On the 3rd of June 1974 three members of 3LI, Ptes. Bristow, Furlong and I boarded H.M.S. Glasserton, at the time tied up alongside H.M.S. Maidstone in the Belfast dock for a weeks Patrol Duties.
H.M.S. Glasserton is or was a Royal Naval Mine Countermeasures Vessel. She weighs some 450 tons, is 150' long and has a beam of 28' 81h". She sports a twin 20mm A.A. Gun, is powered by 2 Napier Deltic Diesel Engines developing 3000 horse power, which provides a top speed of 15 knots. She is at present commanded by Lt. Charles Buckle, R.N.
The task of our patrol was to be a week operating along the Northern Irish coastline to intercept and search suspicious ships and to act as a deterrent to any potential gun runners. This turned out to be a fascinating, and for a land locked "Geordie" both difficult, dangerous and at times exciting job. The problem of scaling the sides of a massive ocean going tanker from a small rubber Gemini in rough seas should not be underestimated!
We boarded the Glasserton at I0.30 and were met by the Coxswain who told me to dump my kit and said he would show us around. We were then given bedding (camp bed and sleeping bag) (wot no hammock)!! Ptes. Bristow and Furlong were to sleep on the mess deck with the ratings and I was to sleep in the Sweep Deck behind the wheel house in a small room by myself.
A minesweeper is not a very big ship and after 2 hours on board, we all had bumps on our heads the size of eggs.
About 10 mins out of dock we heard the following piped over the tannoy – “HANDS TO HANDS TO BOARDING STATIONS – HANDS TO BOARDING STATIONS – N02 WATCH CLOSE UP – NO2 WATCH CLOSE UP” and of course as I had put myself on No. 2 Watch that meant me as well. So I donned my rubbers and life jacket and ran to the point where everybody seemed to be gathering, with butterflies in my stomach. I was handed an S.M.G. and a protective helmet just as the following message was piped: "AWAY No. 2 BOARDING PARTY - AWAY No. 2 BOARDING PARTY" and I suddenly found myself being shepherded down a rope ladder over the side of the ship into a Gemini which seemed to me to be 100 feet below.
Once in the Gemini I loaded my S.M.G. and hung on for grim death s it skimmed across the waves at a rate of knots to look at and search a large cargo vessel approaching Belfast Lough. This was my first taste of the danger that these Matelots face all the time whilst on patrol duties. When the first person had gone up the ladder and on to the ship it was my turn and as I got half way up the ladder the swell shifted the Gemini along the ship dragging the bottom of the ladder with it - somebody in the Gemini forgot to let go!!! As my body became horizontal with the water he let go and I swung back down the side of the ship and by the time it had stopped swinging I was a blubbering, sweating, total nervous wreck. However, once on board we started checking the crew and searching the ship. Which was not unlike a rather large street of occupied houses in the reservation.
Much of the patrol consisted of this work and of the 25 ships that my staff searched, three of them immediately spring to mind as either exciting, "smelly" or hard work.
The first a French deep sea trawler, one night, passed our starboard bow and would not acknowledge the radio or heliograph messages passed to her by Glasserton. She steamed right past us and we immediately turned about and gave chase. Eventually about 2 miles further on (and with a rough throated Officer of the Watch who had been trying to hail her) she stopped, and allowed my boarding party on board. I boarded her expecting to find arms and ammunition but alas all we found were drunken Frenchmen brandishing bottles of Pernod who could not speak a word of English between them. One in particular was very offended when I refused to take a drink with him, and stormed off in a huff.
Next on a particularly hot day as No. 2 Watch was on duty, a certain human sewage ship steaming out from Belfast Lough was stopped and searched, and as it was a metal decked ship with the sun blazing down on it, I for one, was not pleased with the smell! ! Very like the Belfast sewers or certain derelicts in the Lower Falls!
The last ship we searched was a British Rail Container ship approaching Belfast. Along the full length of this kind of ship is a tunnel some 250' long, 3 feet in height and 2 feet across. I had to get in this tunnel with a torch and S.L.R. with all my kit on, and accompany a very nasty looking Irishman along the total length of it to see if it contained any arms. By the time I emerged I was cursing the Royal Navy something terrible.
Not all of the week was spent boarding and sometimes I went on to the bridge to help keep watch, looking out for ships to board, and of course some time in the wheel house steering the ship.
All in all it was a very exciting week which I will always remember.
The three of us who went on this patrol would like to thank all those who made it possible, not least the Captain and crew of H.M.S. Glasserton.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
Really what happened was this:
Major Nicholas B Coy Commander sent me on this happy jaunt with the navy with the explicite instructions to take photos of the happy jaunt. He gave me the company photographers camera, some sort of magical thing with buttons, lenses, switches etc....you know the type of thing, honestly you probably could have flown over iraq in the damn thing and dropped bombs without a pilot..that sort of thing. Well when I got in the ship via HMS Maidstone I started clicking and getting all sorts to pose then suddenly realised that the film was not moving on as it should so I stepped out of my likkle teeny weeny room behind the wheel house and took a shot of the Union Jack flying proudly on the Pointy End of the ship. I then...wait for it...........opened the back of the camera to see why the film was not moving on.......................Silly me. Come on, I had ever only seen a Browny Box Camera and my father never ever let me use it..........Anyway the story which I was ordered to type up by Major Nich was sent of with the two photos you see less the photos I should have taken and was published in some MOD magazine that used to come to us in Ireland.
What is it they say about Geordies "we are intelligent"...........
or something like that.
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