14 februari 1946:
Embarkement op de reede van Ban-Seng in het Engelsche transportschip "RAJULA" met bestemming Bali en Lombok.

Passenger ship Rajula with British India Steam Navigation Company (1926 to 1973). 
She continued in service after that.  What a ship!  

http://www.btinternet.com/~af-aditel/rajula.htm

Rajula

februari: 
Te Singapore overgestapt op 't Engelsche transportschip "SAINFOIN".

H.M.S. Sainfoin , C-3 Victory ship, weapon class
http://www.datatechdtp.co.uk/SWpage1.html

In November 1944 "Empire Crossbow" became H.M.S. Sainfoin, she re-commissioned, and sailed to Greenock Scotland taking on extra crew, and the Royal Marines of 553 Flotilla, many of who had sailed on "Crossbow", and remarked, " It was like coming home".
Early in January 1945 we sailed for the Far East to become part of "Zipper Force" under Lord Mountbatten's flag.
The Ultimate goal - To take part in the invasion of Japan.

H.M.S. Sainfoin was now commanded by A. Longmuire D.S.C. R.D. Commander R.N.R. who was well liked and respected by all on board and voted best skipper in the R.N. by her crew.
After arrival in Bombay "Sainfoin" was ordered to Karachi, and there went into exhaustive training in landing troop exercises.
Having met with full approval we then began life seriously.
Shuttling between Colombo, Madras and Calcutta, the Sainfoin landed troops in Rangoon, Penang, Port Dixon, Port Swettenham (Burma and Malaya), Medan (Sumatra) and eventually Singapore. 

Our war now being over, we began to think of home and demob.
This was not to be, as now we got caught up with the Indonesian conflict, and began carrying troops to the islands delivering them to Sibolga, Padang (Sumatra), Surabaja (Java), Bali, and Makassar (Celebes).
Sainfoin also had the unpleasant task of "collecting" Sikh troops from Bangkok.
These soldiers had defected to the Japanese and fought alongside them during the war.
The Gurkha soldiers who we carried to act as guards had to be closely watched or we would have arrived back in Singapore minus a few deserters.
All in all, H.M.S. Sainfoin and her crew covered many thousands of sea miles, and it is a great tribute to the craftsmanship of the United States Shipyard that in all our trials and tribulations she never seriously let us down. (A Nice Little Earner)

On our first visit to Java, we'd gone to remove some unwelcome temporary tenants from Nippon who had overstayed their welcome.
Now we had a further task delivering troops to help put down the Indonesian rebellion in co-operation with the Dutch Forces, and being rather ignorant of international politics, this was just an extension of our other war.
Early morning we arrived in Surabaja, and started to transfer the troops over the side into our landing craft.
As the lads went over the side they were issued with a bag containing new jungle kit, i.e.
Trousers, Shorts, Shirts, and Underclothes.
Most of the troops however felt they were carrying too much gear as it was and slung the bags back onto the deck.
So there we were with a situation resembling the Slop Chest (Clothing Store) in Chatham Barracks.
The following morning we were still pondering over what we were going to do with all this gear.
None of the officers seemed interested, in fact they were ignoring it in the hope that the stuff would just disappear.
The answer came in the shape of a native canoe pulling alongside.
One of the little Javanese shouted up to us to ask if we had any old clothing for sale.
Here it was! The answer to our problem.
Holding some of the jungle greens we asked "What you pay Johny?", thus bringing a look of sheer ecstasy to his face.
In fact he nearly fell out of his canoe in his eagerness to buy.
And so we became the `Moss Bross.' of Surabaja.
It did our hearts good to think that we were helping to clothe these poor people who had gone without for so long, AND make quite a bit of the folding stuff at the same time.
A couple of weeks later we held another sale further along the Island. Two of our junior engineering officers had now joined our sales team, and as they were always skint, this gave them a bob or two to spare, as by now we were all `Rajah Sahibs' rolling in Dutch Guilders, and these clever officers found out that when we got back to Singapore we could convert the Guilders to Malayan Dollars and bank them.
Unfortunately the bank cottoned on to us and that was that.
Some weeks later an Admiralty signal went out that someone was supplying jungle kit to the Indonesian Rebel Forces, and so the Java Branch of the `Army and Navy Stores' went quickly and quietly into liquidation.

We were on passage through the Andaman Sea, Sainfoin was cruising steadily along on a calm sea under a clear cloudless sky.
Jim Key and myself had the middle watch (Midnight till 4am) on look out duties.
Earlier in the evening we'd picked up a signal warning us of submarine activity in our area, so everyone on the bridge was on their toes and seeing periscopes on every lazy swell of the sea.
Night look out is an eerie experience.
Every now and again some sea creature will stir the water leaving a disturbed phosphorescent glow which to the tired eyes becomes a torpedo track.
So nerves do tend to tighten up a bit.
Suddenly the old girl slowed down, the throb of the engines stopped and she was then dead in the water.
Up the Engine Room voice pipe came the dulcet tones of Engineer Officer `Yorkie Pye', "Cripes! The old Girls thrown a Wobbler"
(That's the only printable translation)
So now everyone up top was creeping around and the Officer on watch was urging the Look Outs to stay alive and on the job.
After a few minutes, from somewhere deep down in the Sainfoin innards, all hell broke loose.
It sounded like someone was trying to hammer his way out through the ships side. If anyone was due a heart attack, then was the time.
After jumping at least six feet we were then frozen, the hair on our heads stood stiffly to attention, and the hammering carried on.
By then we could imagine Jap subs coming up to see who the hell had disturbed their sleep.
Then, thank God, all went quiet and after thirty minutes or so the old girl gave herself a shake and a slow pulse echoed through her body.
We were off and slowly building up revs.
It was a unanimous vote on the bridge that the stoker (who shall remain nameless) never knew who his father was.
Strange to say that not long after this incident he was promoted to Acting Leading Stoker.
We thought it was because he was the only man to wake up Tokyo with a seven pound hammer.
Ray Self.  

Early morning in Singapore harbour we are all mustered on the upper deck whilst the Captain gave us the glad tidings.
All leave stopped at 1800!
We would hoist our paying off penant on the following day and sail for home.
We who survived that terrible war are now older, perhaps wiser.
Young people look at us and think " How did they fight a war?" ( They will never know!)
And now in our quieter moments memories come flooding back.
Of faces and of places.
Some happy, some sad.
But always the memory of a comradeship long cherished.
We few old shipmates from Sainfoin's crew wish to give our heartiest thanks to the United States Shipyard Workers for building a ship that carried us so safely over those thousands of miles and left us with so many memories
We Sincerely hope that our yesterdays never become our Grandchildrens tomorrow.
God forbid that such a conflict will ever be their experience.
Should that be so then we pray that Comradship, Respect for others and Laughter be a part of life that seems to be so sadly lacking in todays society.

Walt Mitchell, on behalf of the Ships Members of H.M.S. SAINFOIN.