HMS Alliance.

We went to Portsmouth today. We've been twice before, but this time our purpose was to visit the Submarine Museum.For this we had to cross to Gosport in a ferry.
I think I have mentioned before that my father served on submarines for fourteen years, so I wanted to find out more about them.
We were very lucky, because we could board HMS Alliance, and be escorted around her by a man who served on her in 1947. The conditions were amazing, and he had some wonderful tales to tell.
65 man lived and worked on her, and she could stay under the water for four and a half days at a time. There was no privacy (even the toilets,
all three of them, had no doors). The bunks were tiny, and packed in tightly together. There was very little water, so crew did not get washed,or wash clothes until they came to their end of time on her, usually twekve weeks. They had leave or spent two weeks on a supply ship, and then did it all again.Can you imagine the smells down there under the sea?
At the end of our visit I was given the address of someone who will be interested in my father's records, and who will be able to give me more information about his time in the Navy.