We are still running the ASW screen, as the threat is still very real from this submarine, and this is imposing certain limitations on our movements, because it seems to be almost invariably the case that no matter what heading the ship is on, the course to recover aircraft is a different one and, usually, one which would take us neatly out of the screen and hence into danger. With these conflicting priorities, some of the manoeuvres undertaken by the ship have been erratic at best.
On a more domestic level, we are still having mail problems, with bags going astray with monotonous regularity, though we are getting one mail delivery a day, most days. The runway at Port Stanley is still out of action, of course, except for the RAF Harriers based there (and our Sea Harriers rotating through), so we are reduced to using a mail drop technique for deliveries (it arrives by parachute from a C130 (Hercules) transport aircraft). The same aircraft collects the mail by air-snatch. The aircraft flies over the island quite low, with a grappling hook extended. On the ground, the mail sacks are waiting, attached to a length of wire strung between two posts. The hook seizes the wire, and the bags vanish skywards. A neat technique.
One of the odd little chores I have had recently is to draft a ‘Report of Proceedings’ for the Air Department on board – a kind of diary of events. The theory is that each department on the ship will draft an ROP, and then the Captain’s Secretary will collate the whole lot into a whole ship ROP, which will then be forwarded to wherever you forward ROPs to by the Captain.
What has rather pleased me (and pleased Commander (Air), which is perhaps more to the point) is that my effort is likely to be used as the whole ship report, as it is so much better than anything else they’ve seen. I also scored points of both Commander (Air) and Lieutenant Commander (Flying) by using the word ‘propensities’ in the ROP, as neither of them knew what it meant, though it was certainly the right word to be used in the context. I actually had to drag my dictionary up to Flyco to prove my point, but on a personal level I found their apparent joint lack of literacy somewhat surprising.
In fact, I shouldn’t have been surprised, really. I remember that shortly after leaving Newcastle I’d been instructed by Wings to prepare an ATM (Air Department Temporary Memorandum) about flight safety, so that people who were unfamiliar with flying operations on a carrier would have some guidance. I’d included an innocent but informative sentence along the lines of: ‘If you have to go onto the Flight Deck, ensure that you know where you should be and what you should be doing.’
I didn’t think any more about it, submitted it for approval and left it at that. A short time later, I was summoned by Wings to Flyco, where he pointed out my spelling mistake. ‘This word here,’ he said, pointing at ”where”, ‘should be spelt ”wear”. Get it changed and then bring it back for on my signature.’
I suppose, with hindsight, that that’s precisely what I should have done, and left his illiteracy on display for all to see, but I simply couldn’t. And yet again, I had to go all the way down to the Air Office, which was five decks below the flight deck, get my dictionary and then climb back all the way up to Flyco, which is four decks above the flight deck, and the only lifts on the ship are those used by aircraft, in order to show him the difference in meaning between the two words. It just amazes me he ever graduated from Dartmouth. Or from whatever school he attended.
The ITV film this evening was ‘The Shootist’ with John Wayne, which I had seen before and so didn’t bother watching again.