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HMS Dido (Ikara Leander) 1979 - [WAFU’s away match]


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That's the sort of thing I do.  At least the initial clean up has shown that it's not terminal.  Look on the bright side of life, at least you haven't fitted the guardrails yet.  That would have been fun trying to clean them off.

 

12 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I always thought the Seawolf Leanders were the best looking of the conversions; the originals were splendid & balanced-looking - purposeful... but the Ikaras, Exocets & (especially) Towed-Array conversions had looks only a Mother could love, however capable they were.  But the Seawolf conversion was sufficiently radical - having to remove all that top weight to cope with 967/968 at the masthead - that the clean lines were restored, even enhanced.

 

Plus I watched HMS Andromeda zap a brave but oblivious Argentine A4 Pilot into the next world with a Seawolf just outside San Carlos Water in May 1982.  An extraordinary sight that is etched on my memory, and since the A4 appeared to be  heading for Fearless at the time, one that raised my morale considerably.   Always had a soft spot for Andromeda ever since!

Totally agree on the looks of the Seawolf conversions.  I joined ANDROMEDA just after she returned from the Falklands to finish off my Officer Under Training time and she was a great ship.  But you were lucky that Seawolf worked on that day; I remember being told by the Seawolf maintainer while doing my 2 week rotation with the WE Department that it was OPDEFed for large proportions of the time down south.

 

Only criticism I would have of the design of the Seawolf Leanders was their seakeeping.  Not only did they strap a heavy 967/968 radar at the masthead, they also replaced the relatively lightweight 184 sonar with the huge 2016 array, which meant that instead of having the nice gentle roll of the other types, she rolled much less but would do so in a series of rapid jerks that were really rather uncomfortable in anything over a SS 4/5.  Six years later I had a short spell in PENELOPE filling in between appointments (and just at the wrong time to be onboard during the incident with HMCS PRESERVER in Vestfjord) which had a much more comfortable roll.

 

 

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To be honest the only roughers I encountered in my short time in Dido was the Australian Bight, which was sufficiently rough to have troubled any ship, regardless of sea keeping qualities (it’s kind of the Bay of Biscay on steroids - though the only other time I sailed through the Bight, 9 years later in Ark, it was very placid).  I also had little basis for comparison; my only previous RN sea time was a day at sea on the Dartmouth navigation training ship (a Ton - Walkerton??), so I wasn’t exactly expert.

 

Broadsword was the best sea keeper of my career, though even then she had her moments.  The Flight Commander’s cabin was right forward, under the for’d Seawolf launcher (me starboard, the Pusser port), so if she was pitching a lot it was like trying to sleep in an express lift (weightless one minute, crushed into your bunk pulling 2G the next, rinse & repeat).  On those nights - admittedly only 3 or 4 in my 2+ years on board - I slept on the deck in the Wardroom, which was much closer to the centre of rotation. 
 

[My cabin was an “interesting” place to be when the for’d Wolf launcher fired, too; felt like the roof was about to come in!]

 

I am much calmer about the paint after this morning’s quick remedial sanding.  It’s more work, but I needed to mask to patch the deck anyway, so not that much more.  It’s definitely fixable (& I hadn’t even thought about the guardrails, Ralph - you are so right!).  


All in all, could have been much worse - not in the same league as melting the forward section of Ark 5’s flight deck a few years back under the Martian’s baleful influence... and even that was fixed.

 

P.S. I’d totally forgotten the Penelope - Preserver stoof.  Never a good sign when the steam safety valves lift as the OOW orders emergency full power!  I can’t remember what happened; steering gear failure at a bad moment?. It looks the wrong stage of the RAS for canal effect or pressure wave issues.

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3 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

“Oh dear!”, I said (or words to that effect.  

Gidday, I think you could have toned the language down a bit, some of us are rather sensitive.

 

Seriously, I hope your repair works out OK. Regards, Jeff.

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Greetings sir

Watching the WIP and  i get more details to add to my Arethusa build each time,so thanks gents!@#$

Maybe a gash shoot over the stern? I think the Rover gas turbine fire pump lived there,maybe alongside(known as the two man herniai think)

main reason for this post is  i remember 1979 group 8 deployment to far east flagship was Norfolk,and 3rd Frigate squadron.

Arethusa Falmouth jupiter,a type 21 arrow i think and Dido. I don,t fully trust my memory so wike?pidea entry for Dido gives a link to Navy news

ships of RN feature stating after refit 1978 did work up and joined 3rd frigate squadron. Hope thats some help.

Cheers Brian.

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Thanks, Brian - strangely, I came across a Dido site yesterday that said the same thing; she was the last Ikara conversion, only emerging from refit in 1977-8, and went straight to the 3rd Frigate Squadron.  So 3FS it is; but thanks anyway; a black 3 on the funnel, not 1.

