Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

jbryce1437 wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 9:29 pm

ivorthediver wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2019 5:36 pm The final picture is of my table mates .. "The Rum Pirates "

Spirited away

Jim

.... but always in a measured way

After Sunset where the Ensign was lowered by the excellent Sea Cadets it was folded and presented to Irina Stont, director of the Krassin Museum in St Petersburg, this redoubtable icebreaker was built on Tyneside 102 years ago and saw service in the Arctic keeping to access to Murmansk and Archangelsk open.

A very knowledgeable young lady, and very popular it seemed , along with Sergei [ hope I spelt that right ] who shepherded his charges wonderfully , and to whom we bumped into during OUR tour around the Tower of London , extremely nice guy .

in the near future I hope to report on a small ceremony when this Ensign is handed over to the Museum. Last year it went to the Moscow equivalent of the IWM .

Here are the Coventry survivors with Chief Yeoman Kevin Price, a former long service GI. ready with the Ensign, we did a little slight of hand between the one we lowered and the one we presented, we couldnt hand over a sopping wet one (heavy showers just before) so kept an identical one dry and ready, detailed planning, no one noticed.

timlewin wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 4:22 pm in the near future I hope to report on a small ceremony when this Ensign is handed over to the Museum. Last year it went to the Moscow equivalent of the IWM .

Here are the Coventry survivors with Chief Yeoman Kevin Price, a former long service GI. ready with the Ensign, we did a little slight of hand between the one we lowered and the one we presented, we couldnt hand over a sopping wet one (heavy showers just before) so kept an identical one dry and ready, detailed planning, no one noticed.

Well, according to Ivors account of the evening, you picked the right crew with the Coventry survivors for the slight of hand with the ensign

Jim

I actually missed their trick Jim but they outfoxed the Jamaicans who took it to good heart, on the other hand, the Jamaicans had all the reserves so possibly were double-bluffing! Chris Howe, the Coventry on the left in the photo actually gives talks on the tot, its history and significance. I must say, although I had no time to eat anything during the event I did manage a couple of very small toast with different folks, that stuff, 67% alcohol by volume, was remarkably smooth. This was Rum Fire, last year we tried the Worthy Park, Jamaica's oldest distillery. Once you have tasted over-proof the 40% stuff is really rather gnats...….

Having not attended any of the previous celebrations , I was pleasantly surprised to meet and chat to some of the Norwegian Delegation who were such a warm and friendly bunch I found .

The lady in her national costume was very striking but her warmth and smile was very disarming and not at all indicative of the bleak country she originated from .

I was handed a booklet by one of their party who was very bubbly guy and he gave me a copy of Forsvarets forum of which I would have liked to have found out more but the speed of events overtook me and I did not get that far

From looking at it the booklet is from a military background and my obvious ignorance of his language sadly precluded further discussion .

ivorthediver wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2019 12:56 pm
.......................he gave me a copy of Forsvarets forum ........................

From looking at it the booklet is from a military background and my obvious ignorance of his language sadly precluded further discussion .

Here you go Ivor.... a very short definition/explanation of 'Forsvaret'........

Little h wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2019 1:35 pm Report: Cost to Repair Wrecked Norwegian Frigate Exceeds $1.4B

Damage to the hull of the Ingstad, as seen before she was raised (Image courtesy Forsvaret)

By MarEx 2019-05-14 17:22:05

The cost of repairing the salvaged frigate KNM Helge Ingstad would exceed $1.4 billion, according to Norway's defense department (Forsvaret) - far more than she cost to build.

Excerpt taken from a post I put on the Norwegian Navy forum earlier.

Er ..thank you Harry ........I think

as you will have seen from some of the photos we presented the White Ensign of HMS Belfast, lowered at the Victory Day sunset, to the historic museum ship KRASIN, the icebreaker in St. Petersburg. Krasin did duty keeping open the approaches to Archangelsk and Kola inlet during the convoy period. The previous year the Ensign went to the Moscow equivalent of the IWM.