The mention of HMS Iron Duke’s visit to St Vincent and the volcano brought back some memories for me.

When St Austell Bay visited the island, three of us went off for the weekend to climb the local extinct volcano Mount Soufriere.

Landing on the Saturday we reported, as instructed, to the police station in Kingstown, where we secured a lift on a Landrover to Georgetown.
The vehicle was well laden with people returning to their village, policemen on weekend leave, prisoners just released from prison, a very large block of ice – and three matelots perched precariously on the tailgate!

We had anticipated sleeping in the open when we reached the foot of the volcano, but when we reported to the police Sergeant Major (along with the block of ice) he vetoed this and provided beds in a spare dormitory and the use of the ‘high tech’ cooking facilities – getting the charcoal braziers going was a bit tricky at first!

During the evening two off-duty constables took us to the local Saturday evening ‘hop,’ a patch of bare earth, the bar a small hut, and the music canned.

As we were the only ‘white honkies’ there we attracted a certain amount of interest!

On the Sunday morning an auxiliary constable guided us up the volcano – all 4048 feet or it, hard work climbing up through the luxuriant forest, with light but all loose from the dust – two or three feet up and one foot slipping back.
When we reached the crater rim it was rather misty, but you could just see the far side of the crater and the lake in the bottom one thousand feet down!
We had just started our midday meal of ship’s biscuit when the peace was shattered by the arrival of the party from the ship which had reached the foot of the volcano by bus.