Life On The Rigs.

[FlyingFortress]

39 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

If you were asking about terminology, David, a fixed fire main nozzle, which can rotate and elevate like a gun turret, is usually called a monitor.  On almost all ships, the open deck on top of the bridge is known as the monkey island.  On older ships this would be where the binnacle was fixed, for the magnetic compass.

Not just older ships.

The Monkey Island is where the magnetic compass lives on modern ships as well. There is a periscope arrangement above the wheel that allows the helmsman to see the magnetic heading. 

As part of your Masters ( Captains) Oral exam ( the ,hardest part compared to the writtens ,because you had no idea what the examiner was going to ask you and if you were not careful you could head down a rabbit hole) the first part was being left in a room with an outside view with a magnetic compass binnacle on wheels that had its correction magnets buggered up and you had to successfully do the calculations and then physically correct the compass. 

A very strange subject that had really no comparison in any other academic field. It was really a penny drop moment. You could struggle for weeks thinking it would never make sense then Bingo 😃

Sorry thread drift but I am still layed up with my back out at the moment.😥

[DAVIDH]

Thanks Vaughan. Yes, that was it!

[Vaughan]

This is just to explain where I "served my time", in order to get a job as HLO (helicopter landing officer) on the offshore platforms.

This ship is one of the "Lancelot" class LSLs (landing ship logistic) of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. There were 6 of them, mostly based at the military port at Marchwood, where I was a member of 17 Port Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport.  When the ships were on a military tasking, there was a team of about 30 of us, embarked to do all the cargo handling, crane operating, troop accommodation, etc., which included the manning of the flight decks.  The ships could carry a battalion of infantry with all their vehicles, a regiment of 16 battle tanks, or a full Commando of Royal Marines.

 

These photos are of very dull quality but they were taken in mid winter in northern Norway.  Although it was midday, that was all the daylight you got in those latitudes!  We were there on NATO exercise to try to prove that assault helicopters could be transported by sea and flown off an RFA in a battle zone.

And sure enough, they could!  The ship was RFA Sir Bedivere.

 

This is a Wessex adapted for use by Royal Marine special forces ; known as a "Junglie",  in arctic camouflage.  Just behind and in front of the crane, you can see the sliding cargo hatch where we had lifted it out from the lower vehicle deck with rotors folded.  With the hatch shut again, this formed the forward flight deck.  You can also see the hose where it is being fuelled from the ship's AVCAT tanks and prepared by ground crew.

Positioned "on the spot" with rotors spread.

 

Lashed down on deck;  engines started;  rotors running.

 

Release lashings!

The moment of truth!  The ship is moored up, so no forward motion and no "wind on deck".  Extremely dangerous.

There she goes! Without managing to carry away any of our VHF whip aerials, signal halyards or other protrusions!

On that occasion, the Chief Officer was acting as FDO (flight deck officer) as we hardly ever used the forward flight deck.  It would normally be full of nasty smelly army lorries.  My job was the after flight deck,  so I had the chance to do a bit of "goofing" and take some photos. Normally in the Armed Forces, you are too busy to stand around taking snapshots!  It was my team, all the same, that craned it up through the hatch and manned the flight deck.  We then flew off another two, that were stowed below.

I could perhaps suggest that the training we did in those days, on amphibious landings, was what proved so successful in the Falklands, about 8 years later.    

 

[Vaughan]

 

 

 

"On the butts" at a firing range in North Devon, late 1971 :

"MISTER Ashby!  I don't think you could hit a barn door at twenty paces.  What regiment was it, that you're being commissioned into, SIR?"

"ROYAL CORPS OF TRANSPORT, SAR'NT MAJOR!"

" I might have BLOODY KNOWN IT!"

[grendel]

I had a friend who was in the TA, in the transport division, he and all of his mates were all crack shots, this may have been down to the fact that the only training facilities in their local area were all firing ranges, so when they had a weekend excerise, to keep transport costs in time and money down it was always a trip to the ranges and spend 2 days shooting.

we (the viking re-enactors) once were challenged at a local event to field a team of clay pigeon shooters by the young farmers, my mate (who wore glasses thick enough to make bottle bottoms) went out having never handled a shotgun before, then proceeded to get the best score, beating the young farmers by miles. 

[Smoggy]

52 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

As soon as these pics came up my first thought was "Don't panic Mr.Mainwaring!"

Fess up, it wasn't just me was it.

[Tobster]

As promised some more photos of Pioneering Spirit.

 

[Smoggy]

That would be handy for a sneaky lift out....