38 NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2010


Work starts on home for Mary Rose


WORK has begun on a new permanent home for the Mary Rose in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Construction of the museum began 28 years to the day since the timbers of the Tudor warship were raised from the bed of the Solent, having lain off Southsea for more than four centuries.


And it represents another major step in a conservation process which began in the early 1980s and will continue until 2016. Local


£16.3m contract to build the new museum over the dry dock in which the ship is being preserved, part of an overall £35m project which is being supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund to the tune of £21m.


finished in the autumn on 2012, at which point the hull itself will be reunited with the majority of the 19,000 artefacts recovered with her.


clad building is under way the ship will be away from public view, but in two years the preserving chemical sprays which keep the hull shrouded in mist will be finished and Mary Rose will have entered the final phase of conservation, a slow air-drying process. But the existing Mary Rose Museum, 300 metres from the new site, remains open during building to showcase more than 1,000 Tudor artefacts, and vital fundraising continues apace – there is a £4m target to be met before the new museum can open its doors in 2012.


withdrawal from view, Mary Rose was the only 16th century warship on public display anywhere in the world. Launched in 1511,


a favourite of Henry VIII, but sank while sailing to engage with a French fleet in the Solent in 1545.


 www.maryrose.org


Life outside the workplace


SERVICE and civilian personnel at Clyde Naval Base were given a glimpse of life outside work in the base’s new Supermess. Clubs, welfare organisations,


charities and Naval Base departments set up stalls in the new facility to demonstrate the wide range of activities and services available when people are not at work.


These included the HMS Neptune Sailing Centre, the base rowing club, Help for Heroes, the Naval Base Chaplaincy Service, the Defence Fire Service,


MOD Police, the Clyde Learning Centre and Faslane’s medical centre and dental department. Also there were representatives of the Naval Personal and Family Service, who usually operate out of Churchill Square in Helensburgh’s Churchill Estate. For fitness enthusiasts a PT stall


was manned by CPOPT Stevie O’Neil, who helped organise the whole event.


Cdr Ian Riches, Executive Officer,


event has been a huge success and the Neptune Building Supermess has been the ideal venue. “By positioning the stalls in the mall it means that we get the passing lunchtime traffic heading to the shops and messes for their meals.”


Madron service


PERSONNEL from RN Air Station Culdrose took part in the annual Nelson thanksgiving service and parade at Madron parish church, near Penzance. The service reflects the fact


that the first news of the British victory at Trafalgar was passed to fishermen working in Mounts Bay by HMS Pickle as she made her way home from the battle, and the fishermen carried that news back to port, allowing an announcement to be made from the Assembly Rooms in Penzance on November 4 1805.


said: “The the she was Up until her temporary While construction of the timber- ● Cpl Sutton of 42 Cdo RM in the Field Kitchen competition Pictures: Andrew Linnett (DE&S)


NAVY caterers put in their best performance in almost a decade at the Armed Forces’


culinary showcase


competition. Exercise Joint Caterer 2010 –


formerly the Combined Services Culinary Challenge – brought together more than 400 Service personnel and contract caterers for a three-day blow-out at Sandown Park race course.


And around 70 of them were representing the Senior Service (including the Royal Marines) at


the conducted


annual by


flagship Defence


Services (DFS). The competition’s new name reflects the fact that the skills on show are exactly the same


event, Food


Naval Service steps up to the hotplate


as those used on operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and is part of DFS’s overall support of front-line commands. Over the three days competitors


battled it out against their Service rivals, being judged on their technical and craft skills as well as hygiene and safety methods. Awards are given according to creativity,


composition and presentation – including taste.


A score in excess of 90 per cent will yield a gold medal, 75 per cent plus means a silver medal, 65 per cent plus a bronze medal and over 55 per cent means a certificate of merit. The Naval Service Culinary Arts Team (NSCAT),


ranging from the most junior chefs and workmanship,


stewards to senior caterers, picked up eight gold medals, 12 Best in Class awards, 34 silver medals, 24 bronze medals and 16 Certificates of Merit. That level of performance has not been achieved for nine years. In one competition a team of military chefs also took on the culinary talents of TV chef Richard Phillips, challenging the celebrity to create gourmet dishes using ingredients from front-line ration packs. Richard, a regular on Daybreak


and Ready Steady Cook, said: “I have been so impressed by what I have seen today – not only the skills of the chefs but also their creativity in turning these rations into these fantastic dishes. Also on show was the new


lightweight patrol operational ration pack, currently being tested


in Afghanistan. The pack is designed for troops


undertaking patrols of ten to 12 hours, and is half the weight of the current 24-hour multi-climate pack.


