XN000022-1971-10-26 — Page 18

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Tuesday, October 26, 1971

After passing Causeway Bay typhoon shelter with its hundreds of

junks and yachts, the Lady Maurine cruised towards Wanchai. As the launch

apprenched the floating cranes working on the surface above the near completed

cross-harbour tunnel, Princess Anne was shown by Sir Hugh Norman-Walker, the

short distance that the tunnel has yet to go, only a few hundred yards now

separate Hung Hom from Wanchai on the Island soon to be a five-minute

drive away from each other.

the

At approximately 3.30 p.m. Princess Anne was standing pointing out

the Victoria Peak which had begun to loom in the middle-distance

Central District skyscrapers growing larger and more impressive with every

minute.

21-Gun Satute

As the Royal launch approached Central District, a 21-gun salute

was fired from H.M.S. Eagle, H.M.S. Tamar and by the 14th/20th King's Hussars

booming from apparently a hundred directions, as the sound echoed between

mountains and the mass of buildings.

Nearing the end of the 3-mile journey, the Lady Maurine vas dwarfed by

the giant hull of the 43,000-ton aircraft carrier H.M.S. Eagle, with the

crew dressed in white parading the lower deck. The massive flight deck

sporting a brace of sophisticated weaponry, in the form of Buccaneer, Sea

Vixen and Gannet fighter planes, and its squadron of Sea- ing helicopters.

/A further