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Hello
again. Happy New Year. I hope your central heating, garden and, of
course, your health are coping with the unusually hard winter.
LUNCH/LECTURE SATURDAY 13 FEBRUARY
Our
first function of the year will be a lunch/lecture. Our speaker will
be Ms Joanne Cable, the World Heritage Manager at Chatham Dockyard,
who will talk about the proposal to make Chatham a World Heritage
Centre.
Chatham is the world’s most complete historic dockyard from the age of
sail, when dockyards were the industrial centres of Europe, and its
historic barracks and military installations make it an outstanding
garrison town. All in all, this should be a most interesting talk so
please try to attend. Applications to John Woods by Monday 8
February.
AGM/LUNCH/LECTURE SATURDAY 13 MARCH
You
are informed that the Annual General Meeting of the Association will
be held on the morning of Saturday 13 March at the Hove Club. Agenda
and supporting papers will be circulated with the February newsletter.
As in previous years, the meeting will be followed by a lunch/lecture.
PROGRAMME FOR 2010
Here
is the rest of the programme for 2010. All details are provisional,
but we hope that changes will be slight.
Event Date
Annual dinner (at Lancing College) Sat 17 April
Lunch/lecture Sat 12
June
Visit to Chatham Dockyard June (date to be
confirmed)
Barbecue Sat 17
July (date to be confirmed)
Guest lunch Sat 11
September
Trafalgar Night Sat 23
October
Lunch/lecture Sat 13
November
President's Evening Fri 10
December
NEW
MEMBER
SANO welcomes Lt Cdr Ralph Budden RD RNR as a new member. Ralph will
be well known to many members as a former member of the ME Department
of HMS SUSSEX. For those who do not know him, he is a highly skilled
silversmith and made the beautiful ship's lantern which decorates the
top table at our formal dinners.
CORRECTIONS TO MEMBERSHIP DETAILS
Some
corrections (shown in bold) to the list of members sent out
with the last newsletter have been received. David Coward's
decorations are CMG OBE and he served in the RNVR. Derek
Head's decorations are DL VRD* JP. Gwilym Roberts' decorations
are CBE FREng. Robin Sard's address is corrected.
Cyril Williams' rank is Surgeon Lt Cdr (D) and he holds the
RD. Please let Ian know of any other errors and omissions.
Annual Subscription
Those
members who have not paid their annual subscription, please do so as
soon as possible.
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER FRANK GIBBINS RD* RNR
Here is a brief tribute to Frank Gibbins who passed away on 2
December. His funeral on 3 December was attended by your Secretary and
several other members of SANO. Frank was born in Brighton in 1922
where he attended the local grammar school, attaining the unusual feat
of scoring 100% in a mathematics examination. He joined the Royal Navy
in 1939 as a rating, serving in the Atlantic and on the Arctic
convoys. After officer training at HMS KING ALFRED, he served on
landing craft, taking part in the invasions of North Africa, Salerno
and Normandy. After VE Day he was sent to the Pacific, missing
hostilities but taking part in the deeply traumatic process of
collecting prisoners of war. After leaving the Navy in 1946, Frank
qualified as a civil engineer, spending most of his professional
career working for Surrey County Council. He joined HMS SUSSEX, rising
to become officer in charge of the Naval Control of Shipping
Department. Frank was a sociable, outgoing man whose friendly manner
and dry wit made him a very popular member of the Wardroom and of our
Association, and who will be sorely missed. We send Betty and all his
family our deepest sympathy.
THE
RESTORATION WARSHIP
The Design, Construction and Career of a Third Rate
of Charles II’s Navy, Richard Endsor, 9781844860883. Here is Philip
Sherwin's review of this book.
The author sets out to redress what he believes to
be the mystery shrouding seventeenth century shipbuilding methods and
practices in an era of significant developments in naval architecture
and warship design. ‘The Restoration Warship’ presents a comprehensive
building and service history of the Lenox, a 70-gun third rate,
one of the most successful and largest class of warship of the era.
Beautifully illustrated, much in the author’s own hand, included are
fine detailed fold-out plans that the ship modeller will die for.
Every aspect of the Lenox is explored, from
initial design and sourcing of timber to construction, carving,
fitting out and armament. The techniques, tools and working practices
of the shipwrights and labourers of the dockyard at Deptford have been
extensively researched from original dockyard records that are
remarkably complete. Naval administration is similarly examined in
depth, analysing the multitude of problems and shortages faced by the
Navy at the time. Your reviewer can vouch that, in the latter aspects,
little has changed!
A full service history of the Lenox is
included up to 1701, drawing on the complete set of the ship’s logs,
armament warrants, store demands, pay records and much more. The
method of controlling the huge tiller before ships wheels were in use
is just one of the details that make this magnificent book difficult
to put down. Following research over 20 years, Richard Endsor is
clearly a master of his subject. Priced at £50, ‘The Restoration
Warship’ would make a treasured gift from a rich uncle (or nephew!),
but SANO members would require a deep interest to justify the cost of
purchase. Sadly, West Sussex library must take a similar view, since
this superb book is missing from their catalogue. Two suggestions; for
about £6 the county library service will obtain an inter-library loan
copy, alternatively Philip Sherwin holds SANO’s review copy and loan
can be arranged by contacting him.
TAILPIECE
Charlie, a newly retired employee at the local B&Q store, just
couldn't seem to get to work on time. Every day he was 5, 10 or 15
minutes late. But he was a good worker, really tidy, clean shaven,
sharp minded and a real credit to the company, obviously epitomising
their 'Older Person Friendly' policies. One day the boss called him
into the office for a chat.
"Charlie, I have to tell you, I like your work ethic, you do a great
job, but your arriving a few minutes late so often is becoming quite a
problem."
"Yes, I know boss, and I am working on it."
"Well good, you are a team player and I like to hear that members of
our team can recognise their shortcomings and tackle them. It does
however seem odd to me that you come in late so very often when I know
you recently retired from the armed forces. What did they say if you
came in late there?"
"They would say, 'Good morning Admiral, would you like some coffee
now, sir?'."
Best
wishes
Ian
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