- Contributed by听
- Harry Horlock
- People in story:听
- Harry Horlock
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A2021699
- Contributed on:听
- 11 November 2003
This happened just a couple of days before my 21st birthday. Our aircraft were returning to the ship after a skirmish in the bay. Unfortunately one aircraft had serious damage to the brake system and arrester gear. It crashed into the deck of the aircraft carrier and burst into flames.
Burns with a fury
The aircraft was a Corsair made mainly of a magnesium alloy which, when it starts to burn, burns with a fury. The ensuing fire started to cause real problems for the ship when the fire spilled down one of the vent shafts. Now this in itself is problem enough - what made it even worse was that this vent shaft was attached to the armoury area of the ship.
Order to muster
Although I was aware of the fire, it was not my watch; I was on standby watch so was resting in a well deck. The order came through the tannoy system that we were to muster at our designated boat stations and wait for the order to abandon ship should the fire crews not be able to dowse the flames.
Shark attack
In the days before this event many of us had noticed that a peculiar thing was happening in the water. A large group of hammerhead sharks, some as long as 20-25 feet, had started attacking the hull of the ship just below the water line. This hadn鈥檛 really been a problem until now.
We all stood at the muster station watching shark after shark charge the boat, knowing that if the order came to abandon that procedure required us to through the rafts off the deck and jump into the water after them. We had practised this but in much safer places: now it was for real and, if I had to jump, I had to jump straight into the middle of a group of sharks.
Long wait
We stood for nearly two hours while the men fought the fire on board the ship. Many things ran through my head while I waited and watched the sharks, wondering what was going to happen.
Thankfully the fire was contained and I didn鈥檛 have to jump into the water, and needless to say that, when we were allowed ashore, we had quite a few drinks!
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