Category: Royal Navy

The Big Bang I relate this because afterwards I found the incident in a way, rather funny, and contrary to all I had been led to believe about the imperturbability of the Navy in a crisis. We were sitting at lunch in the Chiefs’ and POs’ Mess. The table ran fore and aft of the… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to ’46 in order, The big bang and a view of Edunburgh

I believe that the Service was suspended in the aspic of time, almost ever since the days of Nelson – until the war, with the sudden alterations in thought and deed which that emergency and the introduction of civilians forced upon it. In turn the Nelson syndrome was thrust upon us at every opportunity by… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to ’46 in order, The Charade of Defaulters

In the sailor’s induction course we were taught to handle a whaler, a thirty-foot, double-ended, clinker-built life-boat,. We rowed in unison with cries like ‘Give way together’. Our instructions were laced with colourful language by, the Coxswain, or ‘Chief’, and there was swearing in the body of the boat as the blisters began to build.… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to ’46 in order, Fishcake McKay

If you have led a sheltered life, in a house full of women, the services will soon change all that. You soon become aware of life as it is lived. My first brush was when we had come in from convoy and repairs had to be carried out to the relief of us all –… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to ’46 in order,It Had To Rear Its Head Sometime

The making of a ‘Prick’ of tobacco. The ration was supplied in leaf form, as the name implied, with stalks and all, and I intended to turn this mass of dried cabbage into a plug of tobacco, which could challenge any in a tobacconists shop. Just writing that has made me realise there are few… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to ’46 in order, In Praise of a lost Art

I want to revive all those stupid rituals real pipe smokers took so much to heart and spoke of with such reverence. Now we rarely see, or even smell a pipe being smoked, I feel I must record, the strange, ancient habits of the sailors of my day with respect to ‘baccy’, some perhaps, long… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to 46 in order,Baccy.

It All Started With A Fish Box One day, in calm weather, the Petty Officers Messman appeared on deck and sat down to scrape a fish box. No one took any notice, but as the day progressed so did the fish box. He shaped the sides, added supports to the bottom, made a hinged towing… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to ’46 in order, Naval Rum, Part 3 of 3

The Chiefs’ & Petty Officers Rum This Mess treated Rum like the Romans treated Jupiter and the tradition also was unique in my experience. Daily at eleven o’clock a deep-sided dish was placed on the Mess table containing fresh water. Three average sized tumblers were place, upended, in the water for the men to take… Continue reading Royal Navy 1941 to ’46 in order, Naval Rum Part 2 of 3

The Tradition and Importance of The Tot. To the RN Lower-deck that I knew, the withdrawal of the daily Rum Ration, The Tot, must have been like the death of a lover. How, in 1970, a do-gooder managed to engineer the withdrawal without murder is astounding, as you will realise if you read The Chief’s… Continue reading Royal navy 1041 to 46 in order,Naval Rum Part 1 of 3