RN Depot, Repair and Support Ships:

[oldsalt]

Whist going through some old print outs I found an interesting item on Ranpura. The original item was posted by ap1 in March 2012. Is it possible to resurrect this item? The item is the experience of two Engineers who were appointed to run Ranpura while en passage to other ships. The item was written at the time I was in Ranpura on passage to the Far East. Ranpura was left in Malta & our further passage was in Tyne. I have posted an interesting bit, to me anyway, on the Stokers thread.

[ivorthediver]

Duly read and responded Keith

[jbryce1437]

Whist going through some old print outs I found an interesting item on Ranpura. The original item was posted by ap1 in March 2012. Is it possible to resurrect this item? The item is the experience of two Engineers who were appointed to run Ranpura while en passage to other ships. The item was written at the time I was in Ranpura on passage to the Far East. Ranpura was left in Malta & our further passage was in Tyne. I have posted an interesting bit, to me anyway, on the Stokers thread.

Many of the articles that AP1 posted were copied from the website Journals of Naval Engineering: Website https://www.jneweb.com/
I saved the site URL when AP1 gave me the link, but when I tried it to give you the heads up about it, the site would no longer work and said it needed Internet Explorer 6 or higher.
Fortunately, I found a way to emulate Version 6 and you can find out how to do it in =https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctesRX ... uTube link.
Where theres a will theres a way
I managed to get the site to work on my laptop by following that procedure and all of the site seems to function OK, except for the Search facility, which keeps coming up with an error about Invalid Characters, but none of them were in my search names.
All of the articles are in PDF format and can be saved to your hard drive.
I downloaded several and will attach one about HMS Raleigh stokers training as and test/example. Not sure of the date of the article but the postscript mentions an Admiralty Fleet Order dated 1950 about moving all Stoker training to Raleigh.


Jim

raleigh stokers training.pdf

[ivorthediver]

Thank you both for resurrecting this from the past .

I for one have never seen it before and found the whole thing both sound and sanitising in respect of what they claimed they needed from the entrants there for training , and had my life allowed it I would have both enjoyed and applied to be considered for entry but life had other plans for me .

Thank you both for sharing this with us and giving a glimpse into the "System" as it was then

[oldsalt]

Raleigh Stokers PDF was interesting, 1948 was the date that training was transferred to Raleigh. Page 6 details the training I underwent. I joined HMS Royal Arthur in Oct. 49 as a Junior Stoker, I was 16yrs 11mths old. After 6 weeks we were drafted to Raleigh, after 8 weeks as a Specially Selected Stoker I joined HMS Newfoundland, she was moored in Trevol Creek. After completing the course in Newfoundland we were drafted to the fleet, big ships, to obtain Auxiliary Watchkeeping Certificates, I went to Vanguard. Impereuse mentioned were old wooden ships tied up on the Cornwall side of the Tamar.

[ivorthediver]

Yes and Thanks again for the background Keith , it was certainly no" Walk in the Park" was it

[oldsalt]

Rather more a dance in the dark, Ivor!

[ivorthediver]

Rather more a dance in the dark, Ivor!

I hope not Keith , still you give me the impression that you could look after yourself and didn't " suffer fools gladly "

[Brian James]

Hecla Class Destroyer Tender HMS Tyne pictured at Rotterdam c1955.

[Brian James]

Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Montclare.She was a passenger ship built by John Brown & Company Shipyards at Clydebank in 1921 for the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company at Montreal.She was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser being commissioned as such in October 1939. On June 2nd 1942 she was sold to the Admiralty. Now HMS Montclare, she was converted to a Destroyer Depot Ship, completing in 1944. She sailed from the Clyde on March 1st 1945 in convoy via the Suez Canal, arriving in Sydney on April 20th 1945. She then sailed to Manus in the Admiralty Islands to support the Destroyers of Task Force 57 on Operation Iceberg – the conquest of Okinawa and Sakishma Gunto islands. Rear Admiral D. B. Fisher CB CBE then took her as his flagship for the Pacific Fleet Train (Task Force 112) with the British Pacific Fleet until the war finished. She remained mainly in Manus until September 4th 1945, when she sailed for Hong Kong arriving on September 9th for the re-occupation of Hong Kong. She finally left Hong Kong on January 3rd 1946, her crew having played a vital part in getting the Colony back on its feet again. She arrived back in Portsmouth on February 21st 1946, and was reduced to Reserve status prior to her conversion to a Submarine Depot Ship, in which role she spent a lot of time at Rothesay.
In October 1954 she was decommissioned, being replaced as the 3rd Submarine Flotilla depot ship by HMS Adamant and laid up on the Gare Loch and then at Portsmouth. In January 1958 she was sold for scrap to Thos W Ward at Inverkeithing. Arriving there on February 2nd, the scrapping commenced the next day.
While operating as a Submarine Depot Ship one of the Montclare's Signallers, Peter O'Toole, was later to go on to become a famous actor.