Not sure if I told this story before my apologies if did.?? Prior to sailing for Korea on the anti submarine frigate HMAS Murchison we were doing gunnery exercises off the New South Wales coast. Our Captain always insisted we should have some knowledge of the other man's job and so we used to practice on the order "Change Round" swopping positions on the six 4.5 twin inch and eight 40mm Bofor guns that we carried. On this particular day I found myself as one of the two loaders on the twin 4.5inch guns. We were doing rapid broadsides and I had picked up a live shell from the rack behind the gun turned round when the guns had fired but found the one I was loading had not fired so there was still a live shell in the barrel.as the guns were normally fired from the Director Control Tower the Captain of the gun should have yelled "STILL" NOBODY MOVE, untill the gun was cleared by hitting the local firing switch, however the new Captain of the gun panicked and immediatley hit the local firing switch the gun fired and as I was directly behind the barrel with the live shell in my arms I was hit by the empty shell cylinder coming out which knocked me on my ass with still the live shell in my arms, just plain lucky the empty cylinder hadn't hit the fuse on the live shell I was carrying or I would have departed this earth in little pieces, one of the gun crew took the live shell off me and dropped it over the side I was so mad I could have thrown the Captain of the gun after it,despite his apologies, however I soon cooled down but was glad to see the end of the exercise. Mauri

Mauri That's one scarey story and thankfully to be alive to share it with us sometimes I think you have more lives than a cat ! A couple of nights ago the 12th as a matter of fact I had the TV to myself and I had at some early date recorded the German film "Das Boat" you would probably be aware of it so I settled down with drop of Jameson and thoroughly enjoyed and wondered had you ever had any experiences with Subs or Submariners many years ago I worked with two lads younger than myself who both served in Submarines alas none of them lived long enough to enjoy there pensions as they both died quite young after leaving the navy ,Once again Mauri thanks for sharing your experiences with us Regards to yourself and Joy Regards Ted

Ted, At eighteen years old and in the Royal Navy Barracks in Devonport after leaving my first ship. I volunterred for Submarines, however it was required that you had to have what we called a Non Substanive Rate in other words qualified in Asdic,radar,Gunnery or Torpedo operation, at that time I had neither and two years later when I had I transferred to the Royal Australian Navy.
The Royal navy had three submarines attached to the Australian Navy stationed in Sydney though years later the Australian Navy got their own submarines. When the Korean war finished we were exercising with an American submarine off Japan and one day four of us swopped places with four Americans off the submarine, at the time I was in a class being prepared to take an exam for promotion, but when I saw how the Americans were living on the submarine compared to the way we were living on a surface ship when we returned to our own ship I told them to shove the promotion class you know where as all I wanted was out. Needless to say the powers that be were not too happy with me. Mauri

another 2 for the note book Mauri

Thanks Mauri You really were your own man and the more I get to know you the more convinced I am that your life should have been catalogued for with out a doubt you really crammed a hell of a lot in your existence and what a life ! with its few negatives but a mostly positive one with the experiences you kindly shared with us ! Thanks again on behalf of the rest of us who love your reminisces there surly cant be many left ? but we live in hope Regards Ted

Mauri, that was a close one all right. Great story. You've had more adventures in your lifetime than the rest of us put together. You need never read a book, just recall your experiences.

You should be in your bed!!!!!!

LR, couldn't get to sleep last night. I had restless legs which is a real pain. I lay as long as I could bear and finally decided to get up. Shouldn't have come on to the computer at that time but, as you can see, I did. Anyhow, MYOB.