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Any info please.

andym

War Hero
Not sure where to post this.Here goes.I am trying to get more info on an Oppo of mine.He was called Kevin Crooke from Wombourne near Wolverhampton.He was last heard of in HMS Drake where he was supposed to have been found dead in his bunk.If anybody has any further info can they PM me Please?
 
When I was in Drake a couple of years ago a POMA was found dead in bed in the cabin above me. He was serving (I think) on one of the refitting boats (Splendid?). Didn't know his name though I understand he was a big bloke.
 
This looks a good location to pose the following question to serving matelots. Do trainees at Raleigh have to polish the dustbins (before they climb into them and shout obsenities about themselves, as punishment :cry: ) anymore? Also, in the past, did Adult recruits have to polish the ship's dustbins or was this honour/chore reserved for Juniors?

Also can you tell me what one of the modern female matelots is called? Matelot (W) perhaps?
 
NozzyNozzer said:
This looks a good location to pose the following question to serving matelots. Do trainees at Raleigh have to polish the dustbins (before they climb into them and shout obsenities about themselves, as punishment :cry: ) anymore? Also, in the past, did Adult recruits have to polish the ship's dustbins or was this honour/chore reserved for Juniors?

Also can you tell me what one of the modern female matelots is called? Matelot (W) perhaps?

Dont know

Dont know

Split
 
While we are on questions then, many moons ago the Executive Branch were Seaman then RP's, Gunners or TAS. Now that they are all OM's who does the seamanship, splicing, building sheerlegs, laying up tows, keg anchors etc. Or do they now have a special Seaman Speciality

Nutty
 
Nutty said:
Now that they are all OM's who does the seamanship, splicing, building sheerlegs, laying up tows, keg anchors etc? Or do they now have a special Seaman Speciality?Nutty

Currently, all members of the Warfare Branch (ie all OMs except Communicators) do Harbour Stations and "whole ship" seamanship evolutions such as RASing, tows, etc, supervised by the Buffer and (for a FF/DD) 2 Seaman Specialists (Leading Seamen who do an intense ADQUAL after transferring sideways from a different branch). HOWEVER from next year, the brand new, reinvented, "Seaman" branch will do it all, which consists almost entirely of former ...... communicators! :?: :!:

So the Buffer and the Yeoman are about to become the same person. Comments, gentlemen?
 
Inevitable really. When I was a baby sparker in 1967 it took about a dozen operators, 4 Relay Stations, and about 3 hours minimum to get a bit of information from the UK to, say, Hong Kong. Nowadays you can, for example, pick up a mobile phone on Dartmoor and call a ship in the Gulf.
Modern MCOs were being automated all the time and even when I left in 1991 it was possible for one operator to run all of a FF/DD's strategic comms, hands free. Incoming Broadcast traffic goes straight to a monitor of the relevant department - Ops, Supply, ME, WE etc. Outgoing traffic needed only a little more control. Not much radio re-tuning if you have Satcom running, and short-range (UHF) circuits are on much more stable transmitters and receivers.
As for the Tactical side, more and more use of secure voice comms, and less need for 'translation' of signals for the CO. V/S is more or less obsolescent.
End result, the CY/RS could have combined yonks ago, and the same with the operators - all now Operator Mechanic (Comms).

I'd appreciate a more accurate update of the branch, but it seems even the RN Communicators Association website is now closed!
 
I presume also that the use of the internet is now one of the primary means of cummunication as morse is now a thing of the past
 
Well, yes, but there was a huge gap between the demise of Morse and the use of emails, mostly in the form of various teletype and data. Emails and the internet are still a nice extra and not a replacement for strategic military comms. One of the most important "growth areas" has been in the field of computer to computer data links, obviating the need for a lot of both inter-ship and strategic circuits. Not all that new, really, as various forms of data link were in use in the 60s.
 
What adifference from my days in the 50's I was an old UC rating and we only had a I think the 186 which was a compass with a large nob on top which could be either operated by hand or put on auto< we did have a depth sounder with a paper and needle track. Now it looks like a video games arcade
 

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