JOHN SANDERSON
BRANCH PRESIDENT
Contact John by Email
Served in Boats 1970 - 1995
Rorqual : Onyx : Acheron : Oberon : Oracle
LISTED BELOW ARE LOAN DRAFTS ONLY
| John's Naval career | |||
| Date | Ship | Rate | |
| 15/3/60 | Ganges | JRO | |
| 8/6/61 | Mercury | ||
| 31/8/61 | Grafton | ||
| 6/3/62 | Mercury | RO3 | |
| 27/9/62 | Kranji Wireless Station Singapore | RO2 | |
| 25/4/64 | Kirkliston | ||
| 31/7/64 | Brinton | RO1 | |
| 13/5/65 | FO Medway Staff | ||
| 7/3/66 | Forth SM7 Singapore | LRO | |
| 28/11/67 | Mercury (RS Course) | ||
| 21/6/68 | Royal Arthur POLC | ||
| 2/8/68 | Ganges (Flintham) | RS | |
| 6/10/69 | Ark Royal | ||
| 11/5/70 | Dolphin Subquota | RS(SM) | |
| 21/7/70 | Neptune (SM10 S/Crew) (Mk 24 Team) | ||
| 21/10/71 | Rorqual | ||
| 18/11/74 | Mercury | CRS(SM) | |
| 23/5/77 | Dolphin (CRS(SM)SM9 Course) | ||
| 22/8/77 | Onyx | ||
| 22/4/80 | Mercury | ||
| 1/9/81 | Neptune(OIC Commcen) | FCRS(SM) | |
| 2/8/83 | Mercury(New Entry Divisional Officer) | WO(RS)(SM) | |
| 2/12/85 | Dolphin SM1 | SCO/OIC Commcen | |
| 10/10/88 | Warrior FOSM | A/SWOC | |
| 7/7/92 | Dolphin SM1 | SCO/OIC Commcen | |
| 4/3/95 | Pensioned | ||
John's Naval career as told by him:
I joined the Navy in March 1960 at just 15 years and two months, this meant a long time before I became an
Ordinary
rate with the perks of extra pay and all night leave!!
Grafton was Portland Squadron, a fairly routine way of life but hard work for the
Junior
members of the branch, plenty of scrubbing out and polishing
Bright work
. In Oct 61 we went to the assistance of a ship following a collision in fog off the Isle of Wight. We escorted her back to Portland and she made her own way to a buoy, sometime later I received £5 14s salvage money quite a bit of cash in those days!!
The adverts for the RN used to say
He’s only 17 and he is in the far east
, I was and thoroughly enjoying my time at Kranji Wireless. I really
Grew up
in Singapore. During the dockyard strike in ‘63 I was driving
Pussers busses
, made a great change from
48 about
watch keeping in the Commcen.
Kirkliston was a great shock, I was a
Sparker
doing
Sailors and stokers things
was not in my brief. Standing on the gangway as Quartermaster, piping the
Side
and colours, taking generator readings and if necessary starting the things up and putting them on the
Board
!! To add insult to injury I was even doing the
Buntins
job as drafty had drafted two sparkers instead of one of each. However, I soon came to quite like
Doing other peoples jobs
, peeling a bucket of spuds during the middle watch on the gangway not included in this, but drafty was to rectify the situation and I was soon off to Guzz to join Brinton. Not before Kirkliston managed to hit the jetty wall in Portland at about 8 knots following a gearbox failure on the port engine.
Brinton was night flying guard boat for Culdrose Mon through Thurs, during the day we were
Odd job boat
: taking Cadets out from Dartmouth, burials at sea and sometimes taking Wrens to sea from Culdrose, it was always
Roughers
Some of us also managed to get a
Front seat
flight in a helicopter, which was exciting.
Quite sad to leave Brinton but Chatham was closer to home(Lowestoft).
Almost 10 months on L and RA as one of 4 Sparkers doing 48 on in the Commcen in the dockyard, 48 off packing bananas for Fyffe’s at Chatham railway station!! What a life, plenty of money and very little to do with the navy. All four of us had a bed-sit each in the same house in Oak Road Chatham, owned by an ex matelot, no problems there then.
