- Author
- Whitehouse, John
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, Ship histories and stories
- Tags
- RAN Ships
- HMAS Canberra I
- Publication
- March 2003 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
We went on to Melbourne and then Sydney. I was in charge of our fast motor boat, the Skimming Dish. Crossing Sydney Harbour one of the big ferries decided to take the Mickey – the maritime equivalent of Sledging – which made me wonder whether to risk crossing her bows or trust to being able to survive in her wake. Eventually I saw a buoy – whose purpose was quite obvious – but I thought there might be enough water on the wrong side of it for a Skimming Dish – and left the propeller and rudder on a sewage pipe. I was towed back, in disgrace, to the ship where my punishment was to learn two verses of Waltzing Matilda – then entirely unknown – together with translation. We found it in a book called Cobbers, luckily. The Commander looked at me sadly and said
‘Burfield. Your first command!’