Hornblower
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May I join in?We in the 'original' Fleet band (i.e. the Famous Dogends) had occasion to go to Ethiopia in 1973 and had a very jolly time too. Taff Cox attempting to dive into the swimming pool from the top board whilst blind drunk and being stopped by Taff Kinsey was a highlight, mainly due to there being no water in the pool.
But that's not why I'm writing. We had the use of a jetty, just a small concrete one. We spent quite a lot of free time there, swimming, snorkelling and that sort of thing. We had noticed that none other than the First Sea Lord, who was along for the jolly, (some fleet review thingy) sometimes made use of the jetty - but tried not to come too close.
One day he ambled right up to us and engaged one Bill Robinson in conversation (big mistake, but he wasn't to know I suppose!) I edged in a bit closer to hear the fun when I heard Princess Anne's name mentioned. FSL explained that we would not be able to use the jetty tomorrow as The Princess would be relaxing 'over there' waving his tattooed gold wrist loftily in the direction of the pool.
I will never (ever) forget his face when Bill asked him what would happen if we actually (gasp) saw her?
"Turn into frogs?"
In defence of FSL and because I don't suppose he had much choice, he did wring a smile out of himself.
Ah, you had to be there.
I was. 
I was wrong about it being the First Sea Lord - actually it was our immediate boss the CinC Fleet. Leave me alone, it was an awful long time ago.... 
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