Don Cleavin – On board HMS Forth

I was standing on the well deck on the Forth looking down as these submarines came in and there was Tally-Ho, Taper, Tabard and Sea Devil and when they all came in I looked at the Tally-Ho and said, “I want to be on that boat ‘cos it really looks like a bloody submarine.

The others look a little bit different.” Tally-Ho had torpedo tubes sticking out all over the place, had punch cups sticking up there, It had a four-inch gun sticking up.

I thought, that is for me.

The other boats streamlined, not necessarily more modern but just streamlined, but Tally-Ho was just as she’d been built in 1942.

I got drafted to Tally-Ho.

I was so pleased about that, and the Captain was Lieutenant Arnold Melhuish and I still write to him even now. It’s a long time ago.