# When we were all supposed to be spies....



## ddraigmor (Sep 13, 2006)

Can anyuone recall when there was a sort of small set of cards supplied to Merchant ships that showed the Cyrillic lettering and numbers in Russian? They also came - I think - with small silhouettes of Russian ships. You were supposed to look at them, get as much detail as you could and then send the details in to the Government.

Am I going nuts or did tese exist?

If so, does anyone have a photocopy? More info?

Jonty


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## Tom S (Jul 22, 2006)

Yes they were issued by a Royal Navy Organisation called "Hornbeam" you were also meant to take photos and give details of the Radio Masts on Eastern Block vessels
TomS


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## makko (Jul 20, 2006)

I remember vividly our "Defence" lecture - I cannot remember the gentlemen's name right now, but he was famous for shooting down a Mig with a piston/propellor powered aircraft during the Korean War. I loved all the detail about the explosion of nuclear devices and the films. Then there was the part about engaging in small talk in bars - The "enemy" would be so kind as to ply you with beer to extract tonnage, cargo, top speed, ports of call etc.

There was also the "Admiralty Chest" with convoy plans etc. Upon the sale of Phrontis, we were to dispose of the Admiralty Papers. This was not difficult because they were completely rotted! If there are any spies reading this, they were given the deep six in Singapore Roads!

The good old "paranoid" days! I seem to remember the bit about radio/radar masts and antennae - Not that we could see much from the ER!!

Rgds.
Dave


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## richardc (Jan 9, 2006)

Whilst on the British Merlin the old man Peter? Waller kept a camera in the sea cabin and took photos of russians at every opportunity. Watch Officers were advised that the camera was there for use if required. All films were sent the MOD for "their info".

From what I remember he locked the camera in the safe when we went to Rostock, not a pleasant experience.

Richard.


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

30 years ago we had a cdr. hart r.n. (rtd) who owned a chauffeur driven rolls royce who took us for "merchant navy defence" courses.
the chauffeur was his assistant, a retired navy chief yeoman of signals.
they made quite a team.
the mornings consisted of code/decode instruction using a special frame, which would be used in war conditions.
the afternoon was light relief.......looking at pics of eastern bloc shipping, including some internal views of subs.........exciting stuff for teenage minds....and a general discussion about rules of engagement etc;

the underlying thinking of this session, was to illustrate to us how usefull even the smallest scrap of info could be.
he would display a slighly blurry snapshot of a soviet ship, then compare it with another taken at a different time.
the variations in hull formation indicated to the trained eye, the fitting or removal of weaponry, or re engining with a different propulsion unit or whatever.

great steps were taken to ensure only prescribed persons were allowed into this little meet........and we had one singapore lady student who didnt fit the bill.......she wasnt at all happy about it.

his parting words words were along the lines of.........

"you are not being asked to take photos, or report shipping movements.....but if you do....hand them into any police station or military establishment..........we will be most gratefull.
of course, if you are caught by an irate enemy, you are on your own."

these same subs are now littered all over the globe as wrecks or tourist attractions


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

why does it print ****** when i refer to a royal navy bunting ******?????

i had to reprint it as chief yeoman of sigs as it wouldnt accept the word ******

i think he was a very decent sort of chap, and not a ****** at all.

what do we do on pancake tuesday, when we are all a bunch of ******s?


i think we should be told...........


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Arriving in an unnamed Australian port with a big bridge after a trip to Red China, we were met by a chap from Naval Intelligence. The Captain who may or may not have known that we had been to China, passed him on to the 2nd mate, an RN Reservist. The 2nd Mate gave him whatever info he wanted and returned him to the Captain. The Captain then brought him down to the bar and announced: "This is Commander so-and-so, he's a spy."


Funnily enough, we weren't visited the next trip back.

John T.


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## Bearsie (Nov 11, 2006)

richardc said:


> Whilst on the British Merlin the old man Peter? Waller kept a camera in the sea cabin and took photos of russians at every opportunity. Watch Officers were advised that the camera was there for use if required. All films were sent the MOD for "their info".
> 
> From what I remember he locked the camera in the safe when we went to Rostock, not a pleasant experience.
> 
> Richard.


This paranoid non-sense went on under all flags, I think.
I even got chastised for drinking beer with the "Enemy".

The camera found it unpleasant to be locked in a safe?

I found Rostock always a reasonable place to visit, although not as much fun as Gdansk (Thumb).
Only once in a great while would I get a disparaging comment: "oh, you are one of them..." referring to the fact that my paper work showed that I was born in East Germany. One time I lost my shore slip and spent an hour or so at the police station. But they were rather friendly, I got to eat their sandwiches. 
This was in the early to mid 60's, no clue how they behaved at other times
or towards other people.


