RFA BROWN RANGER

9th August 1965 to 27th October 1965 as a Deck Apprentice with a British Crew.

I joined this small replenishment tanker at Portland Naval Base, where she was standing in for the regular resident, the “Black Ranger”. I was one of two apprentices carried at the time.

Portland Naval Base and the off-lying sea area was the residence and operating area of the Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST). The resident ‘Portland Tanker’ came under his operational control. All British warships and RFA’s, as well as ships from some other friendly navies, were programmed to pass through a ‘work-up’ period with FOST staff. This ‘work-up’ usually followed a new commissioning or a period of ship modification or refit, where all the systems need to be checked over and proved to work. It was also intended to train the crews in all aspects of seamanship, ship handling, warfare, damage control and hopefully to be able to deal successfully with almost any other situation that might arise. On satisfactory completion of this intensive training period, the ship was then released to join the Fleet.

The purpose of the ‘Portland Tanker’ was to allow ships and crews in training, to practice all aspects of replenishment at sea, and to provide a vessel for them to practice towing, boarding, fire-fighting and the many other skills that might be required of them. On her funnel she displayed a coveted “School” road sign, (in those days it was a flaming torch design, later replaced by the figures of children).

Week days on this tanker were long and busy, but then weekends were usually spent secured alongside the ‘Coaling Pier’ or ‘Q’ Jetty, with opportunities to reload, catch up on maintenance and go for a run ashore, either in Portland or nearby Weymouth.

At sea, this small motor-ship plodded along at a maximum speed of 12 knots, with the funnel giving off a distinctive “chuff-chuff” sound. Occasionally, the ship was granted leave to sail and proceed outside the so-called “Customs Box”, an area limited by latitude 48 30 North and 12 00 West. Once outside these limits the master could open the bonded store and issue each man with a duty-free allowance of alcohol and cigarettes. The officers’ allowance was pooled to stock the Officers Bar.

After our spell as the ‘Portland Tanker’, we spent all our time freighting cargoes around the U.K. This entailed calls to Invergordon on the east coast of Scotland, Devonport (Yonderberry Oil Fuel Jetty), Lisahally in Northern Ireland, the NATO depot at Loch Striven in the Clyde estuary, Old Kilpatrick in the Clyde itself, Gosport and several calls to Pembroke Dock.

To get to Pembroke Dock we entered Milford Haven and passed the large oil refinery berths on either shore, before reaching our own berth near the town of Pembroke. The Admiralty oil jetty consisted of an old floating hulk called the “Warrior”, which was connected to the shore as a pontoon. The oil was pumped through pipes from the adjacent storage tanks ashore, then across the old and rusting hulk into our cargo tanks. At that time I knew very little about the “Warrior”, other than the fact that she had been the first iron-hulled warship in the world. Today she has been beautifully restored to her former glory and lies at Portsmouth Dockyard as a visitor attraction.

Also, during our visits to Pembroke, I remember seeing just outside the town, an old and neglected RAF Sunderland flying-boat, bringing back memories of my childhood days in Singapore. It was probably lying there waiting to be scrapped or possibly restored for a museum.

On one occasion on arrival in Plymouth Sound, we were ordered to go alongside RFA “Tidepool”, which was lying there moored to one of the buoys. I was delighted to meet up again with a fellow deck apprentice who I had previously sailed with on “Tideflow”. That evening we went ashore for a few beers and eventually ended up at a nightclub. We were enjoying ourselves when suddenly I recall being knocked to the floor with blood pouring from my nose! We had unwittingly become embroiled in a local free-for-all and I went back to my ship sporting a black eye and a bleeding nose. Consequently the captain thought I had been causing trouble and stopped my shore leave for a couple of weeks. Justice – what justice??

In just less than three months I had enjoyed an interesting time on board this little ship and was paid off in Portland for some leave.