Thread: For the Mil enthusiasts. Navy Cerberus

Originally Posted by bob10

Joined in 1964, Dampier Div., lived in the old WW2 huts, I remember the winters were cold, water used to freeze in the pipes, PT at 5.30 am, you went everywhere at the double. Boy, we were fit, we were called MOBIES, guess you know what it means.... Bob

Mountain of bloody intelligence (IIRC)

Originally Posted by pop058

Mountain of bloody intelligence (IIRC)

Not exactly what I as a stoker remember it meaning.

MOBI, Most Obnoxious Ba----d Imaginable,


PS, I actually got on well with most of them, 2 especially come to mind ERA "Sharky" Boswell, and ERA "Pie- with a C" Piec.

Originally Posted by shorty943

Not exactly what I as a stoker remember it meaning.

MOBI, Most Obnoxious Ba----d Imaginable,

ditto, I was trying to be nice.

July 75 intake ("C" rate)

Originally Posted by pop058

Mountain of bloody intelligence (IIRC)

Wish I would have thought of that, , Bob

Originally Posted by shorty943

Not exactly what I as a stoker remember it meaning.

MOBI, Most Obnoxious Ba----d Imaginable,


PS, I actually got on well with most of them, 2 especially come to mind ERA "Sharky" Boswell, and ERA "Pie- with a C" Piec.

After the initial sorting out period, stokers & tiffies usually got on well, I know the 3 badgemen on the Vampire kept us in line, when we first joined. I will always remember old George Ballard, teaching us all the old RN songs in the pubs of Williamstown, whilst in refit. Great memories, still with me today. Bob [If anyone tried to be obnoxious to those blokes, it was knocked out of them ]

Originally Posted by shorty943

Engineer Officer on Stalwart at the time was Ltcmdr Jack "Make a bastard" Markham, great man to work for and learn from.

I was also on Stalwart on the second half of 74 and as a junior officer was required to attend Cocktail Parties onboard when in port - one of our additional duties was to procure women for old codgers like Jack Markham - their logic was that a 18-20yo could get women easier than the 40-50yo but it was then easier to make the juniors go away and for them to take over. Markham lives/d near me and I used to often see him at the local shops but haven't seen him for a couple of years.

However we had to be in bed buy about 2330 each night and some of the ladies would come down and tuck us in in the Gunroom.

I was involved in a major exercise on Stalwart off Fraser Island and was required to drive the boats in Platypus Bay - I had to go alongside one of the escorting ships but there was a large swell and it was unsafe to come alongside but the Officer of the Watch new better than me and ordered me alongside, the timber accommodation ladder (a magnificent piece of timber work). As I came alongside the swell picked up the 33 footer and and we smashed alongside and I broke off the bottom 10 feet of the ladder and was told in no uncertain terms to get back to my own ship. By the time I got back to Stalwart the Captain of the DE had already contacted old Burnside the Captain of Stalwart and I was summonsed straight to his cabin for the dressing down but thankfully the Executive Officer of Stalwart had seen the whole incident and stepped in - the Captain of the DE was given a rocket for conducting unsafe operations. The Shipwrights then rebuilt the accommodation ladder.

However shortly after I was Junior Officer of the Watch (not yet qualified) while at anchor at night and there was a huge explosion out the funnel of the ship - donkey boiler had a fart and blew up. I advised the actual Officer of the Watch (a very senior Lieutenant Commander - the Bosun) who was down in his cabin and he said not to worry about it which was odd as my training indicated the Captain should have been advised.

Shortly after the Captain came up to the bridge and wanted to know what the bang had been - I explained and I was then invited to accompany the Captain to the bridge wing where I was torn to shreds for not reporting the incident to him - on one hand I wanted to advise that the OOW had been told but loyalty kicked in as it is easier for a Midn to make a mistake while under training rather than a senior officer getting his arse kicked for incompetence.

I later used to see Old Burnside at the National Library where I used to go for lunch occasionally. He was always there when I was there so I assumed he spent a large proportion of his retired life there - he never recognised me though. He passed on about 3 years ago.

