Oh dear me Skip.. I knew nothing about the rig renumbering though I'm perilously close to 20years outside now and a lot can happen in that space of time. I can understand spinning dits to your dad would cause confusion
Re missing the ship..
As Skip said.. DON'T
It used to work that should this arise, you were expected to find the fare yourself to rejoin the ship by any means possible so it would obviously be better if the ship had sailed from Portsmouth to Plymouth rather than Portsmouth to Gibraltar! The ship would know you were not present at the time of sailing and the NPM informed (RN Police) so you were already in do-do :doho: If, however, you'd missed for compassionate reasons.. a baby born, someone died e t c.. you'd be expected to phone the ship (presumably you'd be on leave of some sort.. even night leave) and action would be taken for you to have compassionate leave if appropriate. IF appropriate, the RN would do the working out for you and you'd rejoin the ship at the MoD's expense at a given time and date. If inappropriate, you'd be expected back onboard when the ship sailed. If this didn't fit your plans.. it's the brown stuff again and plenty of it Being AWOL is a serious offense no matter how long the time involved and missing a ship sailing is as bad as it gets (never done that either but have been close.. too close as the particular incident I got caught up in was when the ship was under 24hrs notice to sail)
Anyway.. back to missing the ship
If you were abroad when this unlikely event happened.. you were expected to find your way to the nearest British Embassy and present yourself for ridicule. They'd communicate your existance to the RN and your passage would be arranged. You'd pay in the end.. you ALWAYS pay in the end be it a loss of liberty, a loss of finances or more likely a combination of both ;-) I've not seen the clip posted although I have the 'Sailor' boxed DVD set so I'd better have a look and see what you're all talking about
ATB
DaveB :tab:
