MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Former crew members revisit Penelope
A group of former Argentine Navy crew members of the auxiliary ketch Penelope during the 1982 South Atlantic war were able to visit their old ship as it stopped over in Buenos Aires en route from the Falkland Islands to Germany after 70 years in South Atlantic waters.
Twenty four years after they last saw the vessel they had sailed in during the South Atlantic war a group of middle aged men turned up at the North Basin dock to see the vessel they thought they would never see again.
The four, one officer and three NCOs all sailed the Penelope during the conflict carrying out duties re-supplying outlying bases, transporting fuel, laying mines and carry out search and rescue duties around the coastal waters.
Headed by former skipper, now retired Argentine Navy Captain Horacio Gonzalez Llanos, three NCOs of the original crew that sailed on the Penelope during the conflict, were clearly moved at seeing their old ship once again.
Another crew member, former 1982 conscript and later journalist Roberto Herrscher - who is now a college professor teaching in Barcelona - was represented on the occasion by his sister.
Penelope along with three other Falkland Island vessels - the 144 GRT motor cargo ship Forest, the merchant cargo vessel Monsunen and the supply vessel Yehuin - were requisitioned by the Argentine Navy for the duration of the conflict and operated in the combat zone until the end of the conflict.
The role of these four unarmed vessels has since the end of the war been acknowledged as the "little boat navy" that remained in the war zone throughout the conflict. Despite the fact that most the Argentine Navy withdrew to port after the sinking of the cruiser ARA General Belgrano ships like the Penelope carried on ferrying supplies and personnel up to the end of the conflict.
Of the Argentine vessels that remained in island waters throughout the conflict three merchant vessels, the Rio Carcaraña, the Isla de los Estados and Bahía Buen Suceso and two patrol vessels ARA Alferez Sobral and Rio Iguazu were lost after coming under attack from British forces.
As the former Penelope crew members observed their former vessel interchanging comments with the crew currently sailing the German built vessel back to Germany, changes were noted including a newly painted white hull, modifications to the deck house, new navigation and communication equipment and a new wheel as well as a repaired foremast. Gonzalez Llanos recalled how the crew had scrambled to safety after being staffed by Harriers while sitting at anchor.
The wooden hull Penelope, originally the Feuerland, was built at the Busum shipyard in Germany in 1927 by German adventurer Gunther Pluschow sailed it to Patagonia and later the Falkland Islands. It was recently purchased and is en route back to Germany where it will be refurbished and used for tourism in European waters.
Nicholas Tozer (Mercopress) Buenos Aires
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