Carrying ammunition and other flammable store aboard Naval vessels.

[hptmurphy]

scuse me .....The navy does not transport Ammunition in any large quantities any more after a little incident on the Aisling some years back.

Some small arms ammo and the ships RU ammo is stored in the magazine but nothing else .....because thaey are tiny.


The Aisling was returning from Barry in Wales with a couple of tons of ammo on the after deck when a fire in the engine room broke out.....and got out of control.....Abandonship was ordered and the escort vessel was ordered to move off to 5 miles range.....in the event she might explode. the PO MECH McIntyre and The cheif ERA Tumulty eventually managed to extinguish the blaze and prevented a catastrophe. the two boys got DSMs and the Navy gave up carrying ammo !

[faxo]

HPTMurphy. Just wondering about the navy not transporting ammunition in any large quantities any more after a little incident on the Aisling some years back.

Will the ammunition be sent to Liberia by plane and not by a NS vessel ??

[hptmurphy]

Operational details of current missions will not be discussed !

[Goldie fish]

You would be hard pressed to find a commercial aircraft willing to carry ammunition as cargo....

[Laners]

And then the NS get to dump the soon to expire ammo off the Scothish coast . I done one such trip on Eithne and we dumped 16 tons of ammo over the side.

[Sailor Girl]

Scuse Me ! Its always annoying to see someone write about something which they either have the wrong information or not enough information, about !

After the fire onboard LE Aisling, there were a good number of trips to Barry, Wales, right up to the early ninenties, to collect ammunition and bring it back to Ireland onboard NS ships. In addition there were also a number of trips by NS ships to King Aurther's Canyon to dump time expired ammunition on behalf of the Army (They used to do it in the Beaufort Dyke), all carried on deck !

In addition ammunition and pyrotechnics have been brought to UNIFIL for many years onboard NS ships, stored in places onboard other than the magazine or RU lockers and off loaded in Beruit and Haifa.

g'luck
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[hptmurphy]

Lady..given the time I was about for there were no missions to Barry in Wales to draw ammo.
Ammo in very small quantities along with AMLs and other weapons were brought overseas by P21 P22 and P23.....and any other bulk movemnets were carried out by bulk container.

Be very careful about insinuating that I know not what I talk about on these issues..As I was there during the times I discuss.

During the mid eighties there was no requirement for us to draw ammo as we were still firing stocks of ammunition manufactured in 1958 and had been taken taken on charge with the Minesweepers...wonder if you'd remember them..or just seen the photos.

Just to let you know. During my service I had an uncle who had been a senior supply and adminstration officer for 40 years and was more than willing to answer my questions on various policies etc...as he had be in instrumental in the evolvment of some of these policies..so lets just say I knew more than most!

Maybe in your infinite wisdomyou would like to tell us of what became of the box of FN rifles that were alledgedly stored in the enginners office on the Aoife and got washed overboard in the MED...made it to all the papers....when they actually never left the ship!

And I know the army officer whos career died after the incident.

So what was your point about lack of facts.....?

[Sailor Girl]

Yes there was trips to Barry for ammunition in the 80s after the fire onboard Aisling, so what was the time that you were there for ?
You are quite a condecending man, you must have small feet ! In fact having to refer to your Uncle to support your claims, you must have very small feet !!

Do not make unproven allegations against identifiable people
Out to you.
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[Goldie fish]

Careful now....

FACTS FACTS FACTS,

Not insults.

[Sailor Girl]

Yes. All facts. Thank you. Is an insult an insult if it is true ?
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[Goldie fish]

Murf does not have small feet.

[hptmurphy]

Yeah.....I might be little condecending at times...my feet are about average and I do know what went on during my service.There were no ammunition trips during my service.

In fact outside of UNIFIL resupply trips.Foreign trips as a whole were minimal.Eithne was confined to home waters for three years after her first American trip...and Deirdre went to Kiel once in this time....and the rest was in the way of UN sponsored outings.

I don't remember who was Cox'n on the Aoife although if I thought hard enough about it I could figure it out...but then again why name someone you have just slurred!

My reference to my late Uncle was purely to show that I could obtain information at the time which was not readily availble.

As for the box of nice rifles..they left the ship eventually but not in the specified time frame. I know exactly what happened to them...was just wondering did you as you seem to be knowledgable on all things Naval.

As for insults..I haven't used any...but if you seem a little insecure its okay.....I would too seeing as the NS has yet to find a rank that can denote its female members correctly.

[sba]

HI Murph

Long time no chat! Hi Sailor Girl.....have to back Murph up here. I was in the NS at the same time as him, in fact, only left in 98, so I have a fair idea of what went on around that time as well. Murph is also correct in stating that there were no trips to Barry in Wales after the inicident with Aisling. However, you are also correct in stating that the NS used to dump ammo for the Army. I'm not going to go into any operational details, even though I served on NS vessels which carried out this task.

As regards the incident with the rifles, again, I'd have to side with Murph. I also served on board Aoife shortly after this incident, so would have sailed with some of the guys involved.

And one last bit of advice Sailor Girl....even though it doesnt seem like it, Murph actually knows his stuff when it comes to matters Naval! (Hate to give him credit!!!!!!!!) His mentioning his uncle had more to do with showing you that he had accurate info, as opposed to the usual rumours that flew around the place

Will leave my lecturing at that!

[hptmurphy]

I never said that ammo wasn't dumped....along with some lovely No3 lee enfield rifles.

Before our time the Setanta was dumping the coastal artilleries ammunition.

I do like a healthy debate in this forum and am quite open to correction and new aspects of things.....but some of us did see some really unbelievebale thinhgs in these times before health and safety and A7.

SBA has his own field of expertise..and there are a few others here from my time...so all in all thhey're is a fair representation of the NS present from the good old 80's.

Don't be too harsh on us..it was a different navy then...any one seen laners about recently.

[B Inman]

In the early 1970's 73/74 I was a on a work party that delivered munitions to a Navy ship at Dun Laoighre for dumping at sea.

Prior to loading the boxes onto the trucks were we given brief instructions/warning about gentle handling of the boxes which I remember were date marked from the 1940's. On arrival at the quayside we unloaded the trucks and the sailors brought the boxes onto the ship. The were put near the back of the ship but we noticed that the navy had not had the same lecture about gentle handling of the boxes that we did. However as the navy did not loose a ship that day it worked out well for all concerned.