MY OTHER SHIPS & ESTABLISHMENTS
The leisure, pleasure and variety of shore-side and temporary ‘drafts’
HMS SKIPJACK
HMS SKIPJACK (1945-1959) at Malta c1946 (cruiser NIGERIA in background)
'PENULTIMATE PASSAGE'
At some time between Autumn 1956 and Spring 1957 whilst I was at the Reserve Fleet Base at Chatham (HMS NEPTUNE) or Chatham RNB I, with others, was given one of those jobs that most of us liked; one which provided a little more money in the form of 'hard-lying' payment.
I was 'detached' for towing-crew of the Algerine Class minesweeper HMS SKIPJACK for her tug-towed passage from Chatham (or was it Sheerness) to Immingham Dock where she re-joined many other laid up ships. The basic necessities of generator power and heating/cooking were activated but otherwise working dead ships was, and is, a bit like attending a funeral so this passage to the Humber was one of mixed emotions.
Some time later she was moved to Hartlepool and as far as I know went to the breakers from there in 1959.
HMS SKIPJACK (M300) was one of many of the class built in Canada by Redferns at Toronto. She was initially commissioned as 'RCNS Solebay' before transferring to the RN.
The Algerine's were around 1020 tons (1036.3 tonnes) and measured overall 225' (68.6m), Beam 35'6" (10.8m) and had a draught of 9'6" (2.9m). Two Admiralty 3-drum boilers and two shafts produced a speed of 16.5 knots with a range of 5000nm at 10kts. They had complement of 85 and were armed with a single 4" turret and 2 Quadruple 20mm AA guns as well as minesweeping equipment of course..
The previous HMS SKIPJACK was a 'Halcyon' Class minesweeper built at John Browns, Clydebank and completed in 1935. She was 245'x33'x7' and had a complement of around 80.
The ship, twenty of the crew and a reported 200+ evacuated troops died when German aircraft bombed her leaving Dunkirk on the 1st of June 1940.
At some time between Autumn 1956 and Spring 1957 whilst I was at the Reserve Fleet Base at Chatham (HMS NEPTUNE) or Chatham RNB I, with others, was given one of those jobs that most of us liked; one which provided a little more money in the form of 'hard-lying' payment.
I was 'detached' for towing-crew of the Algerine Class minesweeper HMS SKIPJACK for her tug-towed passage from Chatham (or was it Sheerness) to Immingham Dock where she re-joined many other laid up ships. The basic necessities of generator power and heating/cooking were activated but otherwise working dead ships was, and is, a bit like attending a funeral so this passage to the Humber was one of mixed emotions.
Some time later she was moved to Hartlepool and as far as I know went to the breakers from there in 1959.
HMS SKIPJACK (M300) was one of many of the class built in Canada by Redferns at Toronto. She was initially commissioned as 'RCNS Solebay' before transferring to the RN.
The Algerine's were around 1020 tons (1036.3 tonnes) and measured overall 225' (68.6m), Beam 35'6" (10.8m) and had a draught of 9'6" (2.9m). Two Admiralty 3-drum boilers and two shafts produced a speed of 16.5 knots with a range of 5000nm at 10kts. They had complement of 85 and were armed with a single 4" turret and 2 Quadruple 20mm AA guns as well as minesweeping equipment of course..
The previous HMS SKIPJACK was a 'Halcyon' Class minesweeper built at John Browns, Clydebank and completed in 1935. She was 245'x33'x7' and had a complement of around 80.
The ship, twenty of the crew and a reported 200+ evacuated troops died when German aircraft bombed her leaving Dunkirk on the 1st of June 1940.
'ONE WEEK IN MARCH'
Someone, with no regard whatsoever for my welfare, up-homers and attachment to the pleasures of RNB Chatham, drafted me with two others, to that well known stable block in HMS VERNON at Portsmouth one week in March 1957. The excuse was that we were in need of an aural test. It isn't possible that we thought we were going to the dentist is it? No, I suppose not really. Whoever made such decisions concluded we were potential ASDIC operators.
