Commissioning With these ships in the latter part of 1943 being turned out so quickly many of the British sailors viewed these all welded constructions with some trepidation preferring to believe the traditional all riveted ships would be much safer when very bad weather or damage was to occur, how wrong they were, apart from the odd bit of skimpy welding these ships stood up to all the Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea could throw at them as well as enemy action. When first boarding the ships we were very surprised to find the mess decks were comparatively roomy. Another shock was that we stowed our hammocks away for the duration because the American way of life was for comfort and was carried into their armed forces which meant the British sailor would be sleeping on bunk beds, which most thought were superior to hammocks. Another pleasant surprise was the innovation of a cafeteria messing system as was found on all US Navy ships, where meals were taken from the galley into a separate serving area which was equipped with dish- washing machines, ice cream makers and coffee percolators. Another surprise was a small laundry and to top it all iced drinking water fountains. In the toilet area (Heads) there was even a shower. Unlike the Destroyers of Royal Navy where Officers Wardroom and cabins were under the quarterdeck, in the Destroyer Escorts the officers accommodation was located in the main forward superstructure leaving space below for messdecks. When it came time to christen the ship a local lady from Boston of some importance would sponsor the ship as well as swing a bottle of champagne on to the bows, when this ceremony was completed the ship would be commissioned into the British Royal Navy. Working Up After the crew had taking possession of the ship and stowed all their gear, the next few days were taken up with embarking stores, fuel and ammunition, then they had to forget their life away from the war and come down to earth to prepare for a life at sea. The first week was spent making daily trips to sea from Charlestown Navy Yard for acceptance trials to be carried out. One feature which very soon became apparent was the superb handling quality of the DE's, their twin rudders enabled them to make a very tight turn. It is on record that one of the Buckley Class on trials made a 180 degree turn at 24 knots in the extremely short distance of 410 yards and only took 70 seconds to complete the manoeuvre. One rather unpleasant feature appeared when on these acceptance trials they ventured a little further out to sea and found rather choppy water these ships then started behaving like bucking broncos, for which the crews coined the phrase (Rolling on a Wet Teacloth) This feature was caused by the lack of top weight due to the British ships having no torpedo tubes as opposed to the US DE's which carried a triple set of torpedo tubes on the superstructure midships which of course gave them more stability, it was the speed of the roll which did the damage, it took some of the seasoned men some time to get over their sea sickness. After this acceptance trial was over the really hard work started, first stop was to Casco Bay, Portland, Maine where the main work involved Anti Submarine exercises which when completed after three weeks, the ships then proceeded on to Bermuda where the main work up was undertaken to try and make sure the crews which were mainly young men were up to scratch to undertake the voyage back to the home port of Belfast, this was eagerly looked forward to as it meant a spell of home leave. Some of the ships came home as part of convoy escorts, some made solo trips, and others escorted large R.N.ships which had been in the United States being repaired or refitted. THE WESTERN APPROACHES COMMAND Having completed their working up the ships crossed over to Belfast in twos and threes as additional escorts to convoys etc; as previously stated and on reaching Belfast all ships came under the command of Western Approaches. They then entered Pollock Dock for modification refits as thought necessary by the Admiralty, which lasted for a few weeks. The first modifications were to take out the Ice Cream maker, the Iced Water Fountains, the Dishwashers, some ships had their Laundries removed, but the most annoying thing was the removal of the Cafeteria messing to be replaced by the dreaded General messing(The kind you got in barracks) at least they left us with our small bit of comfort, OUR BUNKS. The main changes were to enhance the fighting efficiency of the ships, extra ready rails to carry depth charges were welded along the upper deck each side of a ship, this gave the ship a bit more stability and enabled the ships to carry approximately 200 depth charges. Most of the steel work around the binnacle had to be replaced by non-ferrous materials, and communications had to be installed between the bridge and the radar office, also the radio office and the HF/DF cabin. The Arma gyro compasses being inefficient, and had to be replaced with the Admiralty pattern Sperry units, and the Type 128D/DV Asdic sets were modified to Type 144 and 147B sets were added. Living accommodation and bathrooms were covered with the latest Admiralty insulating material (cork granules). The pitometer log had to be resited, and improvement of stowage in the provision rooms was carried out. The mark 4 elevating column Oerlikon mountings almost impossible to maintain at sea were replaced with the simple Mk V1A mountings. Splinter shields were supposed to be fitted to all 3 inch guns but not many of the ships had this carried out. There were 109 items for replacement or improvement on the Evart class and 94 on the Buckleys. As all the modifications were completed the individual ships were allocated to Western Approach Command who allocated them to an active group, some spent time as supernumeraries until more ships became available to form another group. The groups were formed with three Buckleys and three Evarts at Belfast being the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, and later in the war the 15th, made up of all Evarts and the 21st, all Buckleys. Others were sent to mixed groups such as an old destroyer and some corvettes. Quite a number of Buckleys were transferred to the Nore, Portsmouth and Devonport Commands to join local flotillas and were employed as Costal Forces Command Ships, and were instrumental in fighting the E Boats in the North Sea and the English Channel during the Normandy Landings, they were also used to escort convoys in those areas. Three of the Evarts class were converted to become Command ships off the Gold and Sword beaches during the invasion. FINAL TRAINING AND GROUP FORMATION As the modifications were completed ships were directed to Tobermoray where they had to suffer the harsh but thorough training regime of Admiral 'Monkey' Stephenson, after emerging feeling battered and bruised, but very efficient they were allocated to whichever Escort Group or Port Division in which they were to serve. How the Admiralty devised the Escort Groups has always remained a mystery to their crews. The first Escort Group to be formed was the 4th followed by the 3rd then the 1st and the 5th all at Belfast, then later in the war the 15th. And later still the 21st also were formed to be operative from Belfast, after they had completed their part during the invasion in fighting the German E-Boats. Some of the ships also served in mixed escort groups, for example an old V & W Destroyer,a Captain Class Frigate, a River Class Frigate and a couple of Corvettes, or some similar permutation. © Roy Tynan MMIII .