HMS ICKFORD
Michael Starkey countered the Indonesian Confrontation of Malaysia (1963-1966) from the confines of this small, steel-hulled Seaward Defence Boat that was not designed for the tropics. Here he recalls his life in the ship and events during 1964 to 1966
Michael Starkey countered the Indonesian Confrontation of Malaysia (1963-1966) from the confines of this small, steel-hulled Seaward Defence Boat that was not designed for the tropics. Here he recalls his life in the ship and events during 1964 to 1966
HMS ICKFORD in UK waters.
Twenty 'Ford' class Seaward Defence Boats were ordered post-war and came into RN service during the 1950's. SPECIFICATIONS: Length: 117' 3" (17.7M) x Beam 20' (6M) x Draught 6' 6" (2M). Displacement: 120T. Machinery: 3 x Diesel engines to 3 shafts producing 20 knots. Complement 19. Armament: 1 x 40mm and 2 x 20mm guns and could include depth charges.
Mike Starkey contacted me early in 2011 saying 'Little has been said or mentioned over the years about the part played by minor warships during the Indonesian/Singapore confrontation against communism. Having served on one during that time, I thought this little extract would be of interest.' He is absolutely right on both counts and I am pleased to add his story with pictures to my HMS TERROR (Singapore) pages for the record.
Three of the four Singapore-based SDB's dwarfed by a carrier in the dockyard 1965.
Mike explains, 'During the confrontation a type of minor warship called a Seaward Defence Boat (SDB) was used for anti-infiltration patrols against communist insurgents trying to enter Singapore. These insurgents, using small motorised sampans, were trying to enter Singapore with weapons and/or explosives, or land as agents. The SDB's patrolled the inshore waters around Singapore to locate, stop and arrest them. Ton class minesweepers patrolled waters further afield as far as Borneo, doing the same thing.'
I joined the Ickford by way of a pier head jump. My draft was the Mull of Kintyre, a depot ship tied up in the naval dockyard, not really doing very much. The Mull Of Kintyre was not a live ship, nothing was flashed-up, only some electrical auxiliary machinery, and nobody lived on board. I was a killick stoker and my boss was a Chief Stoker, who was RA and I really did not see a lot of him, I remember he did have a big Humber car. Our job was to maintain and control the marine engineering spare gear/parts for all the minor war vessels based in the area (cushy number, especially as our office was HQ1 and air conditioned). I was more or less my own boss and my duties were mainly maintaining stock levels, there was a large store room allocated below decks; I had the use of a tilley (van) or truck and prepared the signals for replenishment, then taking them to the office in the dockyard and picking up any stores that had arrived. One day a summons to the Engineer's Office "Starkey the Ickford is short of a killick stoker, you are joining tomorrow.' 'The SDB was about the size of an inshore minesweeper, very basic and sparse in accommodation and facilities. There were two mess-decks, one for'ard and one aft. The after mess, which could accommodate about four, was used by the stokers while the for'ard mess, which could accommodate about twelve, was used by the seaman and other branches. There was a midships flat (below the open bridge), off which was the wardroom, galley, W/T office and the Coxswain/COB (chief of the boat) cabin.'
Two pictures of the Forward Messedeck
He continues, 'Normal patrol compliment was about seventeen. I recall that there was the Captain, and two other officers, Coxswain, four engine room, one sparker (wireless telegraphist) and one greenie,(electrician) the remainder being mainly, I think, seamen. We were a close knit community, everybody got on well, knew their job and carried on without hassle. Great small ship life. I remember that a few of the crew were RA (rationed (living) ashore) and that some, like myself, were victualled in Terror. 'There were about five heads on board, two in the for'ard mess, two in the galley flat and one in the after mess, each with a hand basin and toilet. Each basin and toilet was supplied with salt water from the firemain and the toilet emptied and operated by a series of valves and a hand pump (similar to a submarine). If you did it wrong, you cleaned up the mess. There were saltwater showers on the upper deck and salt water soap was available.' 'There were no fresh water facilities for personal use on board. Fresh water, used only for cooking, tea/coffee etc. was obtained from a header tank in the galley, which had to be filled by a hand pump from the main storage tank (another job for the stokers).
We did not carry a chef. All meals were prepared and cooked by a "volunteer" from the seaman branch. In reality, as we were mainly doing night patrols there was not a lot that the seaman/chef had to do.' 'I do not know what the normal armament for an SDB would have been but, there was a fixed Bofor on the fo'csle. Due to the nature of the patrol work required, each SDB was fitted with additional armament. For the Ickford this was:
Twin Vickers machine gun mounted at the bow.