Anyway, I do remember either living or eating - I think it was the latter - in what was in earlier times stables and I was not impressed. I also remember being 'duty watch' and one night when I spotted a ladder top projecting over a wall as I did my rounds of the boundary. The alarm was raised! Those with security responsibilities, like the Officer of the Watch and his subordinates, were mobilised and I was feeling quite pleased with myself.
They came, they looked, they muttered but even in the darkness I soon began to suspect that my 'recommend' was evaporating then one of them unleashed a vitriolic attack upon my local knowledge and parental heritage! It would seem that 'Vernon' had a double wall at this point and the ladder was on the inner of the two and was therefore not about to be mounted by a Russian spy. How was I to know that? I had only been there a day or two and, by being duty had already performed an act of kindness in releasing a Pompey native to go home. There's gratitude for you!
Two of the three of us resolved that we were not going to be hijacked, by persuasion or any other means, into remaining in Portsmouth. The third thought the scenery pleasant enough and that he might be content to spend his life in a little box in the port, forrard, corner of a destroyer bridge listening to the screaming 'ping' of an asdic set. Yes, you've guessed it. He was the first to fail his aural test whereas it took us two most of the week to do so.
We were back at Chatham on the 26th pleased to find nothing had changed since leaving on the 19th. A week can, sometimes, seem forever.
The site of HMS VERNON grew out of a military armaments store built in the 1600's and a new Gunwharf added early in the 19th century. One hundred years later in 1919 the 'Torpedo' branch of the RN moved ashore and into the site. At that time the Royal Artillery then left the old Gunwharf and it too was occupied by the RN becoming HMS VERNON in 1923. It lasted under that name until March 1986 when it became a part of HMS NELSON until it finally ceased to be a naval establishment in March 1991.
Berkeley Homes has since redeveloped the 'VERNON' site and Gunwharf into a waterfront village of over 300 homes plus shops, restaurants and other leisure facilities. Some of the original 'Vernon' buildings and the 'main gate' have been retained. A proposed (Portsmouth City Council) 'Millennium Tower' was to have been included but in the event was not begun amidst doubts that it ever would be.
Someone, with no regard whatsoever for my welfare, up-homers and attachment to the pleasures of RNB Chatham, drafted me with two others, to that well known stable block in HMS VERNON at Portsmouth one week in March 1957. The excuse was that we were in need of an aural test. It isn't possible that we thought we were going to the dentist is it? No, I suppose not really. Whoever made such decisions concluded we were potential ASDIC operators.
Anyway, I do remember either living or eating - I think it was the latter - in what was in earlier times stables and I was not impressed. I also remember being 'duty watch' and one night when I spotted a ladder top projecting over a wall as I did my rounds of the boundary. The alarm was raised! Those with security responsibilities, like the Officer of the Watch and his subordinates, were mobilised and I was feeling quite pleased with myself.
They came, they looked, they muttered but even in the darkness I soon began to suspect that my 'recommend' was evaporating then one of them unleashed a vitriolic attack upon my local knowledge and parental heritage! It would seem that 'Vernon' had a double wall at this point and the ladder was on the inner of the two and was therefore not about to be mounted by a Russian spy. How was I to know that? I had only been there a day or two and, by being duty had already performed an act of kindness in releasing a Pompey native to go home. There's gratitude for you!
Two of the three of us resolved that we were not going to be hijacked, by persuasion or any other means, into remaining in Portsmouth. The third thought the scenery pleasant enough and that he might be content to spend his life in a little box in the port, forrard, corner of a destroyer bridge listening to the screaming 'ping' of an asdic set. Yes, you've guessed it. He was the first to fail his aural test whereas it took us two most of the week to do so.
We were back at Chatham on the 26th pleased to find nothing had changed since leaving on the 19th. A week can, sometimes, seem forever.
