Salvatore (Salvo) Baldacchino, like many Maltese of his generation (he was born in Senglea in 1913), joined the Royal Navy, since there were few employment opportunities and he loved the sea. He enlisted on August 28, 1935 at HMS St Angelo.

Salvo and other stewards and cooks were busy preparing hot food and drinks for the strickenseamen who includedtheir commanding officer- Alfred Conti Borda

He first served aboard the destroyer HMS Anthony for seven months, followed by two months on the destroyer HMS Imogen and the submarine depot ship HMS Maidstone.

However his big break came when he was posted to the K-class destroyer HMS Kelly, on August 28, 1939, a few days before the outbreak of World War II. The captain was none other than Lord Louis Mountbatten. Salvo was assistant steward in the ward room.

After the ship was commissioned, Salvo noted in his diary that “one could tell that Kelly was going to be a happy ship as all the company had their hand in storing the vessel. There was no distinction among us at all, no matter what one’s job was whether steward, stoker or signalman. All of us knew that we were on a ship that had a jolly good captain and we were all willing to do our best at all times.”

At the time HMS Kelly was light Mediterranean grey as it was due to leave the UK to join the Mediterranean Fleet, but as war was drawing near, Kelly was ordered to be painted in drab Home Fleet grey.

The destroyer was then off to Portland for exercises and a “work-up” period to enable the crew to familiarise themselves with their ship and their duties, and with each other.

Kelly was at sea when it was ordered to start hostilities against Germany on September 3, 1939. The ship immediately left Portland to patrol the Western approaches. However, one day it was so rough that the vessel started pitching and rolling heavily. As a result the ward room mess man and the wine steward were badly hurt. On returning to the harbour, the crew took them to hospital. Salvo was put in charge of the ward room.

The ship was put to sea with HMS Acheron on anti-submarine exercises. On September 4 there was a ‘ping’ on the Asdic and the destroyers dropped their first depth charges.

Fuel oil and a lot of dead fish appeared on the surface. A probable ‘kill’ was registered though Admiralty Intelligence confirmed that there were no U-boats in the vicinity

Later the ship sailed to the Atlantic in pursuit of the oiler Altmark, used to replenish the German battleship Graf Spee. On September 17 Kelly received a signal that the aircraft-carrier HMS Courageous, patrolling the Western approaches with a destroyer escort, had been hit by torpedoes from a U-boat and was sinking fast 40 miles away from Kelly’s position.

When Kelly arrived on the scene,Courageous had gone down and an American merchant ship was picking up survivors. Some wounded and others suffering from swallowing fuel oil were rescued by Kelly’s motor cutter and transferred to the destroyer.

Salvo and the other stewards and cooks were busy preparing hot food and drinks for the stricken seamen who included their commanding officer. The survivors were then taken to Devonport.

On October 14, while escorting a convoy, the Kelly’s Asdic men detected another ‘ping’, a real one this time. The Kelly closed in on the submerged U-boat, and plastered the sea with depth charges. This time there was no doubt. Amid the cauldrons of white foam from the explosion, the smashed U-boat’s bows emerged, stood vertically out of the water, and then slipped quietly to the bottom.

On a foggy early December day, news of two oil tankers in trouble at the Tyne estuary reached Kelly, which immediately raced down river, with another destroyer, and narrowly missed a collision with a big merchantman.

Both tankers were sinking. Mountbatten ordered Kelly alongside the one that was burning. Almost at once the crew heard a bump under the destroyer’s hull.

A huge explosion followed. They had blundered into a minefield and steamed right into it. Kelly, helped by two tugs, limped back to its old yard at Hebburn for repairs.

On April 9, 1940, Germany attacked Norway and Denmark and the British evacuation of Norway took place at Namsos on the night of May 3-4. Five days later, the Germans launched their Blitzkrieg in the West, leading to the collapse of Belgium, Holland and Francein a single month. Kelly was at sea again,leading the Fifth Flotilla which included the destroyers HMS Kandahar and HMS Bulldog, against a suspected German minelayer anda force of torpedo boats believed to be in the North Sea.

