The sailor, Master-at-Arms Senior Chief George Taylor, says he was victimised by Navy chiefs after he claimed the Base was a "Club Med'' for top brass.

His claims, featured on the TV show PrimeTime Live, helped seal the fate of the Base. Congress ordered it to be closed by 1995.

After the TV show Senior Chief Taylor was transferred to a California base, where he was charged with 48 misconduct offences.

The charges were withdrawn last week after he claimed they were brought in revenge for his Bermuda "whistle-blowing''.

The commander of the California base denied the charges had anything to do with events in Bermuda.

But to avoid the claims of bias, he said, he was sending the case to be examined by an "independent'' Navy investigator.

Yesterday Mr. Jeffrey Ruch, a lawyer backing Senior Chief Taylor, said he suspected no action would now be taken on the charges.

The Navy chief believed to be considering them had no desire to "stick his foot into this professional tar-baby''. It was likely the affair might just be forgotten about.

Mr. Ruch is policy director of the Government Accountability Project, a Washington DC group which supports workers who reveal official misconduct. He has also been following the case of Petty Officer Thomas Coggins, the other whistleblower in the PrimeTime show.

Petty Officer Coggins, now at a naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, had been treated "OK'' in comparison to Senior Chief Taylor, said Mr. Ruch. But he had filed a complaint after his time in Bermuda earned him less promotion credit than he had hoped.