NAVY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 2007 27
LETTERS to the editor should letters, we cannot publish all of your
always be accompanied by the correspondence in Navy News.
correspondent’s name and We look particularly for corre-
address, not necessarily for spondence which stimulates
publication. debate, makes us laugh or raises
E-mail correspondents are important issues.
also requested to provide Please try to keep your
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Letters cannot be possible – our space is
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Given the impres- the right to edit your
sive volume of submissions.
● HMS Brave Swordsman, photographed in 1963 – was 40 knots one of the Royal Navy’s fastest run
agrounds?
Life in the fast lane
FURTHER to Michael Padginton’s letter had nowhere to go after what was really an experi-
requesting details of Brave Borderer break-
ment in MTB design.
ing her back (August) my photo shows the
Fast? The world’s fastest warship. Functional? Not
Brave Swordsman with crew of 1963, shortly
really. A great draft? Beyond question.
before she ran aground off the Barrow Sands
Best memory? Apart from being the captain of the
rifle team that won the FPBS cup against the other
at the mouth of the Thames estuary.
NATO nations at Kiel, it was the sight of all these
We were doing 40 knots (world’s fastest run
nations leaving harbour at full speed in their MTBs,
aground?) which was the maximum cruising power.
before we roared past them full throttle up, with the
The top speed was 52 knots, rarely used except for
appropriate sign given.
visiting dignitaries.
Compared to the other NATO MTBs, we did rule
At first we blamed the unreliable Decca Navigator
the seas.
system but in this case the weather was clear and we
– Frank Hagan, Northumberland
were out of channel. Had it been anything other than
sand, we would, thanks for the fuel mixture, have
gone up like a fireball.
Catch that plane
We felt a bit ashamed until the tug boat captain
told us that during WW2 whilst he was in command
MY father, who died recently, served mainly on carri-
of six MTBs he gave the order to turn to starboard
ers, joining the Fleet Air Arm in its infancy.
and they all ended up high and dry on the same
He often told a story about the procedure to be fol-
sands!
lowed when a plane was landing on deck, which had
Faster than the Borderer (always disputed but
no hook to catch the arresting cables.
factually proven) at full throttle she was something to
The general idea was: “As soon as the plane
experience at the helm.
touches down, we all rush out and jump on it. That
These FPBs were a strange format, fast, but the
should stop it.”
range was only 500 miles, anti-sub detection was
Most people would take that story with a pinch of
dismal, but as fishery protection they were just the
salt, but while looking through his photograph album
job for intercepts.
I found a picture of the actual event.
Maximum time served on one was a year, due to
– Roy Daine (address supplied)
the supposed stress on the body of the constant jar-
ring at high speed. ...In the article ‘Home of the AV8ers’, you state that
The crew’s quarters were never used at speed the MV-22 is the world’s fi rst tilt rotor aircraft.
unless you belted yourself in your bunk, due to the I remember being at the Farnborough Air Show
G-force experienced as the bow lifted. about 40 years ago and watching the Fairey Roto
Torpedo runs were quite successful, held in a Dyne take off horizontally and then fly forwards
Norwegian fjord there was the bonus of an enormous using the same type of engines.
amount of fish being retrieved after the warhead I believed it had been intended to be used as a
exploded. small passenger aircraft but nothing came of it.
I really enjoyed my time on her, but I think they – G A Copson, Hornchurch, Essex
SSept letters.indd 2ept letters.indd 2 221/8/07 13:29:371/8/07 13:29:37
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