26 NAVY NEWS, MAY 2010

My days in the Mickey Mouse fleet

BILL Day’s letter and photo

Crossing a stormy pond (March)

stirred a dormant memory of an experience I once had. In 1949 I joined the Bristol Division of the RNVR, and was assigned my first bout of two weeks’ sea training in HMS Venturer, tender.

the sea She was lying in

Portland Harbour, and so the crew, composed of ODs like myself and much-decorated WW2 veterans, were taken by coach to join the ship. The whereabouts

of Venturer proved problematic as at first she could not be found. Eventually she was

we saw that the paint was the wrong colour, being a dark grey. But nobody seemed to notice, so we had got away with it we thought.

ladies of the Embassy took us sightseeing, and nightclubbing,

before we left for home. Reluctantly we sailed – we

amuses, impresses or enlightens us the most.

discovered hiding between two sleek-looking corvettes, a tiny and dejected Motor Minesweeper. That vessel, a knowledgeable

A £25 Amazon voucher to the letter which

shipmate informed me, is what is known in the RN as a ‘Mickey Mouse’.

engine was started, and off we went.

Get it? MMS, Jackspeak! And so we piled onboard, the

It was a magnificent day, a calm blue sea with an azure sky, as doing our 10 knots flat-out we surged across Weymouth Bay and out into the bounding sea, heading for a town called Randers in Denmark. It was such good weather that hands to bathe was piped. I was staggered to find that we

were out of sight of land. What a wonderful welcome we

were given by the Danes, being the first RN ship there since the end of the war. We made headline news, visited by the great and the good, taken on banyans, picnics and tours to see the graves of the Danish resistance fighters, brewery runs, and even taken to their homes for dinner. Awestruck crowds lined the dockside every day to cheer us and our little ship.

The high point came when the Danish army invited the crew to their barracks for the day, and challenged us to a game of football. We lost 10-1, but they had laid

on a fabulous banquet in our honour with food and drink we had only dreamed about, Britain still being in the grip of rationing. One of our sailors, a Welsh

tenor, sang songs to the army by way of retaliation for our defeat. Parting was such sweet sorrow

as we sailed for Oslo. On the way our first lieutenant decided that we should paint the ship’s upper works to smarten her up, ready for an inspection by the UK Naval Attaché. It was not until we tied up that

50 degrees, and I swear that at times we did the full circle. Having got thrown over my board and out of my bunk time after time, I grabbed a pillow and a blanket, braved the cold and made for the engine room, to sleep in a calmer corner. Eventually it ended when

horror as we crept along. There, anchored on the far side

were elements of the Home Fleet. A couple of carriers, a screen of

We were going easily through

were half-way home when we were hit by a westerly gale right on the nose, and that was when the nightmare began. Up the front end it was impossible to stand, eat, sleep or sit, all I could do was wedge myself in my bunk, be sick, and pray for deliverance.

welcome was more downbeat,

In Oslo our but the

Amphion memories surface...

THIS picture of HMS Amphion was taken in 1944, exercising in one of the lochs, 3rd Division North.

Ellmore, now crossed the bar. I’m sending it in response to the photo of the booties sitting on Sceptre’s fin (page 6,

December).

It was given to me by the UC2, LS Norman

The booties were involved in training for stealthy insertion with Amphion at the time. This involved the boat being at periscope depth, towing a rubber dinghy full of marines, with a rope around the ’scope. Communication was difficult. Daytime training was OK because the skipper faced the ’scope aft and watched the operation.

Night-time was somewhat different. The dinghy couldn’t be seen and obviously flashing a torch wasn’t on.

A system of tapping on top of the peri- scope to pass rudimentary messages did OK.

were casting off but couldn’t get the rope undone before the boat went deep. The dinghy and all the equipment went down with it. Unfortunately some marines went down as well.

A couple of times the booties tapped they

However, it was found that if the boat was going a bit too fast it was impossible to haul the dinghy forward to reach the ‘scope to tap on it!

Amphion never went to war. I joined her as a killick stoker in ’62, on the Singapore Squadron, 186ing in the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Yukosaka, Olongopo, Andaman Islands... Where did it all go?

– Keith Hallam, Blackpool

THERE were several former Shipwright Artificers at the last passing-out parade of Artificer Apprentices at HMS Sultan, and we were proud

to have been there.

We chippies can trace our

ancestry back 6,000 years to the first recorded nautical craftsman – Noah. We have proud and happy

memories of life in the Fleet, maintaining ships and craft of all types, entailing work from stem to stern and truck to keel. With the demise of the Artificer we wish our successors,

the

Engineering Technicians, a full satisfying career in the finest service in the world. Have fun and enjoy your runs ashore in foreign ports.

– Lt Cdr Anthony Sears

(Retd), President, The Royal

Naval Shipwrights and Artisans Association, Cowplain, Hants

we staggered into the calm of Weymouth Bay on a grey misty afternoon. And what we saw filled us with

destroyers, and right in the middle stood the mighty battleship HMS Vanguard, flying the flag of the Commander-in-Chief. We had almost made it across

...I READ with great interest

Last Day of the Tiffi es (April). I

was saddened, however, when I could not fi nd any mention of shipwrights. I recall that when I joined the RN in 1953 at HMS Fisgard after one year’s general training we were offered a choice of five (not four) categories of artificer, namely Engineering, Ordnance, Electrical, Air, and Shipwright. In the article the first four

when we were spotted. Someone must have wondered about the strange two-tone vessel flying the white ensign, because an Aldis started to wink at us from Vanguard’s bridge wing. The following conversation

reportedly took place: “What is she saying, Yeoman?” asked our captain.

that?’” “What shall I answer, sir?” “No answer. Eyes front!” said the captain sharply.

eye was turned on the C-in-C’s flagship, which signalled us twice more, before we slunk out of sight around the corner into Portland Harbour, and caught the coach back home to our day jobs. That was the one and only time I set foot on a ‘Mickey Mouse’ with many varied memories. But I salute the men like Mr

Day who actually crossed the Pond in one, and went on to serve throughout the war in small ships. I call them real sailors, and unsung heroes. God bless ’em!

