I used to think that the old BBC radio series "The Navy Lark" was an exaggeration until I went to sea on the Research Ships...

The combination of long weeks at sea, long hours, and sometimes, boredom, resulted in many incidents similar to those in the radio show! In the early days we drew our crew from the "seaman's pool". Nobody wanted to go on our ships because, instead of going from one port to another, we went out into the middle of the ocean, stayed there for a few weeks, then, usually, went back to where we'd come from. The result was we got the "dregs"... on my first cruise two of the stewards had recently stolen a car and accidently driven it into the water at Barry docks (where the research ships were then based). The magistrate said he would have sent them to prison but being on the Research Ship would be punishment enough; in the event they proved to be great guys... although I'm not sure we reformed them!