HMS NELSON |
I only spent a short time in HMS Nelson, or more accurately, the Portsmouth Fleet Maintenance Base after I left HMS Tartar in June 1984. I worked for the Shipwrights workshop and spent a good amount of time on Type 42 destroyers replacing the old ICABA with the newer BASCCA Breathing Apparatus sets. This was enough to convince me that I didn’t like Type 42’s, far too cramped. |
“MEM Atkinson ... ha!” as I was brought to attention “Quick March” “Halt! ... Salute! ... Off Caps!” as is customary at defaulters. “MEM Atkinson sir, charged with the misappropriation of a government issue padlock and chain whilst serving aboard HMS Tartar on 19th May 1984” “How do you plead?” “Guilty Sir” “This may not seem very important to you young man. A padlock costing around £5, but where will it end? Today it’s a padlock but tomorrow? Where will it end ? A Harrier?” as he reached a crescendo
Dwelling a pause for dramatic effect, he concluded “Admonished. Now Get Out!!” “Admonished Sir!” “On Cap! .... Salute! ..... Right turn, quick march ...wait outside.” |
LReg LReg LReg LReg
Cdr Atkinson Cdr
Cdr LReg LReg |
For some strange reason, I also decided to grow a beard. No idea why, but it soon disappeared when at 22 years of age and a MEM1, everyone was calling me Chief !! I had left HMS Tartar with a charge hanging over my head. I had thought this had been forgotten, but as soon as I joined I was reminded of it and told to be at the Commander’s Table on Thursday looking as smart as a Guards Van. The charge was nothing serious, I had ‘borrowed’ a padlock to lock up my bike and this had been spotted by a keen MOD ‘Plod’. I was subsequently charged with misappropriation of government stores. I couldn’t be done with theft as I left it dangling off a fence when I peddled off home in the evenings. So it was one sunny Thursday morning in July 1984, that I presented myself to the Regulators looking very smart indeed but quietly petrified.
I was duly briefed before: |
The regulator caught up with me outside,
“you got admonished son, you know what that means?” “No Leading Reg” I replied. “It means, you are as guilty as sin, but we’ll let you off”
It with a degree of relief, therefore, that I left HMS Nelson to join HMS Dolphin for submarine training a few months later. |