There is nothing more important in life in the Forces than the regular delivery of mail which I am sure all of you who have served will agree. In July 1953 I was drafted to the anti submarine frigate HMAS Murchison in Garden Island Dockyard in Sydney. Shortly thereafter we sailed for Korea calling at Hong Kong and Kure Japan, then on to South Korea. At this time there was a cease fire in effect between the UN Forces and the North Korean and Chineese forces. Our main function was patrolling the East coast of Korea and sometimes anchoring in God forsaken spots for the night. After about three weeks of this we were really bored stiff then we got a radio message that HMS Modeste a Royal Navy frigate was heading our way with mail for us they had picked up in Japan and was going to rendezvous with us at sea and deliver our mail. Now this involves what is called a jackstay transfer which meand shooting lines across between the ships and then passing whatever across. Well just after daybreak we met up with the "Modeste" in really heavy weather but never the less decided to go ahead with the transfer, we could see our mail bags piled up on the deck of the "Modeste" but by now the sea was really playing up and both ships were taking a beating which was becoming dangerous as both ships were coming too close to each other and then sheering away, the first mail bags were hooked on to pass over but with a sudden movement of the ships towards each other they dipped into the sea they were then hauled back and we could hear the Captain of the "Modeste" screaming through a megaphone, "Cut dthe Lines", Cut the Lines" and to our dismay this is what they did, I can't repeat here what we were yelling at them as they turned away from us and went on there way, the atmosphere aboard us went from light hearted at the thought of getting mail to a foul tension filled ship. It was another two weeks before we got our mail when we returned to Yokasuka in Japan. Mauri