FOR septuagenarian ship cleaner Jenny and officers of the Australian Navy there was sadness behind the smiles yesterday, as the former HMS Tamar played host to a foreign fleet for the last time.
Five Royal Australian Navy ships sailed into the basin at the Prince of Wales Barracks in Central and the historical significance of the occasion was not lost on the visitors.
The basin, built in 1906, is scheduled to disappear under tonnes of rubble as part of the $1.8-billion Central and Wan Chai reclamation scheme.
'It's a tremendous privilege to be the last ship allowed into the basin here,' said Commander Anthony Flint as his ship, HMAS Brisbane, docked.
'Hong Kong is very important to us. It's a destination we always look forward to visiting.' It was a poignant moment also for 'Jenny and her Side Party', as they are known. The group has become an institution at the base over the years.
Nobody can remember exactly when she began cleaning ships - but Jenny claims it was in 1928. She and her team of helpers work from a sampan and use steel brushes on the end of six-metre-long poles to scrape away barnacles, seaweed and other accumulated detritus before giving a vessel a coat of paint.