I permanently left Stalwart for Christmas leave in late 74 and then flew to Darwin the day after Tracey to join Vendetta when it arrived. I think we had a 26 footer and an outboard there.

I was onboard Stalwart quite a few times after that and I found it a great ship - always cold inside because the the a/c worked so well. Later I had to passage onboard from Darwin to Sydney and as I was bored did a few watches going through the reef. Some of the turns are a bit tight for a ship that size and on one turn the ship was running a little wide so I ordered max rudder and the thing stayed on max rudder and would not come back - bummer. A bit of engine manoeuvring stopped the turn (driving a 15,000t ship is basically the same as driving a 33 footer just a bit more lumbering). It was then that the Navigator said not to use more than 25 degrees of wheel as it goes to full lock - now he tells me.

Anyway after a little while off we go again with the old steering gear that was out of the Battle Class Tobruk working again.

One of the great things about Stalwart for me was the boat driving - the 33 footers which is the subject of this thread and the larger 40 footers which in my view where a much better drive.

Sorry to Wax Lyrical but this thread does bring back some pleasant memories - oh the boat that is the subject of this thread maybe the one that the Executive Officer of Cerberus wrapped around a marker pylon near the wharf.

Garry

Originally Posted by garrycol

I was also on Stalwart on the second half of 74 and as a junior officer was required to attend Cocktail Parties onboard when in port - one of our additional duties was to procure women for old codgers like Jack Markham - their logic was that a 18-20yo could get women easier than the 40-50yo but it was then easier to make the juniors go away and for them to take over. Markham lives/d near me and I used to often see him at the local shops but haven't seen him for a couple of years.

However we had to be in bed buy about 2330 each night and some of the ladies would come down and tuck us in in the Gunroom.

I was involved in a major exercise on Stalwart off Fraser Island and was required to drive the boats in Platypus Bay - I had to go alongside one of the escorting ships but there was a large swell and it was unsafe to come alongside but the Officer of the Watch new better than me and ordered me alongside, the timber accommodation ladder (a magnificent piece of timber work). As I came alongside the swell picked up the 33 footer and and we smashed alongside and I broke off the bottom 10 feet of the ladder and was told in no uncertain terms to get back to my own ship. By the time I got back to Stalwart the Captain of the DE had already contacted old Burnside the Captain of Stalwart and I was summonsed straight to his cabin for the dressing down but thankfully the Executive Officer of Stalwart had seen the whole incident and stepped in - the Captain of the DE was given a rocket for conducting unsafe operations. The Shipwrights then rebuilt the accommodation ladder.

However shortly after I was Junior Officer of the Watch (not yet qualified) while at anchor at night and there was a huge explosion out the funnel of the ship - donkey boiler had a fart and blew up. I advised the actual Officer of the Watch (a very senior Lieutenant Commander - the Bosun) who was down in his cabin and he said not to worry about it which was odd as my training indicated the Captain should have been advised.

Shortly after the Captain came up to the bridge and wanted to know what the bang had been - I explained and I was then invited to accompany the Captain to the bridge wing where I was torn to shreds for not reporting the incident to him - on one hand I wanted to advise that the OOW had been told but loyalty kicked in as it is easier for a Midn to make a mistake while under training rather than a senior officer getting his arse kicked for incompetence.

I later used to see Old Burnside at the National Library where I used to go for lunch occasionally. He was always there when I was there so I assumed he spent a large proportion of his retired life there - he never recognised me though. He passed on about 3 years ago.

I permanently left Stalwart for Christmas leave in late 74 and then flew to Darwin the day after Tracey to join Vendetta when it arrived. I think we had a 26 footer and an outboard there.

