Jonathan "Sting" WRAY
Jonathan "Sting" Wray left the safety of his native Yorkshire for a life on the grey and crinkly stuff, and in a pensionable career, he clanked his way around the machinery spaces of Ye Olde Bulwark, Ark Royal, Norfolk, Newcastle, Diligence, Biter, St Ursula (Royal Virgin Island Police vessel), Leeds Castle and of course the Mighty Manch which he joined immediately post Global 86 as advance party for those charged with re-instating the ships reputation following that Soddin' World Cruise! A Global 86 Dit Listening Specialist, "Sting's" favourite warship - and this is a change from the norm - is not D95, but HMS Biter, a P2000 craft with a ship's company of circa 5, and where "Sting" - as MEO - was Senior Engineer...and quite often Junior Engineer too! Equally surprising is his list of favourite runs ashore which includes D95's visit to Liverpool and Newcastle's visit up the Tyne, where, evidently love was involved!
A larger than life character - literally - "Sting" made a valiant attempt whilst on D95 to build a fifth diesel entirely from items available from Naval Stores and was only thwarted for the lack of two washers before he legged it on draft! Among his nocturnal activities - when not guarding his messes supply of CSB - was to edit the "Dear Doctor" column of the ship's excellent newspaper. However, whatever ailment, affliction or catastrophe beset our gallant band, his remedial prescription was always the same "starve yourself for 24 hours, don't listen to the evening sitrep, and don't forget to take your anti malaria pills!" However, his greatest claim to fame was as a member of the Cherry B Four, a tale of heroism and daring do which he has kindly recalled in his own words and it goes something like this...
"We sailed from Pompey for the gulf, [Armilla patrol] and at the time we were due to call into Oman and some other politically sensitive ports so the Good Ideas Club came up with a privileged leave list. Everyone onboard was on the privileged leave list until you went into the brown and smelly at which point your name was removed from said list. If the next port of call was deemed a privileged leave port, and if your name was not on the list, you could not be allowed ashore.
There were five qualified Chief of the watches, Myself, Simon Marriott, Rog Jones, Knobby Clark, and Keith Midgley, - Keith had flown back to the UK on compassionate leave and we were on patrol in the Straits of Hormuz and were due to be relieved by Charybdis, however, the Cherry B had Air conditioning problems which meant she had no radar and had lost some weapons systems too, so when we came out of the Straits we were going to have to go back in to do her patrol. Before commencing this, it was decided that we would raft up alongside the Tidespring with Cherry B on the other side for a swift drift in the Gulf of Oman. I knew the Air conditioning Tiff on the Cherry B [Ray Francis] so us clankies decided it would be a jolly good wheeze to take a cold pint of CSB over to the clankies sweltering in the Chiefs mess on the Cherry B - Knobby Clark was on watch - so myself, Wobbly Wagg, Simon , and Rog Jones duly embarked on this mission of mercy. Having arrived in the Chiefs mess on the Cherry B, we found that their beer cooler was working fine and that despite there being no air conditioning, if sufficient volumes of cool CSB were consumed ones body temperature could be maintained at something like normal levels! The Cherry B clanky crew being somewhat miffed at the Manchester "hit" squad decided to disconnect the tannoy so that no pipes could be heard in the mess! [eventually, Simon [always the sensible one] said something like "what time are we sailing? "Ah don't worry they'll pipe when we are due to go" replied Wobbly. Whilst I was intent on downing just one more pint of the Cherry B's ice cold CSB, Simon went up onto the upper deck to find out when we were sailing only to find only one warship tied up to the Tidespring and the Mighty Manchester was a tiny speck on the horizon. OH SH*T! I think were the exact words used when he duly informed us of this fact, (this was of course immediately followed by raucous laughter from the Cherry B bastards in the mess who had stitched us up!).
Messages were duly sent from Bridge to Bridge and the Manchester ground to a halt, and the buffer was woken from his afternoon siesta and told to arrange a water taxi for the miscreants! Meanwhile conversations regarding sheep and lambs were taking place in the Cherry B's mess, so more beer was consumed whilst awaiting transport! The buffer on the Mighty Manch knowing we were all in whites - and being the kindly chap that he was, (an upstanding non drinking never sh*ts on an oppo type,) made sure that when we arrived alongside he had selected the scrambling net that was dunked overboard in an oil slick in Mombasa, and had organised the whole ships company to man the side. How he managed to train them all so well in the chorus of that well known Naval Ballad "Privileged leave - Privileged Leave" in such a short time has always amazed me! Indeed - Never in the history of being adrift, has the return of so few been witnessed by so many! One other part of the welcoming committee was the MEO who wasn't quite as pleased to see us, and was rather more intent on having our buttons!
After the subsequent patrol, us four miscreants were lined up at the Skippers table and charged with being absent for four hours. The Skipper, struggling to keep a straight face due to the dit value of the enterprise, greatly enhanced by the cult status we enjoyed - partly due to the Manchester Evening News - christening us "The Cherry B Four", issued fines of £65 and wisely decided that as the offence took place at sea, we could not possibly be removed from the privileged leave list!" (Good dit Sting, the only thing you didn't mention was the sixteen attempts you made to put your foot on the scrambling net. It did ever so slightly give the game away!).
Outside since June 98, "Sting" is now the Overseas Business Manager for a combined heat and power corporation. His hobbies include sailing his yacht Seashell - where he also frequently doubles up as bar manager! Our Pavarotti look alike hero is a stalwart member of 2MA.
Stephen "Skid" WROE
84 - 87 & 90 - 91
Stephen "Skid" Wroe joined Pusser UK as an 18 year old radar plottist and in a pensionable career he became a Type 42 specialist with drafts to Birmingham, Southampton, Exeter, Cardiff, Nottingham and Glasgow...and two to the Mighty Manch 84-87 and 90-91, which just happens to also be his favourite ship! Astute observers will have already realised that Skid is yet another of those Global 86 Holidaymakers and so it will come as no surprise to learn that Australia 86 was his favourite run ashore as the locals were very friendly! Not wanting to upset the non global fraternity Skid specifically requested that we do not mention the time he crashed out on a beach in the Seychelles and woke up much later covered in ants, or the time in San Francisco whilst on a rig run to a local USN base where our hero was so distracted by the local hospitality he and others missed the transport back to D95! The situation was retrieved by our heroes hitching a lift in an open top pick up truck, as you do, and of course the route back just happened to take them over the Golden Gate Bridge! Skid also gives a chuck up to Corfu on the way home from the 91 Gulf deployment where partying from dusk to dusk was evidently the order of the day!
Outside since 2006, Skid is another of our number who has turned to law enforcement and he now patrols the streets adjacent to a very familiar Dockyard, where, many years ago, two unidentified ratings from HMS Cardiff - good Dockyard clue there - decided to climb the Dockyard wall as their route back onboard after an evening of festivities was blocked by a locked gate. We are reliably informed that Skid was not the rating who broke both ankles!
Among Skid's hobbies are road running, collecting model cars and cheering on West Bromwich Albion. He is also a founder member of 2MA.
Mark WYKES
Joined 25th February 2021 (346)
