# HMS Hermes, at Malta.



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

At 0945 hours on 6th September, 1975, we got underway from Porto Ponte Romano, on the south-west corner of Sardinia, bound for Malta. I gave Chrissie-Boy the course of 130° magnetic and headed out into the Mediterranean Sea. Twenty minutes later, after midnight, Dauntless Star passed over the hundred fathom mark on the west side of the Skerki Bank... our average speed was eight knots. 
At 0345 hours the next morning, I fixed our position by R.D.F. at 11° east and 37° 24' north. I altered course to 120° magnetic, to pass north of Gozo Island. By 2100 hours, the Gordon Hill lighthouse on Gozo was sighted, bearing 142°, and I altered course to 128° magnetic. Forty five minutes later, I again altered course to 135°, then to 120° half an hour after that. By midnight, the Gordon Hill lighthouse was abeam, bearing 195°.
At 0345 hours, we tied the Dauntless Star up in Valletta Harbour, in Malta. H.M.S. Hermes was taking up most of the room in the inner harbour, moored up to the central mooring buoys, so after completing our inward customs clearance, we were instructed to moor the ship stern-to the quay... to prevent any form of smuggling being carried out.
We once more started the main engine and cast off, and Chrissie-Boy was left on the quay to take our mooring ropes, leaving only myself and Harold-the-Kraut on board. After manoeuvring the ship around to face outwards from the quay, I rang down on the telegraph for Harold-the-Kraut to start the Crossley direct reversing engine in astern. I ran out of the wheelhouse, along the bridge-wing, and then climbed down the companion-ladder to the side-deck below.
Dauntless Star was pointing straight at the port side of H.M.S. Hermes, still going ahead. I just hoped that Harold-the-Kraut had his act together... otherwise my ship would crash right through the side of this large aircraft carrier... something I didn't even want to think about. There were anxious glances towards us from several of the crew on board H.M.S. Hermes.
Thankfully, I heard the engine start in astern... from the exhaust coming out of the funnel... and when she stopped going ahead, I dropped the bow anchor, paying out the chain under tension from the winch. I heard the engine stop after Harold-the-Kraut had estimated the time needed to give the ship sternway, and he appeared on the stern-deck from the rear accommodation door.
He threw the heaving-line across to Chrissie-Boy, but it tangled and fell into the harbour. With the heaving-line re-coiled in his hand, Harold-the-Kraut threw it again to Chrissie-Boy. Because of his over enthusiasm, it went right up in the air, and over the electric cables running along the edge of the quay on telegraph poles. As it was wet with seawater, it shorted out the electric supply with a bright flash of flame, and all the lights in that part of the town went out. Harold-the-Kraut quickly re-coiled the heaving-line and threw it again, this time landing beside Chrissie-Boy on the quay. He quickly pulled a mooring rope over, and then Harold-the-Kraut passed him a second rope after they had pulled the ship closer to the quay. Chrissie-Boy then jumped on board.
With all our machinery shut down, and our moorings secure... putting our stern some twenty feet from the quayside... we watched in silence from the wheelhouse as the electrical repair van drove along the road looking for the fault. Our ship was all blacked out, without any sign of life on board. They looked around, puzzled as to what had caused the short circuit. Within an hour, all the lights in that part of the town came back on, and no one was any the wiser. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks .


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