British Crew Nets a Sea of Invitations : Hospitality: ‘Dial-a-sailor’ hot line on the warship Cleopatra never stopped ringing. The visitors come away with a new view of Southern California.

The 248 sailors aboard the British warship Cleopatra worried that they might be set adrift in the big city when they docked in Long Beach last month for a 19-day Southland visit.

They had been warned that tourist attractions are expensive and scattered all over sprawling Los Angeles. They had heard stories about Southern Californians being too busy in the fast lane to talk to their neighbors, much less to strangers.

So it was with some trepidation that the Cleopatra dropped its anchor line at the Long Beach Naval Station and hooked up its “dial-a-sailor” hot line.

The crewmen put out the word that they would welcome telephone calls from local residents willing to help cheer up a lonely visitor by showing him the town--or a little neighborhood hospitality.

For the last two weeks, calls have flooded a special line hooked up to the 360-foot frigate, leaving the ship’s enlisted men awash in social invitations that have taken them from Malibu to Las Vegas.

“We didn’t expect a place like this,” said ship sonar operator Derek Francis, 21, as he floated in a back-yard swimming pool Saturday at an overnight party arranged for him and three other crewmen by a Placentia family.

“You’d never find this sort of hospitality to sailors in England,” agreed shipmate Grahame Turner, 29, sipping American beer and sampling barbecued chicken served up by homeowner Tom Simanton.

Victoria Simanton said friends helped with desserts and salads and her boss loaned her a van to carry Francis, Turner and shipmates Kevin Birch, 18, and Darren Robinson, 20, to the party.

Her children, Abby and Jon, both 19, invited their friends to the party to meet the sailors. “They’re single, they’re very nice and they’re cute,” Abby Simanton said of the visitors.

The Cleopatra arrived from Plymouth, England, on July 20 for weapons testing maneuvers with U.S. warships. It will leave Long Beach early Wednesday for a short visit in San Diego before heading back to Great Britain.

“We will leave Long Beach with very, very heavy hearts,” Cmdr. James Fanshawe, the Cleopatra’s captain, said Monday. “It was absolutely fantastic. The men had a never-ending succession of invitations.”

The offers for evenings out or trips to places like Disneyland were posted on a bulletin board aboard ship. Sailors could choose any outing that appealed to them, said ship’s clerk Dave Whitelock, 25.

One came from a suburban police department that offered two seats for a nighttime patrol car “ride-along,” Whitelock said. “The invitation said that bulletproof vests would be provided” and it was quickly snapped up.

A caller named Kelly escorted ship steward Bill Connolly, 27, to a Hollywood comedy club where Eddie Murphy was the surprise headliner. “My only regret is I didn’t have my camera. Some people here on the ship don’t believe I actually saw him,” Connolly said.

Electrical engineer Simon Dinner, 23, and three shipmates were invited to spend four days with one couple. “They were British expatriates. They asked what we wanted to do and we said we want go to Hollywood, Universal Studios and Santa Monica,” Dinner said.

Apprentice weapons technician Simon Walker, 19, said he was invited to a Dodgers baseball game.

The game seemed ho-hum, but not the stadium parking lot. “It was maddening getting out of the car park,” he said with a grin.

Lt. Nigel Chandler, one of 18 officers on the ship, said the Royal Navy often sets up dial-a-sailor telephone lines when ships are docked in foreign ports for extended periods.

“Everyone here is friendlier than we thought,” Chandler said. “People are a lot more reserved in England.”

They apparently lose some of that reserve when they come to America, however.

Transplanted Briton Dave Cummins of San Diego raced to Placentia when he heard about the Simantons’ barbecue. He wanted to donate 30 pounds of bangers--a spicy British sausage.

“It’s the least I could do. The Cleopatra’s lads may be on their way to Iraq soon,” he said.