Capt Christopher Smith

Nov 12 2007 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

TWO defining seafaring events – in the English Channel and the Falklands War – followed in quick succession for Capt Christopher Smith, who has died aged 70 of heart disease. He was also an HMS Conway cadet aboard the famous wooden training ship when she was wrecked en route from the Menai Straits to Birkenhead.

In 1981, as chief officer of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary helicopter support ship Engadine, he played a decisive role in leading a team of RFA volunteers helicoptered aboard a stricken cargo ship, Melpol, in the English Channel to fight a blaze onboard, during gale force conditions.

The powerless ship was a serious hazard to shipping and also could have run aground causing pollution and damage. After eight hours in horrendous conditions, Smith and his six-man team extinguished the fire, allowing the freighter to be towed to Rotterdam. Smith received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal with a citation recording that he “displayed courage, leadership and professional skills of the highest order.”

Soon afterwards, he played a role in a far bigger drama, when RFA Engadine became part of the Falklands task force, acting as a support ship for helicopters and accommodating ground crew during the campaign to liberate the islands from their Argentinian occupiers. Engadine was anchored in San Carlos Water during the worst Argentine air attacks. Her importance was further increased after the loss of the Liverpool-based ACL container ship Atlantic Conveyor, hit by an Exocet missile. In contrast, Engadine survived untouched. It was only on returning to Devonport from the Falklands he learned of his QGM award for the Melpol rescue.

Earlier, on April 14, 1953, as 16-year-old Conway cadet, he was one of the volunteers to crew the “old wooden walls” for the ill-planned voyage from Plas Newydd to the Mersey for refurbishment. The Menai Strait’s notorious currents overpowered the two towing tugs which lost control and Conway ran aground, breaking her back. Smith and his fellow trainees jumped ashore.

Capt Smith, who also served in conflicts including the Gulf, Malaysia and Lebanon, retired from the RFA in 1997.

Capt Christopher Smith,Seafarer, born, July 10, 1937; died, October 7, 2007.