Navy Days - Miscellaneous Photographs

Here are a selection of photographs (not in chronological order) spanning just over 10 years of ship life.  Whilst this could be difficult on occasions the tough times were more than adequately balanced by the fun times.    

These pics. really do span ten years. On the left I was a young ERA5 taken in 1953 in Malta aged 20.  On the right as CERA of HMS Berwick taken late in 1963 somewhere in the Far East. I'm the one with the beard, third from the left on the seated front row.  The group represents the whole of the Engine-Room division.
 

It's not cricket!

In 1955 the Engine Room department of HMS Bermuda fielded a cricket team in Invergordon.  The procedure always seemed to be the same.  The visiting team (us) were given refreshment on arrival, before the match began.  Note its nature!!  One way of improving the chances of a win is to ensure that the visitors are three sheets in the wind before the start!
 Christmas Day

L. on Bermuda in 1955 - very sober!  R. on Cardigan Bay in Hong Kong 1958 and this was taken at breakfast!   Well, maybe not, but you get the drift!
  Woops!  How did that get in here?

This picture was in circulation in the early fifties.  Origin unknown but it is fairly representative of the kind of naval humour of the times.

The Big Freeze!

After a rough night in the North Atlantic, HMS Berwick sails up the Delaware River en-route for Philadelphia in February 1963.  Note the thickness of the ice on the handrails.   Ships have been known to capsize as a result of the weight of ice on the superstructure.  Pity the poor seamen whose task it was to chip it all off.  We even had ice forming on the scuttles inside the heated messdecks!   What price a full commission in the Antarctic?

Cardigan Bay 1959

The work in the engine room could be pretty hot and dirty, particularly on an "up and a downer" like Cardigan Bay.

This pic. shows repair of a "big-end" bearing that had run its white-metal after a spate of "high-power" manoeuvres.   From L to R are "Spud" Murphy the engine-room leading stoker, Self and Mechanician Reg. Oulton.  At least we were not up to our armpits in the bilge - a situation not unknown if emergency repairs were required.

Balls!

On the left at Royal Naval Barracks, Devonport, New Year 1956.  On the right, HMS Berwick's "bit of a do" at the Royal Naval Home Club, Portsmouth, spring 1963.

A Run Ashore!

Summer 1954 on the second visit to Venice during our two years in the Mediterranean.  This pic. is taken on the Rialto Bridge.  My headgear is, I believe, the traditional student headgear for the University of Venice, Medical Faculty. It is bright scarlet with gold tassels.  Quite a bit different from the usual naval titfer!

Outward Bound!

In the spring of 1954 a party drawn from all branches spent a week at Valberg in the French Maritime Alps.  It was all part of a drive to pass on new skills and instil a sense of adventure.  There's a story here somewhere!  The occasional blizzard, right,  could not dampen a sailor's enthusiasm for getting on the piste! Read about it in "Sea Legs to Ski Legs".

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