Commissioning HMS Invincible
During the late 1960s, the UK government set into place defence budget cuts, and stated that we would not build any further aircraft carriers. For the next decade, the Fleet Air Arm was virtually reduced to rotary wing flight.
Later, when the political decision was made to order the build of a new aircraft carrier, HMS Invincible, the politics of the day named this type of ship a "Through-deck cruiser". We in the Royal Navy did not care what name they called it, as we needed a new fleet of aircraft carriers and this was the first of a class of three. It was these ships that enabled the Sea Harrier FRS1 to be brought into service.
When the ship build was completed, I was lucky enough to witness the hand-over of this ship from the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness to the Royal Navy. With a ship of this size the "Hand-over" was slow, arduous and very detailed.
Every detail was checked, and if a single ring-bolt was found to be mis-aligned from the drawings, it was cut-out and re-welded into the correct position. The ship was prepared and handed over compartment by compartment, each compartment secured and locked as the hand-over took place.
The wardroom anti-room compartment was freshly painted, with new furniture and a deck polished so well that we had to wear slippers in order to take the hand-over. Every detail and dimension was meticulously checked and approved.
As the Admiralty MOD (N) representative went to leave the compartment, he suddenly turned and noticed a polished oak mounting board high on one bulkhead. He asked the shipyard representative, "Shouldn't there be a clock there?"
"Clock?" said the shipyard representative indignantly, "For £240 million you expect a clock?"
We took the least line of resistance and provided our own.
As a footnote, during this hand-over a munitions train pulled alongside with several hundred 6-inch gun shells. But the ship had no six-inch guns. I personally had served on the last cruiser with a six-inch gun, HMS Blake, and that ship had now been scrapped. It transpired that the terminology "Through-deck cruiser" had confused a department in the Admiralty, who having looked up the records for the last cruiser commissioned noted that they had supplied six-inch gun shells. Red faces all round.
Simply Steve