Devenish wrote:
Robbie,
Indeed wives have their uses, or so they keep telling us!
I wonder if Hardy was unique, since I can't believe that the majority of seamen, today as well as then, have not been somewhat saddened when a ship they have served in has either been scrapped, or come to some other tragic end – which in the RN can sometimes mean a condemned ship being used for gunnery practice! However, that doesn't sound so bad if, for example, the old ship is used to support acquatic life or some similar 'occupation'.
However Hardy obviously had the seamen's penchant for complaining when others, mostly artists, don't get all the details right. I believe, for example, that he poured scorn on Turner's canvas the Battle of Trafalgar, and I think commented that the artist had managed to make the Victory look like a row of houses!
I can only speak of one or two vessels that I have sailed in, one of which later went aground, broke up and sank, the other caught fire and burnt to the waterline (both of them were wooden vessels) news of which brought a lump to the throat, even several years hence! However in the latter case, what remained was salvaged and she has since been rebuilt to her former (1907) glory!
Of course, one doesn't mind so much if the vessel in question now sails for someone else, more or less in the same guise. However, I don't particularly like ships being revamped for use as a floating nightclub or restaurant moored alongside, although I suppose this can be forgiven if the ship in question is kept looking smart and shipshape, and I guess we can make an exception for the Britannia. It seems that once a ship is moored to a quay indefinitely, the rot actually does begin to settle in, since the ship herself is not the main concern of the business aboard. To my mind too, ships should be ships and managed by someone who at least has some semblance of nautical knowledge, not some 'executive' who doesn't know his bow from his stern and who, moreover, is not really interested in knowing! In actual fact, I think it better in many cases for ships to be scrapped, so that they can be remembered for what they were, rather than have them become a pathetic shadow of their former selves.
As per usual Kester, you show so much wisdom and very hard to follow from an old sea dog!
Regarding Hardy, yes I do belive he was unique in that his indifference did show about Victory, maybe as Nelson we can agree to his brilliance but he was also hurman eh!! I actually agree with him re Turner's Battle of Trafalgar, do you?
The ships I served in have now all gone, like my memory
but the exceptions are as follows (sorry to bore you!).........Repton, she was a ton class minesweeper she was sold in 82, I think to India and still survives. Next Rothesay type 12 anti submarine frigate, sold to Spain in 88 and later broken up. I had many happy memories from her and was deeply saddened. HMS Duncan was a type 14 anti sub frigate and she was broken up in 85 and that really saddened me, she was an absolute dream to go to sea in and was the happiest ship I served in. And so to HMS Plymouth, again a type 12 and she is now a museum ship, but is looking for a berth or scrapping! Last but not least the Brighton another type 12 and she was scrapped in 85 in Scotland, another berevement!!! Maybe I am more sentimental than others but I was always sad to lose the ships I served on.
I think your righjt about a ship being moored up and losing its well being. The Americans seem to have to got it off pat, but they do have the weather and Goverment money. We have to get charities to fund and the maintenance is probably high, so there is the delemare! I think the Naval Dockyards are the best bet, i.e. Victory at Portsmouth including Warrior which looks great except when you scan the water line you can see the rot setting in. Also Chatham has HMS Cavelier, the last operational destroyer from the 2nd World War, she's in pretty good nick!
Re Britania, as you know she is in Edinburgh and I hear she is in good nick, but I agree with you that she is only kept as a finacial interest and not necessarily a maritime one. It is a private company that owns and runs her as a museum!!!
I never agreed with her paying off, but then I am a Royalist and they seem to be thin on the ground nowadays.
Enough I hear him cry enough!!!!!
Talk again Kester, Regards as always Robbie
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I know its 'artistic', with Nelson breathing his last on the quarterdeck and all that and we know Turner was a great exponent of that concept, but he seems to have given poor old Victory just have one mast!