Posted by K Thomson on July 06, 2007 at 00:46:15 from 216.232.2.178 user kthomson.
In Reply to: Seamanship in the Royal Navy posted by Geraint Lewis on July 05, 2007 at 16:33:03:
A good book is A Sailor's Odyssey ABC's autobiography. There are a few parallels with AR. ABC's father was a medical professor in Ireland. As a boy he was good at mathematics and Euclid but to quote him " could not abide Latin, French and English." During his time in HMS Britania he enjoyed sailing and received a First Class in Seamanship. After WWI his ship was supposed to go to the China station but a reallocation of naval assets prevented this. He commanded a destroyer in the Baltic after WWI and was in Libau, Windau, and Reval. ABC was never a specialist but remained a "Salt Horse" a term used to refer to a naval officer that did not specialize in a field such as gunnery or communications. He once applied for the command of Shotley but was unsuccessful. He also received an LLD from Leeds University.