– Alec McCoy,

Heysham, Lancs

And so a Nelsonian blind “She is asking – ‘What ship is

categories are well-mentioned, but nothing about ‘chippie’ except vaguely Rear Admiral Burgess’s comment about a tin can floating on the water. Chippie was responsible, among a whole host of other things, for that tin can, and without them the other categories of tiffies and indeed all other branches would have been redundant.

– Mick Tatnall, ex-WOMEA

(H) Stithians, Truro, Cornwall

...IT WAS interesting to read about the last of the engine room artifi cers. I have read the Navy News since

retiring from the RN in 1972 after 25 years’ service. In all those years I have never read about the Shipwrights, later called MEA(H) – we seem to be a forgotten branch. I was on HMS Ranpura from 1954-56 and our workshop stretched the whole length of the ship.

As a staff of 28 we had the

knowledge and the machinery to build a battleship. I have never worked as hard

ever in my life, usually for those frigates and destroyers alongside for repairs, large and small, as when I joined the RN after a marvellous apprenticeship, which

We hark back to the Ark

● HMS Sultan says goodbye to the last of the Artifi cer Apprentices and marked by veterans

I only know of two other

we served in RN dockyards Chatham,

Portsmouth and

Devonport. We were then Shipwrights. After about two years,

all

artisans were phased out so we took on seven extra trades, which we were qualified to do, later we were renamed MEA(H). I had a wonderful career, I hope

we warrant a mention.

– S Pilcher, Walderslade,

Chatham, Kent

...IN JANUARY 1939, 40 tiffy apprentices arrived at RAF Cosford, to train with the RAF apprentices. They were joined by a second

entry of 40 in September 1939. I was a member of that second group. We remained at Cosford until Easter 1940, when all RAF apprentices moved to RAF Halton. We moved with them and remained there until November 1940, when the Fleet Air Arm training establishment opened at Newcastle-under-Lyme,

in

Staffordshire. Aircraft Artificer training continued there until Christmas 1945, when the establishment closed down and training was moved to Condor at Arbroath and Worthy Down in Hampshire. The two entries at Cosford now must be in their upper 80s.

survivors. I wonder if there are any more? If so please contact me on 01782 633092.

– J E Carnill, Clayton,

Newcastle-under-Lyme

...AS AN ex-tiff I was delighted with the tiffy coverage. However, I would point out one

glaring mistake (or was it an April Fool’s Day intentional?) in the letter from Lester May.

It says the blue and white bedpans, with the blue anchor at the centre, will be familiar.

The anti-tiff lobby will have a

field-day with this – baby tiffs with their own pots to pee in! It should of course have read ‘bedpanes’ or, more accurately, ‘counterpanes’. These indeed did have a blue anchor on them with the reverse side a white anchor which was displayed for formal inspections. The photo above this letter identified the instructor as Lt Ralph Thornton. If it is, he is the double of ex-tiff Lt Jim Casey, DWEO in HMS Plymouth 1971-72, an all-round super guy and quite brilliant rugby player who represented the RN. On the same page in the Opinion

piece, the quote from Gill Harding refers to tiffies as the ones who ‘kept the engines turning,

guns firing’ etc. This reminded me of a

the

newspaper cutting that Dave Lichfield, FCCEA on Plymouth 1972-73, kept in his wallet. It was a report on a speech by Lord Mountbatten where he described his Artificers as truly ‘princes amongst men.’ Perhaps the result of proper potty training! Finally, for any ex-tiffs who are not members of the Fisgard Association, log on to www.

fisgardassociation.org.

This excellent site,

run by

ex-tiff Norman ‘Nolly’ Bland, will leave you knee-deep in nostalgia as well as supplying the details of all reunions in the UK and much,much more.

– Jim Dowsett, Plymouth

...WHILE I always knew that baby Tiffs were newly out of nappies back in the early 1950s I was unaware that they relied upon bedpans.

I am indebted to Lester May for this piece of information. Could he have meant ‘blue and white counterpanes?’ I must admit though, that being able to discern the colour from a black and white film I do find rather intriguing.

– Derek Bridge, Chiang Mai,

Thailand

I’m afraid the glaring mistake was mine, not Lester May’s. The letters’ page gremlin (for such there seems to be) changed his ‘bedpanes’ into ‘bedpans’ and I didn’t even notice... – Man Ed

FOR a few days in April, the world suddenly became a larger place as the natural phenomenon of volcanic ash put a stop to the air travel which has turned it into a global village. Cancelled flights led to inconvenience, misery and expense for families, holidaymakers, and business people who had to find their way across land and over the seas. But if worldwide air travel stopped forever, what then? The world would become a different place, but the UK would not starve. Currently only about one or two per cent of our fresh

produce arrives by air, and although the growers would certainly feel the effects, most of us can live without Peruvian asparagus and Kenyan roses.

If on the other hand anything threatened our maritime trade, we would soon feel the effects. About 95 per cent of everything that comes into the UK comes by sea. Within four days there would probably be power cuts because we import nearly 50 per cent of our gas. Next would be food shortages, as most of the food we import arrives on container ships. They annually deliver about 586 million tonnes of freight to the UK’s ports. The figure for air freight by comparison is about two million tonnes.

The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the MOD

May 2010 no.670: 56th year

Leviathan Block, HMS Nelson, Portsmouth PO1 3HH

Editorial

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