Unit History: HMS Grenville
Memories of HMS Grenville
(Memories written by members of Forces Reunited)
HMS Grenville, Penguin cleaning in South Africa in 1968
Written by Richard Coe
We arrived in Cape Town a few days after an oil tanker had ran aground a couple of hundred miles off the coast. The oil affected hundreds of penguins which were brought to the South African equivalent of RSPB. A call went out for volunteers to help clean them up. Me and a few others decided to give it a whirl. Dressed in overalls we were taken to the compound and began cleaning the birds. As dusk fell, to show their thanks, the staff laid on a barbeque each night after someone had been to the local ’shabeen’. I thoroughly enjoyed cleaning penguins for the next week before we had to leave