All the adulation of the homecomings had subsided by the time I returned home. But I was wrong as I was asked to attend a presentation at the Town Hall in Hedon in October. The Mayor at the time H.V. Suggit MM, JP had decided to give a tankard to all those from the town he had served in the Falkland conflict.
This is me receiving my tankard from Henry Vie Suggit who had a wet fish shop in Hedon. However years later I have discovered that he was a war hero himself. Having signed up and being at the retreat to Dunkirk when he was wounded and captured. One fit again he managed to escape 5 or 6 times, a couple of times on the run for a couple of weeks at a time!
Initially when I was home I was told that United Towing and Salvage Co. Ltd. had received my CV and application but at that moment they had no vacancies, but they would keep me on file. After about a month I was invited to King William House in Lowgate, Hull, for an interview. I was offered the job and told that to be at King Billy at 23:00 on a Friday at the end of October to catch the coach down to Brize Norton. Now my previous company was one of the premier shipping companies in the country ans you were expected to travel to and from ships in smart gear. I turned up at 22:45 in jacket and tie, and there was nobody else there!. I thought I had the wrong day or something other than the fact that there was a coach there. I should have known as at 23:10, when the pubs chucked out the crew started arriving in drips and drabs, and we boarded the coach. A headcount was done and one was short. It was the Captain. A few minuets later this bloke that looked like Captain Pugwash with a Scouse accent climbed aboard and off we set.
King William House, the company headquarters at the time, as it was in 1982.
Everybody slept it off on the way down to the plane. Once at Brize we filled out all the forms that the RAF require and had breakfast before being boarded on a VC10 and off we flew to Dakar in Senegal. We weren't supposed to be there diplomatically or something as we were parked as far away from the terminal as possible and allowed to stretch our legs whilst they refueled the plane. Once re-boarded we took of for Ascension Island, landing just as it got dark.
RAF VC10 at the start of the Falklands conflict
We were shown to some tents with beds in and I remember the 'bathing facilities' as they were the odd sink and a long bench with holes in with no divisions between them. After not much sleep, and pretty early we were roused and ushered into a canteen for a full English breakfast before being trucked to the airfield where we were ushered up the after ramp of an Hercules transport plane. It was full of cargo, there were engines, post bags and loads of other unidentified things. Along either was along bench of what looked like camping chairs with seat straps. There was practically no leg room! The load master talked us through the flight. Once we got up in the air we would be allowed to move and find a spot where we wanted among the stuff aboard. Eventually we got the signal that we were free to move about. The veterans of this flight had bought sleeping bags and adjourned to the stern ramp which had loads of space but was very cold. If you were lucky you could lie on the mail bags and hope it would be soft. It never was! The one place you didn't want to be close to was the one toilet that just had like a shower curtain round it. The flight would be 12 hours, thirteen if unlucky. Even longer if everything was against you! The in flight catering was a cardboard box with a couple of sandwiches, a chocolate bar, and apple and that was about it. There was a boiler for hot drinks too. Sleep was next to impossible, and the time dragged. The highlight was when the plane was engaged in mid air refueling.
Not my picture, but we were allowed to watch the procedure. The plane had to arrive over Stanley airfield with enough fuel to be able to fly to Chile in case the weather made it not possible to land. This was the old airfield that had been bombed by the Vulcan bombers in the conflict. Some of our crews were unfortunate to have reached half way to Stanley then had to return to Ascension because of problems. The next day the left again only to be diverted to Chile due to weather, and then the following day fly on back to Stanley.
We landed in the late afternoon and there was a general melee, and as I hadn't got as clue what was going on I felt a little helpless. That is until I saw my suitcase being loaded into a Land Rover and being driven off! Quick enquiries garnered that it wasn't the right Land Rover, so I managed to grab another driver and off we sped to overhaul it before it disappeared completely. Fortunately it stopped at a rapier battery site not too far away and I recovered my case. By the time I had got back to the airfield the rest of the crew had gone so I cadged a lift down to the harbour and then waited for a boat to come alongside to take me out to the anchored Salvageman off the pier.
