Other ships and establishments that took me in, as well as away from Chatham, at one time or another.
Last changes: 25 Mar 01 - Picture of Helo towing GAVINTON added.
HMS SKIPJACK at Malta c1946
'THE PENULTIMATE PASSAGE'
This was a money-making operation as torch, hurricane lamp, sub-sweater and duffel coat, the pre-requisites for payment of 'hard-lyers', were issued.
Always a sad task I was 'towing-crew' for this Algerine class minesweeper's passage behind a tug from Chatham (or was it Sheerness) to Immingham Dock where she joined many other laid up ships being de-humidified. HMS SKIPJACK was later moved to Hartlepool and as far as I know went to the breakers from there.
The tow - at sometime between Autumn 1956 and Spring '57 - held ok but I seem to recall we did twice as many miles as the tug or so it seemed with our yawing. It was something different, and we liked different didn't we, but working dead ships was, and is, a bit like attending a funeral so it was mixed emotions to the Humber.
Do you know anyone who served in her -or with her in a sister ship - when she was alive?
'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.(when).
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). She was propelled via two Admiralty 3-drum boilers and two shafts at 16.5 knots with a range of 5000nm at 10kts. They carried a complement of 85 and were armed with a single 4" turret and 2 Quadruple 20mm AA guns.
I have not yet found any wartime history of the ship I'm afraid. Post war she was, reportedly, put in Reserve at Harwich in 1947 and to be honest the tow I took part in to Immingham may have been from there rather than Chatham/Sheerness. I plead old age and forgetfulness on this one!! Do you know better?. (About the tow not my mental alacrity please).
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.
She and a large number of ships company were lost when German aircraft bombed her at Dunkirk on the 1st June 1940.
'ONE WEEK IN MARCH'
Someone, with no regard whatsoever for my welfare, uphomers and attachment to the pleasures of RNB Chatham, drafted me, with two others, to that well known stable block in HMS VERNON 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 clearly remember either living or eating - I think it was the latter - in what, in earlier times, had been stables and I was not impressed. I also remember being 'duty watch' one night (or was it every night) when I spotted a ladder top projecting over a wall as I done my rounds of the boundary. The alarm was raised! Those with security responsibility, like the Officer of the Watch and his subordinates, were mobilised and I was feeling quite pleased with myself.
They came, they looked, but even though it was dark, I began to detect that my 'recommend' was fast evaporating then someone present 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! I had only been there a day or two and, by being duty, had already performed an act of kindness in releasing a native to go home. There was gratitude for you!
Two of the three of us resolved that we were not going to be hijacked, by persuasion or any other means, to remain in Portsmouth. The third thought the scenery good 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 where it took us two most of the week to do so.
We were back in 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 19thC. but it was not until 1919 that it was decided to move the 'Torpedo' branch of the RN ashore to the site.
The Royal Artillery left the old Gunwharf in 1919/20 and the site was developed for the RN finally becoming HMS VERNON in 1923. It lasted under that name until March 1986 when it became a part of HMS NELSON. In March 1991 it finally ceased to be a naval establishment.
Berkeley Homes is now redeveloping the 'VERNON' site together with Gunwharf into a waterfront village of over 300 homes plus shops, restaurants and other leisure facilities. It is reported that public access to some areas will be given early in 2001. Some of the original 'Vernon' buildings and the main gate are being retained. A proposed (Portsmouth City Council) 'Millennium Tower' showpiece which was to be included has not been started and is now in some doubt.
Update 28 February 2001 - The first shops etc opened today at the Gunwharf Quays
and the rumour is that the Tower is to be built after all.
Looking across Spice Island to Gunwharf where the first shops are due to open as 'Berkeley' continue to
develop Gunwharf/Vernon site (Aug. 2000).
'Gavinton' in the 60's
'SHORT HOP - LONG STAY'
Now there was design with good sea keeping qualities and acres of sweepdeck space to move around on!
The wording at the time I am unclear of but today it would be something along the lines of "Would you like a temporary draft to a minesweeper"? Then, a pierhead jump shot over the desk like a seaslug missile and there I was in HMS GAVINTON and locking out of Chatham AGAIN!
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 good omen, then the engines started and almost before they had reached their normal running temperature they were switched off again.
They didn't pay hard-lyers for this one even though the sub-sweater was used again!
We had crossed the Thames Estuary and arrived in that mecca of East Coast yachting, Burnham-on-Crouch, for a courtesy visit in the summer of 1957. Joined by HMS LALESTON, also from the 'Vernon Squadron' we enjoyed all the ceremony and courtesy that befits a warship visit. I also developed a growing and sustained up-homers courtship that would have me returning to Burnham for some time to come. After our gruelling few days there it was back to Chatham, alas not directly but via Vernon Jetty and a train from Portsmouth Harbour!
Long after this, in 1980, 'GAVINTON' gained momentary notoriety when she was the first vessel to be lifted out of the water by the synchronised lift at the new covered refit sheds in Rosyth Naval Base.
Did she have any other claim to fame? Do you know her life span &/or demise?
I have discovered HMS GAVINTON did indeed have another claim to fame. 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!)
Pictorial evidence of Helo tow. (Pic. thanks to Webmaster Ton Class Assoc.)(See Links page)
'PORTSMOUTH - AGAIN!'
Fresh from eighteen months in HMS BERMUDA - a ship carelessly based not in Chatham but in Portsmouth - and now subject to the new innovation of centrallised drafting I was sent to Whale Island.
Home there was Hut 1 where I stayed through the month of May 1959 before being sent to 'VICTORY' (Barracks) in Portsmouth 'for Navy Days duties'. That meant days of sunshine - yes it really did shine then - in the Dockyard doing anything and everything that could be imagined in making ready for a three day August Bank Holiday extravaganza for the public to see their Navy.
It really was a bonanza of ships, aircraft, matelots and marines presenting a huge navy to the many thousands of visitors that flocked by foot, car and charabanc to see them. We enjoyed it as much as the visitors and Brickwood's Brewery once more 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 with a couple of hundred others to pick up the new AA Frigate HMS JAGUAR at Denny's, Dumbarton yard on the 9th of December 1959.
Little did I know then that she was to be my 'home' for the next three years and three months but that's another story.
