REDKITE said:
Is there anyone out there old enough to remember HMS Wildfire? You are properly in your late 60's to 70's. If so please get in touch with any tales you have to tell.
G'day Redkite.
I was on a HMS MUTINE, an Algerine sweeper, there in 1957, where we eventually paid her off, and we moved into Wildfire buildings as soon as we stopped engines for the last time.
Wildfire was a unique base as there definitely, was not another shore base like her in the "Andrew", mainly due I suppose to the number of patrol boats and small ships that used the moorings and dockyard.
Everything about it was casual, and very laid back. Even in Wildfire it was small ship routine, no Bull**it, everything "Pusser" was kept to the minimum, you wandered into the galley on Saturday and Sunday mornings either to help the chef, or to cook your own as many times he would be hung over, you could choose whatever you wanted for breakie, as it was so casual.
At weekends we would all stand round the galley stove and skite about last night run ashore, it could have been the way that many small Chatham bases were run, [this was the only time I got near to Chatham], but it was a matelots dream posting, mine was too short, only until we unloaded stores etc.
As Isid I had just come of a sweeper, where it was canteen messing, ie. where the killick of the mess gets so much money to catter for the mess for a month, if you run out of cash then we all had to dip into our own pockets, to buy something from the Naafi Store, or from the Tanky. One of the last dinners we had before the next months allowance was due was "Kippers and Custard" hmmmm sounds bad, well it was, as it was all on one plate :roll:If you didn't use all the money that was allowed to the mess, you of course got it to split amongst you :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: It never happened. :cry: :cry:
The jetty and the old hulks there, Cornwallis jetty, were great places to fish, and I got quite a feeling when I walked over them. I was fascinated by the names that were carved into the timbers, trying to figure if they were from old matelots, or from prisoners who had been on the hulks. When you saw all the work that went into building a ship of the line you could really appreciate, the skill to built something as huge as these vessels had been.The old Chippies would cut numbers and letters into the beams whilst they were still on land, so that when they went to the hard where they were being built, the shipwrights new where every bit went.
I caught my first lobster there, I'd never even seen one before this, so I was quite chuffed. It was caught, cooked and eaten in Wildfire.lol
I'll try to see if I have any photos of "Wildfire" or the old hulks, if I find any I will post them, I lost hundreds of photos a few weeks ago so these may have been amongst the ones that I lost.
regards pingie