[dowling]

Today(2-7-11) all sorts and countries parading their hardware and open to the general public in Den Helder,this is held only every 2nd year,will put some of the photo's i managed to take onto the gallery,countries represented-Netherlands-United Kingdom-Germany,could not see any more ensigns fom any other country.

[Union Jack]

My abiding memory of visiting Den Helder is of the time I was standing on the upper scupper of ZULU admiring the RNlN frigate astern of us as they carried out what appeared to be routine gun drills, when all of a sudden there was a bloody great flash, a huge crash, and a live round hurtled past into the distance, followed by several more!

The Cloggies swore blind - Yeah right! - that we were on the distribution of the signal advising ships in harbour that live firing would be taking place, which they were able to do whilst alongside in view of Den Helder naval base's position relative to targets on offshore islands .....

Speaking of huge crashes, we were the third of four RN ships entering harbour with a terrific crosswind blowing - the senior ship, GALATEA, hit the downwind side of the jetty, WHITBY hit GALATEA, ZULU made a perfect alongside on the upwind side, despite having only a single screw. All secure, I was relaxing in my cabin with a cup of tea when, to my astonishment, a sort of ripple ran along the plating on the starboard side followed by a an agonised yell from the Marine Engineer Officer's cabin as DUNCAN's bow achieved what I will euphemistically call a deeper level of penetration!

Jack