As we rounded the northwestern corner of Java down Sunda Straits the cruiser HMS Exeter passed us proceeding northward. (Three days later she was to be badly hit in the battle of the Java Sea and had to withdraw out of the action. This was the battle in which HMAS Perth was finally sunk on 1 March 1942, along with USS Houston—not far from Toppers Island, just off Merak, where 25 Perth survivors were cast ashore from wreckage and from the water). We also saw more of those US flush-deck destroyers which also took part subsequently in the Java Sea battle.

On board Deucalion, of about 7000 tons, were 450 RAF, RNZAF and RAAF personnel. Our sleeping and living quarters were on the main deck. One of Doug Forder's photographs shows George, Andrew and me stretched out in sleeping order on that deck—me with my sarong as a blanket, Andrew with his groundsheet, and George with an old check pullover he had scrounged from the Captain of the Deucalion, (using his influence not only as a senior RAAF officer but as a former officer of the Merchant Marine). The several photographs taken by Doug Forder during our adventures form a record in themselves and are a tribute to his imperturbability.

Sleeping space in Deucalion: Hannay, Murfett and Mackey. (Photograph courtesy of D. H. Forder.)

A N.Z. officer, Mackey, Hannay and Murfett (mostly obscured behind Hannay's knee) in Deucalion. (Photograph courtesy of D. H. Forder.)

Forder in Deucalion. (Photograph courtesy of D. H. Forder.)

Bureau of Meteorology