This brings back some memories of a day spent sailing with my granddad in his tiny boat around HMS Eagle, after she was laid up in the Hamoaze, at some point in the late 1970's. It was a cold, grey day and the enormous hulk of the aircraft carrier scared the pants of me, especially when we sailed right under the bows and the stern.
I'm still mildly mentally scarred by the experience and it's something that I haven't forgotten over forty years later. Anyway, enough of my psychological problems, here's some absolutely cracking footage of HMS Eagle in action, which is ironic as they'll have to learn to do this sort of thing all over again now, albeit without the catapults.
Incidentally, after seeing this I've just ordered some 1/600th Tumbling Dice Phantoms as an add on to my 1960's Fleet Air Arm lead pile. I'm not a big fan of the Phantom, preferring the subtle design of the Buccaneer, Sea Vixen and Scimitar, but it isn't half impressive when you see it melting the deck of an aircraft carrier with it's afterburners
(which is why they had to fix a steel plate to the deck and spray water all over the place instead)
(which is why they had to fix a steel plate to the deck and spray water all over the place instead)
That's interesting aboutthe effect that a massive ship had on you. I love pictures of warships, reading about them, seeing them on film...but get me within a mile of a big ship....no way! A little incident in my teen years of going under the bows of small ship made big ships into monsters for me! Sadly Cruises or dock visits are not on my holiday list!
ReplyDeleteGlad to know it's not just me!
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