Able Seaman Kevin Hesketh
A three badge AB was Kevin, bookie and con man extraodinaire. Kevin took 'Blonde Edna' to the Quiberon Ball which was held in a Sydney venue which escapes me. I was conned into taking Marcia, a barmaid from the 'Rockers' (Rock and Roll hotel) and if Bluey McLaughlin tells anyone about that I will murder the Bastard! I think Butch Williams took Dot, the other barmaid - not sure though. Drinks didn't cost me or Butch much that visit to Sydney. EM Col Simpson and a couple of other guys took some barmaids from the Bogna. Col also knew how to get a few free beers. Anyway, getting back to Kevin, can you remember when Tug Wilson was our 'big white chief'? I think it was May 1961, we accompanied the RN submarine Anchorite to New Zealand to help work up HMNZ Otago, a new Whitby class frigate they had purchased from England. When docking, it was Tug Wilson's habit everything in sight, including other ships, wharves, etc. Nothing was sacred to Tug. On arrival at Auckland, we were to berth in between the Anchorite and Otago. Kevin, ever watchful for a way to make a quid, was giving even money to Otago, 2 to 1 the Anchorite, even money the wharf . Stevo fired off the gun line around six times, each time having to retrieve it to fire it again as Tug was making a complete mess of things again as usual. Eric (Granny) Henderson tells me he was on the wheel and became totally confused with the mass of orders coming to him. He finished up sticking his head out of the scuttle to see if he could see where the wharf was so he at least had some idea of what was going on. We finally began to approach from the aft of the Otago with the Anchorite some distance in front of it. Tug managed to scrape down the side of the Otago with much cursing and fenders from the Kiwis. We then went forward and 'kissed' the Anchorite and crashed back into the wharf. Not a bad effort on Tug's part, all things considered, and poor old Kevin had to pay all! Tug was not Kevin's favourite person after that event.

Who was it who finished up in the storm drain?
This guy was a character in his own right and very entertaining but I think his best effort was when disembarking from the bus that ran from the Britannia Club to the dockyard in Singapore. The guy in question was somewhat confused and erratic from the amount of beer he had consumed - most unusual indeed - and whilst disembarking from the bus, he got a bit too much speed up coming down the steps and his mimentum carried him forward into one of those great yawning drains full of everything you can imagine as well as the sewerage. Here was this guy, up to his armpits in the proverbial creek. We hauled him out with the aid of a bamboo pole and he stunk to high heaven. He stripped off everything, except his cap, and we hosed him down on the wharf with a fire hose. He went aboard, saluted the quarterdeck and picked up his watch card.

SLt Rod Taylor
Subbie Taylor, I believe, won the Queen's Award for Navigatin whilst at RAN College. When he first joined Quiberon his part of ship was the Captain's Office as Correspondence Officer. Our Navigating Officer at the time was Lt Tek Wishart and after he made an error of calculation he became the Laundry & Library Officer and Rod became our Navigator. Subbie Taylor dstinguished himself and also went on to become Chief of Naval Staff and retired on 30th June, 1997 as Vice Admiral Rod Taylor AO.
He is shown third from the left int the front row of the ship's company photograph