PDB NEWS

♦ 9 August. Tony Pitt, the Branch welfare co-ordinator is out of office until the end of the month. Any problems, contact the Secretary or another committee member.

Information Wanted. Roy Seccombe from Plymouth. Born c1920. Died aboard Indian ship Vikram Jayanti at Nagasaki, 1964.

Served during WW2 and as Chief Officer of Wave Master, War Brahmin, Wave Liberator, Fort Charlotte,

A close relative is seeking any information about him which may be forwarded through the Webmaster

♦ 30 July. Visitors flock to Navy Days
Portsmouth News
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel Argus will also give visitors a rare glimpse ... The event comes as the government considers budget cuts for all three ...

♦ 15 July. GUNLINE. Summer Edition is online HERE . Should be in the post soon.

♦ 7 July. The annual Sea Sunday Service will take place at St Andrew's at 1115 on Sunday 11 July

Naval chief is positive about RFA's future role
Portsmouth News
Thousands of RFA workers have signed petitions since The News revealed in the autumn that the service was facing potential cuts. But Cdre Walworth has said ...

Grey Rover, A History of Service

Article by Chief Officer Chris Locke

On a grey and overcast day in October RFA GREY ROVER finally succumbed to her inevitable fate and passed the Round Tower for the last time.

This had been the third attempt at towing the ship to Liverpool for re-cycling; the first cancelled at the very last moment by the tug Captain due to his sudden concerns over weather conditions and the second, new tug and new skipper, due to surveyor’s concerns with towing arrangements. So it was at 1450 on 14th October 2009 that Grey Rover finally slipped her moorings under tow from the tug Braveheart for the four day tow to Canada Dock in Liverpool.

Many would say that the breakers yard came too early for such a fine ship and there was ‘life left in the old girl yet’. A true statement perhaps, although with the ever increasing stringent regulations concerning Single Hull Tankers significant alteration and modernisation to the ship would have been necessary. However, it is worth mentioning that during her decommissioning and preps for disposal she was prepared for a Government to Government sale for use by another navy and not for scrapping.

The purpose of this article is to sound out amongst the many who sailed onboard Grey Rover if there is enough interest and material to write a small book about the ship, and more importantly about the crews that sailed and lived aboard her. The book would also cover the re-cycling process, a fascinating area particularly pictorially.

Most people have heard of stories from famous ships like Victory, Hood or Endurance however, this would be the story of just an ordinary ship and her crew and an account of life at sea and how it changed during the 36 years of her service.
If you (either retired or still serving) have sailed in Grey Rover or been associated with the ship and would be prepared to forward anecdotal stories and accounts, which could then be woven into the ship’s history I would be pleased to hear from you. A fine example I already know about is Grey Rover meeting a Russian Foxtrot Class submarine on an Easter Sunday in the Faeroes Iceland Gap. Other stories include a passage through the Beagle Channel and around Cape Horn and more recently, drug seizures in the Caribbean, all of which would have a place within the pages of such a book. However, recollections of happy memories on the ship or other experiences which are less dramatic but perhaps give more flavour of life on board such as the account of a past Captain who joined Grey Rover as his first ship in the RFA as a Junior Officer and has fond memories of those early days. Shipboard life memories might include barbeques on the flight deck or experiencing stormy seas in the South Atlantic.

If you would like to contribute to the Grey Rover story then please contact me at thegreyroverbook@googlemail.com The more pictures the better.