Mortar for firing parachute illuminating flares mounted on the fo'csle.
A Bren gun mounted on each bridge wing.
A Bren gun mounted at each stern quarter.' 'Besides the fixed armament, each crew member was provided with a personal weapon, either a Webley .38 revolver and/or a Stirling and as many live rounds as you could carry. In my case, I had a Stirling and Webley.38 revolver.
Usually. we only did night patrols. Although, I remember one time we were sent all the way to the Malacca Straits for a few days patrol there. Typically, our routine would be:
We would leave the dockyard in the early/late afternoon, without knowing our patrol area. Once clear of the river, we would receive a signal giving our patrol area (this signal would be in code and be de-coded by a machine that was very similar to the enigma one).
On the way to the patrol area and in the open sea we would practice live firing with all weapons at various targets thrown overboard. Then secure and proceed to watchkeeping duties. The stokers, myself and two others, were in three watches (for what it was worth as you will see later). The 'chef' would provide some sort of meal, just basic and plain. If you wanted tea, coffee or limer's (no ice though) you got your own.Just before dusk and approaching the patrol area we would darken ship.
We would then steam around in our patrol area, keeping radar watch. If a suspicious contact was seen, we would go to action stations and increase speed to intercept. (Bearing in mind that this could happen anytime and possibly many times between sunset and sunrise. Often we were called to action stations only to find it was half a tree floating around). If it was a sampan, we would illuminate with searchlights and flares.'
'Note: In the early days at the beginning of these patrols, an intercepted sampan would be brought alongside and searched. But when one of our Ton class minesweeper's (the Dartington I think) was doing this, the sampan exploded, it had been booby-trapped. I think two matelots were killed and others injured. After that, we never boarded sampans. We went up pretty close and the occupants had a choice, to either swim to us or, to bump alongside climb onboard and let the sampan float free. At the slightest sign of any trouble, we just left them. It was after this event that we were allowed to leave the engine room hatch open for ventilation, although the black-out curtains were still drawn.' 'Once the crew of the sampan were, on board they were handcuffed to a guardrail (being handled very carefully cough, cough !!) and the Singapore marine police advised by radio. We then proceeded to sink the sampan, either by small arms fire or, by some sort of explosive the seamen threw into the sampan. The sampan either blew up with a big bang or quietly, because sometimes they were smugglers (electrical goods, clothing, cigarettes etc). We would then rendezvous with the Singapore police launch, who would take the prisoners into custody.'
We did not carry a chef. All meals were prepared and cooked by a "volunteer" from the seaman branch. In reality, as we were mainly doing night patrols there was not a lot that the seaman/chef had to do.' 'I do not know what the normal armament for an SDB would have been but, there was a fixed Bofor on the fo'csle. Due to the nature of the patrol work required, each SDB was fitted with additional armament. For the Ickford this was:
Twin Vickers machine gun mounted at the bow.
Mortar for firing parachute illuminating flares mounted on the fo'csle.
A Bren gun mounted on each bridge wing.
A Bren gun mounted at each stern quarter.' 'Besides the fixed armament, each crew member was provided with a personal weapon, either a Webley .38 revolver and/or a Stirling and as many live rounds as you could carry. In my case, I had a Stirling and Webley.38 revolver.
Usually. we only did night patrols. Although, I remember one time we were sent all the way to the Malacca Straits for a few days patrol there. Typically, our routine would be:
We would leave the dockyard in the early/late afternoon, without knowing our patrol area. Once clear of the river, we would receive a signal giving our patrol area (this signal would be in code and be de-coded by a machine that was very similar to the enigma one).
On the way to the patrol area and in the open sea we would practice live firing with all weapons at various targets thrown overboard. Then secure and proceed to watchkeeping duties. The stokers, myself and two others, were in three watches (for what it was worth as you will see later). The 'chef' would provide some sort of meal, just basic and plain. If you wanted tea, coffee or limer's (no ice though) you got your own.Just before dusk and approaching the patrol area we would darken ship.
We would then steam around in our patrol area, keeping radar watch. If a suspicious contact was seen, we would go to action stations and increase speed to intercept. (Bearing in mind that this could happen anytime and possibly many times between sunset and sunrise. Often we were called to action stations only to find it was half a tree floating around). If it was a sampan, we would illuminate with searchlights and flares.'
