HMS Ark Royal

The Last Commission:

1976 to 1978

 

    

Hamburg

30 September to 5 October 1977

 

   

The long 70 mile journey inland took up all the remaining daylight hours and the ship finally berthed about 1900A at Hamburg. Hamburg, and what can be said about our first foreign port of call this deployment? Probably the aspect foremost in all our memories will be the awful wet weather that we had during our few days’ stay, and by contrast the splendid hospitality extended to us by the citizen of The Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg
     

Of course there were the official receptions both on board the ship and ashore. The City entertained the Captain and 26 officers and ratings to a Civic Lunch at the Rathaus – equivalent to the City Hall – on Monday 3rd October. Numerous visits and tours were organised and these were superbly handled by our own Detours organisation. Generally all were successful and, as they were all free, there were no shortage of volunteers

In the evenings there were the bright lights of the Reeperbahn and possibly everyone who went ashore at night went there for one reason or another, even if it was only out of curiosity. In complete contrast there was the visit to the Hamburg State Opera House to see ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’. Of course, many made their own way and did their own thing, and everyone seemed to enjoy Hamburg although it was expensive for a lot of us.

To show our appreciation, the ship was open to visitors over the weekend and over 10,000 Germans and Britons braved the showers and long queues to come and see us. The Royal Marine Band played its part by giving performances for the visitors.

By Wednesday 5th October our visit was over and at 0830 we slipped from No 8 berth and after a neat astern movement into one of the many water inlets to the dock area, the ship gained forward speed and set off on the long journey back to the North Sea and to the third phase of the work up in preparation for the Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI)
     
    For those that could be spared, there was the four day visit by eighteen officers and men to Berlin through East Germany. Conducted sightseeing tours of both East and West Berlin were organised by the parties’ host, The Royal Corps of Transport, and the well known Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate and Check Point Charlie now mean something more to these men of ARK ROYAL.
   
   
 
   

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