IMPROVEMENTS IN ROYAL NAVY

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 13

IMPROVEMENTS IN ROYAL NAVY

Bunks To Replace Hammocks

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, January 20. The Royal Navy is to lose its hammocks, in which sailors have slept since the days of Drake. They are to be replaced by bunks, under the Admiralty’s new ideas on what it calls “habitability.” Other amenities are to be included in new ships and existing ships are to be brought into line as far as possible. The Admiralty announcement, however, adds this warning: “These improvements have to remain subordinate to the primary function of every warship, new or old—to fight.” Habitability means, among other. thingy that all mess, deckswilUbe fitted with electric irons and ironing boards. Sockets for' electric razors will be fitted into the main decks of ships with the appropriate electricity supply. Other improvements will include suitcase and shoe stowage, bookshelves and coat cupboards, coloured linoleum for mess decks and coloured plastic table tops and carpets for chief petty officers’ messes.

Officers will have single cabins and standard schemes of furnishing will include light-coloured wood for all furniture. There will be no more dark mahogany. The Admiralty also says that consideration is being given for provision of sockets in cabins from a common aerial for private wireless sets.

Escaped Prisoner Recaptured

(New Zeaiana vress Association) HAMILTON, Jan. 21. Police and farmers last night recaptured a 22-year-old prisoner who had been missing from Waikeria Prison since Friday afternoon. The, prisoner, Kenneth Rex Brasell, aged 22, had been living for some days in a house in Korakanui road, whose owners were on holiday.