'Note: In the early days at the beginning of these patrols, an intercepted sampan would be brought alongside and searched. But when one of our Ton class minesweeper's (the Dartington I think) was doing this, the sampan exploded, it had been booby-trapped. I think two matelots were killed and others injured. After that, we never boarded sampans. We went up pretty close and the occupants had a choice, to either swim to us or, to bump alongside climb onboard and let the sampan float free. At the slightest sign of any trouble, we just left them. It was after this event that we were allowed to leave the engine room hatch open for ventilation, although the black-out curtains were still drawn.' 'Once the crew of the sampan were, on board they were handcuffed to a guardrail (being handled very carefully cough, cough !!) and the Singapore marine police advised by radio. We then proceeded to sink the sampan, either by small arms fire or, by some sort of explosive the seamen threw into the sampan. The sampan either blew up with a big bang or quietly, because sometimes they were smugglers (electrical goods, clothing, cigarettes etc). We would then rendezvous with the Singapore police launch, who would take the prisoners into custody.'
'As I said, if a contact was seen on the radar you went to action stations regardless of your duties. If you were in your bunk you got up and if you were lucky you got back in it after securing from action stations. If you were not, you went on watch. Many patrol's were carried out with the crew not getting any sleep at all.' 'Just before sunrise you would leave the patrol area and proceed back to the dockyard. After securing alongside we would store and replenish ship; water, fuel, provisions, stores, ammunition etc. then secure about mid-morning. The RA's would proceed home and the rest to Terror (often to be stopped at the Main Gate by some pompous regulator who wanted to know why we were not in the rig of the day and who was promptly told to Foxtrot Oscar. We were treated a bit different so could get away with a few things). Then it was a tot, shower, shave, s--- and shampoo before dinner, head down for a few hours and back on board by the end of the afternoon watch, to start all over again. Occasionally, we had a few days and the odd weekend off. 'Quite a few patrols were of two or three nights duration, where during daylight, we would anchor off an island and perhaps have a small banyan ashore and make use of the salt water showers. That was when the seaman/chef came into his own.'
'During this period my promotion for Petty Officer came through and I was rated up. Rather than be drafted, I requested to remain on board. The request was granted and I became Chief of the Boat, I was not given a relief so I still had to keep watches and carry on with the killick's duties as well (water/fuel, naval stores, spare gear etc). I did not have a problem with this'
'During this period my promotion for Petty Officer came through and I was rated up. Rather than be drafted, I requested to remain on board. The request was granted and I became Chief of the Boat, I was not given a relief so I still had to keep watches and carry on with the killick's duties as well (water/fuel, naval stores, spare gear etc). I did not have a problem with this'
HMS ICKFORD ship's company with 'Trophy Board' in Telok Ayer Basin, Singapore c.1965. Mike, now a PO, at the top of picture and Captain on the right..(See also * below)
In explanation of the picture Mike wrote 'They piped hands to muster on the fo'csle in the rig of the day for ship's company photo. I had to hide at the back as I was in the stoker's rig of the day, overalls.
The seaman to my left was an A/B who manned one of the quarterdeck bren guns and during a gun action used to fire it from the hip (he was a big bloke). The Captain was Lt. Cameron, the best CO I had; I met him again in the early 80's in HMS Flying Fox, Bristol, when he was a Commander and the Area Officer for the South West Area of the Sea Cadet Corp. Sadly, he Crossed the Bar not long after'
In explanation of the picture Mike wrote 'They piped hands to muster on the fo'csle in the rig of the day for ship's company photo. I had to hide at the back as I was in the stoker's rig of the day, overalls.
The seaman to my left was an A/B who manned one of the quarterdeck bren guns and during a gun action used to fire it from the hip (he was a big bloke). The Captain was Lt. Cameron, the best CO I had; I met him again in the early 80's in HMS Flying Fox, Bristol, when he was a Commander and the Area Officer for the South West Area of the Sea Cadet Corp. Sadly, he Crossed the Bar not long after'
HIs 'personal feelings about this period' (Webmaster's emphasisis) are 'On joining Ganges and through my naval career until joining the Ickford, never once did it occur to me that I might be involved in a war situation. We have all carried out exercises and work up's when we are called "for exercise" to action stations however, I can truthfully say that being called to action stations for real is an entirely different thing, hairy and scary. I remember my first time to this day. And it was even more hairy and scary when I experienced my first gun action when there was incoming live rounds with return fire on our part. But, as time went on, you got used to it and carried on as if this kind of life was normal. To my knowledge, nothing much has ever been said about this period of action by the RN, even though the battle was won. Not easily, but in difficult, dangerous and uncomfortable conditions/situations. I don't think we even got 'hard layers' (extra payments). I have an oppo that lives locally who was a killick seaman and the buffer of the Tilford, the same time I was on the Ickford, who wears the Oak Leaves on his campaign medal (Oak leaves indicate the award of a Mentioned In Dispatches).'
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This HMS ICKFORD segment first published online 2011 and since revised