Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

It been some time since we lost WNSF , and I pleased to find many of you still around , as we get older , time waits for no sailor .
I am still in some decent health , thoe I am my wife's carer these days ... and getting a dab hand at it too ..
I still write up the odd Dit , and I have all the old ones I wrote on WNSF saved on my puter ..

James b aka cylla

Welcome back on board James , glad you found your way here safe and sound .

Welcome back James, let’s get our Forum buddies back..

Great to have you onboard to steady the ship

Jim

This my own account of my life after leaving the Navy .... but I never lost the taste of salt ....

1st Dec 1975. I left the mob, and closed the door of the days I had in the Royal Navy. Between 1970 /1972,on Scylla , I had been my last adventure at sea, during the rest of my days , I just bid my time in shore base’s getting quite numbers all the time [ did get a year’s free holiday in Rooke on top of the first year , with the wife ].
While I worked my self, the rest of my days, I still had a taste of salt in my mouth, it never left me …all that discipline stayed with in me.
After 7 years, In 1982 the Falkland war kicked off, and it was during a day in May I woke and went down stairs to mark up the morning paper rounds up, When I had the most weird time ever, going down stairs, I had a “out of the body “feeling .. I could not see myself any more, till I got to the bottom of the stairs .. and the rest of day was weird too.
Then the next day I read, that we had taken a hammering, and lost a good many lads …. This has laid in my mind throughout my life time, to this day didn’t my guardian angel know I had left the navy …

During the 90, s we brought our first computer, to print off all the price tickets for our shop.
Then during the 2000, s we got the internet, and things changed again.
It was in 2004 that I saw my last ship “Scylla “on my computer, being sunk …
And that open the door again, to my days in the Royal Navy.
I had now semi-retired, after working for myself all these years, and now only worked only part time till 2012 ....
and I joined a web site, called “service’s reunited “and spent hours reading ditts off other guys. And seeing lots of photos, which many had been during my years in the Navy
And later, I joined other web sites, during those years.
Looking over all the old photos in my dit box, I began to recall all the times and days, throughout my 10 years. and wrote it all up, while my mind was still fresh [ I could not do it now ]
Then after about 10 years, all the sites went down, due to progress again in the internet age, and so I joined “Face Book “ .. and in the space of 4 years, my life has changed again … so many memories, so many names …and ships I had lived on, come flooding back …..
With progress getting even better , I meet a shipmate who could do paintings on his computer [ well what next ] and so I sent him a photo , and he made a painting of it , and it was my 70th birthday present of Scylla entering Malta for the first time 1970, and I was on the upper deck at the time , and now it sits pride and place on my wall , and so we have a full circle of my life .
What will come next, I say to myself ….

Looking over my shoulder , from Jan 66 to May 68...…... [ 2 and a half years ].. I had been to 7 ships .*****.then I got the hang of it . from May 68 to Dec 75 ..[7 and a half years ]………..i had been on ONLY 4 ships .. THOSE wonderful years.. You could never repeat those years again , in his time of 2000..

James b wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:57 am Looking over my shoulder , from Jan 66 to May 68...…... [ 2 and a half years ].. I had been to 7 ships .*****.then I got the hang of it . from May 68 to Dec 75 ..[7 and a half years ]………..i had been on ONLY 4 ships .. THOSE wonderful years.. You could never repeat those years again , in his time of 2000..

I only had 3 seagoing drafts in 11 years, but great times on all of them, Ark Royal, Undaunted and Exmouth. Rest of time on shore bases, courses, etc.

Jim

Hi Jim , I just took the total of ships and shore bases to gather , for the years added up .. but like your self , I had 3 ships in all .Chichester , Mohawk ,Scylla , being sea going drafts and Arlingham . all so sea going [R.A ] in Gib ...I think we had a decent run between our selfs ..