THE ROSYTH REPORT On Monday, 8th July, a party of 13 members of Rodney Division, three NCO's and Sub-Lieutenant Maw, left York station on the 09.14 train to Edinburgh. On arrival at Waverly Market Station the party found they had an hour to fill-in before catching the connection. After a walk up to the Castle the train was boarded and the party continued the journey to Inverkeithing. At Inverkeithing station a Naval bus transported the party to H.M.S. Safeguard. After being shown our cabins and having a mug of tea the programme began. First of all the party visited H.M.S. Dreadnought, a Nuclear Hunter/Killer Submarine. This was very interesting despite the ship being in the throes of a major refit and the restrictions on the Top Secret parts of her. Straight after our visit of Dreadnought the party was transported to H.M.S. Rothesay, a fast type 12, anti-submarine frigate which has just completed a long refit and been re-armed with a Seacat missile launcher and a Wasp helicopter. The remainder of the evening, after supper, was spent looking round the Marine Salvage model room and instruction in the Diving School on Naval diving gear, followed by two films, one of which was about H.M.S. Hermes and her aircraft (which for one member of the party was his sixth showing) and the other about laying moorings in the Clyde. We arose the following day at 07.10 to a day which, from the weather point of view, did not look too good. However this was not to prove the case. After breakfast half the party went to watch films, while the rest drove a motor whaler on the river. Unfortunately some AB's found the boat rather unmanagable and completed their turn at the helm, with disastrous results! In the middle of the morning the parties changed over to do what the other had previously done. At 12.00 we had our third meal at Safeguard. (We must thank the cooks for the excellent food which we had during our stay). After lunch we were taken over to Port Edgar where we went aboard H.M.S. Upton, a coastal minesweeper. After leaving Port Edgar we headed out to sea and began a good trip on Upton. The three N.C.O.'s were given instruction on navigation (by visual methods and by radar) by the Captain Later on in the afternoon we were frequently asked to find the position of the ship and after a time errors were greatly reduced. The rest of the party spent sometime looking over the ship and trying their hand at steering the ship and manning the 40mm anti-aircraft gun. At 15.30 the ship's head was turned for home and speed was put on. When H.M.S. Upton berthed again at Port Edgar, we were immediately transported back to Safeguard. We then changed into No. 3's and tidied up the cabins in preparation for our departure after the evening meal. At 19.45 we caught the train at Inverkeithing and at 00.50 on Wednesday we arrived back in York. On behalf of the party, I would like to thank everyone who contributed
to the organisation of our enjoyable trip and especially P.O. McInally who looked after the party during its stay at H.M.S. Safeguard.
T.P.L. 73
