MSV Stena Seaspread is not a name which immediately springs to mind when you think of the ships of the Falkland Islands task force - but its role was pivotal to successful operations.

While the hospital ship, SS Uganda, performed a crucial task for human casualties of war, the support vessel Stena Seaspread was impressive in tending to the ships blasted by enemy fire.

Men worked in adverse conditions with quality, speed and efficiency that could outstrip repairs carried out in dry dock during peacetime.

The contribution made by Stena Seaspread was also testament to the co-operation between the merchant and royal navies.

The 162 Royal Navy personnel joined forces with the merchant ship's crew of 30 and, in a resolute manner, accepted that the physical conditions of service and overcrowding were inevitable.

Among them was Alan Cross, who was Charge Chief Marine Engineer Artificer (Hull) with Naval Party 1810, and who later went on to edit a commemorative book about the Stena Seaspread's involvement.

Alan, who joined the Royal Navy two days before his 17th birthday, was working with the Fleet Maintenance Group at Portsmouth Naval Base when hostilities erupted.

In his book it states `the Falklands crisis served to bring home to the unconverted the importance of logistic support to any military operation and the dull business of nuts and bolts assumed new dimensions'.

In a matter of days around 900 tons of stores - which included 600 tons of battle repair stores - were loaded on to the ship. `We sailed from Portsmouth at midnight on April 16, 1982, still welding much equipment in position on the welldeck,' said Alan.

During the period of hostilities the men on Stena Seaspread carried out damage and other repairs in mid-ocean to more than 50 ships, including 10 warships and four captured vessels.

`Holes there were in plenty,' recollected Alan, now aged 49, and living at Longwood Avenue, Cowplain. `Small round ones from aircraft fire; medium ones which appeared in all shapes and forms where bombs and rockets ricocheted - thankfully many without exploding - around machinery and even magazine spaces, and large ones where 20ft by eight foot plates were welded in and stiffened, following in the wake of an Exocet.'

One of their most sombre episodes of damage repair came when the Portsmouth-based destroyer HMS Glamorgan was hit by a land-launched Exocet missile, and 13 of her crew were killed - just two days away from the Argentinian surrender.

`They were absolutely shocked - the silence that came from that ship was incredible,' recalled Alan. `We were told not to talk to them unless they wanted to talk to us. And on that day our little galley, which was about twice the size of a domestic kitchen cooked for nearly 500 men.'

Alan said that NP 1810 and Stena Seaspread's involvement in what became known as `Operation Corporate' was played low-key deliberately. `We were the only ship repair facility down there, and we were protected by our position. It was in the Royal Navy's best interests not to put us at risk, as it were. The damaged ships left the total exclusion zone and came to us.'

He added, `Whilst the hours were long and the work heavy the satisfaction of returning ships to the battle group to fight on, or, where extensive structural damage had occurred, to pack them off home with temporary repairs for a safe journey was reward enough.'

Alan, who served a full four-year Royal Navy apprenticeship added `Those four months down in the South Atlantic were the only time I used everything I had been taught - 16 major trades and 32 minor trades. I know it sounds odd, but I was grateful for being able to use all the skills.'

Alan Cross left the Royal Navy in 1993 after almost 30 years' service. He now works as a facilities manager at Southampton Institute. He and his wife Kay, have one married daughter Amanda-Jane.

Moving memorial to sailors who died

The loss of sister-ships HMS Ardent and HMS Antelope was brought home vividly when Naval Party 1810 was asked to produce a memorial dedicated to the 24 men who died on them.

The Naval Party, attached to MSV Stena Seaspread, designed a small burnished aluminium cross supported on a simple pine column. In the space of four days the 24ft high spar was built and airlifted to the site, which was a prominent hilltop by San Carlos Water, from which the final resting place of both frigates could be seen.

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