 

There was definitely (or fairly definitely...) a Tribal on that deployment, because (being a great deal slimmer in those days) I executed my one and only “scuttle run” after a party on board in Fremantle.  Zulu??  Oh.  Wait.  Might that have been the Type 12?
 

[For the non-RN and/or younger RN for whom scuttles in any living space were only seen in old photos, a scuttle run was to go out of the ship (stationary, alongside - I’m stupid but not suicidal) via one scuttle, find a way of scrambling along to the adjacent scuttle and back into the ship.  You had to be young, fit and not entirely sober...   Scuttles (proper sailors never refer to “portholes” - and anyway a scuttle opens) were not compatible with gas-tight citadels, so only older designs had them even in the 1970s.

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1 hour ago, Coors54 said:

Oooo, that Penelope collision is painful to watch. What happened? Steering mechanism failure?

 

Dave

Apparently (according to a Canadian account - and they’d know, since Preserver was a Canadian ship) one of Penelope’s throttles stuck at the critical moment; presumably the starboard screw, since she slews inwards.  That accounts for why the Captain appears to try to accelerate out of trouble; he probably had little option.  Ralph will no doubt know more.

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2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Never a good sign when the steam safety valves lift as the OOW orders emergency full power!

The safeties wouldn't lift if he'd gone to emergency full power, rapid opening of the throttles to full open would result in a drop in boiler pressure until the firing rate could catch up.

Lifting all the safeties is a symptom of slamming the throttles shut whilst the boilers are still firing, giving a rapid increase in pressure, which lifts the safeties. Looks like OOW has requested stop engines, and hasn't gone astern.

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13 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

one of Penelope’s throttles stuck at the critical moment; presumably the starboard screw, since she slews inwards.

There's certainly a lot of smoke from her and it looks as if Preserver goes to full astern as Penelope slews across her bows. I can only imagine the shouting and rude words on both bridges (and in both engine flats) at the time!

 

Dave

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14 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

The safeties wouldn't lift if he'd gone to emergency full power, rapid opening of the throttles to full open would result in a drop in boiler pressure until the firing rate could catch up.

Lifting all the safeties is a symptom of slamming the throttles shut whilst the boilers are still firing, giving a rapid increase in pressure, which lifts the safeties. Looks like OOW has requested stop engines, and hasn't gone astern.

Good point.  See my post above about what apparently happened.

 

In any case, it’s sudden smoke not steam, so not safeties.  But definitely not calm planned engine orders...

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Emergency  stops lift  safeties  that's for sure! Glad the squadron thinghelped.As a ex yottie (HMY) I know scuttles polished a few. Scuttles runs were wardroom rights of passage. Lower deck had the " Zulu warrior "and suchlike. 

Cheers Brian. 

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16 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

In any case, it’s sudden smoke not steam, so not safeties.

My take is there's a lot of both! The steam dissipates quite quickly at low level, the smoke hangs around at the top of shot.

 

17 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

But definitely not calm planned engine orders...

Agreed! I suspect there were quite a few in rapid succession, and a few choice words on the bridge, and in the engine and boiler rooms

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I remember being in the great Australian Bight on H.M.A.S Perth in about 85 or 86 and it was so rough, we had a carrier  Ark Royal a couple of miles away

and could only see her when we reached the crest of the waves....Ikara was a great system the stbd missile assembly room was my action station

                                                                              wing fitter extrodinaire

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1 hour ago, biscuit said:

I remember being in the great Australian Bight on H.M.A.S Perth in about 85 or 86

Gidday, I crossed the Bight in HMAS Perth in June 81, going east. Quite a smooth trip actually. The roughest part was the first night out from Fremantle heading south, before we turned east, destination Sydney. I was a reservist junior sailor on board for the run.

 

I've never heard of a 'scuttle run' before. I can well imagine the personal parameters you described as being required - young, fit and not entirely sober! 😁   Regards, Jeff.

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Apologies if this is a bit of thread hijack, but in answer to those who asked what actually happened (and not the stories that are all over the internet about steering gear failures, incorrect orders etc).

 

It was Sunday 11 September 1988, about 0845 or so.  We were part of STANAVFORLANT and the whole force had deployed to Norway to participate in Exercise Teamwork which was one of the biggest NATO exercises for about 5 years.  I was doing what all good WAFUs should be doing on a Sunday morning, especially after flying a night surface search sortie the night before landing on around 0100, especially when one knows that we had a RAS that morning and both the Captain and XO would be otherwise engaged and not prowling the cabin flat.  I was still racked out.

