As Tony says an excellent summary.
However it was more like 10 years at sea than five for some, As could get called up at anytime between 18 and 26 years of age, and if you did serve in the MN at those ages whilst NS was still active you went on the reserve list until you were 36 years old if you came ashore at 27 years of age, and the majority of us went to sea at 16 years old, engineers it was usually 20/22 years old because of serving time ashore, as engineering apprentices were not de rigour until about 1960, then they started at 18.
My own love affair with the MN started during the war, as my father had been away for nearly two years and in that time we had been bombed out three times, for some inexplicable reason the crew were not allowed ashore or leave and had to anchor in the River Humber due to nature of the cargo, my mother had apparently got in touch with the MOWT and somehow got a sympathetic ear and got us permission to visit the ship and the Pilot Boat took us down to Spurn Point, all I remember was seeing this big grey and black castle floating in the water (I was 5 or 6 at the time) with armed guards on the gangway and my older sister and myself being kept entertained whilst mother and father apparently got re-acquainted, resulting in a younger brother who alas died in childbirth later. From that day forward I was smitten and although after the third bombing living in the Yorkshire Dales I never ever forget that huge castle and the smell of the sea, and when we got a house in Hull when I was 12.5 years old, I was on my first trawler at the age of 13 bound for the Arctic Circle. Thank you Adolf and the Luftwaffe .for giving me a taste for travel.
