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RN Photographs -1970's World Naval Ships Forums Archive

RN Photographs -1970's

Posts 1 to 26

Hello everyone, Having scanned in & uploaded all my family RN pics, I thought I should also do mine. These are a combination of official photos as well as ones that I took. The only camera I had back then was a Kodak Instamatic using 126 film with both slide and print film. I joined up when I was 16 at the tail end of 1973 at Ganges, continuing with the RO's training at Mercury. Drafted to HMS Antrim from July 74 till Sept 76. For my sins I then got drafted into s/m's :eek: but finally escaped back into civvy street by Xmas 79. I have specifically included group photos so if anyone recognises themselves or anbody they know plse feel free to download. Honestly I don't mind! Picture no:13 is of USS America at Stokes Bay, Gosport. Regards Alan
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Pt 2. Well it was a struggle to upload my pictures but I have found a way around it! So here are a few more...all on HMS Antrim.
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Hi alan.gamblin , fab photo,s Could let us know , what happen to the two port launches , it,s a shade after my time ,all the counties i knew still had a couple of 4.5,s up fwd. cylla

Pt3 - taken on my Mediterranean "cruise" 1975.
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Hi Alan... Some nice pics there mate. A photo of a County still gives me a buzz.

Pt4. Scenes from Malta G.H. & onwards to Istanbul.
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Pt5. The year is 1976 7 the BBC film crew were filming "Sailor" onboard the Ark and I recall seeing their cameras filming us during a RAS in the South Western Approaches. Unfortunately I don't recall ever seeing it on the telly.:(
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Pt6. A families day out when we had a cruise around the Solent. I cannot now remember where the pics were taken of the Scimitar but probably taken just prior to the families day.:o
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Pt 7 and final part for now. The Silver Jubilee Spithead Review - summer 77. I had by now completed my s/m training (pts 1 & 2) and had managed to "blagg" a trip on an RNAS(?) vessel "Lamlash" from where these shots were taken. I didn't bother taking my camera to sea on the diesel s/m's - too little space and I was too busy completing my pt3 training whilst onboard Opossum. I will post some more pictures later on but they are all post-RN. Enjoy!! Regards Alan
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[QUOTE=CYLLA;132730]Hi alan.gamblin , fab photo,s Could let us know , what happen to the two port launches , it,s a shade after my time ,all the counties i knew still had a couple of 4.5,s up fwd. cylla[/QUOTE] Hello, I take it that you are referring to the missing Exocet's; as far as I recall they were fitted shortly after these photo's were taken. I am pretty certain that they were fitted by the time Antrim sailed for the Med in May 75. Regards Alan

Very nice photos Alan, escpecially those of the Counties. Thanks for sharing. Monty

Alan, Splendid pictures - many thanks for posting them. The quality is pretty good for an Instamatic with 126. The colours do not seem to have faded unless you have enhanced them. I hope you do not mind but I have downloaded a couple of them.

[QUOTE=INVINCIBLE;132768]Alan, Splendid pictures - many thanks for posting them. The quality is pretty good for an Instamatic with 126. The colours do not seem to have faded unless you have enhanced them. I hope you do not mind but I have downloaded a couple of them.[/QUOTE] Thank you for your kind comments. When scanning the pictures in I am using a system called Adobe Photoshop. The original prints have faded slightly with time but once scanned in, the new image appears fresh. Generally the slides are of better quality than the prints and they retain their colour better. A photographer friend of mine many years ago told me that Kodakchrome was the best brand for colour preservation. Regards Alan

[QUOTE=alan.gamblin;132797]Thank you for your kind comments. When scanning the pictures in I am using a system called Adobe Photoshop. The original prints have faded slightly with time but once scanned in, the new image appears fresh. Generally the slides are of better quality than the prints and they retain their colour better. A photographer friend of mine many years ago told me that Kodakchrome was the best brand for colour preservation. Regards Alan[/QUOTE] Alan, why have your pix got smaller than your original posts ??? They were far better (and bigger still, would be better).

[quote=alan.gamblin;132723]Pt 2. Well it was a struggle to upload my pictures but I have found a way around it! So here are a few more...all on HMS Antrim.[/quote] Thanks for the Antrim pics Alan. I did two weeks RNR training onboard, whilst CPOSA John Holden went on leave, sadly he crossed the bar last year.