Forth was a shock to the system getting back into the real world again but at least it was off to Singapore again! Once we got to Singapore and became part of the squadron I got to know the crew of the boats. I soon realised that the submariners way of life was very similar in some respects to the minesweeper routine and I realised that was what I wanted, however, I wanted to get my RS course finished first as I knew from talking to the killicks off the boats that it could be difficult to get spared for an advancement course. Singapore was as good as it was the first time round and I enjoyed it.
Back in Mercury for RS course was hard work but worth it and Royal Arthur following was a necessary evil out of the way.
When I was drafted to Ganges, still closer to Lowestoft, and my D.O. Ted Briggs, of the Hood fame, asked me if I wouldn’t mind going on Flintham instead of taking a class of trainees, what could I say! We certainly saw some places on that boat: Norwich, Basle(Switzerland), York (city centre), Ramsgate(The Coxn lived there) and our regular trips to Schevenegen (Holland) about once a month to get the
Duty Free’s
in.
Another shock! Flintham to Ark Royal. I soon started enquiring about volunteering for Submarines and was welcomed with open arms, however, doing the Polaris Basic Course was not really what I wanted, diesel boats were my goal. My D.O. on the Ark would not sign my request for boats until I had been on one so I went round to SM2’s Staff Office and got my self a week on Acheron.
Duly completing the
Bomber
course I was drafted to Neptune as SM10 Spare Crew and then loaned to the Mk24 team to organise their communications, I spent a lot of time on the four TRV’s from Greenock, ex Ham class minesweepers, almost home from home! During this time I was also drafted back to Acheron for a couple of months as the RS had gone sick, it was not all bad we had a Squadron Training Period in Gib for a month.
Knowing that I, as an RS, would not get a boat, the
Bombers
were a CRS billet, I pestered drafty and got a draft to Rorqual, via another
Basic
course in Dolphin.
Over the next ten years I really became a Submariner, Rorqual, a bit of Instructor time in Mercury, where I
Picked up my buttons
, then Onyx. During the early time on Onyx, in refit, I had a couple of three month loans to Oracle and Oberon respectively. During the period 74 - 79 the
ROSM
project was in force; all ROs RPs and EW ratings were cross trained to do each others jobs, it
was a disastrous project that caused many good ratings to leave the service.
The only thing I got out of it was the training gave me the ability to do Officer of the Watch at sea, made a change from POOW on the
Maps
and I got my Bridge Watch keeping Certificate out of it. I enjoyed my OOW time on the surface, especially during a Med deployment, not so good off the Clyde in a
Hooley
.
I left Onyx in 80 that was my last sea draft, the only time I would go to sea again would be as a
Sea Rider
on the Squadron boats as the Squadron Comms Officer.
Faslane Commcen was my
Punishment
, two years of commuting and the only place one could wear out a Burberry! Being a D.O. for so many staff kept me very busy, thankfully I had a couple of very good Chief Wrens who would manage my Divisional Bring Up system so that I did not miss any divisional milestones for the staff.
My second appointment, Mercury, was much better although still a D.O. I only had the trainees for their 10 week Pt2 training and I did not have to
Write them up
at the end of it. During this time I also had the privilege of being Mess President of the Signal School, the only Submariner to have done so to this day.
After two enjoyable years it was back to the Submarine world again. The Squadron job was both busy and enjoyable, plenty of sea riding, not many
Jollys
though, always seemed to get Portland running for my week on the boats. The annual
Jolly Roger
exercises were interesting one in Gibraltar and one in Cartagena. The Upholder Class boats were always
Just over the horizon
but they never arrived during my first time in SM1.
The almost four years I spent on FOSM staff was probably the best from the job satisfaction point of view, my part of the responsibility for both current operational aspects of the Submarine Flotilla and for future communications projects meant lots of long days and mountains of paperwork. It had its rewards though I had many and various trips around the country and abroad representing the Flotilla.
My last job was probably the saddest in that I saw the paying off of the last Oberon Class boats, the move of the Upholders to Plymouth and the closure of SM1. One highlight of this last appointment was the visit of the Russian SSK Slavjanka to Dolphin, coming face to face with our
Perceived
cold war enemies was a very moving experience for all of us. By 1995, the Signal School Mercury had shut and moved to Collingwood, morse code was no longer taught and the last diesel boat had gone from Dolphin, time for me to go to!