Career Highlights

HMS Fisgard

10 January 1949 - 5 May 1950

HMS Caledonia

6 May 1950 - 31 December 1952

Whilst at Fisgard a first ever flight in a DeHavilland Dragon Rapide from RNAS Culdrose.  Not this particular aircraft  though!     

Also at Fisgard, witnessing the return of HMS Amethyst from the China Station after the Yangtse Incident.  Here she moors alongside at Devonport just astern of HMS Vanguard.  Tens of thousands of people were on the Hoe and at other vantage points.  November 1, 1949.

HMS Bermuda   

10,500 tons/72,500 BHP

              The last of the "Fiji" class cruisers.

                     18 Feb. 1953 - 23 Sept. 1955

9 x 6" guns in three triple turrets, 8 x 4" guns, 24 x 20mm/40mm anti-aircraft guns, 6 torpedo tubes.  We were based in the Mediterranean for most of the commission.  In two and a half years Bermuda visited every country bordering the north and east Mediterranean together with acting as guard ship at Port Suez and patrolling the Suez Canal during the period of unrest in the region.

                                                 

 30o roll in the English Channel.

Do you remember the need for good sea-legs? 

 

Bermuda refuels at sea from another cruiser, HMNZS Black Prince.
Whilst serving on HMS Bermuda I was seconded for watchkeeping duties to HMS Brigand a fleet tug based at Malta.  The task was radar target towing for units of the US navy.  The target was 1000 yards astern when we were straddled by a salvo of live shells. No serious damage was done but the stern glands began leaking excessively so we headed back to Malta and the relative safety of Valletta harbour.
Brigand was powered by triple expansion steam reciprocating engines, in engineer's parlance she was an "up and a downer".   The engines were relatively sedate until the stern lifted out of the water when we were straddled.  Things got pretty exciting then for a few moments.

Also whilst with Bermuda I was sent off to join HMS Alliance during NATO exercises when we were at Gibraltar.  What a surprise when I visited the RN Submarine Museum in the early 80s to find Alliance preserved for all time.  She seemed so much smaller internally than she did thirty years earlier.

HMS Drake/HMS Alaunia

24 Sept.1955 - 30 Nov. 1955

Fleet Maintenance Unit and courses.

HMS Vanguard

45,000 tons/128,000 BHP

1 Dec.1955 - 18 Sept. 1956
Vanguard was the largest warship ever to be built in Great Britain.  Laid down in 1941 at John Brown's on Clydebank she was  launched by Princess Elizabeth in 1944 and commissioned in 1946.  My principal responsibilities included steering gear and putting her into reserve.  The main rudder casting was cracked as a result of a shunt in Gibraltar the previous year and the main task was to "stitch up" the crack so that it did not widen and fracture altogether.  (Did she lose her no-claim bonus?)  She was the only ship I have ever served on where a map was needed in order to carry out night rounds of the machinery spaces. 

HMS Adamant  Submarine Depot Ship

19 Sept. 1956 - 22 Apr. 1958

Built by Harland & Wolf, Belfast and launched in 1940.  Initially she was anchored in Rothesay Bay but moved to Faslane in 1957 where she was berthed alongside to establish the submarine base.  The ship provided a full range of support facilities including a fully equipped foundry and heavy machine shop.  My responsibility was to provide tool room support. The 3rd submarine squadron was home to HMS Explorer and HMS Excalibur, as far as I know, the world's only submarines driven by High Test Peroxide engines.  Dodgy stuff.  Stand in a puddle of it and your boots would catch fire - violently. Both subs. became known as Exploder because of problems associated with the HTP.

HMS Cardigan Bay

1,600tons/5,500 BHP

23 Apr.1958 - 4 Oct. 1959

I flew out to join her in Singapore, a four day journey.  Read about it in "An Epic Flight."   The entire commission was spent in the Far East visiting Hong Kong, Japan, India, Borneo and the Philipines.  Cardigan Bay was another "up and a downer" with a top speed of 19.5 knots.  We made nameplates for the  main engines.   Port was called "Isambard Kingdom Brunel"  and starboard was  "The Titfield Thunderbolt".  Who remembers?

HMS Drake

5 Oct. 1959 - 4 Jan. 1960

  Depot boilers and Pierhead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photograph of HMS Shackleton is reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the U.K.Hydrographic Office.  http://www.ukho.gov.uk

HMS Shackleton

5 Jan.1960 - 29 May 1961

It was not just the white painted hull, yellow funnel and the addition of a large chartroom on the upper deck that set Shackleton apart.   Many of the officers and ratings were specialist surveyors and oceanographers so the whole ethos onboard was markedly different from that of a regular warship. During this memorable commission we were based in Western Scotland surveying the Inner Sound, the Sound of Iona, the Sound of Harris and Bute Sound to the Holy Loch.  Read an extended account of highlights of the commission in "A Very Different Navy".

HMS Orion/HMS Ashanti

30 May 1961 - 12 Apr 1962

Although I was officially attached to the Fleet Maintenance Unit a large part of this period was spent leading the engineers team in a long-term refit of HMS Ashanti, a Type 81 general purpose frigate powered by a combination of gas and steam turbines.  The technology was fascinating!

HMS Sultan

13 Apr 1962 - 20 July 1962

Residential course in administration and advanced engineering techniques.

HMS Orion

21 July 1962 - 16 Jan 1963

Fleet Maintenance Unit as CERA

HMS Berwick

Type 12 frigate, 2380 tons/30,000BHP

17 Jan 1963 - 11 Jan 1965

Berwick was laid down by Harland & Wolf in 1958 and commissioned in 1961.  I joined her for her second commission and spent three months in the USA visiting Martha's Vineyard, Philadelphia, Norfolk and Bridgeport before sailing home via New York and Bermuda.  After a short period of maintenance we sailed for the Far East calling at Malta, Aden and Gan before arriving at Singapore where we were based.  During the commission we paid obligatory visits to Hong Kong, Japan, Borneo and Sri Lanka.  A proposed visit to Australia and New Zealand was cancelled when President Sukarno of Indonesia rattled his sabre and closed off the Sunda Strait to shipping.  A task force was assembled which Berwick led through the Lombock Strait to ensure that, at least, one alternative shipping route was left open.

Berwick was one of a group known as "guinea-pig" ships which were responsible for the whole of their maintenance.  Dockyard help could only be obtained for major tasks such as lifting the main turbine covers.  It made for an interesting, if hard worked, commission which, as far as Berwick was concerned, was entirely successful.

At the end of her working life Berwick, like so many other proud ships, was used for target practice.  She was sunk in August 1986 by a Tigerfish torpedo fired by HM Submarine Tireless.

          

 

HMS Drake

12 Jan 1965 - 7 Feb 1965

Dis-embarkation leave.

HMS Osprey

8 Feb 1965 - 27 May 1965

On the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training as regulating CERA - maintenance unit.

HMS Drake

28 May 1965 - 9 Sept 1965

Seconded to engineering trials crew and visited Clydebank to collect SAS President Kruger for sea trials and acceptance from the shipyard.  This ship sank with the loss of 16 lives after collision with SAS Tafelberg in 1982.

Pre-retirement medical assessment and vocational training course.

10 Sept 1965 - Finally dropped anchor in "Civvy" street.

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