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Ganges Xmas 1954 |

From a Help the Heroes nutty wrapper |

HMS Lion - Admiral Beatty's Flagship in WW1 |
 A
cartoon depicting the disapproval [or alarm] at seeing ratings {a junior
rate and a CPO - though the CPO also disapproves of the junior rate]
being listed along with the their names [{naval and WRNS officers] in
the Daily Telegraph list of naval obituaries. Dead man's [and
women] affront, but tongue in cheek of course. None is a caricature and
all in good spirit - literally! |
 See above |

HMS Ark Royal's Medal to commemorate her long refit 1967 to 1970 |
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A 78 RPM Vinyl Gramophone Record on The Death of Nelson |
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Jigsaw puzzle of RMS Queen Mary in Trafalgar Square London |

A 78 RPM Vinyl Record of Ernest Grey singing songs in Remembrance of the
loss of the Titanic in 1912. Stand to your Post is one of them. |
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When STYLE and MONEY were aplenty. Oh! Come back those heady days.
A medal commemorating the many visits made by the Second Cruiser
Squadron when visiting South Africa and South America in 1908. |
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 Cigarette
Cards of old warships. HMS Ganges is on the bottom, third lot in from
left, front card. |

Victory over the abuses of alcohol. It was issued by the Royal Naval
Temperance Society which though not a part of it, worked in close
company with Agnes Weston and Sophia Wintz. |
 A paper table
napkin. Note Inspection and not Review. A five day event........12 lines
of ships and these come from "the Home Fleets" only...........24
Dreadnoughts and 35 pre-Dreadnoughts...WOW! |

Waxwork head of Nelson, originally part of a full-figure model that is
believed to have been made as part of a tableau of him in his cabin for
an exhibition at Antwerp about 1929, probably the Exposition
Internationale Maritime et Coloniale d'Anvers of 1930. It appears to
have been commissioned by the Overseas Trade Department of the British
government, but was possibly not used and was transferred to the
embryonic NMM in 1933 via the Admiralty. It was reportedly made by 'Mr
Tussaud', perhaps John Tussaud (who made a Nelson tableau for the Royal
Naval exhibition at Chelsea in 1891) or one of his family successors in
that famous waxworks business. It came and is preserved with a small
design model of the proposed cabin tableau. |

A genuine Guillotine encased in a display frame.
This guillotine blade, still mounted with rivets to its original lead
weighted wooden block, was used on the West Indian island of Guadeloupe
by French republicans during revolutionary struggles there. It is said
to have been used to execute more than 50 royalists. This guillotine is
likely to have been taken to the Americas by the French Revolutionary
commissar Victor Hugues, when he was sent to Martinique and Guadeloupe
to purge the royalists. In 1794 the British occupied Guadeloupe and
Captain Matthew Scott of HMS Rose is said to have brought back the
guillotine blade as a war trophy. |
 A picture almost depicting a
monster of the deep with its twin eyes and cavernous mouth.
Believe me, when close up to the very large original picture, its is
scary. It is the picture of HMS King George V, a WW2 new battleship
which in May 1941 had helped the Rodney to sink the Bismarck using heavy
calibre guns, now under the protection of the Icelandic mainland.
The time is May one year later. On the 1st May 1942, whilst operating in
dense fog with RN and USN units, the KG5 rammed and cut clean in half
the destroyer HMS Punjabi. Most of Punjabi's crew where in the larger
section of the ship which took a little time to sink into the icy
waters, and in that time period, all the men were rescued.
However, fortynine men were in the other smaller section of the after
part of the ship which sank immediately. Their fate [those who survived
the ramming] doesn't bear thinking about because in that after section
were primed depth charges set to explode on reaching a certain depth.
These men did not suffer the icy seas for long as the depth charges
exploded causing some damage to the nearby US battleship, the USS George
Washington. |

Staying with HMS King George V, she survived the war and
was eventually broke up in 1957.
The ship had 14" guns. Into the ends of naval guns not
in use and purely for decorative and ceremonial reasons are fitted
TAMPION's/TOMPION's usually with a painted ships crest/badge on them. In
this case, the ship had magnificent brass tampion's/tompion's showing
King George the 5th's head. These of course were much envied and
were "precious cargo". The pattern was approved by the Admiralty in
November 1937.
These very special artefact were eventually dispersed as
souvenirs among former officer of the ship, much the chagrin of the
lower-deck veterans who had in fact served the guns.
Much the same happened after the Royal Funeral of Lord
Mountbatten in September 1979. To make sure that the flag covering the
coffin did not flap with the breeze/wind or with the movement of the gun
carriage whilst under way, four brass engraved weights were manufactured
for the special occasion. These weights were secreted away and given to
naval officers without them [naval officers] once considering the bearer
party who were ratings.
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 A Tobacco Cutter. |
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Perhaps why I joined up in the early 1950's? An American Magazine of the
1950 period 
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Again, a bit of action any 15 year old boy might yearn after! Note the
reference to the Yangtze. 
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Now I know why boarding party's were so poplular 
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A mock up battleship built in down town Manhattan New York to attract
people into the US Navy. They called it USS Recruit and the scene is
1917 as America entered the last year of the Great War. 
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And yet another shot of the battleship. It was built in Union Square in
the Flatiron District famous for the Flatiron Building. After a time, it
was moved many miles away to Coney Island the playground of New Yorkers. 
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A USA Poster of the 1940's 
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 The
expression "Ent. Sta. Hall" means
entered (registered) at Stationers' Hall (a requirement to secure
copyright on books before 1924)
This song sheet of which this is the cover page, dates from 1890.
The words of the song are:-
From Portsmouth Harbour day by day
our ships go sailing far away
and long the time may be 'er they
Return to Portsmouth Harbour
Return to Portsmouth Harbour
The Bands strike up
"The girls we leave"
the stately ships the waters cleave
sweethearts and wives remain to grieve
Behind in Portsmouth Harbour
Behind in Portsmouth Harbour
But dry your eyes ye weeping fair
and wave your ker-chiefs in the air
Good luck be with them until their
Return to Portsmouth Harbour
Return to Portsmouth Harbour
Since day's of old 'tis Britain's boats
she rules the seas from coast to coast
let's speed them with this parting toast safe
Back in Portsmouth Harbour
Back in Portsmouth Harbour
Our ships go hence to scenes of war
success to soldiers and to tar
and may they safe from lands afar
Return to Portsmouth Harbour
Return to Portsmouth Harbour
But time runs on with steady flow
once more they let the anchor go
Safe back in Portsmouth Harbour
Safe back in Portsmouth Harbour
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If you can read a music score this is the associated tune - pages 1
and 2 only
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A bygone, and sad that it is! 
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as was the passing of this fine gent 
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