New items include beef jerky


and, for the first time in a ration pack, a sandwich.


There is also a self-heating bag


that can be used to warm up food – an individual flameless heater called ‘Hot Pack’ allows troops to heat food pouches containing main meals to temperatures of up to 70°C. With the


tenth year of this


event deemed a success, planning for Joint Caterer 11 will start in earnest in the New Year. Those interested in participating and require any further information should contact the Fleet Catering Service Desk.


Who’s cooking...


Open Hot Sweet class: Mr J Stock (HMS Nelson), bronze; Open Duck Dish: PO S Geldart (Ark Royal), merit; Junior Lamb Dish: CH P Hunt (Bulwark), merit; Mr K Ottaway (BRNC), merit; Senior Fish Dish: Cpl J Cox (DMLS), silver – best in class; CH G Wooton (RFA), bronze; Junior Fish Dish: CH K Taylor (Bulwark), merit; Junior Chicken Dish: Mne P Jackson (DMLS), bronze; CH P Greaves (Nelson), merit; Open Vegetarian Dish: LH S Dunne (RFA), bronze; Senior Steward Restaurant, Flambé Dish: LH M Theobald (COMUKTG), silver; Inter-Service Open Steward Skills: Std N Murray (Ark


Royal), Clyde’s


gold – best in class; LStd M Theobald (COMUKTG), silver; Std C Cormack (Bulwark), silver; POStd W Champs (Cornwall), silver; Std E Stewart (Ark Royal), silver; Std D Yevoo (Nelson), silver; Std C Dungey (DMLS), silver; Std N Murray (Ark Royal),


Std A Tagivetaua (Ark Royal), silver; Std M Bridge (Ark Royal),


Std C Cannel (Nelson), silver; Inter- Service Senior Chef of the Year: LCH D Wilson (CINCFLEET), merit; LCH A Jones (Bulwark), bronze; Cpl T Merrick (42 Cdo), bronze; Inter- Service Junior Chef of the Year: CH K Taylor (Bulwark), gold – best in class; CH S O’Garro (RNAS Culdrose), silver; CH H Grant (Culdrose), silver; Inter-Service


Open Cook and


Serve: CH G Wooton (RFA), bronze; LCH S Dunne (RFA), bronze; POStd W Champs (Cornwall), bronze;


Sgt


P Wilson (CTCRM), merit; Cpl R Wright (539 ASRM), merit; LCH D Price (SHAPE), merit; CH R Dale (Gloucester), silver; POStd P Robinson (DMLS), Gold – best in class; CH D Price (SHAPE), silver; Mne Urhegyi


● A critical moment for the


Royal Navy team in the heat and serve competition at Combined Services Culinary Challenge


(FPGRM), bronze; Mne Gills (CLR RM),


bronze; Stwd C Dungey


(DMLS), bronze; POC S Geldart (Ark Royal), merit; POC P Pringle (Bulwark), merit; LStd M Theobald (COMUKTG), merit; Inter-Service Open Field, Team Challenge: Cpl T Merrick (42 Cdo RM), bronze; Cpl S Sutton (42 Cdo RM), bronze; Mne McCormick (42 Cdo RM), bronze; Cpl R Sexton (CHF Yeovil),


silver;


CH Walkers (CHF Yeovil), silver; Mne Hickey (CHF Yeovil),


silver; Mne S


silver; silver;


Service Mystery Box: CH K Taylor (Bulwark), merit; LStd M Theobald (COMUKTG), merit; Senior Centre Piece: Mrs M Conn (CTCRM), gold – best in class; Senior Decorative Cake: C/Sgt S Edwards (DMLS), silver; Mr P Roberts (DMLS), silver; Mr P Roberts (DMLS), gold – best in class; Junior Decorative Cake: CH R Cull (DMLS), merit – best in class; CH L Hutchinson (DMLS), merit; Inter-Service Open Team Buffet: LCH R Hoopy (Culdrose), bronze; POC M Rowberry (RFA), bronze; LHC T McAlpine (RFA),


