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It was just before the Italian landings that several Landing Craft Tanks (LCTs) were brought into Belfast to be fitted out as Landing Craft Guns (LCG’S). They were in several of the dry-docks, and the work was so urgent all the trades were working together, so there was controlled chaos, which meant that I had… Continue reading Royal Navy, A stupid ritual,near disaster

A young married woman complained to me the other day that for a long time she and her husband had been trying to obtain a mortgage, and now the mortgage rates were going up yet again their target was vanishing over the horizon. They are a hard-working couple, he with a university degree in Media… Continue reading A Real Rant

Within a very short time of being in Barracks I was given my draft to Belfast, some place in Ireland I had never heard of, in a country I knew nothing about. My mental image when I received the news was of being sent to a windswept, featureless bog with small white houses dotted about.… Continue reading Royal Navy, War-tine Belfast

By the time I was drafted I looked upon the destroyer almost as home and the prospect of Barracks made me even sorrier to leave. However, I had no choice and was sent back to Barracks. I suspect it was at the behest of a shore-based officer whose feathers I had ruffled. I had had… Continue reading Royal Navy, Leavong ‘Home’ for the unknown.

When I arrived in Portsmouth barracks, known as Pompy, I found yet another illustration of the practical use of psychology, and while it was on a more lowly plane it was no less effective, it was the axiom of the ‘Messenger’. Those who wished to remain in barracks without let or hindrance, as the lawyers… Continue reading Royal Navy, Pompy Barracks’ Lost Navy

I have mentiond the first part of this elsewhere, but this is the full picture. , The Wichita and the Tuscaloosa, two American cruisers arrived at Rosyth. The Americans had only recently entered the war and, I suspect, this fact affected the American’s attitude, they were doing us a favour coming over to help. Our… Continue reading Royal Navy, The Witchita and the Tuscaloosa

We were entering harbour with our new Skipper in charge and most of the crew were getting into what was referred to as their Number Ones, their shore-going gear, their Sunday suits, when suddenly we were thrown to the deck. We’d hit the harbour wall. It was at the time when our place at the… Continue reading Royal Navy,’Hell’s a poppin’

If the wide screen is to be believed, in the days of the great railroad expansion in the USA, there was a tradition that on the completion of a section of track, a golden spike was ceremoniously driven into the last tie. In the Navy there was a legend that every wooden warship had a… Continue reading Royal Navy, The Golden River

We had just come back from the Atlantic and were a day ahead of schedule so the Skipper, who was a Scot to his finger tips, decided we would drop anchor in a fjord in the North of Scotland, which we did. He went ashore to see some of his cronies. Apparently it was a… Continue reading Royal Navy,The dispicable incident of the grandfather clock

The day came when more of the new breed of craftsmen were sent to the ship to supplement the work normally done by the regulars and to carry out duties which were occasioned by the advent of more and more new technology. For example, at night, E’ Boats were wont to tie up to the… Continue reading Royal Navy. Day to day chores