Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The Royal Navy and Royal Naval Reserve Fleet at Penarth Dock

left - Desiccating a mounting with bags of Silica-Gel. the man who works inside the package has to be protected from toxic fumes. When a ship is destined for reserve the electrical equipment is surveyed and a comprehensive defect list made out, and all major items are corrected before the ship is accepted, stores and spares are mustered and deficiencies demanded.

Armament - Without efficient armament a warship would be like a toothless dog with a bone. Putting the armament of a ship into reserve involves a lot more than merely covering everything with those beautiful plastic covers which have become such a common sight in all our naval ports.

On arrival at the port at which the ship is to prepare for reserve, a preliminary inspection of the armament is made and the report on this inspection, in conjunction with the ship's own report, determines initially the likely reserve class of the ship.

A few days later a team of experts descend upon the ship and go through the equipment of the ship, by test and by observation, with a fine tooth-comb so that even the most minor defects, e.g. missing split pins, are not overlooked. Any major defect discovered is enough to cause the ship's class in the reserve to be affected. The list of defects discovered, and the results of the tests, are classified and all small defects are scheduled to be made good by the ship's staff during the period of preparation for the reserve. All large defects are listed to be included in the defect list for the ship's next refit.

The real work of putting the armament of the ship into reserve now begins. The ship's staff carry out complete stripping, examination and preservation of all equipment to the satisfaction of Reserve Fleet officers. Any corrosion is removed and nothing is left undone so that the final result is capable of standing up to several years of reserve without more than a small amount of deterioration.