# T S Mercury



## tonypad

As ANZAC Day approaches I was listening to a programme about WW1 and at the end the Last Post was played. It took me back to my days at TSM when, on an occasional Sunday summer night, a cadet who I think was John Donavan (?), would take his trumpet ( or cornet) aboard and would play Sunset and Last Post over the quiet Hamble River. It would have been around 1958 to1960 and had a lasting effect, whenever I hear the Last Post I'm taken back to those times. I was a cadet there between 1957 and 1961.


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## father john

Hi tonypad, I think that I am correct in stating that Mercury is now restored to her former glory in Chatham Dockyard as HMS Pegasus (I think), she now looks as she was before she became T S Mercury. A very fine and historic ship, and well worth a visit. I sometimes sailed past Mercury while she was moored on the Hamble in 1958/59.


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## tonypad

Hello Father John,
Thanks for your reply and the comments regarding TS Mercury, yes I understand the old ship is now fully restored and has her original name , HMS Gannet, it looks quite splendid now. You must have passed the ship when on the Hamble River, we sailed out from the creek where the shore establishment was. It is now a housing estate....so many memories rest on the banks of that place.
I came to Perth in 1968 and have never been back to the UK. I will be driving over to Melbourne next week, a trip I do two or three times a year to either Melbourne or Sydney, hope the cold weather will have gone by then...
Thanks for the reply, best wishes,
Tony


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## Michael Taylor

Googled the pictures of the restored HMS Gannet and it looked nothing like she did during my days at the School of Nav. at Warsash. So looked up TS Murcury and there she was just as I remembered.....excellent job and thank God some places take the time and money to preserve our history.


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