I was onboard Stalwart quite a few times after that and I found it a great ship - always cold inside because the the a/c worked so well. Later I had to passage onboard from Darwin to Sydney and as I was bored did a few watches going through the reef. Some of the turns are a bit tight for a ship that size and on one turn the ship was running a little wide so I ordered max rudder and the thing stayed on max rudder and would not come back - bummer. A bit of engine manoeuvring stopped the turn (driving a 15,000t ship is basically the same as driving a 33 footer just a bit more lumbering). It was then that the Navigator said not to use more than 25 degrees of wheel as it goes to full lock - now he tells me.

Anyway after a little while off we go again with the old steering gear that was out of the Battle Class Tobruk working again.

One of the great things about Stalwart for me was the boat driving - the 33 footers which is the subject of this thread and the larger 40 footers which in my view where a much better drive.

Sorry to Wax Lyrical but this thread does bring back some pleasant memories - oh the boat that is the subject of this thread maybe the one that the Executive Officer of Cerberus wrapped around a marker pylon near the wharf.

Garry

Garry, the last time I worked on Stalwart at Cockatoo the Boiler Shop was replacing all the floor and gangway steel checker plates and ladders with Aluminium. The last day was a Saturday and it was a finish and knock off job, we worked through to about 1:00 pm and went home. When we go into work on the Monday we were ordered to remove the tons of aluminium plates and ladders/stairways and put all of the steel ones back. Seems that during the weekend in the UK a Royal Navy ship had an engine room fire and some sailors were killed because the aluminum floor plates and ladders/stairways melted and collapsed trapping the sailors.
I actually have one of the alloy plates removed from the Stalwart, I use it as a base for jacking in soft soils.
Vampire is my favourite ship, I was at it's launch and have a piece of the champagne bottle that was used to christen her, my FIL done his first ship hull survey on Vampire, and it was the first Naval ship my Son had been on. Also worked on all of the subs, the Duchess, Supply, Melbourne and the Frigates, names of which I can't recall, crying shame that Cockatoo is no longer, Regards Frank.

Well, may as well hi-jack the thread properly I guess.We Destroyer men used to call Stalwart building 215, rumour has it it was welded to the wharf. Sounds like a great draft, if you didn't like seatime. Vampire was the best ship I served on at many levels. The last class of of the old destroyer type, built in Australia from English design, no computers here, the machinery spaces were all hands on. One of the best experiences for me was when I was steaming "B" boiler after getting my boiler ticket . You relied completely on the stokers on watch to do their jobs correctly, success or failure of the evolution depended on human input, and the feeling when a diffucult evolution was properly carried out , was superb. I believe Vampire had the best crew of any ship at that time. [ not biased, of course]

Quite a few of the stokers were old hands , been around a while, almost the last of the old sailors, a privilege to serve with them. Vampire did a lot of seatime, most of it in the Far East. We were in Singapore when the RN pulled out, the end of an era. There was an RN Daring in Singers., Dainty? I think, we beat them at rugby, when they sailed for the UK., we flew one of their rugby jumpers from our mast, felling pretty smug, until we saw they had taken our " dusty's bus stop" , a seat stokers sat on on the port side after their watch. Honours even. It was little things like this that created a bond between ships & crews.

At that time, the Cold War was in full swing. and the ships of the " Strategic Reserve", as the small fleet of RN, RAN, RNZN., ships were called, if the Cold War turned hot, were to be first in. It was pretty full on, exercising with the USN, and others, in as realistic scenarios as possible. Tragically, the destroyer USS Evans was cut in half and sunk during such an exercise. Vampire was there, assisting in the aftermath, and escorted Melbourne to Singapore. There were numerous cat & mouse games with "trawlers", bristling with antennas, and plent of underwater contacts, a busy time.

I won't talk about our runs ashore, great as they were. Some things are best left unsaid. But, for a young man , first time in the Far East, exotic places like Singapore [ before it was cleaned up] Bangkok, Manilla, Hong Kong, Penang, Kaoshing, Hakodate, and others were eyeopeners. Last but not least, we fired the last 21 inch torpedo from a Daring class, just before coming home. The signal from HMS London read "Congratulations, Vampire, your torpedo passed under our bow". No more needs to be said about the old Vamps. I don't think. Bob