Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Gerken, naval officer who commanded Andromeda at tense moments in Cyprus and the Third Cod War – obituary

Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Gerken, who has died aged 90, commanded the frigate Andromeda during two incident-filled two years; later he devoted more than a quarter of century of his life to West Country affairs.

When Gerken was appointed to Andromeda and joined her in Malta, he was expecting a quiet voyage home in order to familiarise himself with his new command before a period of maintenance in Devonport. Instead, he found himself covering Operation Mercy, the Cyprus emergency in July 1974, and the Third Cod War.

Turkey invaded Cyprus after a coup, organised by the military junta in Athens, ended the delicate equilibrium between Greek and Turkish Cypriots kept by UN peacekeepers. Then on July 21 1974, in a blue-on-blue incident, Turkish aircraft sank the Turkish destroyer Kocatepe. 

Twenty-five men were killed and about 205 survivors in life rafts were being swept away in freshening winds, and it was many hours before the tragedy was realised and Turkish authorities asked for help.

Gerken hurried to the scene to take command of a search by a second Turkish frigate, Berk, helicopters from the carrier Hermes, RAF launches and a circling Nimrod. Andromeda pulled many men, some injured or suffering from exposure, from the sea, and Gerken organised for these, with others rescued by Berk, to be transferred to the RAF hospital at Akrotiri. 

However, Air Marshal John Aiken, in command ashore, thought that they would be at risk from Greek reprisals, and ordered their removal to the tanker Olna.

Once at sea again, the weather was too rough for boat transfers, so Gerken took Andromeda, Berk and Olna into a lee and, overnight, his flight commander, Lieutenant Ian McKechnie, flying the ship’s tiny Wasp helicopter, completed 55 deck landings, ferrying Kocatepe’s survivors including four stretcher cases in 4½ hours of near-constant flying from Olna to Berk’s heaving flightdeck.

Gerken and his Andromeda were judged to have displayed outstanding initiative and professional competence and, before parting company, Berk expressed the Turks’ deep appreciation. Later, McKenchie was awarded the Turkish Distinguished Service Medal, only the 75th to have been awarded and the first ever bestowed on a foreigner.

During a ceasefire, Gerken resumed an operation to evacuate foreign nationals by boat from the port of Kyrenia. Under the guns of the warring parties, Gerken distinguished his landing party from the warring Greeks and Turks by dressing his sailors in their white uniforms, and led them ashore carrying only a silver-knobbed ebony cane instead of a sidearm.

Soon some 200 refugees were crammed into Andromeda: all were made to feel at home including a member of the French embassy, his wife and three-day old baby who were given Gerken’s cabin, and an American woman who simply telegrammed home “Thank God for the British Navy”.

Gerken was awarded the CBE, which he referred to as the Cyprus Beaches Expert medal, and which later earned him free fish and chips when he was recognised in a Cypriot “chippie” on the Fulham Road.

Andromeda spent Christmas 1975 and New Year fighting the so-called Third Cod War, a fishing dispute with Iceland. On December 28 and again on January 7 1976, she was rammed by the gunboats Tyr and Thor: only Gerken’s superior seamanship and quick manoeuvring saved all three ships from major damage and loss of life.

Robert William Frank Gerken was born in London where his father was a trader on the Baltic Exchange, and was educated at Chigwell School, where he later became a governor.

He won the King’s Sword for best cadet in 1951, presented on board the training cruiser Devonshire. Other early ships included the frigate Leopard, the carrier Ocean during the Korean War, and the cruiser Superb. By 1961 Gerken was second in command of the destroyer Cassandra when he met his first wife, a Foreign Office secretary.

In 1968-69 he commanded the newly modernised frigate Yarmouth which he brought out of dockyard hands for service in the Western Fleet.

Gerken’s energy, leadership and optimism were recognised by his next appointments. He was Commander Sea Training (1970-71) when he assessed and advised new commanding officers. He was captain of the new entry training establishment HMS Raleigh in Cornwall (1976–77), when he prepared for Wrens’ training to move there, and Captain of the Fleet (1978–81) responsible for personnel matters in the fleet.

Promoted to flag rank, Gerken was Flag Officer Second Flotilla (1981–83), Director General Naval Manpower and Training (1983–85), and Flag Officer Plymouth (1985–87). He was knighted KCB in 1986.

On leaving the Navy, the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir William Staveley, wrote that “you will long be remembered for the leadership, immense skill and depth of wisdom you brought to your many and varied appointments”.

Gerken and his second wife made many friends in the West Country, leading them to settle there and to devote the rest of their lives to regional causes. He served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Devon.

Gerken was president or chairman of SSAFA and the Royal British Legion, never failing to attend events and always first on the dance floor. He was a much-loved chairman of the Plymouth RNLI (1988–2007) and president until 2014. In the late 1980s he led a fundraising campaign which raised over £1m for a new offshore lifeboat, City of Plymouth, and, after a bequest by the marine artist Sybil Mullen Glover paid for a new boat in 2003, he successfully petitioned for the Queen to name her.

Gerken lived opposite the lifeboat station where he was a regular visitor on his way home from collecting his morning newspaper.

He was a long-time member and commodore (1993-97) of the Royal Western Yacht Club of England where he lunched weekly with the Old Wednesday Lunch club or Owls, and cruised the southwest coast in his own boat, Pickle. Once he raced from San Sebastian to Plymouth against King Juan Carlos I of Spain, in a crew of admirals – unplaced because the boat was overladen with cases of wine.

From 1987 to 2013 he chaired the China Fleet Club which repatriated assets from Hong Kong to build a country club for ratings and their families at Saltash in Cornwall, when, in the early years, his characteristic patience and cheerfulness were tested by the bankruptcy of the architects and a cash deficit.

Then from 1993 to 1996 he took on the chairmanship of the Plymouth Development Corporation, a thankless task as the MoD, which was cutting back in Plymouth, sold land and created a glut of historic property, some dating from Georgian times. Thanks to his perseverance, however, the PDC’s flagship project, a mixture of hotels, restaurants, housing and art studios at the old Royal William Yard, at last succeeded.

Gerken was a generous host and always good company: as a guest, his eyes lit up if he discovered his host knew how to make a proper pink gin – with Angostura bitters and, of course, Plymouth gin.

He married Christine Stephenson in 1966: she died in 1981, and in 1983 he married Annie Fermor (née Blythe) who survives him with two daughters of the first marriage.

Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Gerken, born June 11 1932, died December 20 2022