It was mid 1967, I was an Able Seaman aboard HMS Relentless; we had completed a Patrol off of Biera, South East Africa, and had returned to Mombasa, for light repairs, leave, etc., we Anchored the ship in mid-stream of the river, about half-mile from shore.
I was given watch-keeping duties ashore, in a small Hut, in order to relay telephone calls to the ship via Radio. The Hut was on the shoreline beside a small Jungle type area.
I had a bed, some light food, and tea and coffee most of which the local young men tried to steal by reaching in via the storm shutters, and running off with anything they could reach.
There were a few Bumboats near by, some of which were no more than ‘dugout Canoe’s.
They would take drunken sailors (who had missed the ships boats) back out to the ship for the princely sum of sixpence, there would always be plenty of ‘drunk’ Matelots with no money left, after ‘Whooping it up’ ashore.
I would get a lot of 'grief' from them on their way back to the ship. Mainly because they’d spent their last ‘Tanner’ on another beer assuming they could get a loan from me in order to get a Bumboat back to the ship.
And of course none of em remembered the loan the next day.
So, I set up a Bumboat fund, so that anyone going ashore for a ‘Hoolee’ would give me a ‘Tanner’ first. It seemed to work, for a while but there was always some ‘awkward so and so’ who’d give me grief.
Believe it or not I was sent a ‘Gift from God’ to solve all my problems, but this gift arrived in the most Terrifying way imaginable!
I was lying in my ‘pit’ in the hut, with the Mosquito net over me; it was about three in the morning. I was awoken by a rustling sound outside the hut, the sound un-nerved me a bit as this was 'Africa' and the shuffling outside didn’t sound human.
I could see very little in the dark, but I knew the storm shutter was slightly ajar. Feeling very apprehensive, I wondered if I should try to get to the Shutter and lock it. For whatever it was outside, had got the ‘scent’ of my food (or me).
I knew that if I tried to get to the shutter I would be impeded by the Mosquito net.
Then it happened!
The Storm Shutter flew up then and back down. A large Animal had jumped in through the aperture of the shutter. All I could see was a large dark outline and a pair of ‘bright eyes’ staring at me in the dark, my mind raced, my heart was beating like a drum, what the hell was it? And what the hell could I do about it? My imagination was running wild.
This was an African Beast, and I was the food!
But it just stayed in the middle of the room staring at me! Then another thought came to me, this could be a ‘wind -up’ ( Matelots were always pulling 'fast ones' on each other).
So I thought I’d get to the light switch which was just two paces from my bed, I started to move, there was a Growl and I jumped back into to bed, with buckets of sweat pouring out of me.
What the hell is it? I thought, as it remained there ‘staring’ at me.
The time had come to be brave, I had no weapon, but ‘light’ I had a torch by the bed, if I pointed it directly at the eyes and switched on, it would give me a vital second to reach the light switch.
After that goodness knows what would happen.
There was no alternative, so on went the Torch and I leapt for the light switch, bringing the Mosquito net down around me, but I had made it to the switch and the Animal hadn’t ‘pounced’.
On went the light while my heart was ‘banging away’ like a drum.
The Animal had dropped to the ‘prone’ position and was covering its eyes with its paws; it was a great big Alsation Dog! And its tail had started to ‘Wag’, thank god, I thought, it might have been a Lion or Panther!
I regained my composure, and went over to him, he assumed the sub-servient role, (god knows what the official name for it is) but it was quite plain he was going to allow me to be the master, though I’m sure he knew I had already almost wet myself.
I patted him on the head and then believe it or not, with sheer relief I began to ‘Cuddle’ him, he loved it, I’d made a great friend here.
I got him some of our ‘Pussers’ arrowroot biscuits and some water out of the kettle, he lapped it up, the poor thing was starving (or just had a big appetite).
I checked him over he was clean and healthy, but had no tag, I chatted away to him for quite a while. All of which he seemed to understand, as he looked at me intelligently, with his tongue lolling out of one side of his huge mouth.
Then I settled down for the rest of the night, knowing I had, a large ‘scary’ friend watching over me.
Early in the morning the usual thing started to happen - a black hand appeared, groping around just under the storm shutter, a thief was after my tea again.
Without a word from me, my ‘large scary friend’, launched himself straight at the shutter, his bodyweight, causing it to fly open. There was a loud ‘scream’ from outside, so I too leapt at the shutter in time to see my new ‘friend’ release his ‘Prey’ who ran off with a severely bitten forearm.
My new ‘Pal’ had earned his keep.
‘Nobby’ my relief turned up at eight. I told him how my dog had arrived and what he'd done. Nobby eyed me with disbelief, but accepted the story. I told him that I’d make enquiries about who the owner might be, but leave him free to roam off if he wanted to.
Twenty four hours later I returned to relieve ‘Nobby’ who said, "Your Dogs still here", before he’d got all the words out, I was ‘pounced upon’, brought crashing to the floor and getting severely ‘licked’ over the face. My New friend was ecstatic that I’d returned.
I rolled around ‘wrestling, him for a while, then managed to get up and regain my composure, so that Nobby could hand the ‘Watch’ over to me.
Nobby said "the dog's been quiet all the time, as though waiting for you to return", but gently accepting food and water from ‘Nobby’ while waiting it out. It was uncanny to have made such a friend in so short a while.
When things had quietened down that evening, I decided to try a few names out on him. I tried saying the usual, Rex, Rover, and Rin-tin-tin, but he just gave me stupid looks, then I said "Prince" and his ears pricked up and he became Alert.
He must be ‘Prince’, I thought, after all he carried himself like ‘Royalty’, that was convincing enough to me, he was now "Prince".
He stayed with me all through the next Twenty-four hours, no thieves turned up, and no ‘drunk’ Matelots, gave me any trouble with ‘Prince’ around.
Over the next few weeks, ‘Prince’ would disappear for a day or so but always came back, to spend the odd ‘Watch’ with me. We became solid friends, but after a few weeks it was time to go.
‘Prince’ knew it- he sensed it. A twenty seven-foot whaler was sent ashore for me, to bring my Kit and me back to the ship, ‘Prince’ tried to get into the Boat with me, he played ‘Havoc’ but eventually we managed to get the boat away without Prince aboard.
He came after us for a while, but then returned to shore. I’d had a restless and busy Watch the previous night, so when I returned to the ship I ‘Turned in’.
I woke about eleven AM, by that time we were miles out to Sea, one of the ‘Lads’ told me there had been a ‘dog’, swimming around the ship prior to us weighing Anchor. It was never verified. I hope it was just a cruel joke as those waters were ‘Shark infested’.
I never found the owner; I never saw or heard of ‘Prince’ again. But he remains in my memory for as long as I live.
Should you doubt it , I promise this story is absolutely true.
Kevin Perkins