Charlie4
LE

A fridge over the side would have done the bitey cnut in right proper
Maybe they could lure it towards the Divis?
A fridge over the side would have done the bitey cnut in right proper
The best hands to bathe we ever did was a mile or two of Tiamon Island after a big 3 or 4 week long exercise.
Usually you only get an hour or two in the water, but we were there for a whole day.
Had the sea boats razzing around giving people jollies, BBQ on the flight deck.
Basically a beach day, but on a warship instead of a beach.
One of the rare occasions when the grownups just said “**** it, let the lads just do what they want.”
...and how were said plums after hitting the water in your fashionable baggy swimming shorts? Up near your tonsils ?
Don't stop there, the lamp is there to be swung....
' Just off Haiphong/Beira/English Harbour/Cocoa Beach we were, in the [ suitably exotic] Sea, ....it was redders and when the Jimmy made the pipe 'Hands to Bathe' it was like Day 1 of the Harrods sale.....etc etc '
What does one do when the Captain gives the order to 'Abandon ship' then these days.
Back in the 80's, after Piper Alpha, I had a colleague who left the RAF and got a job on the oil rigs. The newest thing was that you needed to have an offshore certificate to work out there, and part of that was the survival training."Fall a really long way". Especially as T45 has bulwarks (big metal plates) along the upper deck rather than easily removed guard rails. However, in a Once Only Survival Suit it would be less bad... and I doubt abandoning was included in the T45 design decisions.
This footage always stuck with Me.Thinking of the poor buggers scrambling down the hull.Walk down the side like they did on Coventry as it keeled over.
If you insist...Some of the old and bold will be along shortly to swing the lamp and spin dits about swimming in the [Insert name of seven seas/five Oceans here] to amaze the pore shore-bound pongoes
That was some explosion. Looked even bigger than the one when HMS Hood exploded.This footage always stuck with Me.Thinking of the poor buggers scrambling down the hull.
I read a book decades ago about a merchant ship that was dressed up like HMS Barham to fool the Germans that she hadn't been sunk. She was moved around various bits of the Med for about 2 years as part of the deception.This footage always stuck with Me.Thinking of the poor buggers scrambling down the hull.
I think they did the same with HMS Audacious in WW1.I read a book decades ago about a merchant ship that was dressed up like HMS Barham to fool the Germans that she hadn't been sunk. She was moved around various bits of the Med for about 2 years as part of the deception.
Hmmmmm, tastes like chicken!
Admiralty admitted it was sunk 2 months laterI read a book decades ago about a merchant ship that was dressed up like HMS Barham to fool the Germans that she hadn't been sunk. She was moved around various bits of the Med for about 2 years as part of the deception.
Yes so I read. This deception began before it was sunk apparently.Admiralty admitted it wa sunk 2 months later
Apologies, I'm adrift.e.g ' Call that a shark ?....Bah...when I was in the old Ustafish we....etc etc '
Ping @Ravers ,
@supermatelot ,
@Ninja_Stoker
Apologies, I'm adrift.
As it happens I do recall a 'hands to bathe' dit in the Sargasso Sea, when a Portuguese Man of War (jellyfish thingy) bobbed into the middle of the bunch of Matelots. As the shout went out from the ship, there were lots of confused "What's one of them? " s before a magnificent jacuzzi flailing of arms and legs towards the ship and a scene that resembled the mass beach evacuation in Jaws. Only vertical and a bit faster.
I think I would take my chance with the shark thank you very much. Never trust a matelot with anything smaller than a four inch gun was par avion seniors favourite saying (ex RM Landing Craft crew 19-43-46)I never took part in a hands to bathe. I don´t remember getting many oportunities. I remember one being piped in the Med, but I was on watch. I can´t recall one ever happening on the one WIGS deployment that I did, but we got plenty of opportunities to swim in the sea when ashore anyway.
I remember seeing the rifle stowed on the bridge when sailing around the Windies, and being told it was there for the protection of swimmers during hands to bathe. I can´t remember if someone was jobbed to be the duty marksman, or if someone from the on watch bridge crew was expected to pick up the rifle and engage the shark(s). I don´t expect that whoever it was had received any extra marksmanship training for the task.
I wondered what would be more dangerous if a shark attack occured during a hands to bathe – the sharks, or the excited matelot blazing away with that rifle only a few feet above the bather´s heads.