[quote=alan.gamblin;132797]Thank you for your kind comments. When scanning the pictures in I am using a system called Adobe Photoshop. The original prints have faded slightly with time but once scanned in, the new image appears fresh. Generally the slides are of better quality than the prints and they retain their colour better. A photographer friend of mine many years ago told me that Kodakchrome was the best brand for colour preservation. Regards Alan[/quote] Try setting your scanner to scan at 300 dpi.

[QUOTE=tonclass;132814]Alan, why have your pix got smaller than your original posts ??? They were far better (and bigger still, would be better).[/QUOTE] Hello Rik, Sorry about that. I first read yr post at work today on my workbench laptop. I then went through all the pictures and some of them didn't enlarge. To add to my confusion when I returned to my home pc and tried them all again, guess what? they all enlarged! :confused:They are all jpegs and so I noted which ones had the lowest number of bits and have increased them accordingly. Originally I made them smaller cos for some reason I was unable to upload them onto this website and that had never happened before. I assumed that the files were too big. Hence my struggle! Could you advise me which ones you are having problems with? (the first 3 numbers in their title is their id number.) & I will enter those again. Just for info they were all scanned in at 360 dpi. Hope this helps. Regards Alan

[QUOTE=alan.gamblin;132797]Thank you for your kind comments. When scanning the pictures in I am using a system called Adobe Photoshop. The original prints have faded slightly with time but once scanned in, the new image appears fresh. Generally the slides are of better quality than the prints and they retain their colour better. A photographer friend of mine many years ago told me that Kodakchrome was the best brand for colour preservation. Regards Alan[/QUOTE] Alan, Thanks for that. I agree that Kodakchrome has tended to keep its colour well. The captain of our frigate was an ex PR officer who had a lot of photographic experience and advised us all to use Kodakchrome. Slides have kept their colours well but it is not so easy converting those to hard copies and making computer images. How do you convert your slides. Anyway many thanks for your excellent pictures.

Thanks Alan for your interesting photographs of Antrim. Much appreciated! :)

Hello Invincible, Regarding scanning slides; I have a 4yr old Epson Stylus RX620 scanner that "multitasks". This particular model comes with a plastic frame that allows photo negatives and slides to be scanned. It prefers 35mm slides to that of 126 square slides (they do have to be coaxed in a number of times before I can get a satisfactory result). The same scanner also hates 'white' ships. The SS Canberra on 35mm (which I will upload at a later date) is a real pig to scan in because so much detail gets missed. I think I had to go upto ~700dpi to capture most of the windows, portholes & even the name! and that creates a huge file!! It takes a lot of patience and you always learn something new every time. Regards Alan

Thanks for sharing your photos Alan, these type of pictures are far better than 'official' photos.

[QUOTE=alan.gamblin;132896]Hello Rik, Sorry about that. I first read yr post at work today on my workbench laptop. I then went through all the pictures and some of them didn't enlarge. To add to my confusion when I returned to my home pc and tried them all again, guess what? they all enlarged! :confused:They are all jpegs and so I noted which ones had the lowest number of bits and have increased them accordingly. Originally I made them smaller cos for some reason I was unable to upload them onto this website and that had never happened before. I assumed that the files were too big. Hence my struggle! Could you advise me which ones you are having problems with? (the first 3 numbers in their title is their id number.) & I will enter those again. Just for info they were all scanned in at 360 dpi. Hope this helps. Regards Alan[/QUOTE] Alan, thanks for the reply. You're not the first to have their scans magically reduced when posting. I'll send you a PM of pic numbers when I finish my nightshift stint. Cheers again

[quote=INVINCIBLE;132901]Alan, Thanks for that. I agree that Kodakchrome has tended to keep its colour well. The captain of our frigate was an ex PR officer who had a lot of photographic experience and advised us all to use Kodakchrome. Slides have kept their colours well but it is not so easy converting those to hard copies and making computer images. How do you convert your slides. Anyway many thanks for your excellent pictures.[/quote] Film photography is not dead. [URL]http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/q-and-a/1735570/kodak-there-real-resurgence-film#ixzz10y40QMzv[/URL]

