HOMEWARD BOUND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 109, 11 May 1933, Page 7

HOMEWARD BOUND.

IMPERIAL NAVY MEN.

LEAVING BY SPECIAL TRAIN.

About 106 Imperial ratings, including several warrant officers, left by a special train for Wellington at 4.30 this afternoon, en route for England by the Rangitata. These ratings have been "on loan" to the New Zealand division of tho Royal Navy for the past two years.

Three or four pinnace loads of sailors' kits and boxes were transferred from tlie naval base to tlie Admiralty steps between 9 and 10 o'clock this morning, and then taken in two large luggage vans to the railway station. Tho first pinnace load, of sailors left the Diomede at 3.30 p.m., after the ceremony of tho transfer of Commodore F. Burges Watson's broad pennant from, the Dioinede to H.M.s. Dunedin, which topk place at 2 o'clock, was over. This ceremony made the Dunedin the official flagship. As the commodore was piped on board the new flagship, where a guard was mounted on tho quarter-deck, the pennant was broken at tho masthead.

The scene on the Dioinede at 9 o'clock this morning was one of hustle and bustle. Sailors were seen bringing thenkits and boxes up from below and piling them on the deck, and the faces of all were merry and bright, befitting the occasion of their returning to their relatives. The officers who left this afternoon were: Captain M. J. C. de Meric, captain of the Dunedin, Commander A. W. Clarke, Surgeon-Commander W. P. Vicary, Lieut.-Commander V. F. Boyle, Lieut. C. T. Collett, Lieut. G. E. Bingham-Powell and Captain J. C. Westall, Eoyal Marines, all of the Diomede. Two other officers —EngineerCommander. V. E. Kemball and Pay-master-Commander W. E. H. Jolly—will not depart for England until May 27, when they will sail by the Ruahine.