![RFA Resurgent - one of the Nautilus Telegraph's Ships of the Past Image:RFA Resurgent - one of the Nautilus Telegraph's Ships of the Past](/globalassets/news-by-topic/ships-of-the-past/rfa-resurgent_web.jpg)
I always enjoy Andrew Linington’s Ships of the past articles, but I was particularly pleased to see RFA Resurgent take centre stage (Nautilus Telegraph, June 2020). I was on Resurgent for her last foreign voyage, to the Pacific coast of USA and Canada, and also previously served in her sister ship Retainer.
It was widely thought that these ships were considered ‘naughty boy’ postings by our appointers in London, and we never sought to disabuse them of this notion! It is true that they took a lot of work for the engineers to keep them in good order, but with the generous manning of chief, second, 4 thirds, 3 fourths, 7 juniors, 3 electricians, 2 fridge engineers and usually a pair of cadets, I don’t recall the workload ever becoming onerous. Any displays of dismay at being given an appointment to these elderly ladies of the sea were, therefore, purely for effect, in the knowledge that a great trip awaited us!
Stephen Piper
More letters
Help us remember MN veterans of D-Day in North Wales
The 6 June ceremonies in Portsmouth and Ver-sur-Mer commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy Landings made little or no mention of the huge sacrifice and contribution made by the Fourth Service, the Merchant Navy. We intend to put this right in a ceremony in North Wales.
Corrupt port officials: what we all do to get by
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P&O pirates
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