Ready for sea with a new navy ... CHAP Renfrey.

Sixteen years ago Adelaide clergyman Ed Renfrey enlisted as a chaplain in the Royal Navy when he found there was no vacancy in the RAN.

Last year when there was a change in family circumstances, including his father Bishop Lionel Renfrey suffering strokes, CHAP Renfrey resigned from the RN and secured enlistment in the RAN chaplaincy service.

He donned the white uniform of the RAN and is currently undergoing a course of introduction in HMAS CRESWELL. "But I think I will be at sea shortly," the 47-year-old father of three said.

"I might also find myself in East Timor."

After he joined the RN in 1984 the former parish rector from Kingston-Robe near Mount Gambier was posted to the Royal Marines.

"In 1985 I was deployed in HMS DANAE (Leander class frigate) to the Falklands.

"The place still held large numbers of British defence people," he said when asked if the Falklands were still tense, three years after the war between Britain and Argentina.

"I was there for three months," he said.

Other ships in which CHAP Renfrey served included HMS AJAX and the Type 22 sister ships BRILLIANT, BRAZEN, BROADSWORD and BATTLEAXE.

"All four Type 22s are now part of the Brazilian Navy," he explained. He is living in Sydney with his family.