HMS Edinburgh Decommissioning trip

[robpage]

Every time a Ship reaches the end of its life there are always "good" ideas on preservation , future life in a new form , but the enthusiasts never have the funding , and ongoing plans never have the income to account for routine maintenance and dry docking , for something the size of the Ark you would need a minimum of £750,000 a year , so if you could get 100,000 visitors the first £7,50 of their ticket is engineering ? old ships go to breakers yards who pay for the privilege of safely dismantling the scrap . At the end of the day it it a fitting end , better than rotting in a backwater whilst another preservation group fails to raise funds

[j.sabourn]

Rob cant think of any ship I was on that would be worth preserving, just the opposite most should have been in the knackers yard years before they were scrapped. I appreciated a ship when I was on it as it was your home for an indefinite period. However there was always the next one to look to. I am not sentimental about ships, maybe the well known ones to a certain extent, the likes of the Victory which is part of our naval heritage. Certainly some of the scrap heaps I sailed on and kept working they had seen their working life over and over again in most cases. Cheers John Sabourn

[cappy]

always remember the first one runcimans cragmoor can still see faces and remember names some after that remembered just by various incidents some good some not so good but such is life......still flying fish weather in bonny shields

[robpage]

The " H.M.S. Victory is like Grannies broom , it has had three new handles and five new heads to the point where it is quite modern , love the heritage though .

I watched with interest as a number of guys tried to rescue the RMS WIndsor Castle from the scrap man's hands , but could never see how it would ever be a viable proposition , if the Queen Mary has had her financial difficulties over the years in Southern California , I never believed the Windsor would make it in Southampton . The Hull has a life and sea water shortens it , the expenses are incredulous , unless there are huge grants available no project will ever get off the ground , and by huge I would think to preserve an Aircraft Carrier , you would need £20,000,000 as a starter

[j.sabourn]

Must cost a fortune just pumping the bilges out at frequent intervals. Would have to be into a shore receptable with all the clean water acts now. The Navy ships I saw laid up in Portsmouth always had a white line painted at the waterline around the bow, this was so observers could see if they were filling up and slowly going down in the water. Cheers John Sabourn

[John Albert Evans]

The crewe of HMS Edinburgh were given the freedom of the city of Edinburgh yesterday i think. The Captain gave the crewe permission to go ashore in uniform and what happened, some of the lads went into a pub and were REFUSED a drink as they were told that they didnt serve SERVICEMEN.
You couldn't make it up could you.

John Albert Evans

[robpage]

I have been in Pubs in Portsmouth where an obvious bunch of fresh faced young men with short hair , and tidy appearance came in , a few years ago because the hair is longer now , and the landlord refused service . I commented that it was a bit harsh , he told me that it was past experience led him to believe that they were on a pub crawl , and he had had damage done in the past , The place was in Old Portsmouth and a well known Tourist type pub , so Whilst feeling sympathy at the lads not getting served , There are in Military towns often two sides to the story , Now we never went ashore and caused trouble , someone else normally started it >

[j.sabourn]

The naval crews I was with 79 to 83 were always advised when going ashore on the continent to go in civvies. Even then there was the possibility of them being a target. Although in those days suppose the apparent danger was more the IRA. John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Must have been palacial compared with the Avonmoor Cappy. The Brocklymoor had an Indian crew. There was a murder or attempted murder on her at one time and a plane that flew over her in the N.Atlantic with reporters on board reported that a lot of women were on board. These were the crew in their Indian garb. Cheers john sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Rob we were always there for Navy Days. All the naval personel were home so we had the ship to ourselves. We used to be on the berth directly opposite the Royal Yacht. Remember about the New Year either 80 or 81 there was quite a bit of bad publicity on her as about 6 of the crew had been caught practicing this gay stuff. Think they were discharged from the Navy. What a difference today they would probably have been told to bring their frocks and fancy underwear with them now. Its sometimes hard to believe, as seems to have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. The pubs you mention have probably been in them all, and other places as well. Was over there a few years ago and went to the submarine museum in Gosport I believe to see the Hollande 1. We came under the control of HMS Vernon and sometimes had special forces undergoing saturation diving courses. As you say Portsmouth is certainly a military town or was then. Cheers John Sabourn