MESSAGE
FROM THE 1st CO, Admiral Sir Derek Reffell
I very much regret
not being able to be with you this week-end, but send this message
through John Train, to be read out at a suitable time. The date has
been in my diary for months, coming immediately after a visit to
friends in Seattle and a cruise up the Alaskan coast – a rare
opportunity for some sea-time, but in comfort and without
watch-keeping or responsibilities! Our return date was to have been
before this week-end, allowing us to attend Sunday’s Church Service.
However, to my horror, when everything else was booked and we came to
arrange the flights, we could not get back to Heathrow until 1145 on
Sunday, too late for us to join you all. A great disappointment –
but I have to admit that such a story related at the Captain’s Table
by an absentee would have got the comment ‘a very good reason, but
no bloody excuse!’
For
me Sirius has always been very special: I was her first Captain and
she was my first Fleet Command. When we went off to Portland for
work-up, FOST told me that first commissions are very important
because they set the tone for the rest of a ship’s life. I reckon we
did a pretty good job and gave Sirius a good reputation from the
beginning. This was not my doing, but the result of the sterling
efforts of the whole Ship’s Company: and that reputation was
maintained by subsequent Ship’s Companies, as I discovered when I
embarked briefly in the ship off the Falklands in 1982.
Of
course we were helped by a unique programme: our Pacific visits to
Australia, New Zealand and several islands, culminating in Tonga for
the King’s Coronation. Unforgettable, and a fascinating time for us
all.
So,
my apologies for not being with you on this important Anniversary: my
thanks to all in the First Commission for their unremitting efforts
and the resulting successes; and my congratulations to all those Dog
Stars who came after us for maintaining the highest standards. I hope
you will enjoy this Reunion and only regret that I am not with you all
.