Thread: A nautical story

The Australian Navy in Ww1. Did you know Australia's greatest air ace, even to this day, was an RAN Officer flying in the RNAS.?

Australian Navy in WW1 - First To Fight! | GUN PLOT

RAN Submarine AE2.

HMA Submarine AE2 | GUN PLOT

The mutiny on HMAS Australia.

Mutiny! - HMAS AUSTRALIA | GUN PLOT

What is not well known is that there was a mutiny by anything but name back in about '68/;69.in the RAN . The Government in their wisdom decided to change the pay structure of the Defence forces to " bring them into line with the civilian population " . Up to this point, sailors of equivalent rank were paid basically the same base wage, with allowances for extra qualifications. The new deal saw some trades gat a huge pay rise and others lose out dramatically. I was on Vampire at this time, and living in the Tiffies mess, just Fwd of the stokers mess. Coming back on board after a run ashore with a couple of messmates, we were astounded to see the Skipper, Cox'n, Chief tiff and Chief Stoker at the top of the ladder leading down to the stokers mess. The mess deck hatch was locked! With a skinful, and curious, we stayed a respectful distance to watch the theatre . The Chief Stoker went to the hatch and in a respectful tone said " C'mon fellas, we have to flash up in an hour " To which the stokers replied " get ****ed! get those overpaid electricians to flash up ! " Well the outcome of this was the crew was read the articles of war, [ I think it was that] by the skipper before we sailed.

What our mutineers had done was open an escape hatch, crawl out, lock the hatch to the mess deck, back thru the escape hatch , close It and settle in to make their stand. And the most amazing thing is they were sober. This was serious!. Turns out it was a coordinated protest. At the same time as our protest, sailors at Garden Island walked off every ship alongside and refused to go to sea. They sat down in the triangle [ a patch of grass near the gate] and only went back on board after the Admiral said he would take the protest to Government. I think the Admiral and everyone down from him secretly were on side with the sailors. The outcome of this protest was the pay scale was changed to better recognise the role paid by sailors on ships. Not by much though. Every thing settled down, and discipline returned. It just proved you can mess with stokers conditions, make them do unreasonable work [ willingly], don't mess with the pay.

The RAN in the vietnam War.

R.A.N. Vietnam 1965 - 1972 | GUN PLOT

You are talking to yourself again Bob

Originally Posted by 101RRS

You are talking to yourself again Bob

With over 1000 views, I'd like to think I'm informing members that there is another branch of the service besides ARMY. Besides, when it is just facts produced, what is there to converse about? Are you as one eyed as the funny face?

RAN CDT in Iraq. Currently the reports of proceedings are being digitised by the AWM. THis is a precis.

CDT3 Report of Proceedings First Gulf War | The Australian War Memorial