The Royal Navy and Me

The Royal Navy and Me
Posted on January 31st 2020
by irishroverpei

This is a story told through the eyes of a young sailor who joined the Royal Navy in 1955 as a Boy Seaman 2nd class, the absolute lowest rank in the Navy. Follow his induction at HMS Ganges, the toughest boy’s training establishment in England, if not the world, and his first assignment to HMS Cockade in time to visit Australia for the opening of the 1956 Olympic games. This is a thoroughly amusing tale, tempered with dark moments of despair, as he visits islands in the South Pacific, tours Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, passes through the Suez Canal en-route to Malta and Gibraltar, helps to capture an Icelandic boarding party during the Cod Wars. He dives in a submarine to play cat and mouse with our Cold War adversaries, surfaces through the polar ice at the top of the world, feel the tension in the submarine as it sinks toward crush depth. Laugh at the antics of his fellow sailors and the strange situations they found themselves in. Learn the meaning of the acronym PASAHB, and sympathize with this naive young sailor as he falls for one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Whether a sailor or a dreamer of the sea, this is one voyage not to bemissed.]

Review from the Editor of the Ganges Gazette
Review from the Ganges Gazette
Following on from ‘Lily & Me’ comes another ‘cracker’ from Fred’s pen, but this time covering his time in the Navy. Ganges, surface ships – Far East and Home Fleet. Girls, with Cupid active with his bow. Joining the Submarine Service with a very good description of life aboard diesel electric ’T’ and ‘A’ class boats. More girls and arrows everywhere, tricked into marriage, children, divorce and part of the 6th Canadian Submarine Squadron based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Dick Lloyd Editor-Gazette