I joined HMS Berwick in July 1972, my first real ship. I remember quite clearly going onboard, the ship had just got back from a 9 month trip out to the West Indies and everybody was going on leave, except for this poor sap. There was a carnival atmosphere down the mess, it looked like a disco. Red and orange posters had been put in the lighting, the music was playing and the beer was flowing. My first impressions were favorable.

After a couple of hours just about everyone had gone on leave, the place was a mess but at least it was quite and I had a chance to settle down and get a look around the ship. It was on that first night I was sent to the "small ships canteen" on Fountain lake jetty (Portsmouth) armed with a bucket which I had to get filled with beer. I'd never even been in a pub before. Anyway I returned onboard with the beer, which was placed in the mess square so the duty watch could dip their pint pots in it.

Life at sea was not too bad back in the early days, we would roam around the ocean stopping off every now and again to visit some desert island. We never seemed to do much in the way of exercising with other ships (unlike now-a-days). I'd like to mention some of the lads onboard but my computer has more memory than me. So if anyone reading this served onboard HMS Berwick, (1972-1973)