What happenes today

[Mike]

Do nods still have to:

Have to sign an Attestation paper?

Do they still get the Queens shilling?

Do nods have Kit Musters and is each item the size of a the Globe and
Buster?

Do they still get parade boots that have orange peeled toe caps and spoon their boost to get a flat surface on which to work a polish in?

Do they still get green webbing to blacken with boot polish?

Do they still have Buckle brasses and a Locket Union?
Do they Blanco white webbing?

Is there still Sea training done at Whale island?

Are there still Royal Marine Detachments

That’s all

Aye
Mike

[Skiffle]

Do nods still have to:

Have to sign an Attestation paper? Yes, they do still have to

Do they still get the Queens shilling? Not as far as i'm aware, wasn't that just for old colonial days when a ships crew/ army were bought???

Do nods have Kit Musters and is each item the size of a the Globe and
Buster? Afraid so, still done to the size of an A4 page

Do they still get parade boots that have orange peeled toe caps and spoon their boost to get a flat surface on which to work a polish in? Yep, get a super soft insole as well now

Do they still get green webbing to blacken with boot polish? Christ Mike, when did you enlist. Thought that was only done by powder monkeys in the armada

Do they still have Buckle brasses and a Locket Union? Yes

Do they Blanco white webbing? It's mostly a white plastic now so only needs touching up

Is there still Sea training done at Whale island? Don't know, only know recruits are done at Poole and Instow

Are there still Royal Marine Detachments? NP8901 still exists (as far as i'm aware and there is still a unit at Diego Garcia

That’s all

Aye
Mike

[Mike]

Thanks Skiff,

As for..... when did I join and the blacking of Khaki webbing...It was certainly done by us Junior Nods back in 63 and I hazard a guess until the Depot closed down.......

We also received a bright shiney new shilling when we signed on.... shame I never saved mine...I think It was spent along with my first paypacket all of 10s/6p, on Dhoby dust, Shaving soap, brush and razor, soap and tooth paste, the rest was placed into the manditory POSB (Post Office Savings Bank) leaving bloody near Nawt for the rest of the week or was it a fortnight?

Anyone else have Khaki webbing to boot polish and a POSB account?

So apart from the bigger ships with landing craft there are no longer ships booties.....? Shame

Aye
Mike

[got1]

They gave us a 37 patteren belt wich you had to blanco, they then changed it too scrubbed white, they then brought in ox bood polish to make it look maroon, they then brought a maroon paint which was a type of wax which we had to buy from the PRI.
Can't remember what happened next. apart from changing to No 2s, cloth belt, but they found something else for us. Oh the next thing I remember was the emmmmm, sorry.

[Delboy]

[quote]Anyone else have Khaki webbing to boot polish and a POSB account?

I was a couple of squad's in front of you Mike, J14. I don't remember the shiny bob bit, but I do remember blacking the webbing and POSB as well as polishing brass button's.

It seem's when we were paid in the drill shed, everybody was waiting outside for a handout.

Del

[Sticky Blue]

Do they still get the Queens shilling? No... and I feel seen off that I never got one in 1980!

Do they still have Buckle brasses and a Locket Union? Yes but the brasses will soon be stay brite, NOT brass.

Is there still Sea training done at Whale island? No, training for HMS Endurance ship's detatchment is done at Poole. They do Firefighting and sea survival training at Whale Island

[Pilgrim Norway]

Oh Yes Mike -

We (654 in '56) while at the Depot had the belts blancoed first, green,
then polished with boot polish to a shing black....

Had also the Queens shilling - which I suppose was intended to buy a pint.
Pint of mild or bitter in the Star and Garter cost exactly a bob.....

My POSB account is probably still alive in some dark alcove..... must be
a fortune in there now with all the interest......

Now then - Did JR accept the Kings shilling - or the Queens (Victoria that is) ?



'Aye

[owdun]

All webbing was green, blanco was khaki green No3, how sad that I remember that.Sea Service kept that colour whilst Commando had to scrub it clean,and then blacken it, nice.

Kings shilling,yes.

Attestation ,yes.

POSB no, but a five bob allotment was made to your mother..

Once did 14 days in Stanley prison, for thumping a Red Cap outside the China fleet club. The Staffs took great delight in me scrubbing my webbing back to green, and the next day back to black,sadistic bastards, but I had the finest set of webbing in the Brigade when I got Out.


