RFA crew shortage as well as a Rear Admiral shortage....

[FD2]

Our Captain decided to sort it out, he was good at this sort of thing, and a few hours later said officer was assisted ashore as he was quite incapable of getting off himself.

A favorourite trick onboard - get visitors especially the other services - completely plastered. Great sport and good to hear the MN indulged too!

[1DC]

She seems to have got a long way off the berth before the screw up with engines became apparent.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

A favorourite trick onboard - get visitors especially the other services - completely plastered.

Cockers P on Ark Royal in Gib harbour.
I was an invited Crab, since we were nominally defending them on Ex Open Gate.
Took one sip of the offered drink which nearly got me drunk just like that.

"What's in this?" I asked the steward

"Gin Cocktail. CPO's Special, Sir. London Gin, Plymouth Gin, Sloe Gin, and we frightened it with the vermouth bottle".

I suspected the nearest bottle of mixer was back home in Blighty.

[FD2]

A group of midshipmen gave an RPC (free drinks) to the rest of the wardroom first day in Subic Bay. I wasn't too clever at the end of it and next morning asked one of them what they had made the 'Pimms cocktail' out of. It turned out that they had nearly run out of lemonade so it was just bottles of Pimms and a couple of tiny bottles of lemonade - good for a laugh he thought. He wasn't pleased with my reply!

The 'gin cocktail' is a new one. The other one for getting people legless was the 'champagne cocktail' usually at wedding receptions.

[Boac]

I think I have posted before, but when on the Lightning OCU at RAF Coltishall on 2(T) sqn it was occasionally custom for the boss to declare the 'Gin Mine' open. Our students were tasked with pouring the G&Ts from Mess large water jugs, and insisting on 'more tonic' had the inevitable result........... Good job the hooter never went then

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Gin Mines were still popular in the '80s.

It's quite funny when it does go..
At 0300 after a Dining In night, we were all still round at OC B Flight's on the patch, comparing whiskies, when the hooter went off.
At 0304, we were at the Main Gate in an assortment of vehicles. I was in the lead 2CV with about 6 others. It became apparent that none of us had ID cards to show the guard, although we were all in Mess Kit.
The senior nav stuck his head out the sunroof and announced
"'allo! We're aircrew....and we're p!ssed!"
The guard correctly figured that the Spetznatz would never try that one, and let us in.

Fortunately, it turned out to be a generation exercise, no flying.

[CharlieOneSix]

A favorourite trick onboard - get visitors especially the other services - completely plastered…….

…….especially the Americans with their dry ships. When Ark was in Oslo at the same time as the heavy cruiser USS Newport News some American officers came on board to a Cocktail Party. I don’t think they knew what hit them!

[FD2]

I know whose opinion I'd agree with. Shapps is a jobsworth stand-in. Go for it Penny!

Penny Mordaunt triggered a Cabinet row over defence spending yesterday after warning that the Royal Navy must 'keep pace' with Russia and China.

The former defence secretary broke Cabinet convention by warning that the decline in the size of the force over the last century was a threat to British interests.

Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, dismissed her comments as just an 'opinion' and did not say when defence spending would be increased.

The Royal Navy fleet has reduced from 232 ships, including eight aircraft carriers in 1960, to 30 in 2022, including two new aircraft carriers. There are also warnings that a recruitment crisis could lead to the decommissioning of two ships.

Cabinet ministers are bound by collective responsibility and tend not to intervene in one another's briefs, but Ms Mordaunt, the Commons Leader and an honorary captain in the Royal Navy reserves, issued her warning ahead of the Budget on March 6.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... inion.html

[FD2]

Grant's words of wisdom:

According to the Guardian, the vessel’s motor was “wired incorrectly”, which caused full ahead to give “full astern”.

On Sunday, Grant Shapps insisted the incident was not because of incompetence.

The Defence Secretary said: “We don’t say it’s incompetence when we see an aircraft come down. A very rare occasion just as this would be a rare occasion. It’s right to leave the investigators some time to work out exactly what’s gone wrong.”

The Royal Navy confirmed it had launched an investigation into the collision last week, but said it would not comment while the investigation was being carried out.

However, another Navy source told the Telegraph it was “impossible” to ascertain what caused the vessel to wrongly reverse. “I can’t think of a single way that you could leave the wall with the engines reversed and not notice immediately,” they said.

“In fact, if they had a double engine change, you’d test everything whilst still alongside first. It’s inconceivable that this would have been missed.”

Far from there being an anchor ready for letting go with the whack of a hammer it appears as though there's no one on the fo'c'sle at all! This is the procedure (on a slightly larger scale!):

Chid vs Bang.jpeg (32.55 KiB) Viewed 893 times

Maybe I need another visit to Specsavers...

[FD2]

Apologies - my link disappeared!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/11m_OVKDHs4

Probably my fault.

Telegraph article with Shapps's words of wisdom: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/0 ... rol-ahead/

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Telegraph article with Tom Sharpe's words of wisdom. He's a former Hunt Class Captain.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/0 ... mage-ship/

[PHXPhlyer]

I was wondering about the hull construction, essentially fiberglass.
Explained:
glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) hull. Minehunters are often made of non-magnetic materials so that they will be less likely to set off magnetically-initiated mines: the modern RN prefers GRP but alternatives such as stainless steel and wood have also been used.

PP

[k3k3]

I was told* the first Tupperware navy minehunters were built using a mould taken from the previous generation of mahogany hulled ships.

*by an ex-RNR CPO who had served on them.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Mahogany strips are typically used for tupperware boats' initial plug; a friend of mine owned a very nice yacht which was the mahogany 'plug' from which a tupperware mould was made and a series of boats then laid up. I sailed on it a few times. He got it cheap because he had to do the complete fit-out himself, although it was in fact stronger and lighter than the production boats.

