I was watching a National Geographic programme this morning called 'Ship Sinkers'.  The subject matter referred to explosives experts who deliberately and legitimately sank old ships to provide man made reefs for recreational diving.  The ship being sunk in this occasion was the HMNZS Wellington - F69 - a Leander Class frigate.  This brought so many memories flooding back as I served on HMS Danae 1972 - 1974 in the first Royal Marine detachment.  Had some great times with some great mates at the time.  We served during the so called Cod War off Iceland and had a great run to the far east commencing January 2004.   One of our stops was in Massawa, Ethiopia where we took part in a parade for Emperor Haile Sellase aka Ras Tafari.  The Bootnecks made up a good proportion of the sports teams on board, soccer, rugby, tug o' war etc., and I remember we thrashed the team from the Russian Red Sea fleet ship 7-0 after which the team from the French ship refused to play us.  Incidentally we visited New Zealand on that trip, only sailed around Wellington harbour as the Danae wasn't allowed into the port due to a load of grief that had happened on her previous trip there - we visited Picton in the south island and New Plymouth in the north island where I remember a lady by the name of Danae Minife visited the ship after which she had been named.

Happy Days

Cheers.............. email received 21 Sept 2008