Kent Holiday June 2013 - page 2
Continuing our enjoyable self-catering cottage holiday
in Kent we next headed to the Historic Dockyard at Chatham and toured
three fascinating warships: HMS Gannet, HMS Cavalier and the submarine
HMS Ocelot. We also learnt how quality rope was made in the
Ropery. Then next day it was off to the north Kent coast for a
cliff-top walk around Herne Bay to the Roman fort at Reculver Towers.
This is page two of three.
Kent 1 | Kent 2 | Kent 3
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Our first port of call after entering Chatham's Historic Dockyard was
to board HMS Gannet, a Victorian naval sloop built in 1878. Her
function was to protect British interests worldwide.
Adult entry to the Historic Dockyard at Chatham cost
£17.50 at the time of our visit (2013), although we used supermarket
reward vouchers.
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HMS Gannet was both sail and steam powered.
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The double wheel on HMS Gannet's deck was typical of the era, requiring
several men to operate it. She had recently undergone a £3m
restoration and is listed as historically highly significant.
After exploring HMS Gannet we next moved on to...
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...HMS Ocelot. This awesome diesel-electric submarine was built
at Chatham Dockyard in the early sixties and served throughout the Cold
War with the Royal Navy for 27 years. Crewed by 69 submariners,
the sub could do a rapid 17 knots underwater.
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HMS Ocelot's vertical escape tower looked scary, it shot the sailor to
the surface in an emergency!
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The tour round HMS Ocelot was guided and involved crouching down to
propel ourselves through a number of small round hatches and squeeze
into the next small passageway in the submarine - great fun, but
clearly not accessible for the less able. As expected it was all
rather cramped on board Ocelot and we certainly didn't envy a sailors
life stuck for months under the oceans. Up periscope!
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In the Victorian era Chatham Dockyard manufactured quality rope to rig
the Navy's sailing ships of the time. Our fascinating tour of the
Ropery was guided by a wonderful character enactor and set in
1875. Audience participation was invited to demonstrate how rope
was made...
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...and the tour finished at the quarter-mile long Ropewalk where rope
is still made today and the rope makers use cycles to get
end-to-end. The exit was through the Ropery Shop (of course!)
where ropes made in the Ropewalk could be bought, although why anyone
would suddenly need rope was lost on us.
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Another warship at Chatham Historic Dockyard to explore then, this is
HMS Cavalier, a 1944 built C-class destroyer that saw active service
during the closing years of WWII. Unlike HMS Ocelot and the
Ropery, we made our own way around HMS Cavalier.
For more information on the Historic Dockyard at Chatham
and other stuff on the places we visit please check out our expansive tourist resources.
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Now we wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of Cavalier's 1964
fitted Seacat missile system!
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Deep in the bowels of HMS Cavalier we found the Operations Room used to
find, monitor and engage with the enemy. Moving on through...
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...the warship we found the Wardroom - the mess where the top-ranked
Officers would dine and relax aboard HMS Cavalier.
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The radio gear in HMS Cavalier's Bridge Wireless Office had Mike
drooling; in a previous era he was G4BFJ, a 70s radio ham, when much of
this kit was still knocking around on the war surplus market.
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We toured other areas at Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent including
the Smithery, The Royal Dockyard Story and this: 3 Slip - The Big Space
with its awe-inspiring collection of large and heavy machinery.
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So on to another day of our Kent holiday and a walk to and around
Reculver Towers, a Roman fort just along the cliffs from Herne
Bay. The fort dates...
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...from 43AD when the Romans first landed, the towers are pretty much
all that remain of Reculver Fort. We found a geocache at Reculver too.
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After an interesting nose around Reculver Towers we started the
cliff-top walk towards Herne Bay, stopping by the informative visitor
centre at Reculver Country Park. We loved the danger notice here,
depicting a careless man falling over the cliffs! Reculver is...
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...several miles from Herne Bay and unfortunately we didn't quite get
to the town as somehow Mike totally mis-calculated the distances and
walking time, doh! Still, we did climb down to the north Kent
seafront and walked along the promenade for a bit.
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After a tiring day it was nice to return to the Kent holiday cottage
and cook up a hearty meal washed down by lashings of red wine.
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On the next page of our self-catering cottage holiday in Kent we visit Port Lympne Wild Animal Park and enjoy a walk along
Kent's historic Pilgrims Way >>>
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Kent 1 | Kent 2 | Kent 3
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