Of all the military events I have covered in my career none is so joyful and emotional as a Royal Navy homecoming. I was in Portsmouth to cover the arrival of Britain’s new carrier strike group starting with the destroyers HMS Diamond and HMS Defender then followed, later in the day, by the carrier itself HMS Queen Elizabeth.
So on a cold Thursday morning the small media group assembled at Portsmouth naval base to be escorted to the quayside where the friends and family of sailors had gathered. Seven months earlier the crews had waved goodbye; now they were returning from the strike group’s first operational deployment, which took them from the north Atlantic to the South China Seas — a distance of more than 26,000 miles.
Homemade banners swayed in the icy wind as family members huddled against the cold drinking steaming cups of tea laid on by the navy and a buzz of excitement was in the air. Adding to the sense of occasion the Royal Marine band played stirring naval tunes.
Children leaned on the railings straining to see any sign of the approaching ships. With our navy minders guiding us we in the media were on the other side of the railings, the reporters walking down the line talking to the families and camera crews filming their colourful banners.
My minder, a new recruit called Brad, said that his orders were to keep me close to him so I “wouldn’t get into any trouble”. That was fine, I said, “but have you ever seen a homecoming before?” I asked. He hadn’t.
Advertisement
“Just try and keep up with me,” I said. I explained to him that everything is calm until the crew comes off the ship and run into the crowds looking for their families. It then turns chaotic and I’ll be moving with them and working fast. “Just don’t get in front of my camera”.
A cheer went up as the ship came into view with the crew smartly lining the sides. Looking through my 100-400mm zoom lens I could see the huge smiles on the faces as the crew stood with their arms behind them.
As the ship came alongside the quay it was now possible for the families to make out individual faces. I could hear a child shout out “Daddy! There’s my Daddy!” Sure enough a sailor waved back and wiped his eyes as his friends patted him on the back laughing. I looked back at the children who were now trying to climb the railings but were being held back by smiling adults.
Another cheer went up from the crowd and crew as the first lines were thrown to the ship. As a photographer I was trying not to be distracted. With my long zoom lens I scanned the sailors looking for that uniquely happy face or a hand waving or something unusual like the hatch in the hull that was open and filled with crew leaning out.
As the ship was being secured the order came over the loudspeaker releasing the crew from their stations. There was now a rush as they moved to the stern, where the walkways were being placed to allow the crew off and into the crowd. This always takes a long time to do and must be so frustrating. As they waited the crew were shouting greetings to the crowd.
Advertisement
With the walkways now in place I turned to my minder. “Get ready,” I said. And then they were off.
The sailors raced down the walkway and straight into the crowd. In such confined spaces I had to just move and shoot as couples flew into each other’s arms. One reunion would happen in front of me then one off to the side then a squeal of happiness behind me would have me whirling around again. All of this was done with my camera to my face trying not to bash into people as I weaved in and out of clusters of people hugging, kissing, laughing and crying.
Brad, my minder, was lost in the confusion, as predicted. Sometimes I could see a couple moving quickly towards each other but then at the moment they come together someone would inadvertently walk in front of me. Other times it happens clearly in front of you. The ship’s cook Sharisia Clarke came down the gangway and her six -year-old son ran straight past me and leapt into her arms. She held her son tightly with tears streaming down her face. I moved around them trying to compose the moment in my viewfinder.
Talek Nightingale, the ship’s doctor, just stood holding his wife Hannah as close as he could, seemingly oblivious to everything around him. “I could hear your camera clicking,” he told me shortly afterwards “but I didn’t care”.
It was while I’m shooting that I have to remember that as a professional news photographer I need the names of those people I have photographed. Sometimes there is a natural break in the reunion when I can gently interrupt and introduce myself and take their names. Other times I have to wait and try to find them after the event. It may seem intrusive but I’m pretty certain all the crew have been briefed to expect the media on the quayside and I’ve always been met with happiness when I’ve asked for their details. Luckily for me I only have to ask for their names. The TV crews have to try to get a small interview, which is even more challenging.
Advertisement
As we sat in the minibus waiting to take us to our next homecoming a TV reporter laughed as he told me that when he had found a willing crew member to interview the sailor was so overwhelmed with being back home that in answer to the question, “what was the highlight of your deployment?” the sailor couldn’t gather his thoughts quickly enough and said into the microphone: “We had a great darts tournament in the ward room”.
Finally the homecomings had finished now I had to edit the pictures I had taken and marry up the names to the photographs. Finding a nearby café I found a table nearest to the heater. I was frozen with my hands numb. Trying to decipher my scribbled notes on who my subjects were was no easy job. What I thought were perfectly legible notes turned out to be near illegible in the calm of a warm coffee shop.
There also comes the moment of truth. At the moment of shooting, the image on the screen on the back of a camera looks sharp, but when blown up on the laptop turns out to be unusable. Thankfully I had more than enough. By now crowds were gathering along the seafront at Portsmouth to welcome back Britain’s largest warship, the Queen Elizabeth.
Time to do it all again.
All the photographs were taken with Canon EOS 5D mk IV camera with either a 16-35mm f2.8 lens or 100-400mm zoom lens
