CAPT CHRIS CLAYTON of the British navy has been reading up on the history of Hong Kong, the better to prepare himself to become part of it. Of particular interest is the story of how his predecessor, Capt Belcher of HMS Sulphur, first planted the Union Jack on Hong Kong island on January 25th, 1841.
As commanding officer of HMS Chatham, Capt Clayton will bring to an end the colonial era started by Belcher, and take the last British warship out of Hong Kong waters when the red, white and blue flag is lowered at midnight on June 30th.
"I've had a look. Not too glorious a history, the earlier part of it, not as far as the Royal Navy is concerned, but as far as Britain is concerned," he told me in his cabin on board HMS Chatham in Hong Kong harbour yesterday. "It was a pretty amoral way to grab hold of some territory, but there you are."
Over a century and a half since Britain seized the 80 sq km island, following a war fought on behalf of opium traders against a largely defenceless China, the British are ready to leave. One could say they have, technically, already left.
As from today, the control of all British military operations is transferred from the Prince of Wales Barracks on to the 150 metre frigate with its Sea Wolf anti missile system, Goalkeeper rapidfire air defence system and forward 30mm gun pointed (not intentionally) at the Convention Centre where the handover ceremony will take place. ("Roof leaks like a sieve," confided the captain as we contemplated the almost completed building from the bridge.)
Maj Gen Bryan Dutton, Commander British Forces, will come on board HMS Chatham this morning with his headquarters staff, practically all that is left of his once 3,250 strong military garrison. The British presence is now based offshore again, just as it was before Capt Belcher stepped off the HMS Sulphur at Possession Point.
Gen Dutton will, of course, go ashore at night and sleep in a five star hotel until the Final Day. These are more civilised times. No need to rough it when occupying prime space in Hong Kong is a matter not of naval might but a credit card.
Yesterday morning Capt Clayton watched as the royal yacht Britannia appeared through the earlymorning rain to edge its way past the dredgers, cruise ships, ferries, freighters, junks, sampans and launches of the world's busiest harbour and moor alongside.
The Prince of Wales flies in on Saturday and will board the 412 foot, three masted ship to host a few receptions in the state rooms, then hand the colony back to President Jiang Zemin of China.
The Britannia will then take the heir to the British throne and Governor Chris Patten off into the night, escorted by Chatham.
Britaania, equipped with brass fittings, blond mahogany furnishings and an antique telephone system referred to as "the dictaphone", will be sailing off to its doom. Having clocked up a million miles since 1953, it is scheduled to be decommissioned at the end of this year.
To record the historic moment of its arrival for the hand over ceremonies, a video crew took pictures from a helicopter. Two artists commissioned by Chatham, Paul Wright (oils) and James Foot (watercolour) busied themselves aboard the craft sketching the end of empire scene. But ashore, not a single Hong Kong person came to stand by the quayside, only a block from the busy streets of what within a week will be a Chinese city.
It is an emotional time for the crew of Chatham, which arrived in Hong Kong on June 2nd. There is no nostalgia for empire, but there is inevitably a sense of retreat, and of the confirmation that a nation's once great status has been diminished in this long drawn out and historically inevitable Dunkirk.
But Lieut Commander Pam Healy said it was a privilege to be part of a great historic occasion. "Everyone feels a sense of pride. This is not the end, this is a new chapter," she said.
Capt Clayton said that for the crew of 237 there was good reason to be thrilled. "It's going to be a high point of their careers. There is a mixture of nostalgia and excitement and the sense of history and being proud to be actually part of it," he said.
He added: "The other concern is that it's an expensive place and everyone is running out of money.
On the bridge, Mark Smith, the officer in charge of communications, said it was a "weird" feeling to be on the last warship out of Hong Kong.
"There was a lot of excitement when we got here," he remarked. "And now? We're all skint."