The day after our passing out parade was the day we said farewell to H.M.S. Ganges, our home for the last six weeks. For most of us there were mixed emotions, sadness to be leaving what had become a friend to us, happy that we had managed to complete our basic training intact and excitement at what lay ahead. We were all heading for our "part two" training, or to put it another way; the first part of our training in the trade we had chosen. We boarded the pussers blue bus with all of our kit, we had become quite adept at carrying what equated to our complete wardrobe around with us; loaded, and set off for various parts of the country. I'm unsure as to whether I was alone in not realising that I would never see most of my new oppo's ever again, it was just something that never crossed my mind; in retrospect I wish I had got hold of contact details for some of the guys, it would have been good to keep in touch.
The first stop on our journey was Chatham dockyard, for six weeks I had seen various ships sail in and out of the commercial docks at Felixstowe on the other side of the River Orwell; but now I had my first close up view of a real pussers grey liner. A ship of Her Majesty's Royal Navy, built to carry people like myself across oceans to serve our country. It was quite exciting for a young matelot to see one close up, even though it was a mere minesweeper, it was still a genuine grey liner. We had time for our lunch and for some to alight the bus, then we were off again; into the unknown. That's not strictly true, we knew where we were going; or at least the name of it, but not where it was. My destination was HMS Daedalus, I hadn't a clue where it was; and with no such thing as Google Maps or the internet, to find out would have meant reading books, not a chance of that.
Others were dropped off at other establishments on the way, until finally we arrived at the gates of Daedalus. HMS Daedalus, affectionately known as HMS Deadloss, was a shore establishment on the edge of a residential estate in Lee-On-Solent. It was home to (amongst others) the Royal Navy aircraft engineering school, the hovercraft unit and the Fleet Air Arm Field Gun Crew. For the first time in six weeks, we saw matelot's in civvie clothes, doing what they wanted instead of being marched en masse to another class. We disembarked the bus and collected our kit, we were then herded into our new accommodation. The accommodation was (I seem to recall) a three storey building of pre-war construction; either way it was quite dated. Each floor housed several dormitory style rooms with about six or seven bunks either side and at the end of the room were two single beds; these belonged to the mess leader and his deputy. For some unknown reason, it was decided that I was to be deputy mess leader; not something I particularly wanted to do, or would have volunteered for, but this was the Royal Navy and you did what you were told to do. Each floor also had a single room which housed the floor Leading Hand or Petty Officer, ours was occupied by a P.O. Pass; this caused a smile on many face as his initials were also P.O, so he was P.O.P.O.Pass? We were told to unpack and muster the next morning, until then our time was our own!!!
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