Jim Perks – Small Ship command

Then another opportunity came. Again, the Boss of the School said, “You’ve been selected for Small Ship Command” which I didn’t really understand what he meant.

He said, “You’re off to drive a University ship, an URNU.”

“Ok, brilliant, fabulous.”

I didn’t really know what that was but you get a P2000 Patrol boat to Captain, as a Lieutenant and in charge of a group of 51 University students who join the Unit as Reservists and for them it’s an opportunity to learn a bit more about the Navy.

We do quite a lot of Leadership Training with them. It’s not a recruiting tool, it wasn’t then anyway. It’s just, you know, trying to educate leaders of the future and I was put in to the Yorkshire University’s Royal Naval Unit based out of Hull, which was unbelievably good for me.

Hull, no one came to visit, the Senior Officers were few and far between, we were very much left alone to our own devices.

The ship was based in the middle of Hull Marina, in the centre of Town, a lovely unit in an old house where we did our Drill Nights and looked after the students. Fabulous. I thought it was going to be irrelevant but actually it wasn’t because command is command at the end of the day.

Yeah, it’s a tiny ship with a crew of 5, but you’re still the Boss and if something is going to go wrong, it’s your fault, so actually that did teach me something. I didn’t think it would but it definitely did and I didn’t realise that until after Perisher.