Filter  MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Year20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010 5101520253050100All Filter

• RFA Deployment in the 1960’s

  RFA Deployment in the 1960’s One of the largest RFA deployments in the 1960’s was to support the Royal Navy’s peace-keeping force off Aden during December 1967 and January 1968. Britain handed over the former colony to an independent Arab administ...

• The First RFA Hospital Ship

  The First RFA Hospital Ship The first RFA Hospital ship was launched as s.s. Swansea at West Hartlepool by William Gray & Co as a cargo, passenger and cattle ship in 1887 but by 1888 she had her name changed to s.s. Maine. ...

• The Polar Medal

  Most of you, it is believed, will not have realised that two RFA Officers in September 1941 were awarded the Polar Medal in Bronze by His Majesty King George VI for good services between 1925 to 1939 in Antarctica. During the above period the two officer...

• How a run ashore became a disaster

  How a run ashore became a disasterOn 13 April 1925 at about 11.30pm in the River Medway off Upnor, Kent the ship’s boat of RFA Bacchus (1), containing 11 of the crew were returning from a run ashore, when it was struck by a motor lighter and sank immedi...

• And the crew threw themselves overboard!

  And the crew threw themselves overboard! For the Master of R.F.A. Wave Governor, Captain W. L. Holtan, the voyage out to Brazil in November 1957 in ballast was reaching its end. The ship was off Curacao when he received a report that six of the Lascar cr...

• The Censor of RFA Thrush

  The Censor of RFA ThrushHMS Thrush was a Redbreast class 1st class gun boat which had been launched on 22 June, 1889 at Scott’s of Greenock. In 1906 she became at Coastguard ship, by 1915 a cable ship and in 1916 a salvage ship and at the same time she ...

• The Theft of a Bread Roll and Egg on the Face

  The Loss of a Bread Roll and Egg on the Face At the Silver Jubilee Fleet Review of July 1935 the massed lines of 157 Royal and Merchant Naval ships were drawn up in the Solent for the Sovereign – King George V – to receive the salute of his Navy and...

• RFA Maine - The Oldest Ship in the Navy

  RFA MaineThe Oldest Ship in the NavyBuilt in 1902 as the Pacific Steam Navigation Company “Panama”,  His Majesty’s hospital ship “Maine” was, in 1945, probably the oldest ship serving with the Royal Navy.  Bought in 1920 and equipped for her h...

• Thule’s Rush in!

  RFA Black Ranger was one of a class of six small tankers, built during the Second World War, all of which distinguished themselves in various theatres; in fact Black Ranger had given sterling service on many of the Russian Convoy’s. ...

• The loss of RFA Francol

  By 1942 the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour and crippled the American fleet, they had invaded Hong Kong and captured Singapore from the British and were busily expanding their empire across the Indian Ocean. ...

• The loss of S.S. Pass of Balmaha

  Captain Stanley Kirby, Master of the s.s. Pass of Balmaha, had a full load of petrol to deliver to Tobruk, a besieged city on 17 October 1941. The ship was to make an escorted journey from Alexandria, as she had done several times before, but on this occa...

• RFA Fire Ships in World War 2

  Operation Lucid Captain Augustus Agar VC was in charge of the planning and execution of Operation Lucid in September 1940, an attempt to hit the German wooden invasion barges at Boulogne and Calais, France, with incendiary material and set them alight. ...

• RFA Maine (4) was a 'Slow boat to China'

  RFA Maine (4) was a ‘Slow Boat to China’On 19 September 1949 the three hundred bed RFA Maine (4) sailed for service in the Far East from her berth in Grand Harbour, Malta G.C. and so started what Lord Fraser of North Cape, First Sea Lord in 1950 descr...