HMS Reclaim

[Captain Kong]

In 1950, I did Two by Two Week Courses on HMS DUKE OF YORK , a 35,000 ton Battleship, she was the one who helped to sink the german Scharnhorst.
All the forward accommodation was below decks, no ports, maybe 50 men to a mess where you eat and slept in hammocks.
The bathroom was another deck down and all Salt Water showers, Dhobi was done in salt water.
Cheers
Brian

Under the 14 inch Guns on the fore deck.

[j.sabourn]

#10 Cappy ref. your manpower query. I can say in 1979 as an example on two occasions. 1. During the recovery of any parts human or metal in the Irish sea off the downed Tornado aircraft, whilst working with HMS Reclaim, he asked if we could send over a boat for one of their Divers who they thought was going into decompression sickness (bends) so as to put him in one of our chambers, I jumped in our Zodiac and went over myself to do, rather foolish as it was the middle of the night. But was told speed was essential. Another time on the same job the Reclaim asked if we could put a boarding party on a suspect trawler in the area which turned out to be registered in Hull. On both those occasions it was put down to lack of manpower, so even then the RN may have started the downward creep. Our own MN crew worked in very well with the RN. If there were any personal conflicts of interest between the two the MN seafarer was removed on the advice of the Admiralty, you were either compatible and stayed or non compatible and went. The Deck crew were never changed all my time there which consisted of 4 ABs and 1 AB/Crane Driver. Master and 2 mates. 1 radio officer, 3 engineers and 1 motorman, Ch. Stewd. and 1 Ass Std. 2 cooks. The catering crew might be wrong as the usual amount of MN crew was about 15. It was usual to have about the same amount of RN crew. The POs were permanent and the Diving officer used to be changed at various intervals. The same as the divers were often changed out. Foreign naval visitors to the ship were common which included special forces. On a jolly down the Medi the ship was packed out with strange faces and were only restricted for numbers by the lifeboat capacity if remember correctly was either 45 or 50. The MN crew did the usual work of maintaining the ship and mooring 1 AB to each winch and the RN all the technical diving etc. They told us where to go and we went. On the last trip I did to Italy we had 3 Naval Surgeons on board instead of the 1 regular. Cheers sorry to hear about your brother but think I said so before thought it was longer back than 4 weeks. Cheers JS

[cappy]

....interesting john...always felt as crew in a navy ship there was a lot more yessir nosir.....than on a merchant ship specially colliers or small coastal vessels ........regarding my brother he passed away on the 17th of october but it was the 4 of november when his funeral was held .....a good turnout at the church he was welll respected...regards cappy

[j.sabourn]

There is very little bull#### on these type of vessels Cappy. They are working ships and no place for sea lawyers and working to set hours. There were two crews to the ship and was 4 weeks on and 4 weeks off for the MN crew, so no real hardship there. The only trouble though was the 4 weeks off was sometimes interrupted by doing favours and going back into the North Sea to relieve someone or other. Didn't happen all the time but more often than not. Same thing here in Australia where it was 6 weeks on and 6 weeks off. The total method of how they ran the MN down was wrong and the same as the RN in a few years time there will be no proper seamen left if there was a big upsurge of British Shipping the numbers wouldn't be there , there has been no thought of the future re the seagoing community, once again the myoptic politician has not been up to the job. I never hardly saw a Blue RN Boiler suit on the Clansman they were all orange. Most of the regular RN crew took the advantage of growing weird moustaches etc. which would be frowned upon on naval vessels, the Diving Officers were always pretty relaxed on this, and only in the case of an Admiral or someone coming on board were things tightened up to suit. JS

[j.sabourn]

As to previous post, one such case was the PO in charge of the Hydraulic systems for the raising and lowering of the Bell among other things, and Called George, his full title was Hydraulic George, was to receive a second or third Good Conduct medal, we got 30 minutes notice that an Admiral would be landing by line from a helicopter, in the immediate near future, there was a mad scramble and all the shavers were going and all the naval party assembled on the after deck in square rig for the brief ceremony. The recipient was I belief a member of the NF and had a union Jack as his counterpane on his bunk. He was called Hydraulic not only for his skills with the Diving Bell but his skills in the PO's bar they had on board. If George is still alive my best to him and hope he got the postmans job he yearned for on coming out of the Navy. JS

