Smudger Snippet: The 2012 Work Party
Created | Updated Jun 17, 2012
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
The 2012 Work Party
Well I am now back at home after attending another work party on board Britannia. This year was the best attended ever, with I total of 90 ex-Yotties coming to work alongside the permanent work staff to help bring Britannia back to the high standards that it used to be while on Royal Duty. Of course I couldn’t do as much as I wanted to as my mobility is not improved any, but I did manage to do some polishing and general light work jobs. The association staff and management made us all welcome and really appreciate the help we can give them, as they have to work really hard just to keep the public viewing areas up to standard,
It looks like I have waited too long before finishing this, as the pageant on the Thames was on yesterday, and we watched the whole thing on TV. Must admit, I did get a bit emotional when I saw the Royal Barge with its Two Escort boats, back in the water being used for what they were made for. To think, it was only a couple of weeks ago I saw them in the water in Leith being made ready for the trip down to London, on the back of a lorry.
I can’t help thinking what if we had more time to do them up and they sailed all the way down, now that would have been a sight to see. Anyway, the work party was not all about the Barge and Escort boats, we also did a lot of work on HMY as well. A lot of the white structure on the quarter deck and forecastle, was repainted along with varnishing, and of course, the bright work, my department, well along with a few more of us older ones, who are not quite as fit as we were, back in the day.
Speaking of back in the day, we had ex-Yotties from all decades this year, from the fifties right on to the nineties, when of course she was decommissioned, a sad day for us all. I met a few of the old hands from the fifties who were telling me about how they used to scrub the decks by hand, and not by the electric Dixons we used, but as I said at the time, there was more crew members back then. In fact the crew numbers was cut down again after the refit back in the seventies, during which they fitted a proper dining hall and put bunk beds in, which did away with our hammocks, come to think of it that was a sad say as well. So I think I will leave it at for just now.