It was just after 10 p.m. and visibility was about zero as the Kelly’s captain strained his eyes but saw nothing except the heaving misty sea. On the other side, the German commander Oberleutnant zur See (Sub-lieutenant) Hermann Opdenhoff on motor torpedo boatS (Schnellboot) 31 picked out a very faint silhouette of a small ship. German Intelligence had reported that there were no other friendly vessels in the vicinity so he concluded it was British. Steaming at 35 knots, he made for Kelly.

Then Mountbatten saw a black speck in the distance and somebody yelled “torpedo”. Salvo was going up to the bridge with a meal for the captain, when suddenly there was a thump followed by an explosion and a sheet of flame which rose higher than the bridge. Kelly was lifted clear of the water and fell back seething with steam and flames. Mountbatten at once assessed the damage with his crew as the ship lay dead in the water. He then ordered depth charges and torpedoes set to “safe” and jettisoned. He then called for volunteers to heave ammunition overboard. At 11 p.m. Bulldog passed a line aboard and began towing Kelly very slowly with Kandahar standing by. Kelly’s steering mechanism was smashed but the crew worked the emergency steering.

At 12.10 a.m., Mountbatten was alone on the bridge when he heard the roar of engines. Out of the darkness shot a German motor torpedo boat at 40 knots with guns blazing. She hit Bulldog, crashed against Kelly, leaped up against its listing side and then skidded aft leaving its steering wheel on board (it is now at the Imperial War Museum, London).

Kelly’s crew could hear the cries of the German seamen. Then the German S-boat slid off the destroyer’s stern and melted into the mist.

At early dawn Kandahar came alongsideand took off the dead and wounded. Mountbatten conducted a brief service over thedead and they were buried at sea. Kellywas now settling deeper in the water and the other destroyers took station around it as an anti-aircraft defence.

Sure enough German planes appeared and swooped like vultures on their prey. First a reconnaissance machine, then Stuka dive-bombers followed, aiming to hit Kelly andBulldog, and wheeling in low to machine-gun the last boats taking off Kelly’s wounded crew. Anti-aircraft fire opened up, forcing the enemy aircraft to miss Kelly.

By evening the weather got worse and the towline kept parting. The stricken destroyer had settled so deep in the water that it looked more like a submarine. In fact, the sea was now sloshing through her boiler room.

At that point Admiral Glennie in the cruiser HMS Birmingham, which had then arrived by then, signalled to Mountbatten to abandon ship in order to sink Kelly, but the captain refused to carry out the order.

However he decided to transfer most of the crew to lighten the ship. He remained on board with five officers and 12 men. When night fell Kelly seemed about to break up and so they too left.

But in the morning Kelly was still afloat and so Mountbatten and his volunteers returned aboard. Help was on the way and soon two tugs sent by the Admiralty arrived and took the destroyer in tow. Slowly and incredibly they hauled her across the sullen sea hampered once again by the Luftwaffe.

Orders came to abandon ship. For the second time Salvo dashed for the railings with other seamen and took a two-storey leap over the side. He was just in time as the vessel sank in a few minutes- Alfred Conti Borda

Ninety-one hours after being torpedoed Kelly came home to the Tyne. Wildly cheering crowds and wailing sirens welcomed the destroyer as it was towed upriver to a dry dock. There a 90-foot gash was revealed on its side.

As soon as Kelly was safe, Mountbatten gave the crew home leave. Only 27 of them would ever see the light of day again. Hermann Opdenhoff, the captain of S-31, was awarded the Knight’s Cross for his feat.

Salvo returned to Malta on May 23, 1940. He was proud to have served on such a fine fighting ship under Lord Mountbatten who managed to save the crippled Kelly through stormy seas and enemy attacks. On August 15 Salvo joined the light anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta. This was an old World War I vessel but modernised for specialised anti-aircraft work.

In fact it was deployed for convoy escort in the Mediterranean, calling at Alexandria with other cruisers and travelling through the Aegean Sea. On one occasion, the convoy it was escorting was attacked by Italian motor torpedo boats and three of them were sunk.

But in January 1941, the convoys sustained heavy attacks by the newly arrived Stuka 87 dive-bombers. On January 23, Calcutta escorted other destroyers in the evacuation of Allied troops from Greece.

On June 1, 1941, during a passage with HMS Coventry, while providing anti-aircraft protection during the British evacuation from Greece, Kelly was attacked by two Junkers 88s and was hit by two bombs.

