Brian (Bill) Haley Bem

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous Brian (Bill) Haley Bem

This intense descriptive veracity continues as the narrative moves on to shipboard service. The first phase of the memoir is a lengthy and vividly detailed account of the harsh regime at the Royal Navy's training establishment in Gosport, Hampshire. The second phase, which is sustained over half the total memoir, is an account of the experiences in exotic waters from the Mediterranean, down the east coast of Africa, and eventually on to Singapore and Hong Kong. The third phase of the memoir, which is its centerpiece, spans a period of seven years as a member of the crew of the Royal Yacht Britannia. This is another big eye-opener, an insight into running one of the most unusual, famous, and in some eyes, controversial naval vessels of its day. The narrative continues and is built around a fascinating account of a single cruise in 1970, which followed the route taken by Captain Cook's voyage to Australia two hundred years previously. Finally, as a member of the task force that set out to the South Atlantic in 1982, featured are many vividly detailed battles that allowed the Falkland Islands to be returned to the United Kingdom.