[Dustyboats]

As the new language of the Royal Navy was being taught to us in the late months of 1950; we the New Intake were constantly raising the wrath of a very plump, awesome bearded, rolling gait, three badged Petty Officer and punishment was duly dished out according to the adjudged seriousness by same Petty Officer. One of his favourites for, "Being an untidy sack of spuds, tied in the middle", was to wash everybody's socks, they having worn them on the Parade Ground that day. For the gross offence of having an untidy bed space or locker was to dig the little garden, in front of our wooden hut, with a dinner fork.
H.M.S. Collingwood was at that time the training base for prospective Electrical and Radio personnel so although most of us caught these punishments, we thought little of it as we voiced...."Well this will never really apply to us tech. people!"
Some 57 years later you can probably appreciate my amazement that in playing SH3/GWX 2.0 how, having cast some dogral on the Forum about "No Tails", this memory comes to mind!!
If you got all in a dither about Port, Staboard, Fore, Aft, Bulkhead. Deckhead, Halyard and many other of these Seaman Terms, a Seamans Manual was thrown at you and that night, in front of the whole mess of fellow intakes, you had to "BOX THE COMPASS" without the book. Reciting its 31 points was no easy memory test.....but HULLO !!!!....
it all comes back to me now.
As SH3/GWX 2.0 presents us with a galaxy of NNW to SSE or ESE to WSW etc. I remember the degrees....Who needs the tail?