While employed on a Frigate in the 1960`s in Basin 2, a group of naval frogmen appeared on the
dockside. a catamarang was bought to where they intended to work. I looked on with interest The The dockyard slinger ordered the lowering down of the crane hook, huge spanner was attached using a very long strop, The driver lowered the spanner a instrured by the dockyard slinger, then 4 /5 frogmen jumped into the water, as 2/3 frogmen made explosive charges, on the catamarang.
All this was happening on the rear of the Frigate. One frogman gave signals to the slinger ` Hoist `.[size=78%]After two or three tries, a huge nut appeared at the surface, with the spanner. The next step was[/size]
unusual, one frogman dive down with the charge, while the other frogman cleared out of the water.
A hooter was sounded, and a red flag was flown. `All clear ` I heard someone say.
Bang, bang, bang, and the water bubbled, the strop went taunt as a weight dropped down.
`All yours driver ` I heard, as the driver hoisted a propeller out of the water. I later found out, this
procedure had been done before. Why was it done this away, you may well ask.
Well, there was a frigate finishing a refit minus a propeller, and this frigate was starting a refit.
So the Frigate in dock had priority, as the dockyard, had not got a spare propeller.
I learnt later that a dockyard hard hat diver was working in No 3 basin.
