NAVAL “DISASTER”

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 8, 31 July 1930, Page 2

NAVAL “DISASTER”

MISTAKE IN UNIFORM. “Timbers shivered in tlio iSavy, main-braces came unsphced, and many a quarter-deck looked eveu smaller. Hearts of oak turned to deal; tlie iNeison column looked like an optional paragraph.. Grey admirals agreed that it \vas tlie darkest night they had known since the Dutch llect burned its way past the Nore- soin/a hundreds of years ago, when they were only powder monkeys. There has been a howler in the uniform of a paymaster rear-admiral.” This i» a London ‘Daily Mail’ writer’s conception of the disclosure that Fleet Orders had committed a mistake in a matter of official dress. The revelation came in the form of a countermanding order, which read: “There is an error in the illustration, of the shoulder-strap of a paymaster rearadmiral in the uniform regulations for officers of the Fleet. The plate is incorrect, for tlie piping of white distinction, cloth is omitted. A correction will bo made.’* Soon as the full meaning of the phase, “A correction will he made,” was realised, sadness tinned to joy, .Paymaster rear-admirals, who have been catching cold through going about without “tlie piping of white distinction” cloth, made signals. thanking Union! s of the admiralty. Salutes were fired, tliore were merry scenes on many a quarter-deck as captains and engine-room artificers danced together. Tlie Fleet felt that it was the biggest ami happiest tiling on the seas since Trafalgar. i