Just binge watched season 3. As a teenager I came close to joining the Forces and this type of thing gives me an idea as to how my life could have turned out.
Impressions:
There is a huge responsibility placed on some very young shoulders.
The Russians are a pain in the arse.
The Galley looks like particularly hard work.
They like their fairy lights.
The ship was looking a bit tired.
A question. Does the complete crew rotate after a deployment, and if so how long do they get ashore before going back out?
No idea.
I've been entertaining myself watching old Royal Navy training films.
Entered this wormhole after seeing a clip of Rod Stewart singing Sailing.
Then I watched this:
Sailor (TV series) - "The Squadrons Are Coming" - 1976
And then this:
Hands To Flying Stations (1975)
Then this:
The Artificers (1974)
https://youtu.be/zc08npmiZvo
Often it's the same crew.... some stay onboard when it's in port and they have a small crew to keep things ticking over/repair/tidy, then they're replaced by another cycle of crew etc...
Sometimes it can be a week, sometimes they can be home for 6 weeks. Depends at times how long they're going out for next. Mates boy had the whole of Dec and half Jan off.... but he's now away till Oct.
Ooh - this looks a good one:
Four Men Went To Sea (1972).
Narrated by Johnny Morris (- the guy off Animal Magic!)
Also currently on BBC2 on Sunday's is a series about one of the new aircraft carriers on deployment.
Have to say that I like watching the latest examples. Reminds me of the early 80's, when I qualified for my watchkeeping ticket on reserve minesweepers and managed to get on some short, summertime deployments with regular ships to get lots of extra hours for the logbook. Suited their bridge officers to have baby reservists fresh out of Dartmouth, doing the overnight watches at sea, they get a sleep while making sure that an experienced coxn/senior rating is looking over our shoulder so we don't bump into any oilrigs..!
Highlights included a cruise across the channel on a frigate, to various ports and an all three engines breakdown in the channel approaches on a plastic minehunter. Oh, and being on the RAF's target towing patrol boat Seal doing live firing exercises at sea with phantoms, using cannon.. Followed by a run ashore in Newcastle. Hardly exotic but oh boy, that was fun.
Also currently on BBC2 on Sunday’s is a series about one of the new aircraft carriers on deployment.
BBC Two - The Warship: Tour of Duty, Series 1, Episode 1
What I didnt get in the last episode was that a big aircraft carrier being flanked by the Russians could disappear in the Black Sea and the Russians only find it again 48 hrs later.
that either means the Russians are shit, or we have some amazing cloaking device ?
They were still in the Med at that point, with plenty of sea room. They gradually eased away with one of the escorts slowly increasing the distance from the carrier, working on the assumption that the Ruskies would watch the escort and assume that while they could still see the escort, the rest of the carrier group was then only just under the horizon.
At which point, QE legged it away at speed, burning a lot of fuel that then had to be replaced by RFA Tidespring in a RAS in lumpy conditions, if the filming used was from the same timeframe. Pumping for over 4 hours; bunker fuel and avgas as well. Ooft..
If you want to disable a carrier in conflict, sink its fuel supply.
Highlandman - yeah I heard what they said too.
But that doesnt make sense, they dont just use visual recognition. And an aircraft carrier cant just leg it at just under 30 mph. As I say either we have some cunning disguise or the Russians are daft
or the Russians are daft
As the current meme goes....
(TBF, all of Russia's military 'might' and 'skill' and 'technology' appears to be vapours at the moment)
@highlandman Which makes it even more sensible to have nuke powered carriers. At least then you don't entirely have that problem.
We're good friends with Mark from the BBC 2 Prog, my wife used to nanny for their family, they're lovely people who helped us out a lot with all their old baby stuff for our son.
@ HTP I left in 95, back then sea to shore ratio was around 2:1 in favour of sea time, this could vary due to manpower availability in the various trades, my last sea draft was 3 full years on the same ship, this included 3 deployments, the longest being just over 7 months, married men could fly wives out mid deployment if they wanted.
For me the worst aspect was 12 months sea time wasted in dry dock in Rosyth, deployments to warm places during UK winters was a good payback.
A question. Does the complete crew rotate after a deployment, and if so how long do they get ashore before going back out?
People get assigned to a ship, they'll generally stay with it unless they're needed elsewhere or move for a promotion.
As for ships swapping crews and going back out - The T45 ships generally spend between 120 and 130 days per year at sea, the remaining time is either maintenance, alongside in other countries, build-up to deployment or training.
Those in deep maintenance periods will still have crew assigned to them.
Modern Naval ships are a bit like racing cars in as much as they need a lot of support and maintenance for a relatively small 'output'
One of my regrets in life was applying to be an artificer (probably wouldn't have got it, but still) and not carrying through with it, life would have been very different if not necessarily better!
I imagine my bike maintenance would be significantly better. 🙂
they dont just use visual recognition
My thoughts exactly. Maybe it's just the programme makers putting their spin on it....
When we did deployments in the 90's, a part of the crew were flown home for some leave before the ship came home. They then manned the ship once it arrives back, and the majority of the crew headed home for a spell of post deployment leave. Some were still held onboard and they took leave once everyone was back.
Also, when you were posted to a ship, whether at sea or alongside, you accrued extra leave days above the statuatory allowance, which added up to a big chunk of leave at some point.
