I wonder if you could help. I served in the Royal Navy and during 1985 spent five months at HMAS Kuttabul in Sydney on an exchange.

I met some good friends whilst there and, recently while looking through some old photos found some of a couple who also worked in the commcen at Kuttabul.

Their names were Trishka and Peter Power. They were both communications staff. They married in 1986 and I lost contact with them. They may well have moved to Tasmania, but I am not sure.

Is there any way I may be able to contact them, either through Navy News as they may still be serving, or some other contact website?

I would appreciate your assistance in this matter and I look forward to your response.

I can be contacted at Tel; 07802 432571 Fax; 07092 253736 or e-mail Kevinwhitehouse@bigfoot.com

K. Whitehouse
Birmingham, England

Tragedy averted?

I read with dismay the events that occurred recently onboard HMAS Darwin with the tragic loss of one of our own at sea. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to his family and his shipmates who have been left behind to make sense of what has happenend.

It is some comfort to know that the Navy is convening a board of inquiry to investigate the reasons behind this tragedy and ways of preventing its reoccurance.

I have served at sea and have witnessed the rigorous regime of man overboard exercises that are conducted on a daily basis.

Unfortunately this system relies on someone seeing or hearing the person fall into the water so that the alarm can be raised and is therefore not completely fool-proof.

Factors such as noise and lack of light (for example at night) may cause the sound of a body hitting the water to go unnoticed. I am not, in any way, suggesting that man-overboard sentries are not effective, however, I feel that this system of prevention needs to be reinforced.

Currently all ships come with EPIRBS (Emergency Position Indicating Radiobeacons). Perhaps we can go one step further and provide each sailor onboard with a personal EPIRB.

Most are small enough to fit in the top pocket of pair of overalls and are just as effective as the large units we currently have. At a retail price of $250 to $400 depending on brand, I would think that it would be a small price to pay to help prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

LSET Jason Clark
HMAS Waterhen

A cut above

Congratulations on another excellent article on aspects of naval history. Tom Lewis has described the use of the cutlass in the sailing navies but states that the RN stopped official use of the cutlass in 1936.

However, cutlasses may have been used in one of the great actions of WWII. In Night Action off Cape Matapan by S.W.C. Pack, following the crippling of the Italian cruiser Pola, HMS Jervis went alongside to take off survivors. Author Pack takes up the story based on an eyewitness account by Jervis' first lieutenant:

"'A' gun's crew, scenting fun, armed themselves with cutlasses kept for such an occasion in the fo'c'sle locker, and prepared to capture by boarding.

A perfect approach, and over went a heaving line thrown by the captain of the fo'c'sle and accompanied by the cry 'Take this, you b-gg-rs'. Take it they did, and our wires were hauled in with alacrity and the ship secured alongside. Uttering blood-curdling cries, 'A'gun's crew swarmed on board the Pola. Only 257 of a ship's company of 1000 remained, and they were huddled, cowed, on the fo'c'sle ..."

Coming from such a reliable source, the account is likely to be accurate. It seems that Jack Tar was as ready as ever to take up his traditional weapon of choice, even in 1941.

LEUT R. Partridge