HMS Reclaim

[j.sabourn]

HMS Reclaim was laid down at William Simons and Company, Renfrew on 9 November 1946 and launched by Lady Lillicrap on 12 March 1948. She was completed as the much needed deep diving and submarine rescue vessel and commissioned into the RN on 1st June 1948. Her speed of 12 knots was later augmented with jury rigged sails. Her complement of around 92 varied with the number of divers and support staff embarked.
Reclaim was based in Portsmouth conveniently close to HMS Vernon. HMS Vernon was the home of the Royal Navys Standard or hard hat divers ( known as steamers) in contrast the clearance divers (known as cork heads) who were then based then at HMS Lochinvar at Port Edgar on the Firth of Forth. Her initial aim was to achieve a depth of 500 feet for her divers. By 5th July 1948 all her divers had achieved 200 feet in the English Channel, and on the 10 July she sailed for Tarbert in Scotland where she continued diving in deeper water. About 1980 the Admiralty brought in a more modern civilian ship the Seaforth Clansman and I considered it a privilege to work alongside The Reclaim in various acts of recovery which the general public never heard about. Although she was old and the oldest commissioned ship apart from the Victory in the Royal Navy, she would have a go at most things and was a sad loss like most ships when they went to make razor blades. The Seaforth Clansman then had a diving depth of 300 metres nearly a 1000 feet, and most divers in training from the UK and other commonwealth countries went through her, as well as American special forces. My 4 years working as a civilian alongside naval disciplined divers whose very lives depended on others taught me a lot, and is one of my enduring memories. I think it was about 1987 when the Seaforth Clansman came off the MOD charter, I was not there to see the end sadly. Sadly the RN of today is doubtful if they would be able to supply their own vessel to rescue submariners. I looked up this info on google and was surprised to see the number of Naval Party ships since the war years, anyone looking up Google will see the Seaforth Clansman was Naval Party 1007 comprising of RN and MN seafarers.JS

[Ron B Manderson]

Remember her well.
She was our dept ship when I was in the RNR on H M S Montrose .
A ton class minesweeper.
She even sailed with us .
We had to get our ciggy ration from her .
She was in Rosyth dockyard for a while.
Ron the batcave

[j.sabourn]

Ron, we used to work with a couple of minehunters off the West Coast of Scotland on the approaches to the Clyde. The minehunters used to locate small listening devices on the sea bed, buoy the location and we used to do a 4 point moor over it and retrieve. I always wondered how the minehunters located these small listening devices , do you know ??? For example did they have to drop their own hydrophone or whatever over the side and pick up electronic disturbances. JS

[j.sabourn]

Now everyone on here swears by the information put out by Google, I will here dispel that myth. Re Google. In February 1970 Reclaims divers searched as deep as 450 feet to find and recover a Mk 44 torpedo lost on the seabed of Loch Fyne. I joined the Seaforth Clansman in 1979 and it was after this date that the torpedo was lost , I was there.

In May 1974 her attempt to lift Wessex V helicoprer from Vags Fiord failed off Harstad ended in failure when the Rotor Head sheared as the wreckage was being lifted from the water. However she atoned for this in the following year when she located and and recovered a Sea king Helicopter from under the noses of several Russian spy ships trawling for wreckage 20 miles off Portland Bill. In june 1979 she helped locate and recover wreckage of an RAF prototype Tornado that had crashed in 200 feet of water in the Irish sea during a test flight.
I joined the Seaforth Clansman on the 26.10. 78 and was in attendance at the Torpedo loss at Loch Fyne, the recovery off Portland Bill of the Sea King helicopter and actually was the crane driver when recovered , and also was at the search for the Tornado in the Irish sea. Other incidents mentioned by dates etc I cannot query, but it appears to be that what info. you get from Google is certainly not 100 percent, as for spy ships off Portland Bill, I never saw any, and as regards the same in the Irish sea turned out to be a Hull trawler. There is a truthful post on here about it. To me any Naval intelligence put out by this form of media is at the very least suspect. I left the Seaforth Clansman on 4.8.82. JWS

[Ron B Manderson]

Ron, we used to work with a couple of minehunters off the West Coast of Scotland on the approaches to the Clyde. The minehunters used to locate small listening devices on the sea bed, buoy the location and we used to do a 4 point moor over it and retrieve. I always wondered how the minehunters located these small listening devices , do you know ??? For example did they have to drop their own hydrophone or whatever over the side and pick up electronic disturbances. JS

Now you are making feel old LOL.
When we were sweeping we would be using a single L loop or with another ship a double loop.
We would pass a large current Pos then Neg thro the loop. Some mines had a ratchet workings and may not go up until maybe the 6th pulse. This was to make the protect fleet think maybe a sub was involved and had got into the convoy. The pulse thro cables was very high and don't go near wearing a watch. If So watch should just be ditched .
Also had the hammer and the plates scrapping to sound like ships props.
We were sweeping the channel in 1958 to allow a bigger channel to Amsterdam .
We got a few mines , and when the went off, it was underpants changed.
Also used the wire that had explosive cutters attached. This would allow the mines to surface then a rifle was used . Better than fireworks but scarry.
So that was the life of the ton Class and the R.N.R.
None of this fancy mine hunters for us.
Ron the batcave

[j.sabourn]

Thanks Ron, you must have been responsible for me having to put corrections in the NEMEDRI book as slowly but surely the mine clearance went on around the coast of Europe. It was the 3rd mates job to keep this Book up to date on the ships I was on. If there was one mine unaccounted for the minefield was still considered intact. When you see the North Sea then and now is totally different and is even different than what it was 20 years ago with all these wind farms springing up to add to the confusion of offshore platforms and mobile rigs. Totally different world today. The minefields of the North Sea , Mediterranean and other parts of the world had their own pages in the Weekly Editions of the Notices to Mariners. Cheers JS PS For those unaware NEMEDRI is Northern Europe<Mediterranean Routing Instructions. JS

[j.sabourn]

As there is a post on here somewhere about transfers of personel from Helicopter to ship. Before a person coming down on a harness and line if didn't have a heli-deck, it was usual to have what was called a shepherds crook with a bare end of cable attached at the end of the crook, the other end of the cable attached to the steel deck of the vessel. The person coming down on the line was usual to touch the steel buckle on the harness before his feet touched the deck. Otherwise was likely to get a shot of static electricity, however if you didn't like the person it was amazing how many times one failed to touch the buckle on the harness. JS

[j.sabourn]

#4... Ref. to loss of Tornado in the Irish sea and described as an RAF plane by info. on Google. It was a NATO aircraft and the two aircrew were not British, Think one pilot was French and the other Italian. The story on the site was that they hit the water at over a 1000 knots and did not eject. We picked up what wreckage was available. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Not directly related but I see on the news today that we are now down to a total of 19 frigates and destroyers and the number is set to fall, we don't have enough vessels to keep out illegal immigrants never mind the Russians, talk about successive governments having their heads in the sand, we are in a very woeful position.

[cappy]

wonder how much in manpower the RN has compared to no of ships ...i believe we have more rear admirals than ships but wonder what the ratio men to ships is ......cappy