the 13th the Latona arrived at Mombasa in Kenya in time for the rainy season and on cue rain came down in buckets the whole time she was there. In the harbour, the battleship Barham was repairing damage suffered during the battle for Crete. The Latona left early the next day for Aden. On Thursday, 17 June, the Latona arrived at Aden, dubbed by some on board as ‘the hottest place on Earth’. She departed that day and sailed into the Red Sea, with Arabia on one side and Africa on the other and reached Port Tewfik on the southern edge of the Suez Canal on 19 June. Her voyage was finally nearing its end.
A Latona ‘Crossing the Line’ certificate. (Author’s collection)
At dawn on the 20th, the Latona started a slow passage through the Suez Canal, passing wrecks, fortifications and airfields along the way. She passed through the canal and arrived at Port Said the same day and unloaded her cargo, after a journey of thirty-six days.17 During the voyage, according to Captain Bateson, ‘We arrived before we were expected everywhere we called’.
A cartoon of the Manxman by Lt J C Cherry in 1942, evidencing his pride in her being able to take on any job, in common with her sister
At Port Said, the passengers and crew were allowed a swim and ice cream could be purchased from an Egyptian boat. That night the Latona sailed into the Mediterranean, bound for Alexandria. She was supposed to arrive at dawn, but because of an air raid that night the approaches had to be swept for mines first. The Latona finally arrived at Alexandria at midday on 21 June.
At Alexandria, she joined the Mediterranean Fleet and almost immediately came a signal from Admiral Cunningham’s flagship to paint ship, supposedly in ‘Mediterranean gray’ with only her funnels a ‘duck-egg green’. The Latona’s slightly older sister, the Abdiel, was already a veteran member of the fleet and soon they were carrying out exercises together. The Latona carried out a minelay with dummy mines to try her hand at the art she was designed for. During nightly air raids on Alexandria, the Latona lent her 4in guns and sometimes her pom-pom to the cacophony.18 The Abdiel had shown the way at Crete, but the Abdiel and Latona were about to demonstrate the fast minelayers’ versatility and usefulness in an even bigger way, paving the way for further demonstrations by their sisters.
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