What You Always Wanted to Know about Naval Tradition

125 Pages·2010·0.46 MB·English

WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT NAVAL TRADITION (BUT
WERE AFRAID TO ASK)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD 5

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 6

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 7

General
Why Should I Bother Reading This?

CHAPTER 2 - NAVAL HISTORY, TRADITIONS AND CEREMONIES 11

General
Battle of the Atlantic Sunday
Toasts of the Day
The Loyal (or Royal) Toast
Clinking Glasses
Passing the Port
Funerals/Burials
Military Funerals
Hand Saluting
Saluting Other Ships
Gun Salutes
Manning and Cheering Ship
The Wearing of Caps
Half Masting
Launching and Naming Ships
Warship Names
The Prefix “Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship”
The Officer’s Commission
Paying Off Pennant
Grog and Splice the Mainbrace
Crossing the Line
The Ship’s Bell
The Ship’s Badge, Colours and Motto
Battle Honours
Individual Medals and Awards
Weddings
Whistling in Ships
Piping
Naval Punishments
Christmas Dinner On Board Ship
Miscellaneous

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CHAPTER 3 – OPERATIONAL ISSUES AND DEPLOYMENTS 33

Pilots (The Maritime Kind)
Tugs
Fog
Boats
Cars
Replenishment at Sea
Stupid Time
Foreign Affairs
Other Government Departments

CHAPTER 4 – NAVAL TERMINOLOGY 42

Introduction
Some Maritime Expressions

CHAPTER 5 – WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN OFFICER 52

Introduction
Loyalty
Courage
Integrity
Responsibility
Perspective
Innovation and Imagination
Inspiration and Motivation
Polish
Instinct
A Final Thought

CHAPTER 6 – SOCIAL AND WARDROOM LIFE 63

Wardroom Life
Dress
Behavior in Other Messes
Chiefs’ and Petty Officers’ Messes
The Junior Rates’ Mess
Cocktail Parties and Receptions
Mess Bills
The Mess Dinner

CHAPTER 7 – PERSONNEL ISSUES 69

Performance Assessment
Calls
Canadian Diplomatic Representatives
Staff Jobs
The Care and Feeding of Task Group Staffs
The Divisional System
Senior Officers
Junior Officers
Senior Non-Commissioned Members
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Junior Non-Commissioned Members
Breaking Bad News
Deployment Preparations
Mixed Gender Issues
Making That Difficult Decision
Honest Mistakes

CHAPTER 8 – ADMINISTRATION 85

A Necessary Evil
E-Mail
More on E-Mail
Public Affairs
Dealing With the Public
The Joining Letter
Boards of Enquiry and Summary Investigations
Ship’s Tours

CHAPTER 9 – AIDES DE CAMP AND FLAG LIEUTENANTS 92

Introduction
Standing Out
Work Schedule
Use of Rank and Position
Travel Away and Visits In
Personal Duties
Relationship with the Staff
Equipment
Personal Relationship
A Final Thought

CHAPTER 10 – THE NAVAL MESS DINNER 100

Introducing a Speaker
Thanking a Speaker
Preparing for a Mess Dinner
Conducting a Mess Dinner
A Final Thought

CHAPTER 11 – ON ASPIRING TO COMMAND 109

The Commanding Officer
The Others
More on Risk Management
Strategic Thinking
Loyalty
Motivation
Voices in the Night
A Sobering Story

CHAPTER 12 – CONCLUSION 117

A Voice from the Past
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A Final Thought

CHAPTER 13 – REFERENCE MATERIAL 119

“Heart of Oak”
The Naval Hymn
The Naval Prayer
The Blessing of the Ship/Ship’s Company
Prayer for the Fleet
“The Laws of the Navy”

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FOREWORD

This project enjoys my full and enthusiastic support. Like many Canadian naval professionals, I
have seen, and lamented, the gradual erosion of some of our more traditional practices as we
have in recent years narrowed our focus more to the demands of operations. Certainly, except
for wartime, these demands are more immediate and more crucial today than at virtually any
point in the almost one hundred-year history of our Navy.

But the two areas – operations and tradition - are not incompatible or mutually exclusive.
Indeed, tradition underpins and reinforces operations in meaningful and necessary ways, at the
same time that operational requirements draw inspiration and purpose from historical events. As
the author of the following document, retired Captain (N) R.G. Allen, states, it helps us to know
who we are and where we come from. This must be understood in order to know better where
we are going, and how we wish to get there. This link with the past builds pride, strengthens
morale and hones professionalism.