[j.sabourn]

Prior to the landings in the Falklands 3 of our Divers were flown out to Ascension Island and were possibly the first 3 to land on the beaches, they were clearance divers and an essential job prior to any landings, land troops were I think a company of Ghurkas. Others who were there would know more but I was told certain things by people who had taken part, the sergeant major of Marines who was captured before the invasion of the Falklands (his was a story in its own rights) on South Georgia. These weren't under the Official Secrets Act, but common knowledge amongst themselves. HMS Challenger which was being built to replace the Clansman and HMS Reclaim was common knowledge she would not stand the stringent tests put on her, as she was built with a lot of Aluminium in her, and the naval ships that were hit with exocets had burned so fiercely was a good example not to have. I for one am not happy about the run down of the navy and its ships which leaves the defence of the British Isles wide open, having seen the work that is done by this arm of the armed services, makes me wonder at the sanity of our lords and masters. JS I may have got the name of the newly built part DSV wrong as am quite capable of getting ships names mixed up. If not Challenger was something similar. JS

[Fouro]

Came upon this photograph of HMS RECLAIM John, thought you might like to have a look.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/camperdown/11255672805

FOURO.

[j.sabourn]

Thanks Fouro. If you want a better picture of Seaforth Clansman just double click on my avatar. I seem to have a recollection of Reclaim having a gun mounting on her foredeck, or maybe I am thinking of another ship. The high housing on the Clansman is the diving area where the Bell is stowed and the moonpool area, the bottom of the ship in this area is open permanently, at the diving deck level ( sea level ) there is a hydraulic hatch for when the ship is under way if want to close but rarely did, in other words any diver could access ship by coming up through the moonpool. Before lowering the bell with divers were in who accessed it through an air lock from the decompression chamber where they sometimes lived for a week at a time. The first thing that was lowered to the seabed was the Clump weight followed by the bell which sat on the top of to give the divers freedom to get out through the bottom of the bell. There were always at least 3 divers in the bell of whom one stayed in while the other two were out, he was a back up for anything going wrong with the other two. The RN always had at least one Naval Surgeon in attendance on any dive mission who monitored all that went on via camera from the control room on the ship and later in the decompression Chambers.. Naval saturation divers like their civilian counterparts were paid extra money whilst in Chambers, dont think it was as big though, as civilian divers were paid by the minute in the North Sea and only had to work a couple of months of the year after a couple of dives. Health wise they must have come to some conclusions by now, but have never really followed. Cheers JS

[Fouro]

Having read thr'o most of the interesting posts involving the Seaforth Clansman, thought this might be of interest to you John, as I notice you were no longer serving aboard the Seaforth Clansman when this dreadful tradgedy took place.

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/16-july-1983/

FOURO.

[j.sabourn]

Thanks Fouro, yes I remember that one. My memory must be going as remember reading and thinking pleased it happened on the other swing to us, so must have memories but by the dates shown if correct must have left the clansman according to my discharge book. But spoke at the time to various people, and if memory is not failing me once again the bodies lay under water for some time and the smell was pretty horrific when brought to the surface. Don't think there were 2 civil aircraft down in the Scilly Isles. So my memory or the press release regarding dates is at fault. Maybe my mind at the time dwelt on what would have to be done if there. The same as my memories today of other dead bodies in the sea experienced in 1988, one puts to the back of the mind, but reappear in different format at various times. That's why I put on paper and put on site when I knew I wasn't hallucinating. The one about bodies exploding mid air I know I wasn't hallucinating however, but try to make on I was. I didn't put on the original account as was in a quandary myself about it. When one makes official statements one has to choose your words carefully, thats why people don't say too much when interviewed by authorities. Cheers JS