Branch Visit to HM Naval Base Clyde

March 2003.

On Friday the 21st March 2003, six members of the Branch and the artist Tom Murphy met in the Harbour Hotel to start the journey to HM Naval Base Clyde for a weekend visit. Dudley Davenport and Mick Cundell were picked up at the Red Rose in Ulverston making the final number travelling by mini-bus nine. The Social Secretary and his good lady were already visiting family in the Faslane area so this brought the final number of Branch Members to ten.

Apart from a stop off in Gretna Green for refresh ments and a further small pause in the Royal Bar in Helensburgh for "a small pair of teefth"the trip was uneventful, suffice to say the weather in Scotland as usual was brilliant.

After being billeted in single cabins, the team had their first meal in the Mess. It is interesting to note that all "Hotel Services" in the Base are now run by a company known as Babcock Naval Services, BNS, and as a result the price of staying in the Base is now paid to that company and not the Mess. This means that the price for food and accommodation now works out in the region of £10.00 per day, As the SA are recognised by the MoD the Mess are currently seeking a reduced price for SA Branches.

Friday evening, as usual on these occasions, was given over to attending the West of Scotland SA Branch meeting, this is now held in the Link Room in theWO & SR's Mess in the Base. This meeting was dealt with very quickly to allow more pressing matters to be discussed in the small lounge. The New Mess President, Brum Southall, gave a small speech in the bar and stated his intention to visit as many SA Branches in the UK as possible during his tenure. The team went to bed at many varying times depending on stamina.

Saturday morning saw the team visit HMS/M Vigilant at one of the new Trident berths. The team were shown round the boat after a briefing and coffee in the wardroom, suffice to say that those not in the social sec's party where second in the Senior Rates mess for drinks. The duty officer and ships company of Vigilant did us proud. The rest of Saturday was free time, we did visit the JR's mess but there was a glitch in the organisation and no member of the committee was there to meet us, however we stayed for an hour or so and had a few drinks anyway. Some of the team then went forth, but came fifth, to watch some form of sport called rub the ball or curly or something of that nature that was on the TV. It is reported that Ireland beat Wales and some other place south of Scotland gave the Jock's a sound thrashing. However there was no blood spilled and they all swapped body armour and Bra's at the end of the contest, what ever that was.

Ian Walsh and Dave Young went into the Burgh to escape this Bra swapping ritual. Dave returned first and was kind enough to buy the assembled company a couple of drinks, well done Dave. Ian returned later with the engineer officer from the USNS loyal, this is a twin hulled vessel, Possible special fit, manned by civilians for the American Navy. Later that evening we were invited to visit this vessel on Sunday morning. Light drinking, in accordance with current Naval policy, continued in the mess until 2.45 am Sunday Morning. The duty barman was one of the instructors for the Vanguard Trainer, who was also an ex conventional submariner, I think a lively discussion ensued about the number of main line suctions on a conventional submarine, we won cause there were more of us, but we were all invited to the Vanguard class trainer later Sunday morning.

Sunday morning, at a time that bordered on being anti social (10.00am) Ian Walsh's new friend ,Bo the Chief Engineer, met us on the jetty and gave us the full tour of USNS Loyal. Whilst the twin hull and other technical details were freely given, little information regarding the true nature of the vessel's purpose was disclosed.

The visit was a huge success with the team and on leaving we had photographs taken on the jetty. We now moved on to the Nuclear Submarine Command Team Trainer (NUSCOT) for a visit. If you were not a the back when you entered the trainer you were invited to man one of the watch keeping positions. This was pay back time for last evenings duty barman. We probably made every mistake in the book, there were lots of laughs and a great visit was had by all, we all left thanking yet another member of the base staff for giving up some of his free time to make an SA Branch visit unforgettable. After dinner and a further couple of drinks in the mess we made our farewells.

I will not enumerate the amount of people that should be mentioned other than The new Mess Pres and mess members, Grant Malony, The West of Scotland Branch the Ship Companies of HMS/M Vigilant and USNS Loyal.

On our departure the team decided to hammer for home and it was not until we reached as far as Helensburgh that we stopped for our first drink. Gretna was next then finally home in Barrow around 7.00pm. Over the weekend the team had won £83.00 on the Lottery stuck hard and fast to the new Navy drinking rules and had succeeded in breaking not one rule in the base, how often can we say that. In conclusion a great weekend and one to remember.

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