While training courses give us the warfare skills we need, an informal document like this can
help connect us to our history, and aid us in achieving a fundamental understanding of our
profession. It can help explain what it means to be a mariner and a sailor.

I am indebted to Captain (N) (Ret’d) Allen for his effort in producing such an excellent and
readable explanation of some of our traditions and naval ethos. As the centennial of the
Canadian Navy looms on the horizon, I encourage you all to read this publication closely. It
paints a picture of the origins of our service and examines some of its subsequent history. But
woven among the definitions, explanations and anecdotes are some valuable lessons for today –
lessons that we must learn and remember in order to preserve the essence of what it is to be a
navy – our Canadian Navy as a critical element of our professional and capable Canadian Forces.

No initial effort in such a broad and important area could ever be complete; I encourage
suggestions for additions and improvements to this document.

A.B. Donaldson
Commander
Commodore

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Captain (Navy) Robert (Bob) Allen, a prairie boy from Saskatchewan, joined the Royal
Canadian Navy in 1967. He retired to Victoria, British Columbia, thirty-six years later.

In between, he divided his career equally between the West Coast, the East Coast and Ottawa.

In Esquimalt, he held appointments as Executive Officer of GATINEAU and as the last
Commander of Maritime Operations Group Two.

In Halifax, he was honoured to serve as Commanding Officer of GATINEAU for one and a half
years. This was clearly the highlight of his career. With the Canadian Patrol Frigates not yet
operational, a few “steamers” carried the full load of taskings. These included establishing
United Nations-mandated sanctions in the Adriatic off the former Yugoslavia, and off Haiti.

At NDHQ, he occupied several policy positions. While usually dealing with Asia Pacific issues,
he was also intimately involved with the policy aspects of the First Gulf War.

His last five years of service were in the United States. He spent three years as the Deputy Chief
of Staff to the Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic, and two years in the Headquarters of the
Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic.

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CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

GENERAL

There are three things - and only three - that are inevitable in this world. There is death,
there is tax, and there is the fact that from time to time, senior naval officers and Chief
Petty Officers will lament the erosion of naval ethos among more junior officers and
NCMs. This has, without doubt, been going on ever since the second (and hence junior)
man pushed off into a lake astride a log. That this phenomenon recurs at regular intervals
is no reason to dismiss it, for those who are concerned about this decline are serious, and
sincerely want to impart the importance of understanding who we in the Navy are, and
how we got here. The world changes constantly and we should and must change with it.
That does not mean that we need to abandon that anchor, that connection, to our past that
makes us, those who go down to the sea in ships, unique.

This volume is intended to address some of the areas that are thought to need attention.
Some will seem fairly trivial, while others are of much more import. This effort cannot,
clearly, be comprehensive, and it does not purport to be. It can only scratch the surface
by selecting targets that are either close to the heart of the author, or topical because of
some recent headline or scandal, or perennially on the list because constant reinforcement
is necessary to ensure understanding. A glance at the table of contents will confirm the
random nature of this examination. Many important topics are covered well elsewhere,
so this present effort will not attempt to collate or regurgitate them. Instead, this
document should be seen simply as helpful hints from those who have gone before.

This pamphlet is aimed particularly at he (and now, she) who in a few years will become
an Executive Officer of a frigate or MCDV (Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel). That is,
the targeted audience will primarily be senior Lieutenants and junior Lieutenant-
Commanders in Department Head positions. Put another way, these lessons are intended
for that group of officers (and indeed NCMs) that is transitioning from a situation where
they manage and administer, to one where they will supervise and direct. They are at that
point of their careers where a wider view is necessary, where the interests of the whole
ship, and not just one’s own department, have to be considered. They are approaching
that point where they will be judged not by what they do, but by what they inspire others
to do.

Obviously, given the primary target audience defined above, the subjects covered here
will be of interest to a much wider group. Those more junior people aspiring to these
responsible jobs will also want to heed these lessons for the purposes of education and
preparation. It should also be clearly understood that the observations contained here are
not applicable only to officers, because we today serve in a navy where, thankfully and
inevitably, both senior and more junior NCMs are being asked (and expected) to do much
more than ever before. Some hints are directed specifically at one rank group or the
other, but many are of very general interest.

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If you are potentially in line to be entrusted with an appointment as XO, you have to
prepare yourself, both so you can do the job well, and more immediately, so you can
convince somebody “up there” that you should be selected for it.