Hi Alan, You must have been on the Antrim the same time as me. your photo's brought back some memories. I was a POMEM on board, I remember B Turret being removed and Exocet launchers fitted. Two amusing incidents come to mind, The first was during the fitting of the exocets, one of the Chief Greenies, sent a young OEM out to his car to put his weekend grip into the boot, so that he could make a fast getaway. You can't miss it, its the only red renault 5 on the jetty. The lad on reaching the jetty was confronted with 2 Red Renault 5's. He went to the nearest, and after a struggle with the keys managed to open the boot and place his Chief holdall inside. A short while later, the French engineer working on the exocet went to his car, A Red Renault 5, and discovered this alien baggage and imeidiately alerted the gangway staff, with this being during a period when mainland Britain had sustained IRA bomb attacks, The Bomb squad were called, and removed the holdall to a remote part of the dockyard and blew it up with a controlled explosion, only to see the chiefs washing fluttering down as the smoke cleared. The other incident was at Aberporth for the exocet firing. We had been steaming around for a couple of weeks waiting for a wiindow in the weather to allow suitable conditions to film the missile firing. The whole ship was filled with anticipation waiting to fire our first exocet. Anyone not on watch or closed up, gathered in their Messes to witness the event on close circuit TV. The Gunnery Officer carried out the countdown, and finally 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1,and the launcher door dropped, followed by about ten seconds of deathly silence throughout the ship, broken by the extremely shakey voice of "Guns" shouting, "We have a hang fire, we have a hang fire". Within 24 hours we were in Guz for an unscheduled weekend, whilst the exocet and launcher were removed to Ernasettle, to determine the cause of the failure. It emerged that it was a mis-alignment of the door pin, which completed the final interlock on the firing circuit. With this corrected we returned to Aberporth for a successful firing. Ships usually completing missile firings at Aberporth had the pick of the west coast of UK for a run ashore, Bristol, Swansea, Liverpool, Glasgow. Not us, we were destined to have our run ashore at Loch Melfort about 15 miles south of Oban, with one bus a week, or about a weeks wages for a taxi to Oban. Fond Memories. I left Antrim in Civvitta Veccia and flew home from Rome.

Hello RichyB, Many thanks for your reply; I joined Antrim about August 74, after the Exocet mounting was (I think :confused:) already in place. My new messmates had already moved back onboard from RNB. Loved your ditties. I don't recall the first one but I do remember the firings at Aberporth; I was in 2E mess (Comms) and watched the b/w telly to witness the firings. As you said we went to Loch Melfort for a weekend. I recall that Captain Keate wanted to show off his ship to his wife at home and that is where they lived. I still have a couple of momentos from that visit and if you look closely at the photo you'll see his house. Kind regards Alan
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Hi Alan, For such a remote place, it became the centre of attention for the whole ships company. If I remember correctly (Hard Drive is starting to fail) we received a signal to proceed to the Clyde area and act as part of a Destryer screen for submarine officers qualifying course. We would then have to proceed to Glasgow to allow shore leave over the weekend. Captain Keates then replied by saying invitations had already been sent out for a cocktail party to be held in Loch Melfort, and Antrims failure to attend would represent a major embarrasment. Captain Keates got his wish, and the ships company re-named Loch Melfort - Loch Keates. I ran into Captain Keates in 1978, when I was at Yarrow Shipbuilders standing by HMS Avenger, he was the retained Captain used by Yarrows for sea trails. One other incident I remember at the time, involved one of our Killick Stokers, who together with a young Stoker were intending to have a run ashore in Oban. On coming ashore at the Jetty in Loch Melfort, they went into the Motel nearby for a drink. Coming out of the Motel, they discovered a Rover, with the keys in the ignition, and decided to "borrow" it to get to Oban, about 15 miles away. They got less than a mile before they wrapped the car around a tree or lampost. It turned out the car belonged to an RN Commander, who was visiting Captain Keates onboard at the time. The Killick was offered a deal by the Skipper, which involved him paying for the damage to the car, having it deducted from his wages over a period of time, as the Commanders insurance would have been invalidated because he had left the keys in the car. Happy Days Kind regards RichyB

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