Hi Brothers,

Having slogged through my Tiffyship and having had the dubious privelege of working with aussies in Cairns and Townsville in 68, while minehunting and avoiding salt water crocks; it is good to see you guys are "in-touch" sufficient to build a half decent talk board.

Good on'yer from one who resides in England and enjoyes a brew from time to time in a real pint glass; not in a pufter schooner

cheers !!

Rod

Thanks Rod, from one that had the similar pleasure of working with Poms quite a few times.

Frigates Danae & Londonderry on one very confusing encounter in the Chiefs mess. Dunno how you blokes can drink that brown stuff you had on tap there in the mess, I was really glad when I'd had enough.

Good to see you here.

Cheers

CJ

_________________

Chris O'Keefe
R43136
Ex WO Chippy
19th MOBI Intake
July 65 to July 85
HMAS Nirimba X 4 -Penguin-Sydney-Queenborough - Creswell - Moreton - Stalwart - Platypus - Coonawarra Reconstruction Team 76 - Platypus - Hobart - Cerberus - FHQ - Coonawarra.

Anyone can be ordinary. Shipwrights choose to be extraordinary!

Yes I was on Yarra (I thinK!!) in the late 70's (I think!!) when we hosted HMS Dido (I think!!) in Sydney (I think!!!)

Very confusing time!!!

_________________
Steve Johns
R110510
Ex POETS
31st MOBI Intake
July 71 to July 81
Nirimba, Kuttabul, WRE, Kuttabul, WRE, Kuttabul, Parramatta, WRE, Yarra, Stalwart, Derwent.
_______________________________________

Jeez Rod, can't I go anywhere without you following me

Chris. When do you encounter Londonderry? Was it in Sydney around July 1974 when I was on it? we had just been smashed to pieces coming across from NZ and were tied up alongside Supply, I think.

_________________
Les Darley
Ex CERA RN (1955-76).
Ships: Crane, Palliser, Whirlwind, Undaunted, Endurance, Jaguar, Londonderry. Shore time in Chatham Barracks.
Worked in Australia at RANMEE on MK 48s, Support Craft Manager in PMSS and then FFGCLO. (1986-2000) Now retired.
my personal boast is that I had sailed on every ocean, most of the major seas and walked on all seven continents before I was 35.

Gee sbjohns,
I recall drinking with MEA's off HMS Dido at Harpoon Harries back in the early 70's. Still recall after a few and being young how I could not pronounce Dido correctly. I think reading Ribald Magz at Nirimba must of confused my speech. As when I went to say Dido, I come out with Dildo. After an hour calling their ship Dildo a couple of them got real annoyed with me.

At about the same time I also had to front a CPO at Nirimba because he had checked my good note pads. He just said what have you been reading as you spelt the word 'come' wrong all through your notes. Well we all know what come (cum) that was.

_________________
Ron Preddy (spud),
S114945
Ex POMTP3
July 73, 3rd Muppet, 35th Nirimba
1973 to 1985,
Nirimba, Melbourne, Albatross (MT compound), Kuttabul (FMP), Derwent, Leeuwin (Broken leg/boats W/Shop), Derwent, Torrens and Darwin Naval Base (main machine shop).

That's my Ford FPV Cobra GT

Les, it was indeed around the middle of 74, and you were tied up alongside Stalwart, the floating workshop.

Both you & Danae were tied up together, and our dibbies swung a gangway over to whichever was inboard and snapped her jackstaff.

Which us Chippies (me & Steve Shepherd) had to replace. We did make it as a 'Made In Australia' jackstaff with an inbuilt engraved brass plaque and all.

Had a derogatory comment on it like "Made by real tradesmen in Australia", or something like that. The gangway staff were real chuffed.

Not!

Cheers

CJ

_________________

Chris O'Keefe
R43136
Ex WO Chippy
19th MOBI Intake
July 65 to July 85
HMAS Nirimba X 4 -Penguin-Sydney-Queenborough - Creswell - Moreton - Stalwart - Platypus - Coonawarra Reconstruction Team 76 - Platypus - Hobart - Cerberus - FHQ - Coonawarra.

Anyone can be ordinary. Shipwrights choose to be extraordinary!

Don't remember the jackstaff bit but we had quite a bit of work to do which stalwart helped us with. the original intention when we arrived in Sydney was for us to go up to Codock which would have been terrible for us so they let Stalwart have a go. 'Derry was the same as the DEs and,if you remember them, there was an upper deck hatch directly over the Engine Room hatch in the main drag. The force of water lifted that hatch, stripping the threads on the screws and we ended up with a few tons of Oggin down the hole and the main drag flooded all the way through. The tiller flat hatch suffered the same fate. Our Chippy was working flat out for a while, for a change, with hatches held shut with chain blocks when we came in.

Happy Days

_________________
Les Darley
Ex CERA RN (1955-76).
Ships: Crane, Palliser, Whirlwind, Undaunted, Endurance, Jaguar, Londonderry. Shore time in Chatham Barracks.
Worked in Australia at RANMEE on MK 48s, Support Craft Manager in PMSS and then FFGCLO. (1986-2000) Now retired.
my personal boast is that I had sailed on every ocean, most of the major seas and walked on all seven continents before I was 35.

G'Day Rod, welcome to the Skilled Hands site.

You have stimulated a bit of chatter among the troops, so how about joining up as a member.

Cheers, Ned.

_________________

John Kelly (WEBMASTER)
R42620
Ex-WOMTH
13th MOBI Intake
July'62 to July'83
Nirimba x3 - Rushcutter - Sydney x2 (Carrier) - Melbourne (Carrier) - Penguin - Kuttabul - Creswell x3 - Stalwart x2 - Brisbane.

Interesting, so that is the name of the British DE way back then. I was still an apprentice at Nirimba when we toured the ship. Still recall a PO stoker pointing out the Chief Tiff to us and saying, you lot better not turn out like him," he's an angry ant". Hope that was not you Les he was refering to.

_________________
Ron Preddy (spud),
S114945
Ex POMTP3
July 73, 3rd Muppet, 35th Nirimba
1973 to 1985,
Nirimba, Melbourne, Albatross (MT compound), Kuttabul (FMP), Derwent, Leeuwin (Broken leg/boats W/Shop), Derwent, Torrens and Darwin Naval Base (main machine shop).

That's my Ford FPV Cobra GT

I want the name of that PO. Angry Ant indeed.
Maybe he got that impression because I hated that ship. I was drafted on board to complete my sea time and was not impressed with the drafting cell because I was a diesel specialist

Chippy Ned, you have no idea what you are saying to Rod.

You have stimulated a bit of chatter among the troops, so how about joining up as a member

He's another Bloody Greenie, and radio to boot

_________________
Les Darley
Ex CERA RN (1955-76).
Ships: Crane, Palliser, Whirlwind, Undaunted, Endurance, Jaguar, Londonderry. Shore time in Chatham Barracks.
Worked in Australia at RANMEE on MK 48s, Support Craft Manager in PMSS and then FFGCLO. (1986-2000) Now retired.
my personal boast is that I had sailed on every ocean, most of the major seas and walked on all seven continents before I was 35.