The Adventures of a Conway Lad on RFA Engadine 1971

“ENGADINE”

Pennant No. K 08                      International Callsign GRBU                  Registered LONDON

 

Previous Name N/A                                                                         Lloyds Identity No. 6800684

 

Builder Henry Robb Ltd, Leith.

 

Launched 16th September 1966  (Named the previous day       Completed 15th December 1967

but strong winds delayed the launch by a day).

 

Displacement (Light-ship) 4,480 tons                       (Loaded) 9,000 tons

 

Measurement Tonnage N.R.T. 2,774                   G.R.T. 6,360                   DWT 4,520

 

Dimensions Length O.A. 424 ft.                  Beam 58 ft.                        Draft 22 ft.

 

Main Machinery 1 x Sulzer 2 stroke, 5 cylinder, turbocharged 5RD68 marine diesel engine.  Built by Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co.   Single Shaft.   Speed 14 knots.

 

Ships Badge Granted in 1966.  The engadine is a species of the edelweiss flower, found in the Swiss Alps.  The badge depicts two alpenhorns, surrounded by a chaplet of engadine on a navy-blue background.

 

This was the third naval vessel to bear the name.  The first was a cross-channel ferry which was converted into a seaplane carrier during the 1st World War and seeing service at the Battle of Jutland.  The second was the merchantman ”Clan Buchanan”, converted during the 2nd World War into an aircraft transport ship for the Royal Navy.

 

This “ENGADINE” was a purpose built Helicopter Support Ship, equipped with a ‘two-spot’ flight deck for “Wessex” helicopters and a large hanger space.  She was designed for the training of helicopter crews in the technique of operating from small warship flight decks far out to sea.  She did not carry her own resident aircraft but embarked helicopters and their aircrews as required.  A Royal Naval aircraft maintenance team was permanently embarked.

 

When built she was fitted with a pair of ‘Denny Brown’ stabilisers to reduce flight deck movement at sea.  In 1969 a special hanger was built abaft the funnel and above the main helicopter hangers for the storage and maintenance of Pilotless Target Aircraft (PTA’s).  In March 1984 her flight deck was lengthened to overhang the stern.  This was in order to extend the two existing “Wessex” landing spots so as to provide the extra landing space required for two “Seaking” helicopters.

 

Reaching the end of her active life, she was laid up in 1989 and sold in 1990 to ‘Dido Shipping Co SA’ at Piraeus, Greece, being re-registered in Kingstown, Bahamas.  She departed from Devonport on 9th September 1990 and arrived at Piraeus on 18th October 1990.  She remained laid up at Piraeus until 16th April 1996, when she was sold to ‘Balanced Holdings Ltd, St Vincent, Grenadines, for her final passage to India.

 

She arrived at ‘Gohilwad Shipbreakers’, Alang, on 7th May 1996 and demolition began on 2nd June 1996.

 

“ENGADINE”

23rd May 1971 to 6th June 1971

British Crew

2nd Officer

 

Looking for just 15 days of sea-time to enable me to sit for my “Master’s” (Foreign Going) Certificate, I joined this ship at Portland as a supernumerary bridge watchkeeping officer, taking the 4-8 watch.  This released the Senior 2nd Officer from watches and allowed him a few days of day-work, during which he could concentrate on organising the ship’s programme around the busy flying schedules.

 

The training work for aircrews that this ship undertook, in conjunction with HMS “Osprey”, which was the Royal Naval Air Station at Portland, meant that the ship spent a lot of her time based in the Portland exercise areas.  Conveniently for me, it meant that I could leave her and commence my studies ashore almost on the day that I had the necessary recorded sea-time.  There were no planned trips to continental ports or deep-sea exercises due in the following couple of weeks.

 

Whilst I was aboard, helicopter operations were carried out almost continually, both day and night, making the time pass very quickly.  The ship ploughed up and down the English Channel between Start Point and the Isle of Wight, with helicopters seemingly swarming around us like angry wasps!

 

She was a comfortable ship with the transient aircrews mixing happily with RFA officers and seamen. At weekends she usually managed to find a berth alongside at Portland naval base, when some lucky individuals grabbed a couple of days at home whilst others carried on with the planned maintenance schedule.  Whilst I was on this ship I somehow picked up a bit of food poisoning, which made me feel really rotten for a couple of days.  However, despite a lack of much sympathy, I recovered and paid off at Plymouth.  I now looked forward to a long spell ashore but with some apprehension about the amount of work I would need to cover at the Plymouth College of Maritime Studies, in order to be ready to sit for my “Master’s” ticket.

 

Once again there were a series of written examinations to be passed, accompanied by the dreaded “Oral” examination, which for ‘Master’s’ included a session on compass adjustment.  Ship’s magnetic compasses are naturally affected by the steel of the ship on which they are mounted.  Compensatory magnets need to be strategically placed around the compass to counter and eliminate the ship’s own magnetic effect.  This then allows the Earth’s magnetic field alone to influence the compass.  A rudimentary ship model called a ‘deviascope’ is used to teach and examine students on the ‘black art’ of compass adjustment!  Lumps of iron are hidden underneath and around the ‘deviascope’ compass by the examiner. The student then, following a recognised procedure, has to compensate for their effect.  This varies as the model is swung through 360 degrees or tilted from side to side.  Any small residual compass error is called ‘deviation’ and is recorded in graph form on a ‘deviation card’.  Survivors of this ordeal then underwent the “Signals” exam, which included a working knowledge of the ‘International Code of Signals’, as well as reading and sending semaphore and Morse code blocks of random letters/numbers and messages.

 

The written papers for “Master’s” were:  “Navigation” (3 hours, min 70% to pass), “Magnetic and Gyro Compass” (3 hours, min. 50% to pass), “Ship Construction and Stability” (3 hours, min. 50% to pass), “Ship Master’s Business” (2 hours, min. 50% to pass), “Engineering and Radio Aids” (3 hours, no minimum pass mark but marks count towards overall average) and “Meteorology” (2 hours, again no minimum pass mark but marks count towards overall average).  An overall average of 70% had to be attained in order to pass the examination.