- Author
- Book reviewer
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, Book reviews, Biographies
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- June 2000 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
IN THE NAVY, by D. R. Rickard
This is a little gem of a book. It is a sailor’s eye view of life in the Australian Navy in the 1960s and 1970s. Dave Rickard was initially a mechanical engineer (a.k.a. stoker) but transferred to the Writer branch and finished up as a Petty Officer after twelve years service.
He served in many ships. The Vampire (twice, once before and once after modernisation), the Melbourne, the Queenborough and the Swan, as well as doing time at the Naval Air Station at Nowra, with the Naval Dockyard Police at Garden Island, and at Navy Office in Canberra. He certainly saw the Navy from many aspects.
I was particularly interested in his account of his first sea posting, as an Ordinary Seaman in the Vampire. I was the Captain at the time, and we went up to the China Sea for a SEATO exercise and then escorted the Sydney into Vietnam with the first Army deployment. He kept a diary of his impressions, which was fascinating reading after all these years. He also puts his memories of the times in perspective with the broader issues that were affecting world events at the time.
His accounts of his experiences, in the Far East, the South Pacific, and closer to home – particularly Garden Island Dockyard and King’s Cross – are most interesting. His accounts of life on board ship, and his experiences with his many friends, strike many chords.
Highly recommended.
David Hamer (Captain, RAN (Ret’d)