With the Gulf in her wake, Type 23 frigate HMS Marlborough had set course for the Seychelles and a four-day break – news that was greeted with enthusiasm by a ship’s company who had managed just two days ashore at a military base in Bahrain in almost three months.

With the Indian Ocean living up to its tropical reputation – calm and azure-blue – the frigate crossed the Equator.

Unexpectedly, as the warship drew closer to the 0 degree latitude, the visibility which had been "gin-clear" all day started to close in. A strange mist swirled eerily around the ship, deadening sound and giving a strange oily look to the waters.

As a precautionary measure the Officer of the Watch piped fog lookouts to close up and ordered that they keep a sharp watch. The ship's foghorn sounded mournfully into the mist.

The older hands on board thought little of this, after all uncommon things commonly occur in this part of the world – when suddenly, there were two loud bangs.

For a moment there was quiet – people froze for a split second, waiting for the call to emergency stations, when the Officer Of the Watch came over main broadcast: “Bears! Bears! Bears on the fo’c’sle!”

Those who have never crossed the Equator may be unaware, but those who had been that way before knew that there was a price to pay for crossing the Equator, and King Neptune had sent his police and his bears to deliver a watery court summons on those who had not paid homage to him on previous occasions.

Through the ship they went, until summons had been issued to over half of the ship's company, and the disrespectful had been punished. Then they melted away just as swiftly as they had arisen – no one actually saw them go, but gone they were and those on board knew they would be back.

Sunday April 13 started with a glorious sunrise – it was going to be a beautiful day, The Officer of the Watch (Ops on his 38th birthday kept the morning as a special treat to himself) brought the ship to a halt just on the 0 degree latitude, and at 7.30 Hands to Bathe was piped.

Just as the first worthy was about to leap into the sea a fin rose from the water not 50 yards off the port side! It concentrated the mind, but all was well, as a small school of dolphins had joined the ship and, glad of such company, the swim commenced in waters more than a mile deep.

There was an excellent turn out to swim across the equator and a short race was held to co-ordinate the actual crossing of the line. The water was as warm as a bath, around 30 degrees, and the sun was already heating the deck to scorching temperatures.

As inviting as it was, Neptune was due on board – and it does not do to keep the King waiting. Sure enough, as the clock marked 8.30am, Neptune's special police arrived on the Bridge and bade the OOW summon those charged.

As some 86 members of the ship's company knelt humbly before the police and the bears on the flight deck, there was a great fanfare as His Majesty King Neptune, Lord of the Bath and holder of the Sought Warrant, rode on to the flight deck on his mighty wheeled chariot, accompanied by his lovely lady the Mermaid Ryan.

Suitably ensconced upon his mighty throne with his servants attending, King Neptune addressed the assembled masses.

There is an order to such matters and, as is befitting, the Master of the Court summoned the frigate's Commanding Officer, Capt Mark Anderson, to stand first before the King. The Captain was duly charged with:

• Failing to sort out sufficient decent visits for the ship's company.
• Previously, and with great sneakiness, passing under the line without paying proper respect by doing so in a submarine
• Timber shifting at Uckers – some sort of technical offence

The Executive Officer, Lt Cdr Phil Haslam, was summoned to stand beside the Captain as his charges were read, namely:

• That he was the Jimmy, and that was sufficient crime in itself.

Not unexpectedly, both the Captain and the First Lieutenant were found very guilty indeed. They were consequently passed to caring and gentle Doctor Allen and his lovely assistant Nurse Stan to ensure that they were medically fit to receive punishment, and having been found fit, were spruced up by Mad Barber McClung before being summarily cast to the bears.

Thus having dealt with Command, King Neptune sat long over the court proceedings as the role was called and man after man was found guilty and punished accordingly.

Those who had not passed over the line before were written into King Neptune's role book and received their punishment. Those who were more experienced, safe in the knowledge that their names were already in Neptune's great book, thought that they had earned right of passage, providing they paid proper homage. But a good number of them were thrown to the bears as well, just to be sure.

The passage to the island of Mahe took around five days, so the sailors were in a relaxed frame of mind as the frigate cruised past the silver beaches of the smaller islands en route for the port of Victoria.

Marlborough initially berthed at a commercial liner terminal, moving out the following day to make room for a cruise ship – vital to the country’s economy.

During the short visit much was made of the country’s tourist potential. By far the greatest attraction was the water sports, an amazing experience in warm, crystal-clear seas.

Deep-sea game fishing, scuba diving, jet-skiing and kayaking were all tried, and it was not necessary to go too far to find some interesting fish – two hammerhead and one reef shark, and a barracuda, were all caught from the ship while at anchor and duly returned to the deep unharmed.

Lying under a palm tree on a glorious beach figured high on the list of popular activities

Wildlife ashore proved a big attraction; bulky fruit bats whizz overhead day and night, and they are bigger than you would expect – the ship’s Flight Observer described them as “four-engine Lancaster bats”.

There are also tortoises, including the giant variety, and these creatures outnumber the human population of 80,000 by nearly two to one.

The ship weighed anchor as planned on April 18 after a visit which seemed all too short, and headed east on a passage of some 5,800 miles to Cairns in Australia.

Although easily within range of a Type 23, it made sense to call into Diego Garcia for a quick pit stop to refuel. This also allowed each watch one hour’s leave, for which many headed straight to the well-stocked American PX store.

There followed a succession of warm days and blue seas, during which preparations for forthcoming visits could be put in order. High on the agenda was routine maintenance, which had suffered a little while the ship was involved in operations off Iraq. As the sun shone, there was plenty of enthusiasm for upper-deck maintenance, ensuring she would look her best for official duties.

But there was also plenty of time for leisure, and the ship’s entertainment committee worked hard during the passage.

A well-received barbecue was followed by a flight deck movie on April 26, and the main event was staged on May 1 when Marlborough held a boxing competition.

The event really captured the imagination of the ship’s company as the promotional bandwagon really started to roll. Each boxer had a full entourage of trainers, promoters, manager, corner men and, of course, bikini girl – an interesting concept on a “stag ship” such as Marlborough.

The twist was that the boxers were blindfolded and wore enormous gloves, and it led to a memorable evening’s entertainment.

As the Captain was brought to the flight deck looking more like 007 in full DJ with large Havana, the lights went down and the spots picked out Marlborough’s resident rock god PO John Mullarky, who gave a rendition of God Save the Queen of which Jimi Hendrix would have been proud.

Boxers entered the arena through a cloud of smoke to their very own (and loud) theme tunes – Red Rooster, the Merseyside Brawler, Mad Dog, Madman, the Human Toucan, Windmill Wilson, Raging Bull, The Terminator, Prancing Proto, 815 Express, Prisoner Ramsey and Bungle from children’s television.

Don’t believe it was all for fun – Mess honour was at stake here, and the judges had to be certain of their scoring.

The event became even more surreal as the heavens opened and a monsoon rain teemed down, but the boxing went on regardless, with only the odd fat cigar dampened rather than the ship’s enthusiasm. And it was Bungle who went on to take the honours.

The following day found Marlborough entering the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and with Reef Pilot embarked the sailors had a close look at many of the islands that dot the sea in the region. Plenty vowed to return with scuba mask to study the area properly.

The ship’s helicopter was required to go aloft, and pilot Lt Cdr Lee Davies managed to give some of the ship’s company a chance to view the Reef from the air – resulting in some very happy sailors and some excellent pictures.

Part4: G’day to Australia as Marlborough calls in to Cairns