Originally, our stop in Portsmouth, England was only a short anchoring in the bay, but it turned into an official port visit.  It was actually two weekends ago that we pulled into Portsmouth, and since then we have pulled into Gothenburg, Sweden, which I will write about shortly.

We anchored just outside of Portsmouth, England a week ago Sunday in the afternoon.  It was originally just a short stop for diplomatic reasons, but while there it came to the attention of the Chain of Command that a cable that lifts our security boats out of the water was in need of some repair.  We use our Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIB) for almost everything.  We use them whenever we need to recover people that have fallen overboard. (No, that hasn’t ever happened, but it could theoretically happen as part of a man-overboard drill.)  Or we will use them for security boats whenever we pull into a port, and we feel the need to increase the security of the ship.  We will put the RHIB boats in the water to create a perimeter to keep small craft away.  We also will use them for our boarding teams.  If we ever find it necessary to send a boarding team to a suspicious ship, we will deploy a RHIB with a boarding party.  Thus they can be a pretty significant portion of the ship’s mission.

It is a big enough deal that we couldn’t proceed without getting it repaired, so we pulled into Portsmouth to get the impromptu repairs done.  Originally, the Captain wasn’t going to let anyone go on liberty in Portsmouth, but our Command Master Chief was able to negotiate some liberty for us.  The deal was that the Captain would let us go on liberty, it we would do extensive topside preservation the following day.  Translation:  You get liberty if you paint a lot of stuff the next day.  I had some maintenance scheduled that required repainting of certain motors that tilt some of the antennas that I work on, so that didn’t bother me too much.

So the day that we pulled in, I got to go on liberty in Portsmouth for an afternoon.  I’d been to Portsmouth on our last deployment, so I was already a little familiar with what to expect there.  Our only goal was to get some food, and maybe take a few pictures of anything worth seeing.  It turned out that a lot of places were closed by the time we got on liberty, so we couldn’t really do any shopping.  We found a decent restaurant that wasn’t very crowded.  The most unique thing about this restaurant was that you simply found a table, and once you figured out what you wanted to order, you go up to a counter where they take your order and give you a number to put on the table.  Then you return to your seat and wait for your food.  It was the same with the drink counter, if you wanted to order something to drink, just go up to the counter and buy it.  No waiting for the waiter/waitress to bring you your drinks.  The only other purpose for the waiter/waitress was to clear the empty glasses and plates off the table.  One last advantage:  the check is already paid individually by each person at the time of ordering.  The food that I ate there was good.  I don’t remember the exact name for what I ordered, but the primary item of focus on the plate was shaped like a piece of pie, but had meat on the inside and a lot of gravy.  It was very edible.  The vegetables on the plate looked suspiciously freeze-dried, but the amount of gravy made up for it.

The rest of the evening we walked around and observed whatever scenery we could in the fading light.  During our journey to the restaurant we passed an old wooden ship that has been turned into a museum.  It wasn’t open for a tour, but it looked really impressive from the outside.  There must have been over a hundred cannons sticking out of the sides, and the dizzying web of lines that stretched up to the 3 different masts looked like they could be a nightmare to work with.  I’m amazed that such creations could be controlled very easily.  The men that sailed on those ships were far different and far more courageous than today’s navy.

The following day the paint flew, the grinders ground, and the needle guns…errr….needled.  The weather wasn’t ideal for painting, and it even began to sprinkle a little in the afternoon, but that didn’t stop us.  We still got a lot of the ship repainted.  Sometimes I wonder which is the higher priority, making the ship look good or making the ship work well.  I was proud of how my antenna motors looked after the scrubbing and painting that I did to them.

That night we got underway at a bright and early 5am.  The crew was very tired after that night, but that wasn’t the best part.  The night after that we also did an underway replenishment at 2am.  Ummm…..yeah…..nobody did any work the following day.  Everyone was exhausted, only the minimal number of watches were manned, and not many people could be found roving the main deck.

Here’s a bit of Naval history that’s been floating around email inboxes for a long time.  It may be incorrect, but it’s pretty funny and gives you an idea of what the old navy used  to be like:

The U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators.

However, let it be noted that according to her log, "On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping."

Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.  Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.  On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchantmen, salvaging only the rum aboard each.  By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn.

Then she headed home.

The U.S.S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February, 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky and 38,600 gallons of stagnant water.

GO NAVY!