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## David Davies (Dec 11, 2006)

In 1955 went to Gydnia on Mv Hartington. Two FCO officials boarded at Kiel, both from inteligence, civil and naval, to brief one of the mates. Being the 3rd I drew the short straw. There was a camera involved which I did not use and a list of tasks on a sheet of paper which were to be memorised and then destroyed before entering Polish waters. (No I did not eat it even if I was in Harrisons). I did manage to make some relevant observations and on returning was de-briefed by the same two officials. My reward 200 blue line cigarettes marked "RN Ships Only"


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## AncientBrit (Oct 6, 2007)

The politico's and the upper echelon brass took it all very seriously, but at the lower levels it was all some huge lark.
During my Fishery Protection time on HMS BRAMBLE, as soon as we got east of North Cape we had a Russian sub follow us everywhere at periscope depth, keeping station religiously 1 mile on the quarter, port quarter one day, starboard the next.
One morning watch radar op noted that it hadnt changed to opposite quarter during the night so we flashed signal to them reminding them that they had forgotten to change position. They signalled back "Thankyou" the periscope went down and 20 minutes later reappeared exactly on station. They flashed light from periscope and said "Your Queens sister looks like horse". to which our skipper replied "Yes, she does doesn't she?"
End of signals. but it did break the boredom.
AB


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## richardc (Jan 9, 2006)

Bearsie,
I'm glad you found Rostock a reasonable place.

The experience we had on the Br Merlin was far from that. On completion of mooring ops everyone, apart from watchkeepers, were locked up in their respective bar, crew back aft and officers midships, bar shut of course. This was followed by several hours of 'ID' checks before we were allowed to start discharging. The whole area around was flat and laid to 'lawn' with armed guards in watch towers so nobody could get near to the ship without being seen.

The reason for all this securuity we were told was to stop crew members from jumping ship to live in East Germany!!!

We just played along with the game and discharged as fast as possible. A few brave souls went ashore armed with their local currency and found the place to be lifeless and depressing. They were also relieved of any currency they had left over, with no exchange of course.

An Italian tanker on an adjacent berth provided a timely warning as to what happens when you upset them - they locked everybody up on board and literally ransacked the ship, pulling the accommodation apart.

We were glad to get out of the place and in celebration the 3rd Mate hung his stereo speakers out of the port hole and played them 'Colonel Bogy' as we sailed down the channel.

Richard.


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## Bearsie (Nov 11, 2006)

Hi RichardC. That sounds rather dreadful !
I would have thought that they would be more unfriendly with West Germans rather than bona fide foreigners , alone for political reasons.
With that kind of treatment I can easily see why you had no urge to ever deal with them again.
Personally I found Russia boring and stuffy.
Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I was on a coaster and more often than not we actually parked "down town, no fence, just a guard, no big searches either. There was even some night clubs that I recall ( not quite up to western standards) although mostly we went to neighborhood bars for a beer, or 2. (1st and last)....
Matter of fact I was part of a team that picked up a brand new coaster from the local ship yard (Neptun) I believe the ship is on the SN gallery as Gironde or Gironda. Even dated a local girl during that time, although she was not too keen on showing me off to the neighbors, if you get my drift....
We went to almost all communist harbors in the Baltic but Königsberg/Kaliningrad, which was off limits. 

But back to the original question. I do not recall anyone ever being asked to take pictures or count antenna's or what not.
Either we were not deemed important enough, or more likely, not trust worthy.
Being coaster folk and all that. (Thumb) [=P]


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## cboots (Aug 16, 2004)

It has just struck me, reading the above posts, that it would be interesting to know what sort of reception crew members of Soviet Block ships got in non-Soviet ports. I traded to the old USSR for sometime with UBC and whilst the security was undoubtedly very apparent, although I can't say it ran to watch towers etc, the biggest irritation being the midnight curfew, Cinderella shore leave we called it. As I have posted elsewhere, when I visited the USA with a Chinese crew in the early seventies, the security reflected a fair degree of the paranoid. Are there any members from former Soviet Block flags who could share their experiences with us?
CBoots


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## tunatownshipwreck (Nov 9, 2005)

I recall in the 1960s/early 1970s that Soviet freighters had to send in a crew list 30 days before arriving at a US port for the crew to get shore leave, where most ships had to send in the list no later than 3 days before arrival.


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## Gavin Gait (Aug 14, 2005)

I know 20 years ago when there used to be a huge fleet of Soviet bloc fish processing ships anchored in Loch Broom ( Ullapool NW Scotland 105 ships in October/November 1987 ) that they were not allowed ashore unless it was for medical reasons. The Scottish fishermen used to trade magazines and cheap trinkets for Russian fur hats / dodgy cigs / Bulgarian Brandy ( although only when the boats first arrived....they used to "brew" it onboard... )

I always carried a camera with me when I went out doing checks on their paperwork and brails ( 1t capacity metal box that had to be checked and certified by the Scottish Fishery Office ) and anything unusual was taken but never normally asked for by anyone ( everyone knew I took the photos but I was never personally asked for copies ). I do know that there were spooks up in Ullapool taking photos of the ships to check for antenna's etc and some of the bigger ships ( Dauryia was 500ft I think ) looked like a communication center.

The RAF constantly gave them a "wake up call" prompt 0700hrs every few days by flying Phantom F4's/Buccanneers/Harriers down the loch at mast top height at near full throttle lol.

Davie[=P]


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Davie Tait said:


> The RAF constantly gave them a "wake up call" prompt 0700hrs every few days by flying Phantom F4's/Buccanneers/Harriers down the loch at mast top height at near full throttle lol.
> 
> Davie[=P]


Quite right too, keep Johnny Foreigner on his toes!(Jester)


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