Owdun.

[JR]

The King's Shilling...........

Officially the practice of The King's Shilling in the Beer Tankard ended in 1879,Taking the King's Shilling was like the hand shake before an official contract.
The practice did continue into the late 40's and into the 50's but I cannot vouch for later.It was common saying 'Oh He's taken the King's Shilling meaning He's Joined the forces.
In the days when Frank,(Owdun) and myself joined and swore allegiance to King George V1 His Heirs and succesors in the April of 1947 a brand new Shilling piece was pressed into the palm of the hand to seal the bargain.No short term engagements 12 years was the period of time signed up for and most ended up doing 13 years the extra year considered to be 'Girls' Time.
I still maintain the Frank squandered his shilling on Wine,Women and song

Mind you in those days of signing the shilling came in very handy upon leaving the the recruiting office with the coin clasped tightly in the hand, you could buy a bag of fish & Chips,get a pint and the rest was spent on the Tram fare home .
Yep I know we a bit ancient,but I still maintain we had the best years of our lives. Aye JR

[Wholley]

As far as I can tell the "Kings Shilling"Was a Shilling glued to the bottom of a tankard of Pusser's and offered to an already drunk young man by Andrew's finest.The Press Gang.
By the time the unfortunate lad recovered his ship was at sea.
The epiphet"Son of a Gun"Also comes from that era,Along with"Cold enough to freeze the ball's off a Brass Monkey"
I hope I'm not teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs Jim and Frank.
I'm sure"You'll pull me up"If I'm wrong.
Please,not the keel hauling

[OMSSMretd]

Quite right, I have an antique beer tankard at home with a glass bottom from the same period basiclly you could check if some unscruplous recruiter has unwittingly made you take the kings shilling.

[JR]

Wholley.........You old 'Son Of a Gun'.....

It is rare today to hear someone called 'a son of a gun' the old Naval terminology was a juicy old Royal Naval insult .
The expression first came into use when women were allowed on board British Warships during their brief sojourns in home ports and in ports abroad.
Scenes of copulation? (nice word that one) and debauchery used to take place on the decks of a man-of-war.The gangways had to be kept free,and it was in the spaces between the gun that these scenes occurred.
Hence to call a man 'a son of a gun' was the equivalent the calling him a B'stard.
Mind you I've met some Son's of a gun in my time.Aye JR

[Skiffle]

JR,

I was always led to believe the term 'Son of a gun' came from women who were unable to support and raise a child. They would leave their newborns in the spaces between the guns hence 'Son of a gun'.

Any babies found would be raised and used by the ship as powder monkeys and cabin boys (Get me another this ones full )

Or is this just another one of those little sayings with several versions of how they came about?

[Doc]

Before I darkened the doorsteps of HMS Raleigh, I did spend 6 months as a Junior Leader RAC (I was a RMP to be, and the RAC looked after junior monkeys in them days) in Bovington, when I joined up I swore an oath to the Queen and the ruperts beneath her and got about £5 quid from Hereford recruiting office in lieu of the kings shilling.

When I left and joined the RN I got fark all. So my plan to make an easy tenner was buggered at the second hurdle, joining the RAF and going for £15 wasnt worth it.

It is due in no small part to my 6 months with perc that the RN in its wisdom considered me suitable for service attached to the RM and subseqently 59Cdo.

So here I sit not knowing if I was Jack or Perc half the time, then again Ive just had a shower so that answers that one

What a career eh 6 month baby monkey.......then RN scablifter throwing brufen at Booties and Army Cdo's, I often ask myself why I find it hard to fit in with a crowd

[JR]

Skiffle.........As you probably know women did serve aboard Ships of the Royal Navy during the days of sail.
The names of four women actually appear in the Muster Book of HMS Goliath at the battles of St Vincent and the Nile.

When in 1847 Queen Victoria ordered a medal to be struck-- known as the General Service Medal to recognise the services rendered by her fleets from 1793 to 1815,one women Jane Townshend of HMS Defiance,claimed the medal and bar for Trafalgar,her claim was disallowed
(the PC brigade would love that?).
One recipient however,was a man who had been born in HMS Tremendous only a few days before the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794,his rating at the time was given as 'Baby', His mother was the wife of a seaman named McKenzie,the child being appropriately christened Daniel Tremendous McKenzie.Aye JR