The Salvage tug 'Salvageman' off Stanley.
I dropped my case on the deck and skipped over the bulwark and made my way to the bridge. There I reported to the 'Old Man' and was just telling him the story of the case, when the bloke I was relieving came up and said he was off, taking the boat I had come off in. Not a very long handover. After saying goodbye I was back on the bridge when all the alarms started sounding. It was my first time on the ship and didn't know where anything was, or how to cancel the alarm. I was told it was a fire alarm from the engine room workshop, and as the Mate it was my job to sort it out! I grabbed a radio and tried to find my way to the right place. This was helped by the smoke and several people heading in the same direction. Once there I could see a man looking pretty blackened round the edges, but walking and talking. After establishing there was no fire we went up to the bridge and did our best with the burns to his hands and face, and then sorted out a boat to take him over to a nearby warship with a doctor aboard. Later we heard the full story. The injured man was one of the RN radio people aboard. He was in the workshop busy sawing the 4.5" shells up to make souvenirs. The shell itself is full of blue cordite granules and these he tipped into a bucket to dispose of over the side later. All would have been well other than the fact that he was smoking as he was doing this! He was lucky as he flicked his ash off and it dropped into the bucket of cordite!! Luckily it was an open bucket and as it wasn't contained it didn't explode but just flash off searing and burning his clothes and exposed skin. We were all very lucky it seems.
It turns out our job at that time was provide a platform for the RN divers to go down to the wrecks of the HMS Antelope and Ardent and recover all the secret and dangerous stuff they could. They were bringing up the 4.5" shells from the main gun. These were then taken ashore and blown up. Some obviously were taken for other purposes. I seem to remember they were taking about 12 and blowing them all up together. They were stopped from doing this many as the explosion was causing damage to wrecked freezer plant on the west shore of San Carlos that was being used as an hospital. You can see in the above photo how the projectile part has been cut off. The brass shell bodies are crushed due to the pressure at the sea bed.. The buoy is one that we found drifting and had come from an oil rig off the Argentine coast.
This is me and one of the RN radio team ashore burning secret documents using the ships boat, and doing a bit of site seeing too.
I did several trip to the Falklands on the Salvageman and United Towing's other tugs Yorkshireman and Iraishman, and later Euroman too. I think I must be the only man that has served in the Falklands on four ships that are inscribed on the war memorial in Stanley, the three tugs and Lycaon. The duties were varied, Here we are towing a floating hotel 'Safe Dominia' that had been brought down by a semi submersible vessel and was to be used as floating barracks.
In 1985 I joined the Salvageman in Soth Georgia where the ship had been contarcted to assist with the raising of the Argentine submarine in Grytviken Harbour after being attacked in the conflict. It was a great job, and a fantastic chance to visit a part of the world I would otherwise have little chance or in the normal course of work. Here the the British Antarctic Survey vessel Barnsfield is passing us in Grytviken Harbour.
A look back towards the whaling station with Salvageman alongside from close to Sir Ernest Shakleton's grave.
The graveyard can be seen in the distance in this photo. The submarine has been made watertight and has been injected with water and it has come to the surface at last. We were eventually to tow her out to see and sink her in 2000 mtrs of water.
Salvageman alongside near the slip way way whales were dragged up and sliced and diced to go into the boilers to make oil. Everything was pretty intact at the time.
I grew to love that ship and I was so sad when it was sold and I had to leave the company that I'm not ashamed to say, I cried. The only other ship that happened was when I had to leave the Patroclus, one of the most beautiful ships ever built, a class of eight. They were the peak of perfection just before the boxes of tankers and container ships took over. I sailed on the Priam and Patroclus and had some fantastic trips on them.
The object of my other bout of tears. I had some lovely runs to the Far East and back on this vessel and a six month round the world trip on the Priam. It might as well of being a cruise as we had so much fun and with a great crew too. Definitely the good old days.
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