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Last edited by ruffready on 20-12-2002 05:54; edited 1 time in total

I have been visiting this site..www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/148.html chock full of photos of the royal navy's aircraft carriers "in action" they are beautiful ships!! what a fleet!! and info on the royal marines and much more!! I salute them all!!

Posted: 20-12-2002 05:28 Post subject:

Is it true what Winston Churchill said about the Navy? Or are the Village People the final authority on these things?

Posted: 20-12-2002 07:52 Post subject:

The quote is attributed to Churchill by Sir Peter Gretton in his
autobiography "Former Naval Person". It sounds authentic:

"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum,
sodomy and the lash!"

But he seems to have been paraphrasing a traditional naval
saying, which has a better rhythm:

"Ashore it's wine, woman and song, aboard it's rum, bum and
concertina*."

But is it true? I'm going down to the waterfront and I may be some
time . . . roll eyes (sarcastic)

*These last four words became the title of an autobiography by
jazz singer George Melly.

Posted: 20-12-2002 08:01 Post subject:

...you mean rum, bum and concertina was a title of somebody's autobiography? Well, that must have leapt off the shelves. But Rum, Sodomy & The Lash was the title of a Pogues album.

www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/primetime/pt1390.php Hmph

Posted: 20-12-2002 08:33 Post subject:

There was an excellent documentary on C4 last night about US carriers in the Pacific in WWII. It used a lot of contemporary colour film, which brought out the horror and wastefulness of war much more dramatically than B&W does.

Posted: 20-12-2002 08:42 Post subject:

Posted: 20-12-2002 08:47 Post subject: Re: having been in the Navy myself

Posted: 20-12-2002 08:50 Post subject:

Easy now, Sailor. Just saving your lonely early morning post from oblivion. At least we were staying on topic.

Posted: 20-12-2002 12:45 Post subject:

Posted: 20-12-2002 15:07 Post subject:

Last edited by ruffready on 20-12-2002 19:38; edited 1 time in total

this is the ship I served on for 3 years and if you scroll 1/2 way down you can see my A-7....http://members.tripod.com/~ffhiker/index-2.html--I served in the airwing attack squadren A-7 The Barn Owls (you can see the "owl" face on the nose of the corsair A-7 jet..)

Posted: 20-12-2002 21:50 Post subject:

i was chatting to a mate of mine about the realy big American carriers and he ahd sailed past one, at anchor in the Solent. He wa sailing his 50 Ft steel boat and said u just loose all sense of scale alonside one. U just cant tell how far u are from it as its soo huge, its so big u sail to what u think is near to it, the sun goes in cos the deck is now over u instead of the sky and six planes are casuly parked over your head. And ur still a long way off touching the hull. He said "its just cant be floating"...

Posted: 21-12-2002 08:53 Post subject:

Well I did my duty by way of research and can report I found plenty
of rum and concertina but hardly a sniff of bum all night.

Unless you count the ring-finger of the bar-tender*. Dead / drunk

*Doctor Spooner says, "Told you so!" :p