The Ship Model Forum

There was an interview with Dorsetshire's First Officer on that video I sent you if memory serves.

Was this the book you mean about Cornwall? it was published in 1984:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/FrameBase?content=%2Fservlet%2FListingDetails%3Fshowpic=1%26%26showpicurl=http://pictures.abebooks.com/GASPER/1083226755.jpg

Or this one from Agar himself published in 1961, which has a chapter on his time on Dorsetshire:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/FrameBase?content=%2Fservlet%2FListingDetails%3Fshowpic=1%26%26showpicurl=http://pictures.abebooks.com/CAPRICORN/688271144.jpg

I have copies of both. I assume you read something which raised suspicions and then wrote to him?

In the second book written by Agar published 1961
p173:

"But time was running on. It was now past the middle of March and over one month since the Surrender of Singapore. Our ships had dry-docked and consequently, with a clean bottom, could do our full thirty knots in practice, but we were also sadly in need of a short refit to our engines and boilers, plus the fitting of our A.A. guns and new radar set. This could be carried out only in Colombo, so, in spite of the congestion of shipping in the harbour, we had to go there for a two-weeks' short refit before forming part of Admiral Somerville's Eastern Fleet, leaving Richard Onslow as Senior Naval Office of "Trinco"

p.175:
Working day and night, our engineers in Dorsetshire started to dismantle and refit our engines and boilers. The ship had been steaming almost continuously for eight months since leaving our last dockyard port in England. The boilers particularly needed a good scrape. We received what assistance we could get from the workshops on shore, but this amounted to little, as Colombo was normally a commercial port of transit and could carry out repairs only of a minor kind.
I dared not risk doing too much, or dismantling machinery which could not be put back at twenty- four hours' notice, for fear of the expected air attack. The engineering staff were all working below like beavers, and only those who have worked in the tropics can appreciate the physical difficulties of handling pieces of metal in hot engine- and boiler-rooms. As for our aircraft carriers, it was impossible to make engine adjustments in the middle of the day under a burning tropical sun, except under awnings.
........Our Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, Admiral Sommerville, called a conference of his Captains soon after his arrival on 26th March, when he unfolded his plans and made his intentions clear to us. As a result I cancelled our refit immediately and brought the ship to short notice. Boilers and engines had to be put together again.

p.177-179:
We sailed from Colombo in company with the Cornwall as soon as our engineers could reassemble their bits and pieces of machinery..................Nothing, however, came of this, and evidently Nagumo had turned back. The next two days we remained at sea doing more exercises and oiling the destroyers from our ships. We then received a signal from Somerville to proceed at once to Colombo to complete our short refit, and the Cornwall was also to go there and pick up a homeward bound convoy from Australia and refit at the Cape.
These orders were unexpected and to me rather puzzling. I knew the Admiral disliked having ships at sea which needed refitting. He was also anxious for us to be refitted with the additional anti-aircraft guns which by now were due at Colombo, as well as a modern radar set. We therefore left the Fleet. On arrival the next morning at Colombo the engineers started again to dismantle the machinery and clean the boilers, I reported at once to Admiral Arbuthnot at his Operational Headquarters, and was told that some of the light anti-aircraft guns we needed had arrived and would be mounted as soon as the fittings were ready, which would be within forty-eight hours. It was a Saturday, and the next day was Easter Sunday. In the meantime we were allowed a fortnight for the refit before rejoining the Fleet.
That Saturday afternoon another urgent message summoned me again to the Operations Room. Our Catalina aircraft had reported, and was shadowing, a large force of enemy carriers accompanied by Battleships and cruisers steering west from the Malacca Straits. It was Nagumo's force, and the attack on Colombo was obviously on. Somerville had reached Addu Atoll with both divisions of the Fleet [fast and slow]. He ordered Dorsetshire and Cornwall to rejoin with all despatch, leaving the selection of rendezvous to Operational Headquarters in Colombo.

p.180
....We managed to get clear our ships clear of Colombo Harbour by 10p.m., two hours before the C-in-C sailed from Addu Atoll in the Warspite with the fast division of the Fleet.

p.182.
Or radar screen was a small one of the very earliest type, which picked up objects only at short distances. It was, like our short-range A.A. weapons, due to be replaced during the refit by a more up-to-date set.

p.183.
A Jap plane flew down over the ship, firing his machine-guns indiscriminately in a triumphant burst into the men on the decks and in the water. I remember shaking my fist up at him as one of our crew returned fire with a machine-gun mounted on the searchlight platform. He was a brave Marine bugler.

Thank you for educating me re some of my "boxes" being the fixed navigation lights on the front of the mast.
NOT NAVIGATION LIGHTS. They are fixed MANEUVERING lights.

You agree then that the 291 had some form of "box" ("small housing at the base of the vertical that contains the gearing mechanism, allowing the aerial to rotate") underneath it on the rear of the mast.
NOT A BOX, but small housing.

I take it that you would agree that this would not be there if the 286 was fitted at the time of the photo?
286 DOES NOT HAVE ANY HOUSING, framework is strapped to mast! Aerial CANNOT ROTATE, therefore NO need for housing.

Do you not see this "box/small housing" on the undated masthead photo I am trying to date (in addition to the navigation light "box" slightly lower than it on the front of the mast)?

Great. Can I then take you back to this undated picture.

I would suggest that a 291 gearing housing is visible on this.

Before doing that can you please say whether or not you see a 291 gearing housing on the undated photo in question.

Why? Its a straightforward question. Seeing the rest of the picture should not influence whether or not you can see a 291 gearing housing at the top of the foremast in the crop I have posted.

Dear ar,

Re lights terminology:

Yes, I agree with you that there is often less detailed labeling on the As Fitteds in the war years. Nevertheless I have seen General Arrangement As Fitteds of wartime destroyer builds where the lights have been labeled perfectly conventionally with no sign of “maneuvering” lights. What ship/date/shipyard is this WT rig you have seen of? Which lights in particular are labeled “maneuvering” lights? Can we see this WT rig please?

The attachment I posted came from a 1943 Admiralty handbook so the lights in question were certainly called navigation lights. Like I said, everyone I have spoken to says they were (and are) navigation lights

Re yardarms:

You are misinterpreting my words. I am well aware that Express’s upper yardarm had signal halyards – 4 as far as I can tell.

As I said, her upper yardarm was less substantial than the lower yardarm. The yard itself was little over half the length of the lower yardarm and roughly half its diameter. In some conditions it is very hard to see – even in silhouette views against the sky. But I think it was there in late 1941. In the port broadside view of her, the one of her in the overall grey taken on re-commissioning at Chatham, she is flying a flag hoist. The uppermost flag is clearly higher than the lower yardarm strongly suggesting an upper yardarm is present.

I look forward to seeing your photos in due course.

Best wishes,

Dick