21st Century
I See No Ships?
The quote ‘I see no ships’ is attributed to Admiral John Jervis during the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797. Before giving Johnny Spaniard a black eye off the Algarve, legend has it that, [more…]
Royal Fleet Auxiliary
20th Century
Callsign Revlon
On 25th October 1994 29 year old US Navy Lieutenant Kara Hultgreen was killed whilst attempting to land on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Pacific Ocean. The case remains highly controversial to [more…]
Arts
Æthelberht’s RFA Christmas
I know there’s plenty of former Pusser types on GP, and even a few who have sailed under the red duster. They’ll all be familiar with the Christmas routines for their respective outfits. I thought [more…]
Biography
The Right Way To Put Out A Fire (Finally)
In March 2013 I was appointed to RFA Fort Austin. Within NATO she is classified as an AFSH, that’s to say a combat stores ship with the necessary facilities on board to embark a helicopter. [more…]
Biography
Still Not The Right Way To Put Out A Fire
You may remember some months back I related a story of my first fire exercise sailing under the Red Duster. I was somewhat unimpressed having come from a different seafaring outfit where these things were [more…]
Biography
The Wrong Way to Put Out a Fire
When I left the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 2015 I joined a shipping company operating out of Barrow-in-Furness. It was a very small outfit which specialised in carrying nuclear cargo between Europe, the US and [more…]