system of apartheid, and collaboration with its regime risked alienating other countries at a time when Britain needed all the support it could muster for its international diplomatic efforts. The nearest source of supply was Freetown in Sierra Leone, from the Falkland Islands. To carry the diesel fuel required by the gas turbines of the warships and the fuel oil required by Hermes and some of the older RFA and STUFT, the fourteen RFA tankers were supplemented by fifteen requisitioned tankers. and Appleleaf accompanied Woodward's force of ships that sailed from Gibraltar, while and were detailed to accompany the force departing from the UK. was returning from Gibraltar to the UK; she was ordered to take on aviation fuel and petrol at Portsmouth. was in the Indian Ocean, and was ordered to proceed to the South Atlantic via the Cape of Good Hope. had been sold to Chile and was off the coast of Peru on its way there, but its government allowed it to be temporarily repossessed on 3 April. The first two tankers to be chartered were British Petroleum's British Esk at Hamburg and British Tay at Swansea on 5 April, followed by the British Tamar on 7 April, and British Dart on 9 April. Although the Royal Navy ships in the task force were fitted with reverse osmosis systems for producing potable water, many civilian ships were not, and some ships needed more water than usual owing to their carrying additional passengers. The SS Fort Toronto was chartered from Canadian Pacific for service as a water tanker. The supply of water while under way was simpler than fuel, as the hoses are lighter and the quantities involved are not as great. The North Sea oil rig support ship SS Stena Seaspread was taken up to act as a repair ship. The Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service had one ocean-going tugboat, , but it was evident that more would be required, and three were requisitioned from the United Towing company: SS Salvageman, Irishman and Yorkshireman. The Royal Navy had no hospital ships. had been built to allow its conversion into a hospital ship, but she required special fuel oil, and had only a 200-bed capacity. Instead, the P&O liner , which was in the Mediterranean on an educational cruise with a thousand schoolchildren on board, was requisitioned, and modified to become a hospital ship. A team of 135 medical