It's not easy to get access to a working naval dockyard, especially for a historical quest!
But I was determined to try and see whether the ships that feature in my novel, The Girl from Simon's Bay, were immortalised on the walls of the famous dry dock in Simon's Town. I approached the South African Navy to see if they could tell me whether any of "my" four ships' crests were displayed and whether I could take a look for myself. After a few weeks, and after accepting that I was no particular threat to national security (!), they agreed to let me in. And so, one windy afternoon, I found myself in the company of charming Media Liaison officer, Lizzie, pacing around the perimeter.
The dry dock, built over a hundred years ago and one of the biggest in the southern hemisphere, is truly enormous: 240 m long and scarily deep! It's only possible to identify crests from the opposite side - leaning over a precipitous drop is not a good idea. We circled the perimeter - I really needed binoculars - and to my delight, we found 3 of the 4. There was HMS Dorsetshire with its golden prancing lion crest, there was the rather tiny badge of HMS Durban, and there was HMS Cumberland when it entered the dry dock in 1941 and 1945 for repairs... with its motto Justitiae Tenax meaning Tenacious of justice.
My visit also revealed a further, poignant tradition. It is expected that every ship to enter the dock has an unwritten obligation not only to paint its own crest on the wall, but to touch up the faded ones of yesteryear.
And so my ships and their proud histories, along with many others, live on...
Perhaps some adaptation of a "selfie stick" may do the trick to get to some of the images!
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