We had that one a while back...

I took a guess. I thought Blackbeard was excecuted in London and his corpse hung in a gibbet cage on the banks of the Thames...

C could also be correct. They prevent sonor detecting the submarine, so camoflaging it from the hunters...

Here is the tale in full, for those who are unfamiliar with the works of Edward Lear
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, ‘You’ll all be drowned!’
They called aloud, ‘Our Sieve ain’t big,
But we don’t care a button! we don’t care a fig!
In a Sieve we’ll go to sea!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

II

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
‘O won’t they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it’s extremely wrong
In a Sieve to sail so fast!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

III

The water it soon came in, it did,
The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, ‘How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our Sieve we spin!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

IV

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
‘O Timballo! How happy we are,
When we live in a sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
In the shade of the mountains brown!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

V

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

VI

And in twenty years they all came back,
In twenty years or more,
And every one said, ‘How tall they’ve grown!’
For they’ve been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore;
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And everyone said, ‘If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,—
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

I'm trying to sell unbuilt kits with one hand and spending a kings ransome on model aircraft kits and very expensive engines with the other. Yes, I have decided to dabble in The Occult! A step over to the dark side. We are our own worst enemies!

"Jolly Donald"? That's pushing the envelope a bit!

Hi folks. I have just aquired what looks like a Tid tug, the hull id definately Tid shaped, not so sure about the superstructure. It is a free runner (not for long) around 48 inches long. It has a single cylinder engine and one of those odd two barrel boilers, meths fired. It will go on to my future to do pile to await restoration...

What side of the ship is the green nav light on?

I see no ships....

I got that one! I read a John Steinbeck book once called The Log from the Sea of Cortez....

Bismark?

A submarine's 'crew' are refered to as the ships company, at least in the UK they are. Ship's company HO!

I may have some like this, I will look tomorrow...

They look like they belong in a hospital, I'm sure they had connections like that when I was plumbed into all sorts of contraptions after a nine hour operation...

My condolences to you and your family at this sad time...

I have just found this splendid film from WW2. Some great footage of MTBs.

https://youtu.be/lzJDVhuMaI8?si=lbiJJizuXVkdwoHr

Aquarium shops are a good source of tubing and small fittings...

As far as I know VLF radio was used until recently at least. I taught Sea Cadet courses at an ex RNAS station near Blackpool, most of the site was occupied by a radio transmitting station run by the MOD they had VLF (50 Khz) short wave and UHF facilites. The aerials were like something out of a Quatermass movie! Most impressive. From what I understood it was the VLF recieving station for submarine comms.

I'll give 'em ruddy boat rage! Rage usually implies emotion, as in being in a temper, the question just asked for dangerous or reckless not foul tempered. The other prospective answers were also a load of clockweights...

Ping........ ping...... ping..... pingaaaa pingaaaa. "There's some men in the water over there"... Well there's a U boat right underneath them...
That of course would have been ASDIC, ( Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee ) the forerunner of Sonar.

Try this guy. He did me some 1/48th scale RN figures, unpainted but he can work to ant scale. Very reasonable too!

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/panzervstanks?fbclid=IwAR0XhA_8FFA3EZRm8QeXGtzTs

No 3 in my kit cull sale is the Vintage Model Boat Company's Thames Police Launch. I have made the large box structure and I have made a rudder and cast bronze 'p' frame as per the original design. Also included is a brushless 1100kv motor and esc from M Tronics with a Raboech 40mm M4 prop. I will never finish it so it has to go. I am looking for around £200 ono plus carriage at cost or view and collect from Wirral.

Next up in my kit cull is Sarik Models Wee Nip laser cut short kit. Again unstarted. It comes complete with RB 68 (I think) carbon fiber rig kit, professionally made sails by Housemartin Sails a cast lead keel bulb of the correct weight and a dvd, two sheets of plans and some magazine article reprints. I'm after £120 plus post or collect from Wirral.

I am having a cull of kits, I have too many. It's a big wrench to part with anything but I must be strict with myself! So, first up ia Artisania Latina's Sanson tug kit. It is untouched and all the plastic wrappings of parts are still sealed. There is some parrot damage to one corner of the box but he didn't get to the important stuff inside the box.
I'm asking £150 ovno plus post or collect from Wirral.

Agree re Longstone and losing % points. Most irritating...

Not having that! Non ferrous metals were used long before iron, mainly due to the temperatures needed to reduce the ore. Copper was used for nails and rivets in ancient Egypt, copper has been found in Phonecian, Babylonian and Greek shipwrecks, and probably more besides...

No complaints here. I have their Tollman semi kit, all top quality materials and fittings, yes, the white metal fittings need a little fettling, but that applies to fittings from most suppliers. The templates are a good addition, I have converted them to files for laser cutting, so far results are encouraging. The hull is robustly made with it's own unique serial number glassed into the inside, a good security measure incase of future theft. I have nothing but praise for MMM...

I've always called it a bouyancy aid...

Nice job! It sits nicely in the water and looks the part. Is it the Deans 1/24 scale LCM? I have one waiting to be built, it's about two projects away so a build for next winter...

Ah the Short Nightie, lovely ship, I went on around 1972.