Royal Navy Service (1971–1977)
A Matelot's Sea Stories
Between 1971 and 1977 I served in the Royal Navy during the latter years of the Cold War.
These essays record that journey—from joining the Annexe at HMS Ganges as a fifteen-year-old Junior Assistant Stores Accountant, through training establishments, operational warships, overseas deployments and everyday life in the Fleet.
Although based upon personal recollection, these essays are supported wherever possible by contemporary documents, photographs and historical research. They are not intended as an official history of the Royal Navy but as carefully edited accounts of one matelot's experiences, preserving the routines, customs and working life of the Royal Navy during the early 1970s.
Many describe amusing incidents, some record difficult experiences, while others explain how the Royal Navy of the early 1970s actually worked.
Together they preserve a small part of a Navy that has now disappeared.
Contents
► Salford Docks
How it all began.
► HMS Ganges - The Annexe
Initial training and first impressions.
► HMS Ganges - Hawke Division
Finding my way through Pusser.
► HMS Raleigh
Seamanship Training and discovering life under sails.
► HMS Naiad
First foreign shore and sea training in the North Sea.
► HMS Vernon (1)
Sonar training in the Torpedo Anti-Submarine branch.
► HMS Glamorgan
First commission & deployments.
► Victory Dockyard
Glamorgan's 1974 Portsmouth refit and Exocet missile conversion.
► HMS Seahawk
Helicopter firefighting at RNAS Culdrose.
► HMS Vernon (2)
Ships company.
► HMS Charybdis
A different ship, a different deployment.
► HMS Nelson
A matelot decommissions from the RN.
► Life in the Royal Navy
Watches, messdecks, food, routines, pay, runs ashore and everyday life.
► Equipment and Weapons
TAS equipment, radar, sonar and the technology of the day.
► Photographs and Documents
► Timeline (1971–1977)