We Were Sailors Once….

….and young.
1980, the anti-shipping campaign during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), known as the Tanker War, had commenced. The Royal Navy Global Deployment ‘80 was already underway out in the Far East and I was fortunate to be onboard HMS Antrim.
Fortunate I hear you say, how so, if I had been serving onboard either HMS Coventry or HMS Alacrity I would have arrived alongside in Singapore expecting a two week maintenance period and station leave with my then wife. Instead they fuelled and headed off to commence the first ‘Armilla Patrol‘.
To protect British interests, in the Persian Gulf, Armilla Patrol was quickly set up with HMS Coventry and HMS Naiad and later HMS Alacrity as the first ships to patrol the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz. As flagship Antrim completed the programme of visits before taking over.
Trundling up and down our patrol line we endeavoured to keep ourselves amused, this included ‘Flight Deck Sports Days’. This photograph shows me as a young, fit 27 year old in the Senior Rates tug-of-war team. We didn’t let ourselves down but we didn’t win either.