Tom Rees

HMS YARMOUTH

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Tom Rees

Just thought you might be interested in an incident on the focsle of the Yarmouth whilst in Rosyth, which took place sometime in 1975. We were tied up outboard, alongside HMS Eastbourne (F73) at the time.Paul Hayden RO2 (G), our mess version of David Bedford was about to go for a jog around the dockyard He started off by saying that he would take the short route to the jetty. I had my camera with me and Paul duly posed for the photo.

Then, we thought it would be an amusing photo for two of the other lads in the mess to give Paul a 'hand'.We staged the photo

left to right 'Tiny' Little, RO1 (T) (fm Carlisle) and Steve Fannon RO1 All went well, but it was taking me some time to square up for the photo and the lads were getting tired. Paul must have felt this and wriggled a bit in an attempt to get back onto the deck. Big mistake, as the lads nearly dropped him (really! this was not posed).

As you will see there was a wooden 'pontoon' between the ships and it would NOT have been a wet landing for Paul. Seeing the trouble that was evolving, Paul Balderson RO1 (T) (from Hereford) came in to give a helping hand.

All's well that ends well, Eh?

I can't but reflect that youthful enthusiasm (or was it the McKewans) almost resulted in a most serious incident, that would have left Paul in sick-bay and the rest of us in the shit.

Regards,

Tom Rees

Just a brief bit of information:

On 17th July 1975 HMS Yarmouth crashed into the jetty at Pompey.

The lower half of the bow was pushed back quite a way and we had to limp back to Rosyth for repairs. On completion of repairs we made our way back south where the next disaster befell the 'Rubber Duck'.

We had been at Portland doing post refit work-up (BOST ?) when one of the boilers failed. We limped back to Rosyth again only to find that on arrival, the boilermakers had been rushed over to Faslane to carry out emergency repairs on a Leander frigate that had been badly damaged during a tour of duty in the seas around Iceland. We were ordered to make our way from Rosyth to Faslane (over the top). The weather / seas were awful and by the time we finally got to Faslane the boilermakers had all gone back to Rosyth.

Our skipper refused to go back over the top and we were eventually diverted to Birkenhead. We had a wonderful time there.

I can't remember how long the repairs took but it was quite a while and we managed to get Xmas leave in - but I would have preferred to have stayed onboard.

Comms Division 1974-75

Lt (Tom?) Williams (SCO)

PO (Tel) Tom Stephenson - LRO (G) Graham Stewart - LRO (T) Dave Warrior

RO 1 (G) Brian ‘Whiskey’ Walker - RO 1 (G) Dave Reece - RO 1 (G) Paul Hayden

RO 1 (G) Tom Rees - RO 1 (G) ? ‘Mac’ MacDonald - RO 1 (G) Pete (French?)

RO 1 (T) ‘Tiny’ Little (Fm Carlisle) - RO 1 (T) ‘Jock’ Angus

RO 1 (T) Paul Balderstone (Fm Hereford)

RO 1 (T) ‘Taff’ Hughes - RO 1 (T) Donald Davidson - RO 1 (?) Steve Fannon