...an edumacational day...

....had a day with the grandson, so I told him we were going to see the pirate ships... 😀

It is a little known fact that the historic dockyard in Portsmouth is free to go into providing you don't want to go on any of the marvellous ships, or in the many museums, therein...   when you have a four year old in tow a perfect solution...

I had the very good fortune to go on this one at the Southamton bat show a few years ago..  some excellent pictures of the history and interior here [clicky] and the web site for thrust is here [clicky]

..this apparently was originally built as a Seaplane Tender, but also saw service in the war as Air Sea Rescue..  more here [clicky]

...Warrior needs no introduction - she's looking good!

...and for the inner geek..

..."where are the pirates grandad?".. "I expect they've gone shopping.." quoth I   Ice lolly fixed the deal though...  going to guess this was an 18pd'er he was scrambling on..

..and then the "old pirate ship"..  she's mid way through a mahoosive refit and the top masts are down for their first attention since she was launched..  note also (as I did) the paler 'stripes' on the side.. apparently when they removed about a million coats of paint they found they had been painting them too dark for years, so reverted to original..

...21st October and 1805, and that is bearing down on you out of the gun smoke... all cannons firing and marines behind the netting firing at you...  awe inspiring... this has completed restoration - they just need to put the figurehead back on...

...beautiful..  no other word for it..

Across the way, still afloat, and still gigant'ous..

...and the ship in the foreground is M33 - one of the last remaining monitors from the Gallipoli campaign..

I am, as ever, amazed by the conditions these sailors lived and fought in..  this is not a big ship..

...across the water on the ferry to Gosport to meet up with my sis and bro in law..  this is the Archer class patrol boat "HMS Blazer" [clicky]..  looks likes she was in for refit/maintenance..

...and then I got to see this wonder..  if you Google "Suhaili" [clicky] you'll know from my other past time why this was an amazement and a treat for me...  and grandson..

...next trip we agreed we'd go to Tangmere...  Lord knows what will happen there!