I was sent down to the Small Ships base, on Sydney Harbour, to inspect a .50 Browning deck mount and it was a real mess as the canvas cover had been left off and salt water had got into the ball races that the gun rotated on.
So I had it removed and took it back to 2 Base Workshop where me had the gear to tear the rusted bearings out.
A few days later (still well ahead of the paperwork
) I brought the repaired mount back and re-installed it on the ship, actually an LST.Then I asked the Officer on watch to get the gunner to bring up a gun so that I could try it on the mount, just to make sure of things.
He objected that it was unnecessary as nothing had been altered except the fitting of new bearings but I insisted and he turned to the gunner and said "Bring up a gun, we have to keep the armourer happy".
Gun installed I rotated it from port to starboard over the stern and it elevated and depressed on the traverse cam satisfactorily clearing all bits of the ship that didn't need to be shot up in the heat of battle until I got to tho starboard limit of traverse. There in the sights was the ships boat; when the cam was cut there hadn't been a boat in the davits.
I showed the Officer and remarked "The armourer is now happy."
He thanked me very much and apologized.
On another occasion we had to remove a Bofors gun from the bow of an LST because it returned from Vietnam with the gun not lashed properly and not properly covered either and it had spent the journey rocking over its salt water filled bearings----that one was a fun job
Edit: Got my port and starboard mixed up, I should also add that at the time I was a Civilian Armourer.
