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James Rawe, a veteran of the Normandy landings during the Second World War, was a Royal Navy officer who later played an important role in the development of the Nigerian Navy. Although a specialist in the field of hydrography, he went on the perform the duties of a combat and staff officer, the former of which led him to plan the amphibious landings during the Nigerian Civil War. He was also charged with organising traditional naval routines geared to maintaining organisational discipline, morale and cohesion. His earlier role as a sea captain had not been confined to that of a survey vessel named Penelope. He was given charge of HMNS Nigeria, an Algerine-class frigate which had served the Royal Navy as HMS Hare, a minesweeper, during the Second World War. This ship did not only participate in ceremonies associated with visiting dignitaries, but was also, under Rawe, charged with policing Nigeria’s territorial waters in the cause of disrupting smuggling activities emanating from neighbouring Cameroon and the then Spanish-controlled island of Fernando Po.
James Rawe: “HMNS Nigeria was ordered to take over from some smaller craft on the anti-smuggling patrol between the Cross River and Fernando Po, a Spanish Island in the Bight of Biafra. We picked up the smugglers on radar, started an ARL (Average Run Length) plot and when in range, fired a star shell to illuminate the area. These new methods came as a shock to the smugglers, and we captured huge quantities of contraband and took many prisoners. The Spanish navy seemed a bit upset by our activities, as they were taking place on the high seas, as opposed to Nigerian territorial waters and this was not strictly legal. The Spanish sent out a frigate, which ... illuminated us with her searchlight. I responded by sounding action stations and invited them to identify themselves. Possibly seeing our larger gun, they switched off their searchlight, replied "Spanish Warship" and headed back to Fernando Po.”
-Excerpt from That Reminds Me, the privately published memoir of Captain James Rawe.
James Rawe was born on July 14th, 1925. He died on April 15th, 2023.
© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).
Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England. He is the author of the article "The Bonny Landing: The anatomy of Black Africa’s first amphibious operation, July to September 1967", published in the August 2024 edition of The Mariner's Mirror, the international journal of the Society for Nautical Research.
