When I Was On The Tartar... by Michael Payne

Author:Michael Payne [Payne, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen - Bahrein, sand, and desert wellies

One fine day, as we neared Bahrein for the first time, and a mini-refit, we held a RAS with a Gulf State warship - who promptly got too close, and created a large tearing hole in our ships side (the one we had laboriously and often painted). This was repaired with a large plate as soon as we got alongside.

The jetty we secured alongside was probably half a mile long - we would moor at the very end of it. On the other side was where civilian ships would moor. On a weekly basis (we were based there for four months), we would see the same cattle ship load and unload. On the middle of the jetty was a small shop, selling fresh milk, some food, and extra long king size cigarettes, which we would smoke to extend the length of our monthly allotment of 600 ‘duty frees’, as these shoreside packs were cheaper than we paid. When you consider that we were then paying something like 10p for a pack of twenty, these extra length ones were better value!! We did catch our toe - first night ashore, back to the ship, wake with hangover (we worked ’tropical’ routine those days, start at 0700, finish at 1300, leave up until 0645), over to the shop, pint of milk, funny taste that, what’s that brown sludge at the bottom of the carton, ‘shit - it’s goats milk’. Mind you, it grew on you, and certainly was good for clearing last nights’ hangover....

One job I always volunteered for, was ‘mast painting’. This entailed drawing all the ‘safe to transmit/safe to rotate’ keys for all the radio and radar aerials for the ship (just in case on overzealous but stupid flagwagger or greenie decided to transmit megawatts of power from an aerial near you, or decided to rotate the radar with you standing on it), getting several pots of paint and brushes, drawing safety harnesses (which were as useful as chocolate teapots, given that you tied them below you as they got in the way otherwise) , then climbing the main mast complete with heaving lines (to haul up paint and brushes) ready for a several day skive. Once up there (where no-one else could come and check on you without being spotted fairly quickly ), we’d do a spot of painting out on the yardarms - hence the harnesses, standing or swinging to get to the awkward bits. Luckily, the yards were over the ship, otherwise we’d have got wet if we fell off them!!!!! From the top of the mast to deck level was around a fifty foot drop, but it was eighty from top to waterline. We’d get odd looks when we descended - we’d be covered in paint, but brown too! The view, though, was worth the effort.

We also ‘volunteered’ to wash and repaint the funnels. This was a filthy job, but worth doing. We had to climb up the inside of the funnel, and come out of a very small hatch on the top.

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