The site of HMS VERNON grew out of a military armaments store built in the 1600's and a new Gunwharf added early in the 19th century. One hundred years later in 1919 the 'Torpedo' branch of the RN moved ashore and into the site. At that time the Royal Artillery then left the old Gunwharf and it too was occupied by the RN becoming HMS VERNON in 1923. It lasted under that name until March 1986 when it became a part of HMS NELSON until it finally ceased to be a naval establishment in March 1991.
Berkeley Homes has since redeveloped the 'VERNON' site and Gunwharf into a waterfront village of over 300 homes plus shops, restaurants and other leisure facilities. Some of the original 'Vernon' buildings and the 'main gate' have been retained. A proposed (Portsmouth City Council) 'Millennium Tower' was to have been included but in the event was not begun amidst doubts that it ever would be.
Left. Gunwharf (Aug. 2000) showing shops building. Right. Vernon Jetty (Sep. 2002) housing development.
The first shops opened at ‘Gunwharf Quays’ on 28 February 2001 as rumours circulated that a tower was to be built after all. Its construction began later that year. When completed in 2005 it was obviously too late to be named ‘Millenium’ Tower so was instead named ‘Spinnaker’ Tower.
The first shops opened at ‘Gunwharf Quays’ on 28 February 2001 as rumours circulated that a tower was to be built after all. Its construction began later that year. When completed in 2005 it was obviously too late to be named ‘Millenium’ Tower so was instead named ‘Spinnaker’ Tower.
H.M.S. GAVINTON
HMS GAVINTON' (1954-1991) in the 1960's
'SHORT HOP - LONG STAY'
Now there was a design with good sea keeping qualities and acres of sweepdeck space to move around on! She was but one of more than a hundred ‘Ton’ Class minesweepers which came into service through the 1950’s each with a crew of around thirty.
The wording at the time in 1957 I am unclear of but it would, today, perhaps be something along the lines of "Would you like a temporary draft to a minesweeper"? I don’t think I had answered the question when a pierhead-jump shot across HMS PEMBROKE Drafting Office counter like a seaslug missile resulting in my joining, an hour or so later, H M Minesweeper GAVINTON at St Mary’s Wharf.
There are hard times and hard times but this was something else! I was met at the gangway with a handshake from the Skipper, a pleasant small ship event and a very good omen. The engines were started and almost before they had reached their normal running temperature were switched off again. We had crossed the Thames Estuary and arrived at that mecca of East Coast yachting, Burnham-on-Crouch, on a courtesy visit on 15 July 1957.
Later joined by HMS LALESTON also from the Portsmouth-based 'Vernon Squadron' we enjoyed all the ceremony and courtesy that accompanies a warship visit. Personally the hospitality was exceptional and developed into a growing and sustained up-homers courtship that would have me returning to Burnham for some time to come. A 'gruelling' week later it was time to return to Chatham, alas not directly but via the extended sea trip to VERNON (Were they trying again to get me to stay?) and a train from Portsmouth Harbour Station!
HMS GAVINTON had a claim to fame when, on the 10th of October 1957, a helicopter from HMS DAEDALUS, Lee on the Solent Trials Unit towed her in the Solent at a sustained speed of 5 knots. It was the first time a warship had ever been towed by an aircraft. I dont think it developed enough to end towing crews though! In 1980, she again gained notoriety upon becoming the first vessel to be lifted out of the water via a synchronised lift at the new covered refit sheds in Rosyth Naval Base.
Now there was a design with good sea keeping qualities and acres of sweepdeck space to move around on! She was but one of more than a hundred ‘Ton’ Class minesweepers which came into service through the 1950’s each with a crew of around thirty.
The wording at the time in 1957 I am unclear of but it would, today, perhaps be something along the lines of "Would you like a temporary draft to a minesweeper"? I don’t think I had answered the question when a pierhead-jump shot across HMS PEMBROKE Drafting Office counter like a seaslug missile resulting in my joining, an hour or so later, H M Minesweeper GAVINTON at St Mary’s Wharf.
