Richard Broniman – HMS Devonshire

HMS Devonshire (photo courtesy: NMRN) HMS Devonshire was in Malta in 1979. I went ashore and got talking to a couple of pensioners from the UK. The lady asked if I was off the "lovely ship in the harbour?" I…

Continue Reading →

Geoff Bruty – HMS Seraph

HMS Seraph (photo courtesy: NMRN) I had a friend, Allen Witt, who was an officer on HMS Seraph and I went on board when she was at HMS Dolphin in Gosport. The thing I remember about her was that there…

Continue Reading →

Ian Wragg – HMS Thermopylae

HMS Thermopylae (photo courtesy: NMRN) I had previously been on HMS Devonshire from 1964 to 1966, but after six months on a WWII converted destroyer, I thought I was joining a cruise liner. Later, I was on the Thermopylae after…

Continue Reading →

Nigel Turner – HMS Beagle

Nigel Turner, HMS Beagle I joined HMS Beagle (straight after leaving HMS Fife) joining 15th October 1973 at Chatham and served on her for 14 months. I was one of two chefs on board and soon realised that on a…

Continue Reading →

Nigel Turner – HMS Fife

Nigel Turner, HMS Fife Picture taken onboard HMS Fife, a D20 County Class Destroyer. I joined on the 4th of March 1972 and stayed on her for just over 18 months. This was my first seagoing draft since joining the…

Continue Reading →

Philip Bamfield – HMS Repulse

HMS Repulse (Photo Courtesy: NMRN) There were many amusing stories that came out of this of course. One famous story of a foreplanesmen bringing the boat too shallow, when asked by the Captain why he was so much off depth,…

Continue Reading →

Robert Cross – HMS Devonshire

Robert Cross, HMS DevonshireThe electrical mess deck on HMS Devonshire, when the dockyard paintersrefused to paint over these. This was a fantastic day, at the time in 1971, she was the largest warship toget that far up the Thames to…

Continue Reading →

Nigel Turner – Falklands War

Nigel Turner, Falklands War Much about the Falklands War is already documented. At the end of the hostilities I put an idea to the Captain about making a celebratory cake and presenting it to the Islanders. The cake was made…

Continue Reading →

Paul Vassay – HMS Alliance

Paul Vassay, HMS Alliance The first story on Alliance was January 1968, whilst heading back to Gosport from exercises in the channel, we were racing Ambush back to base. We had a racing trim on, stern lower in the water…

Continue Reading →

Morgan O’Connell – HMS Walrus

During my time in Blake and Walrus I was a Surgeon Lieutenant RN. I was supposed to have put my pussah’s grip on Artemis - but she went glug glug alongside the wall in HMS Dolphin (1971), hence my first…

Continue Reading →