There was a time, not that long ago, when the Canadian Navy seemed to steam around
our coasts in largely obsolescent vessels doing training and little else. That training was
fairly sound given the severe limitations of the equipment. We could do man overboard
drills more quickly and effectively than anyone. Everyone tried hard, and meant well,
but there was always that suspicion that we were somehow the second team. There
existed the view that we were somehow deficient where warfare issues were concerned.
That is no longer true. Today, our ships are modern and capable, and our sailors among
the best trained in the world. We participate in important, international operations –
individually on occasion, but usually as part of a larger coalition – and we hold our own.
Indeed, we shine. We have expertise, widely recognized, in warfare areas that we only
dreamed about before about 1990. Events around the time of the First Gulf War
impacted our navy significantly, and the curves of our operational commitments and
naval skills have been upward ever since.

This strong operational focus is a good thing in every sense. It builds pride, and purpose,
and professional capability. But, it is not the whole story. It is possible to focus too
narrowly on the demands of the warfare disciplines to the exclusion of those basics that
hold the navy together, and make us, collectively, “different”. And let there be no
mistake, “different” is what we are, and must be. Naval service is a calling like no other,
and the navy is a unique mistress. To truly be a part of this, to be a player rather than a
passenger, it is not enough to “attend” from 0800 until 1600. In some ways like
marriage, the commitment must be absolute if the task is to be properly accomplished.
Part of that commitment is understanding, and being true to, the essence of the service.
That means having respect for the age-old traditions, but it also means learning from the
past and adapting its lessons to the challenges of today’s world. It does not mean a
slavish following of outmoded customs, but it does involve a recognition of, and respect
for, those fundamental underpinnings of our craft that make naval service so different,
and so rewarding. Hence the motivation for the production of this collection of thoughts.

WHY SHOULD I BOTHER READING THIS?

There are four main reasons why the target audience, loosely identified above, should
read the following pages.

First, our mothers were usually right! They used to tell us that fruits and vegetables were
good for us. Science has now reduced every food to its constituent molecules, and
examined the benefit (or otherwise) of each in exhaustive detail. Diets catering to every
nuance of the spectrum have come and gone. Foods that were declared essential a few
short years ago, have now been found to be carcinogens, while past dangers have latterly
yielded un-imagined dietary benefit. All that coffee just might be good for us. At the
end of the day, despite all the transient health trends and the intense endeavours of
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nutritional science, it seems clear that our mothers were right all the time. Eat your
veggies!

Second, a wise man once observed that if common sense were so common, everyone
would have some. The implication was clearly that many of us seem not to have received
our fair share.

Third, some people insist on seeing the glass as half-full; some, half-empty. Meanwhile,
the average engineer is of the view that the glass was built twice as big as it had to be.

Fourth, re-inventing the wheel is time-consuming, wasteful, and very likely to arrive at
the same conclusion in the end. To make every error yourself, sometimes more than
once, but learn nothing in the process, is criminal. To make most errors, but only once,
and profit from the experience, is laudable, but painful. By far the easiest way to achieve
true wisdom is to let the guy in front of you in the line make the mistake, then profit from
his misfortune.

So, to summarize these four reasons in more understandable terms:

a. those with gray hair (or no hair) often know what they are talking about;

b. it is incredibly easy to read something and say, “I knew that”. Demonstrating
knowledge up front, without the benefit of hind-sight, is more revealing;

c. what seems obvious to one person might well be counter-intuitive to his best
mate. Perspectives differ, and you can learn much from understanding the other
guy’s or gal’s point of view even if you don’t agree with it; and

d. the lessons recorded here were often learned the hard way. These are often the
most valuable lessons.

Remembering the target audience, the following chapters will try to provide some advice
on the care and feeding of three groups: Commanding Officers, Junior Officers, and
ship’s companies. As has been stated, this volume cannot be comprehensive. Still, the
randomness and selectivity of the chosen topics might lead to head scratching. There will
be items of import that have been missed altogether, and these should be flagged for
future attention. Similarly, some obscure topics will seemingly be examined ad nauseum
because of the author’s predilections. This effort should very much be seen as an adjunct
to, and not a substitution for, other publications - both official and un-official. It is what
it is.

The text is sprinkled with short stories and pithy observations in italics. While the
connection to the surrounding paragraphs might sometimes be obscure and difficult to
fathom, the intent is only to illustrate or reinforce.

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The author accepts full responsibility for any lies told, lines stolen or reputations
defamed. No apology is made for the quality (or otherwise) of my memory.

Robert G. Allen
Captain (N) (Retired)
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