 

I was somewhat rudely awoken by an enormous bang, the sound of graunching metal and my bedroom starting to heel over quite rapidly to starboard.  My first thought was that we had run aground.  I jumped out of bed and throwing on some flying overalls; the thought crossed my mind "did I have time to get my immersion suit on?" which was hanging in the cabin.  We heeled about another 15 degrees to starboard closely followed by the sound of rushing water beneath me and I decided there wasn't time, so grabbed my aircrew Mk15 lifejacket and headed down to the Flight Deck where the boys were still securing the cab in Fly One having been in the middle of an aircraft move when we first hit.

 

So what happened was this.  it was a standard "fast backdown" RAS approach.  You start about 2-2.5 cables astern of the tanker and offset by about 80 metres and with the engines at half ahead and revolutions or lever (depending upon the type of propulsion) set to match the tanker's speed (usually 12 kts).  When both ships are ready, the receiving ship increases revolutions or lever to 24 kts and as the bridge passes the tanker's stern, bring both engines back to slow ahead.  If the navigator has done his/her job correctly, the receiving ship will have slowed to 12 kts +/- 1 kt by the time she is in the correct position alongside fore and aft.  When ihere, you bring both engines back to half ahead and set lever/revolutions to match the tanker's speed, let it settle for a bit and then you then gently turn in by 1 or 2 degrees to close the distance to 45-50 metres whereupon you fire the gunline and the rig is passed.

 

In PENELOPE's case, everything happened as above, right up to the point that the OOW (who was in fact another WAFU - a Sea king Observer who was on board getting his bridge watchkeeping certificate having just received his transfer to the General List) ordered half ahead.  We had remote throttle levers on the bridge and as the Quartermaster pushed them to half ahead, he inadvertently pushed the starboard one to full ahead.  He realised his mistake immediately and within less than a second had pulled it back to half ahead.  But that was the time that we had our first visit from Mr S*d or Mr Murphy, because the linkage failed at exactly that moment leaving the engineers in the Machinery Control Room (MCR) with a full ahead order on the starboard shaft.  Full ahead (and full astern) in the Royal Navy are emergency orders only and it is implicit to the engineers that they are to provide absolute maximum power without due regard for limits or potential mechanical damage.  So the MCR had full ahead on the outboard shaft and that was what they gave us as we started to turn quite rapidly to port as shown in the video at about 0:12.  The video was filmed by HNlMS Abraham Krijnssen which was in the waiting station ready to take over from HNoMS Trondheim which was alongside the tanker's port side and which executed a near perfect emergency breakaway as the tanker went full astern, albeit one part of the rig was cut loose while still under tension and went crashing back into PRESERVER nearly killing one of the Canadian seamen on board.

 

The OOW immediately applied starboard wheel to correct but our captain (another Lynx aviator - PENELOPE was an aviator heavy ship; there were seven of us in total!), who at this stage had no idea what had happened took the ship back from the OOW and realised that full starboard wheel wasn't going to work so ordered the wheel amidships and full ahead on the port shaft with the intention of powering out ahead of PRESERVER.  This plan might have worked, apart from the fact that at this point, Mr S*d or Mr Murphy, deciding that there wasn't enough tension in the Captain's life, decided that now was the time to lift the safeties on the port shaft which immediately reduced power and effectively killed any chance we may have had  of getting away with it.  Furthermore, the noise of the safety valves lifting meant that no-one on the bridge or bridge wing could hear anything being said or orders given.

 

We struck PRESERVER about half way along the forward superstructure and her starboard anchor acted as a can opener cutting into our engineers' workshop and forward switchboard.  Her ice-strengthened bow ripped off some liferafts, the port 3 inch rocket sponson (though the launcher, which was loaded with live rockets, was left dangling), guardrails (including all of my port side flight deck nets) and a whole raft of other kit.  It also penetrated the 5 inch salt water firemain (which was the rushing water sound I heard from my cabin) which started to spray all over the switchboard causing various electrical systems to shut down.  Apparently there were over 20 small holes and cracks in the boiler room below the waterline.

 

One of the good things to come out of it was the decision by the XO (also a former Lynx pilot) to not call the ship to emergency stations until after we had steadied up on the other side of PRESERVER.  The Board of Inquiry (BOI) found that this almost certainly saved lives as it minimised the number of people moving about the ship while we were wrapped around the bow.  Amazingly, there was only one casualty.  I understand that the Quartermaster, who was so shocked by the fact that he thought it was his fault, became mute and was completely unable to speak as a result the trauma that he had experienced, but after about 20 days or so the docs helped him to overcome this and he made a full recovery.

