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HMS Eagle was initially laid down in 1942 at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast as one of four ships of the Audacious-class aircraft carrier. These were laid down during World War II as part of the British naval build up during that conflict. However, two were cancelled at the end of hostilities, and the remaining two were suspended. Originally designated Audacious, she was finally launched as Eagle (the fifteenth Royal Navy ship to receive this name) in March 1946, after the Audacious class carrier Eagle was cancelled. By the time I joined her in 1969 she was getting a little long in the tooth. I can still remember looking up at the huge rust streaked sides and wondering why after two years at the anti-submarine school Portland as one of the staff. The draft section of the Royal Navy that erstwhile department that smacks round pegs hard into square holes, had decided to send me to an Aircraft Carrier, maybe the Russians were using low flying submarines. Still, it was about the same time The Muppets in Sesame Street came to television. So there I was with my kit at the bottom of this wet gangway about to add myself to the crew of 2,700, and approximately a billion cockroaches.
With no Satnav it took a while to find my way around such a large ship. In the beginning, I had the best job I would have in the Navy, for simply being just so cushy. I was the Direction Officer’s writer, this is of course in between flying stations where I was Fighter Controller 1 assistant. Later I was promoted to leading seaman and the good life ended. Then I became a boat driver in all weather and all times of the day and night. The Royal Navy now remained unchallenged on the high seas. But once Eagle and its sister ship Ark Royal were gone, a conflict like the Falklands was inevitable with the dying convulsions of the British Empire. Yet then the ship was full of characters, and real professionals. A group I would see less and less of as time moved on. I could tell many tall stories, but here is not the place to throw salt over my shoulder or swing the lantern. Just to say we did trials with the P.1127 later to be named Sea Harrier, an aircraft built by men with vision and destroyed by men who had none.
Postscript Dennis Healer MP the then Minister of Defence summed up our ageing carriers perfectly as “Vulnerable Slums."
This is me at Fighter Controller 1 position. The person in the picture is a very young me showing a WAC officer how the system worked. (Oh for those long-lost halcyon days when things stayed up without any effort.)
Footnote
All that technology I learned and used, whilst the fighter controller ignored it all, and used a 20p plastic protractor and a chinagraph pencil. How bloody ironic.
Another reason to remember the old St Vincent motto.
New 'Si non potes te capere non commisi iocus.'
( If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined.)
The rum ration, or "tot", from 1850 to 1970 consisted of one-eighth of an imperial pint (71 ml) of rum at 95.5 proof (54.6% ABV), given out to every sailor at midday. Senior ratings (petty officers and above) received their rum neat, whilst for junior ratings it was diluted with two parts of water to make three-eighths of an imperial pint (213 ml) of grog. The rum ration was served from one particular barrel, also known as the "Rum Tub", which was ornately decorated and was made of oak and reinforced with brass bands with brass letters saying "The Queen, God Bless Her". Which serously meant after midday, 70% of the crew would today be unable to drive a car or operate machinery.
Tugg
Lieutenant Cecil Wilson MBE, affectionately known by the name of Tugg, will always be remembered by the crew of HMS Eagle. I know that in reproducing some of his masterpieces I shall be breaching the copyright, but I sincerely hope and trust that it will be permitted to pass as a sincere tribute to the man and his art. Onboard the old cockroach-infested carrier, a great many of us eagerly waited for the daily "Eagle News" and one of Tugg's cartoons. Which was always spot on and so very funny. To those of us who were there, here is some more...... From the very best of Tugg HMS Eagle 1969-1970
Thank you Tugg...
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