Fowler (30 Cdo IX Gp), bronze; Mne Fairbank (30 Cdo IX Gp), bronze; Mne S Bruckshaw (30 Cdo IX Gp), bronze; Sgt B Broadhurst (CTCRM), gold; Mne R Blair (CTCRM), gold; CH Taper (CTCRM), gold; Inter- Service Parade de Chef: POC M Rowberry (RFA), silver – best in class; LHC T McAlpine (RFA), silver – best in class; LHC P Moon (RFA), silver – best in class; CH G Wooton (RFA), silver – best in class; Front of House Parade de Chef: CPOS J Brown (RFA – DMLS), silver; Std C Cannel (Nelson), silver; eight (DMLS),


silver times eight; Inter- RFA trainees bronze;


CH K Taylor (Bulwark), bronze; CH P Hunt (Bulwark), bronze; LHC D Wilson


Raised Game Pie: Mne M Whittle (FPGRM), silver; Manager Award: POC M Rowberry (RFA), best in class.


(CINCFLEET), bronze; The new building is due to be firm Warings won the


Sultan team tours World War 1


battlefields


ENGINEERS from HMS Sultan retraced the bloody footsteps of Naval heroes when they made a pilgrimage to the Somme and Passchendaele.


A team of 20 officers and


ratings from the Gosport training establishment spent three days in France and Belgium touring the former battlefields of the Royal Naval Division. The Division,


formed from


sailors without ships at the beginning of the Great War, served with distinction in the Dardanelles and the Western Front throughout the four years of Armageddon. It fiercely clung on to its Naval roots – retaining RN ranks and terminology,


with battalions


named for Naval heroes such as Nelson, Anson and Hood – and, by the war’s end, was regarded by Churchill as one of the very finest units Britain dispatched to the front. In earning such accolades and


glory, the RND paid a dreadful price: come Armistice Day in 1918, the Division suffered 47,953 casualties killed or wounded – 40 per cent of the Royal Navy’s entire losses during the war and three times the Division’s 1914 strength. To educate students (and staff) in the deeds of the sailor-soldiers, the establishment’s Defence and Political Studies section organised a visit to the killing fields, taking in all the Division’s major battle sites – the Somme and Ancre, Gavrelle


(Arras), Vimy


Passchendaele and Ypres. A short service and laying of


wreaths was held at the Division’s memorials at Beaucourt and Gavrelle,


while Lt Brendan


Wallis RNZN laid a wreath to his countrymen at the New Zealand Memorial in Gravenstafel, near Passchendaele. There was more wreath laying in one of the iconic war monuments, the imposing Menin Gate in Ypres, which lists the names of the missing and sees the town’s fire brigade perform the Last Post nightly. It fell to the youngest trainee from Sultan, LET Stephen Little, to place a wreath as a pipe band performed Abide With Me. As he did so, the hairs rose on the backs of the necks of the engineers. “This is a completely different


experience to that of Normandy; here there isn’t the personal stories, but the tale of a generation,” said Sqn Ldr John Cairns, one of the organisers of the tour. Lt Andy Young added: “When visiting the many cemeteries dotted among the


battlefields, you’re


often struck by the incongruous fouled anchor headstone of an RND matelot, most often without a name.” Sultan


runs two battlefield


tours annually; one in the summer to Normandy, the second, in the autumn, to the Western Front. Personnel interested in attending should contact Sqn Ldr Cairns or Lt Young on 93843 2354.


Launch Medusa is rededicated


THE Princess Royal has rededicated HMS Medusa,


the


wartime harbour defence motor launch, in Portsmouth Naval Base. During her visit to the base


Princess Anne met many of the ship’s crew who have assisted with the restoration project, as well as representatives of organisations which have provided funding. Medusa, built in Poole in 1943,


was at the Normandy Landings and went on to become a survey vessel post-war. She ended her service with the


Royal Navy in 1968 and is now in the care of the Medusa Trust, acting as a memorial to those who served in the class of vessel. The rededication ceremony marks the end of a five-year project which saw her refitted in Hythe with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund – the project also helped train young shipwrights in traditional materials. www.hmsmedusa.org.uk





Ridge,


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