67 saw me in Londonderry Dockyard as tiffys mate in the coppersmiths shop, a good number. I was in married quarters (Clooney Park) and although the draft was HMS Sea Eagle I only went in there to do duty watches, usually going straight to the dockyard from home in the morning.
Anyway one day the tiffy vanished, it seemed he had been cutting up the stock (copper and brass plate) and selling it off ashore, fair play to him though although there were only the two of us he never involved me. Anyway he was gone so that left me, a lowly stoker, as the resident coppersmith till he could be replaced.
Then I got word that a tribal class frigate was on its way in and needed a bit of work.
I seems it had been in some roughers in the Irish sea and a crack had appeared on the upper deck, so the job was to weld a temporary plate over it till they got back to Guss and it could be done properly.
Thing was when they came in they didn’t come to the dockyard but went on up to the town quay, so I had to get the welding gennie which had to be towed and all the tackle up there, which I duly did, then as I was lugging the wire over the gangway I heard a voice calling my name.
I turned out it was an old stoker oppo of mine from off the Carron many years before and it was great to see him. “Come round†he said, cheers mate, says I, I’ll see you later.
After waiting a respectable time after hearing the pipe “up spirits†I arrived in the stokers mess and humbly found a place to sit.
“Don’t I know you†says the rum bosun, a wizened old 3 badgeman, who must have been at least 30. “Yea says I, you’re old fucky off the Tenby,†“To right†says he , “here have a wet of this, gulpers†and handed me his tot. This was followed with the time old tradition of everyone on the mess giving me a sip of their tot.
Twenty minutes later I was feeling rosy when in came my oppo, “sorry I’m adrift†he says, “have they been looking after you, here have a gulp of thisâ€. Followed by another round of sippers.
By this time I was as pissed as a handcart. Here says the rum bosun `queens` is well up today have a gulper.
As I staggered up the companionway I recognised the Bermuda road so I knew I was on a ship but I couldn’t remember why, then It came to me, I was supposed to weld a plate on the upper deck. No problem, all I had to do was to start the gennie and weld it up, then I could go home and get turned in.
I could see the starting handle on the gennie through the haze, but I didn’t seem to be able to get a hold of it.
“What you doin mistaâ€. Looking down I saw this little Irish girl on a bike that was far to big for her. “Well little girl if you need to know, I`m trying to turn this big handle so I can start this bleedin engine, anyway this is grown up mens stuff so bugger off and let me get on with itâ€.†Do you mean like this? she said and reaching over pressed the starter. With a big cloud of black smoke the gennie roared into life, scared the shit out of me. As the smoke cleared she was gone.
Staggering back on board I struck an arch and welded about an inch then the rod stuck, not enough voltage but I couldn`t be bothered to trail all the way back to the jetty to adjust it, so I got another rod and welded a bit more till it stuck again. After about 10 minutes I had run out of welding rods as they were all stuck to the deck, but it didn’t matter as by this time I had had enough, so I lay down, cuddled up to my (as I thought) pet hedgehog and went to sleep.
I remembered waking up with a crowd round me and a man in white overalls saying, “It seems that if we want anything done in future, we’ll have to get it done in the forenoon.†And then , nothing.
There were never any repercussions and a few days later a replacement arrived and I reverted to tiffys mate.
Good days.
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