Corrugated City

Friday 19 June 2009

HMS Manchester in Valparaiso




On Monday the Royal Navy's HMS Manchester docked in Valparaiso. A few weeks ago, one of the crew had contacted me after finding this blog and asked about organising a wine tour for some of the guys (and girls) on the ship. As this was a large group, I sent them over to Michael at Wine Tours Valparaiso who organised tours over two days for junior and senior officers. By all accounts, they had a pretty fantastic time. After being stuck on board eating, quiet frankly, awful food, a gourmet lunch and wine tasting tour was apparently the highlight of their journey so far.

After going out for drinks with some of the crew on Tuesday, we were invited aboard the ship on Thursday morning. I actually thought it would just be a quick half hour walk around the boat but the guys gave us a complete tour of pretty much every part of the ship. We even had lunch in the mess hall (which is how I know the food is rubbish...). And on top of this, they gave us a huge bag of tea, bacon and sausages. I love the Royal Navy :)

What I found interesting is that on board life reminded me so much of going to boarding school. The banter between the people, the smell of the living quarters, the food, the atmosphere, the drills, the punishments for stepping out of line, the respect shown to superiors and also to each other...It was all so similar. The difference is, obviously, that these people are adults. I loved boarding school as a kid. But going to boarding as an adult would be a nightmare...

When US Navy ships have come to Valpo in the past, I've always noticed a rather large increase in referring traffic to this blog for Google searches for ladies of the night. This time, not a single search of that nature. I found that interesting.

In fact, the British sailors were all remarkably well behaved...with one exception. Two crew members made national and international news after stealing a Ronald Mcdonald statue, throwing it in the harbour and getting fined about 300,000 Pesos for their troubles. Whoops.

Our fantastic guide and his living quarters (along with another 30 guys).


The RN still press-gangs children into active service.


But I'm not sure this should be encouraged. Children and machine guns are not usually the best combination.


Then again, the same could be said about adults with GPMGs and SA80s. I should probably add that I'm really not a fan of guns and if this thing had been loaded I'd have almost certainly run away terrified.



This Lynx helicpoter comes from Westlands factory in Yeovil. Yeovil is one of the most unpleasant towns in England. The service crew who live on base at Yeovilton when in England all agreed with me. When back home, I live in lovely Sherborne, just 5 miles from Yeovil but a world away in terms of quality of life.


School dinners!


These three boats are all old Royal Navy vessels sold to the Chilean Navy. Britain and Chile maintain strong naval ties and many Chilean officers are sent over to Portsmouth for training. The Manchester would have been a candidate for sale a few years ago but is now so old and in such poor condition overall, the crew all seem to think it'll just be scrapped. It was built in 1978 and is showing its age.

The RN is a very welcoming bunch.


The boat to the right is from the Brazilian Navy, also in Valpo for a few days.

9 comments:

Allison Azersky said...

I'm not going to lie. I am a little jealous.... It looks like that was so much fun!!

Floris HP said...

Those boats you describe as ex-British and sold to the Chilean Navy look as well as those old boats the Royal Dutch Navy sold to Chile. Whenever I am in Valpo I see those old ships in the distance. Wel sell a lot of defense-surplus these days to the Chileans (F-16's, Leopard tanks). Not to the amusement of the Peruvians, je, je, je
Yes, the Chileans have a good naval relationship with you English...Cochrane was so bored in the UK (or had a litlle scandal) that he went overseas to command the first naval ships of the young Chilean Republic....

Matt said...

Yep, Cochrane set up the Chilean navy and pretty much liberated the entire country. I wrote about him a while ago here.

Barbaridad said...

"I love the Royal Navy"

Is that easy to buy your soul? =D With sausages and tea?

Matt said...

I'm afraid so...

Emily said...

I love that the navy gave you a care package! Enjoy :)

Matt said...

Yeah, they know how to look after their own :)

Anonymous said...

Hello Matt,

So pleased you enjoyed your day on HMS MANCHESTER, you have got some great photos. We all had a great time in Valparaiso especially for the wine tour. I would like to add that you probably had one of the least appetising meals the chefs can 'knock up', they do actually look after us really well and the food they put on is amazing considering the tight budget they have to feed us with.

Take care mate,

PO's Mess, HMS MANCHESTER

Yours Aye,

PO (WS)(AWW) T. Bennett

Matt said...

Hey Tony, thanks for coming back to comment. And, again, thanks for the great tour. I'll just have to take your word for it that the food is usually better...!