Life in a Blue Suit. Chapter 1
Jonny Jolliffe stood looking at his new ship, he had now been in the Royal Navy for 18 months, joining as a boy sailor at 15, then six months at gunnery school, now at 17 he was ready to go to sea. this ship was a Battle Class Destroyer which had been modified for the modern navy of the 1960s, she had two 4.5 inch gun turrets on the bows, and a missile launcher on a deckhouse aft. On the top of her new very large mast was something that looked like a large key, Jonny later found out that this was a radar aerial for long range aircraft, but as he was a gunnery rate he did not need to worry about that side of the ship.
His mess was way up in the bows of the ship where with 29 others he would live, sleep and eat, 15 one side and 15 on the other side, port and starboard, red and green, and with one ladder to get in and out of the mess, it seemed very over crowed.
With his kit stowed in his personal locker and his new hammock stowed in the hammock netting, Jonny decided to get to know his ship, so for an hour he walked trying to remember what he was seeing, the captain's cabin, the wardroom, the sickbay and the hatches down to the boiler and engine rooms and most important of all, the galley or kitchen.
Back in his mess the leading hand who was in charge of the mess wanted to know what was in the canvass bag he had left on the table, and if he didn't stow it away, he would do the job for him, over the ship's side and into the water. Jonny opened the bag, and from it produced an electric keyboard, plugging it into the main supply and switching it on he sat at one of the mess stools and with the keyboard on the table, he began to play. The leading hand told Jonny to pack that racket in, but the rest of the lads in the mess told the leading hand to back off and told Jonny to keep playing. As he finished one tune and started a new one Jonny suddenly felt pain on the back of his right hand. "When I tell you to stop that row, you stop, you understand, now pack it in, and stow that cat box". Jonny stood up, the leading hand had a bamboo cane in his hand, Jonny was rubbing his hand, he looked at the leading hand, their eyes locked, the leading hand raised the cane above his head to strike again, but as he raised it Jonny grabbed for it and held it himself in his own hand, still with his eyes looking at the leading hand, Jonny said in a very quiet voice. "Hooky, if you ever touch me again with this cane". he waved it in the air. "You will be off this ship so fast, your feet won't touch the ground, I also see you have three stripes, that means you have already done 12 years, can you afford to lose your naval pension, because if you touch me again, that is what will happen. Oh, and if I find my keyboard is missing, I like to practice every day, I will personally hold you responsible. I have people in the music industry who will see you rot in a prison cell. Now let me do my job onboard this ship and enjoy my music". Jonny then handed the cane back to the leading hand who like an idiot went to raise it again and strike Jonny, but Jonny shook his head as if to say strike me, and I will strike you tenfold. The leading hand slowly lowered his arm and sat on one of the stools.
Jonny unplugged the keyboard and put it back into its canvass bag, then he made his way out of the mess looking for the Master at Arms, he found him on the gangway talking to an officer. "What do you want lad". the master said. Jonny showed the master the keyboard. "Sorry to bother you master, but I need to keep this in a safe place, the leading hand of my mess refuses to allow me to keep in the mess, says there is no room for musical instruments". "Can you play this properly". the officer asked. "Yes sir, I have been playing the piano since I was 4, my mother wanted me to be in a band, even have my own band one day, but I wanted to see a bit of the world, so decided to join up, the piano is now a sort of hobby, that I do enjoy, I practise as often as I can after work, and when I was at training school and at the gunnery school, most of the guys enjoyed the sort of music I tend to play. "Right Jolliffe, as an Ordinary seaman, your main job on this ship during the day, will be in charge of the bathrooms in the bows of the ship, you will also be looking after the toilets or heads, you will find a couple of large lockers to keep all your cleaning gear in, I think you may find that one of those lockers will house your keyboard, and if you go to the store's office, they will give you a lock for the door". Jonny did as he was told, and found that one of the lockers was big enough to keep the keyboard in safe and secure, and over the next few days, he organised his cleaning gear for the job in hand.
H.M.S. Barrosa sailed from Plymouth in March, she did sea trials for two weeks, then after a weekends leave for the port watch, she stored ship, took on fuel and headed for Portland where she did a six week work up training period, and the ship did everything, gunnery shoots for surface and air targets, fire drills sinking drills and long nights without sleep, everything that the Flag Officer and his staff could throw at the ship, they did, they even told the crew that they had lost all power and had to get back to Portland anyway they could, so the ship, using the canvass awnings rigged two sails and sailed back into harbour, very slow, but they did it, and at the end of the six weeks they were ready to go to sea and join the rest of the fleet. Back in Plymouth the starboard watch was given the weekend off, and Jonny who had no one to really go home to decided to stay on board, taking his keyboard onto the upper deck he plugged the keyboard into the mains and for a few hours sat and played for those left on board, they loved the music that Jonny was producing and some of the lads even danced with each other, then Jonny started to play some tunes that the lads recognised and they began to sing, and for an hour or two on a warm Sunday afternoon those in the port watch were almost happy not to be off the ship.
Barrosa sailed from Plymouth on a windy Wednesday morning, the crew had been told that their next stop would be Gibraltar, then Malta and then Aden, after that it was to be Singapore. Two days out of Plymouth, the ship was in a force 8, and with the bows going under the wave every other wave, it was a little hairy, but it only lasted for 24 hours, after which the sun came out, the sea became calm and life at sea seemed good again. Jonny did his job in the bathrooms very well, whenever there were captains rounds, he found very little wrong, and the whole area was clean and smelt of Dettol, and Jonny also found out, that if a sailor was given something to read while doing his you know what, he tended to get it over a lot quicker, so he kept a small stash of books and magazines in one of the lockers and every time someone asked for reading material, Jonny would supply it, even to the extent, that if a guy was reading a book, he would come back almost daily and carry on reading the same book, most of the books were cowboy books, T.J.Edson which for some reason most British sailors seemed to enjoy. there were a few of the more raunchier books available, let's face it, you cannot expect sailors to remain sexually wanting, so if a sailor needs to relieve that pent up emotion, then, let him go ahead, no one is trying to stop him.
In Gibraltar Jonny went ashore, but as he found out, it was all bars and little else, so after a couple of hours he made his way back to the ship, got out his keyboard and outside the paint shop had an hours practice, he did get a bit of an audience and again he was asked to play something they could sing to, it was then, he got the idea of starting a singing group, there were around 10 or 12 guys who could really sing well, and he asked them if they would like to work with him, and they agreed.
By the time the ship arrived in Malta Jonny and his little group were ready, the ship was moored to a buoy in Sliema creek one on the bows and one on the stern, so that the ship now under floodlight at night could be seen by anyone walking passed, the electrical department fixed the group up with a couple of mikes and a speaker so that when they sang, it would travel and those on the shore could hear. At 8 pm on the Friday night everything was ready, under the ship's floodlights Jonny started to play and his singing group started to sing, within a few minutes people were on the waterfront listening to the sound of music and song coming from the ship, for a whole hour Jonny and his lads gave the locals a show they would remember all there lives. On the Sunday, there was a wardroom party, long dresses for the ladies and bow ties for the gentlemen, and with the wardroom table removed, there was room to dance the night away, and with Jonny and his group singing, most of the people at the party didn't want it to end.
Only one man on the ship hated Jonny and his music, and he was out for revenge, he was not having some ordinary seaman make a fool out of him, and plans were going round in his head to put a stop to all of this as he said, sucking up to the captain. He had a plan, but he would have to wait until they got to Singapore, until then, he would let young Jolliffe have his enjoyment, but the rope was beginning to tighten and soon Jolliffe would be gasping for breath.
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