H.M.A.S. Sydney Meets Head Sea On Way To Lyttelton

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27666, 24 May 1955, Page 14

H.M.A.S. Sydney Meets Head Sea On Way To Lyttelton

UTrom Our Own Reporter aboard HM.A.S. Sydney}

AT SEA, May 23. H.M.A.S. Sydney, the third Australian warship to visit New Zealand this year, is steaming into a 20-knot southerly at 6.30 p.m., bound for Lyttelton. The light fleet carrier, an hour and a half out from Wellington, is steaming at 12 knots into a head sea. which is hardly noticed aboard. For the carrier’s crew, which includes 220 national servicemen, Lyttelton and Christchurch will be the end of a month’s stay in the Dominion. Although the ship is on a training cruise, plenty of shore leave has been granted, and the men are looking forward to seeing as much of Canterbury as possible during a five-day visit. TTe Sydney is expected to berth at 9 a.m. tomorrow. The Sydney’s departure from Wellington was marked by an impressive cererdony. The ship was dressed, with officers and ratings standing at attention in a bitter wind on either side of the flight deck, 698 ft long. A fuli guard fixed bayonets, and the ship’s band suddenly appeared on deck after being raised from below by the aircraft lift. When the order, ’Let go everything,” boomed out from a loud hailer the band struck up “Now is the Hour,” and as tugs eased’ the carrier from the berth at Aoteq quay the notes of “Auld Lang Syne* carried across the water. Once the ship was under way the band maraged back to the lift and disappeared below to the strains of “Waltzing Matilda.” Unlike most warships, which use oil burners for cooking, the Sydney is all-etectrie. Naked flames would create a danger of aviation fuel exploding,; The main galley, with banks of ovens, steam chests, and 40 gallon and M gallon cooking pots, and the adjqhHng preparing rooms occupy a floor:‘space about the size of a tennis court; - It takes an hour for all the men to go through for their meal. The crew

had soup, smoked fish with parsley sauce and mashed potatoes for supper tonight. Tomorrow morning scrambled eggs and bacon will be on the menu. The eggs will be from a stock of 2880 dozen bought in Wellington before the ship sailed. Other stores bought in Wellington included a ton of green vegetables and potatoes and two tons of onions. The ship carries a three months’ supply of fresh meat (36 tons), butter, and dry provisions. Several hundred pounds worth of provisions will be bought at Lyttelton. Bread for 1170 Men All the bread eaten aboard is baked in the ship, the complement of which—1170—requires nearly half a ton of loaves and 30 dozen rolls each day. At present tomorrow morning’s batch is proving in the big dough mixers. The bread is considered better than that bought ashore, as the flour is bolstered with dried glutin to strengthen the dough and give lift in the ovens. A machine slices and butters the bread at a rate of 200 18in loaves an hour. Internal communication in the ship is mainly by telephone. Nearly 300 sets are installed throughout the ship and the carrier issues its own telephone directory. When the ship arrives at Lyttelton it will be connected to the shore with the Christchurch automatic exchange. This message is being tapped out in morse from the ship’s main wireless office at about 25 words a minute. It will be relayed through the Awarua radio, and go by landline to the Wellington Post Office and on to Christchurch. Three Australian newspaper representatives are aboard. One is Christ-church-born Trevor Lane, who began bis career in journalism as a copy boy in the Christchurch “Sun.” He is now Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne “Herald.” The others are P. Merchant, a photographer, and W. Feen, both of the “Daily Telegraph,” Sydney.