There are hard times and hard times but this was something else! I was met at the gangway with a handshake from the Skipper, a pleasant small ship event and a very good omen. The engines were started and almost before they had reached their normal running temperature were switched off again. We had crossed the Thames Estuary and arrived at that mecca of East Coast yachting, Burnham-on-Crouch, on a courtesy visit on 15 July 1957.
Later joined by HMS LALESTON also from the Portsmouth-based 'Vernon Squadron' we enjoyed all the ceremony and courtesy that accompanies a warship visit. Personally the hospitality was exceptional and developed into a growing and sustained up-homers courtship that would have me returning to Burnham for some time to come. A 'gruelling' week later it was time to return to Chatham, alas not directly but via the extended sea trip to VERNON (Were they trying again to get me to stay?) and a train from Portsmouth Harbour Station!
HMS GAVINTON had a claim to fame when, on the 10th of October 1957, a helicopter from HMS DAEDALUS, Lee on the Solent Trials Unit towed her in the Solent at a sustained speed of 5 knots. It was the first time a warship had ever been towed by an aircraft. I dont think it developed enough to end towing crews though! In 1980, she again gained notoriety upon becoming the first vessel to be lifted out of the water via a synchronised lift at the new covered refit sheds in Rosyth Naval Base.
Helo. tow. (Pic. Thanks to Webmaster Ton Class Association.)
.'PORTSMOUTH - AGAIN!'
Fresh from eighteen months in HMS BERMUDA - a ship carelessly based not at Chatham but at Portsmouth - and now subject to the new innovation of centralised drafting I was sent to Whale Island.
Home there was the XP Section’s Hut 1 where I stayed through the month of May 1959 before being sent to HMS VICTORY (Barracks) in Portsmouth 'for Navy Days duties'. That translated to days of sunshine - an exceptionally hot summer - in the Dockyard doing anything and everything in making ready for a three day August Bank Holiday extravaganza to show the public their navy. It really was a bonanza of ships, aircraft, matelots and marines presenting a huge navy to the many thousands of visitors who flocked by foot, car and charabanc to see them. We enjoyed it every bit as much as the visitors and Brickwood's Brewery made a 'killing'. Those were the days!
They soon passed though and I was back at HMS EXCELLENT - first commissioned in 1831 and still going strong - at Whale Island for the Autumn before going north in a train with a couple of hundred others to commission the new frigate HMS JAGUAR at Denny's, Dumbarton Yard on the 10th of December 1959.
Little did I know then that she would be my 'home' for the next three years and three months and that I would, totally unexpectedly, be back at Portsmouth again for a much longer and life-changing stay.
But that's another story ! (See HMS JAGUAR Section).
This Section first published in 2000 and since updated (2017)
Fresh from eighteen months in HMS BERMUDA - a ship carelessly based not at Chatham but at Portsmouth - and now subject to the new innovation of centralised drafting I was sent to Whale Island.
Home there was the XP Section’s Hut 1 where I stayed through the month of May 1959 before being sent to HMS VICTORY (Barracks) in Portsmouth 'for Navy Days duties'. That translated to days of sunshine - an exceptionally hot summer - in the Dockyard doing anything and everything in making ready for a three day August Bank Holiday extravaganza to show the public their navy. It really was a bonanza of ships, aircraft, matelots and marines presenting a huge navy to the many thousands of visitors who flocked by foot, car and charabanc to see them. We enjoyed it every bit as much as the visitors and Brickwood's Brewery made a 'killing'. Those were the days!
They soon passed though and I was back at HMS EXCELLENT - first commissioned in 1831 and still going strong - at Whale Island for the Autumn before going north in a train with a couple of hundred others to commission the new frigate HMS JAGUAR at Denny's, Dumbarton Yard on the 10th of December 1959.
Little did I know then that she would be my 'home' for the next three years and three months and that I would, totally unexpectedly, be back at Portsmouth again for a much longer and life-changing stay.
But that's another story ! (See HMS JAGUAR Section).
This Section first published in 2000 and since updated (2017)