[FD2]

The minesweepers and most of the other naval ships during WW2 were built conventionally and their protection against magnetic mines was to be 'degaussed'. Cables around the ships had current passed around which countered the ships' natural magnetic signature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing The Algerines and other classes of sweepers had conventional sweeping gear fitted as well, but the degaussing was necessary to stop the sweepers themselves being blown up by the new magnetic mines.

Post-War the decision was made to build a fleet of wooden hulled ships and eventually 119 Ton Class minesweepers were built and came to be used by 9 navies around the world. The RN finally withdrew its last one from service in 1994. Apart from the wooden hull, the use of iron and steel fittings was kept to an absolute minimum by the use of phosphor bronze but there still had to be a lesser degree of degaussing for the two Mirrlees and later Deltic engines plus the third ones which were used for the magnetic loop which produced a strong magnetic signature as it was towed behind to deliberately set off magnetic mines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton-class_minesweeper
Prince Charles, as he was then, had command of one of them - HMS Bronington.

The din produced by them changing the polarity every 5-10 seconds or so didn't help anyone off watch trying to sleep during extended sweeping exercises. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic

Excellent article by Tom Sharpe about press speculation and modern minehunting techniques!

[CharlieOneSix]

In WW2 the Wellington was modified for minesweeping by attaching to the lower fuselage and wings a large balsa wood ring with an aluminium coil inside it. The degaussing ring was powered by a Ford V8 engine. The Germans did a similar thing with the JU52.

[FD2]

Amazing! Some low flying practice needed for that! At least they'd be past the mine when it went off.

Didn't the Americans modify the Sea Stallion for minesweeping?

[CharlieOneSix]

I think it was the CH-53 Sea Dragon and that towed a sled on the surface. A much safer operating height than that used by the Wellington!

[FD2]

Never let commonsense dictate your decisions https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/0 ... inclusion/


‘Disbelief’ as under-manned Royal Navy seeks to re-deploy officers to diversity and inclusion team

Former First Sea Lord calls for the roles to be scrapped as the service faces personnel shortfalls and missed targets
Steven Edginton 27 January 2024 • 3:00pm



The Royal Navy is redeploying marines and sailors to become diversity and inclusion officers to enhance the “lived experience” of personnel amid ongoing recruitment challenges in manning its ships.

Three internal Navy job advertisements, seen by The Telegraph, seek to attract serving sailors and marines to work on diversity policy. The roles are based in Navy Command HQ [NCHQ] in Portsmouth and are intended to “improve the lived experience of our people”.

A Navy source told The Telegraph: “At a time when we’re massively undermanned, why does NCHQ want yet more people to concentrate on diversity and inclusion? You can imagine the sort of power-hungry social justice warriors this will attract too. We’re already inclusive; diversity will increase in time with the population.”

Lord West, who served as the First Sea Lord from 2002 to 2006, told The Telegraph: “Taking people from key and important roles to focus on diversity is nonsense. The Royal Navy has lost the plot.

“Obsessing over diversity and inclusion actually leads to recruitment issues. One needs just to look at the RAF’s positive discrimination schemes, which led to the exclusion of some white men. These diversity roles should be scrapped immediately.”

The Navy is advertising a role as a diversity and inclusion officer for those ranked Lieutenant Commander or Captain in the Royal Marines. The service is also looking for those ranked petty officers, chief petty officers, sergeants or colour sergeants to transfer to a senior diversity and inclusion policy position. Marines and those who are able seamen are invited to apply for a position in the Navy’s “climate assessment team”.

The Navy’s official diversity and inclusion policy document states that the service conducts climate assessments “to provide all those in command with an independent assessment of the lived experience of personnel”.

The document also outlines different diversity and inclusion roles in the Navy, including diversity advisors, practitioners, and associates; the former two positions help advance “diversity and inclusion in the workplace” while the latter is a more informal role for sailors of any rank to support official diversity officers in their work within units.
Staffing crisis

The redeployment comes as the Royal Navy faces a significant recruitment crisis. In the year to March 2023, the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines failed their recruitment targets by 27 per cent, representing a shortfall of 1,037 personnel. Both organisations have failed to hit their recruitment targets every year since 2011.

Personnel problems are so acute that two warships, HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll, have had to be decommissioned to staff a new class of frigates. Calls earlier this year to send the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Red Sea following airstrikes on the Houthi rebels in Yemen were denied due to staff shortages.

Last year, the Navy was criticised for wasting time and resources on diversity initiatives. In September 2023, The Telegraph revealed that an official guide on trans and non-binary awareness told sailors to introduce their pronouns at the start of meetings and interactions.

The guidance, which urged Navy staff to “avoid microaggressions like backhanded compliments and unhelpful tips,” was swiftly withdrawn for review by the Ministry of Defence.

Lord West described the initiative as “confusing” and unhelpful for “the cohesion and fighting ability of the Navy”. The navy also advertised diversity events for staff to attend for National Inclusion Week, held from 25 September to 1 October last year.

A Navy spokesperson said: “These roles are not new. For the Navy to be effective, we must be able to recruit and retain the best people from the broadest cross-section of society, so the small number of colleagues who conduct these responsibilities use their practical experience to help improve training and working culture.”

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

A Navy spokesperson said: “These roles are not new. For the Navy to be effective, we must be able to recruit and retain the best people from the broadest cross-section of society, so the small number of colleagues who conduct these responsibilities use their practical experience to help improve training and working culture.”

Except, they aren't.

The "current training and working culture" is what has crashed recruiting in the first place!!
This isn't the solution, it's the problem.

This is the Government equivalent of Go Woke, Go Broke.