Orders came to abandon ship. For the second time Salvo dashed for the railings with other seamen and took a two-storey leap over the side. He was just in time as the vessel sank in a few minutes. Two hundred and twenty-five men of the ship’s company, including Salvo, were rescued by HMS Coventry.

On November 4, 1941 Salvo was promoted Leading Steward and transferred to the Suez Canal Zone in Egypt, where he stayed till 1944. It was there that he met and later married Antoinette. The couple had a son, Roger. The family eventually came to Malta in 1947 and Salvo was promoted to Petty Officer Steward. Their daughter Edwige was born a few years later.

While on the depot ship HMS Forth in 1952 Salvo was chosen by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, by then Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, to join Admiralty House in Valletta and act as his personal chief steward.

Although this meant sheer hard work and hours, this job gave Salvo satisfaction and he served several VIPs, including the King and Queen of Sweden, and Queen Elizabethand the Duke of Edinburgh and their children Prince Charles and Princess Anne when they visited Malta on the Royal Yacht Britannia in May 1954.

Later Salvo also served in HMS Surprise the flag frigate for Mountbatten. At that time, Lord Louis was very keen on underwater fishingand once he caught a large 100-pound stingray, the tail of which he kept at his home Broadlands in Romsey, Hampshire. Salvo had very happy memories of Mountbatten.

During the Suez crisis in October/November 1956 Salvo saw service on the destroyer HMS Chieftain.

Salvo’s last postings were the destroyer HMS Solebay for five weeks and the submarine depot ships HMS Ranpura and Ausonia after which he was promoted to Chief Petty Officer. He retired on pension on August 27, 1960.

During his 25-year career in the Royal Navy Salvo gained nine campaign Stars and Medals. His last confidential reports read: “A veryefficient Chief Petty Officer Steward, extremely hard working and completely reliable. He isa conscientious, trustworthy and a most pleasant man.”

However, after a short spell at home Salvo could not resist the call of the sea. On September 9, 1960, he joined the Star of Malta, plying between Malta and Sicily. In 1962 he joined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as catering officer. The RFA is a civilian-manned fleet, owned by the UK Ministry of Defence which supports Royal Navy ships around the world, delivering ammunition, fuel and supplies. It is fully integrated into the RN’s command and control systems and forms a vital part of maritime operations.

Salvo moved to the UK, seeing service on the Brown Ranger, Bacchus, Wave Ruler, Blue Ranger and the Hebe plying between Malta and the UK. It was then the Wave Chief’s turn, followed by the Sea Salvor. The Brown Ranger again was next and finally the Tideflow. He was finally discharged on December 1972, after having spent a total of 37 years’ service with the Ministry of Defence.

After the war the Kelly Reunion Association was set up to boost the morale of the surviving crew. It was very active especially in the 1960s,70s and 80s and kept survivors and their relatives from Britain and the Commonwealth informed of regular reunions. Salvo soon became a member and participated in these events which included mess dinners on HM ships berthed along the Thames. But the bond between Salvo and Kelly was so strong that he set up a small private bar in the corner of his sitting room, which he called the Kelly Bar.

He was frequently visited by Kelly survivors visiting Malta but above all by Lord Mountbatten with whom he kept corresponding. Salvo was honoured to receive Mountbatten at his home and the Kelly bar at the end of his visit to Malta, on March 17, 1977. Lord Mountbatten was at the time accompanied by Rear Admiral O.N.A. Cecil, Flag Officer Malta.

Mountbatten was patron of the Kelly Reunion Association until his tragic death by a remote-controlled IRA bomb on August 27, 1979 in Ireland. Salvo and the Kelly survivors attended his funeral in London to show respect to their former commanding officer. The Reunion Association Secretary, the indefatigable Rocky Salvo’s son Roger, to whom I am very grateful for helping me write this article, recently informed me that according to Mountbatten’s younger daughter Pamela, only nine of Kelly’s survivors are still alive.

Roger, following in his father’s footsteps, enrolled as a cadet at the Britannia Royal College in Dartmouth. He qualified as a seaman officer in anti-submarine warfare and became a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He later joined the Omani Navy and was promoted lieutenant commander, after 22 years’ service.

Salvo Baldacchino passed away on May 8, 2000.