 

The BOI exonerated all personnel involved acknowledging that it was simply a mechanical breakdown that happened at the worst possible time.  The bill for PENELOPE's repairs ran into several 10s of millions.  The joke going around onboard afterwards was that it would have been cheaper to get Everest Double Glazing on board to put a set of patio doors into the engineers' workshop!  Those members of the ship's company who stayed on board for the repairs had about 6 months living ashore in hotels in Southampton on full expenses.

 

All in all that was not a good STANAVFORLANT deployment.  Only about 4 weeks before this incident, we had all been working up at Portland when during a set of machinery breakdown drills, one of our young Artificers inadvertently opened the wrong valve which contaminated the boiler feed water with oil.  Result - 3 weeks alongside in Portland having our boilers cleaned while the rest of the force headed off to the Baltic for Exercise BALTOPS.   Great, I thought, 3 weeks at home since at the time I only lived a few miles from Portland, but oh no, the Captain thought it would be good for the pilot and me to forward deploy to the Abraham Krijnssen which had capacity for two Lynx but only carried one.

 

In the immediate aftermath of the collision, the Belgian frigate Westhinder was assigned to act as our man overboard escort because with holes all down our port side, we couldn't exactly manoeuvre in a hurry and were missing most of the guardrails down that side as well.  She was about half a mile astern of us and offset to port by about 300 yards closer inshore when she struck an allegedly uncharted rock.  And then a couple of weeks later the Task Group flagship, USS Hayler, collided with a German tanker, FGS Rhon causing extensive damage to her foc's'le.  

 

There were two amusing anecdotes that came from this unfortunate day though.

 

We were lucky that as part of Exercise Teamwork, the US Navy had chosen to deploy a forward battle repair ship, the USS Puget Sound, which had 300 mainly reservist shipwrights on board all getting their 2 week's annual sea training.  Instead of practising on bits of made up damage, they now had a real ship to weld up so that we could get back to Blighty under our own steam.  I flew our Marine Engineering Officer (MEO) across to the Puget Sound that Sunday night so that he could brief the engineers there in advance of what to expect when they arrived the following day.  While he was away briefing them, my pilot and I were sat in Puget Sound's wardroom drinking coffee when their Supply Officer came in and asked if there was anything else we needed.  There was a standing joke in PENELOPE about not having any ice cream and so I quipped that some ice cream would be nice thinking we might be able to buy a box or two of Cornettos to take back for the Flight.  When we got back to the cab on the flight deck I'm not sure how the MEO squeezed into the back alongside about 200 two-litre tubs of various flavoured ice cream!

 

Four years later I was attending a course at HMS DRYAD to prepare me for my command exams and in the collisions and groundings part of the Shiphandling refresher, they asked if anyone had been on board PENELOPE at the time of the PRESERVER crash.  I of course put up my hand and we went through what happened in detail.  The next shot section was introduced thus: "Was anyone here onboard HMS BRAVE when she collided with RFA BAYLEAF last year?"  Again, but this time more gingerly, I had to put my hand up.  I was starting to think that I was a Jonah!  That's another story in its own right and if someone reminds me I might tell it when I finally get around to building the WEM resin BRAVE, suffice to say when it happened i was actually about 50 nm away on surface search when my AC called on the radio, "328 this is BRAVE.  You can't come back just yet.  Er, the flight deck is black.  Um, we got a bit close during the RAS.  Do you know anyone who does a good line in Flight Deck nets?"

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Little time at the bench this weekend - but Andrew, you are officially a bad influence: Exhibit A one x ridiculously small Glide Path Indicator

50181395381_a6d83438ed_b.jpg

 

To be honest, I am a) awaiting a paint delivery for Ark & b) trying to summon up the mojo to remask in order to fix Dido’s flight deck & quarter deck following the Exploding Vallejo Fiasco (a long lost Mothers of Invention album, I believe). 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Neither Dido or Ark Royal has been forgotten or abandoned - but my job is running a school, so I am bonkers busy at the moment.  Normal modelling service will, I hope, resume soon.

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On 02/08/2020 at 19:57, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Little time at the bench this weekend - but Andrew, you are officially a bad influence: Exhibit A one x ridiculously small Glide Path Indicator

50181395381_a6d83438ed_b.jpg

 

I thought I'd be looking down at amber, green and red LEDs in there.😁

 

I'll get m'coat...

 

Seriously that looks excellent. 👍

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  • 5 months later...

I know older post but loved reading this thread. I served on Dido later in her life when she was HMNZS Southland, as well as the gun Leander’s HMNZS Waikato and HMNZS Canterbury. Plan is to building them all, just trying to decide what scale ( did do a 1/700 airfix  kit a few years ago but was really too small for me to get the level of detail and individual ship customisation I wanted. Had been looking at these kits as potential bases or scratching something larger.

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