was one of the thirty-two Scouts of the V.I. who were lucky enough to visit the aircraft carrier Theseus when it called on our shores. We started from school at 8 a.m. Our bus was not very crowded and as soon as it left the school, we began to sing popular songs. The people on the roadside stared and waved at us. We were driven to the pier at Port Swettenham where the other schoolboys and girls had arrived earlier and were waiting in two motor-launches. We got down in an orderly manner and marched smartly to a launch called Dorothy. After all were aboard, we set out for the aircraft carrier, which was anchored about three miles off. On the way we passed the destroyer Constance and a few cargo ships whose sailors waved to us.

We boarded the Theseus and followed the crowd straight up to the flight deck, the place where planes take off and land. We were asked by some officers to stand together on the aircraft elevator and were taken down to the hangar within a few minutes. To our amazement the place was like a huge factory with planes neatly lined up. We were divided into several groups and each group was shown round the ship by a sailor.

My group was very lucky for our guide happened to be an officer, a Lieutenant Williams. He is a Firefly navigator and has a wide knowledge of planes. He was very kind and told us a lot about planes. We saw a Seafire and it looked exactly like a Spitfire. It was armed with two cannons and eight rockets for attacking shipping. All the planes had tail hooks to catch the wires across the flight deck when they landed. There were twenty-four planes in the hangar. Lieutenant Williams told us that during the war the Theseus used to carry forty or fifty planes.

We were brought to the quarter deck where we had drinks and were surprised to see Chinese cooks and petty officers serving. After some refreshments Lieutenant Williams took us to the flight deck again and showed us the armaments. We noticed that all round the ship were anti-aircraft guns and pom-poms. We were told that though the pom-poms fire at the rate of one thousand six hundred rounds per minute, it is very difficult to shoot down a plane with them.

Our next visit was to the bridge. It was in the fore part of the tower above the flight deck. It was a circular compartment lined with windows all round, and telephones were fixed everywhere - there were thirty at least. We could not stay long enough to see everything because the place was being washed. Soon an order came through a loud speaker asking all visitors to leave. So after thanking our guide, we got back to our launch and departed, waving and cheering.

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