A boat story from Grandad’s days training with a Navy Patrol Boat.When I was eighteen I was in Southampton in England training to command a naval fast attack boat . I learnt how to use the boat to attack targets with torpedoes and small arms fire, The boat was powered by a gas turbine compressor engine and was built as a very fast attack vessel by Hunter Marine of Southampton and was able to reach a speed 60 kph cruising and up 110 kph attack speed.One day we were cruising in Southampton Waters a big shipping strait next to our base. I was the skipper that day and we made a plan to get yummy food and cigarettes from a floating shop that was on a barge in the middle of the water. This was strictly not allowed as we were under base rules which said we must not stop the boat anywhere in case we were boarded. This day I pulled the boat alongside the barge against the tide (stemming the tide) and kept the engines running whilst one of the boys would jump onto the barge and shop for the orders of food and drink and cigarettes we had secretly listed from sailors on the base. It was a nice day and I was relaxed on the bridge of the boat keeping the craft just alongside the barge . I didn’t notice a man in a yachting rig with a fancy cap and stripy trousers rowing up to the stern of our boat in a small square one man pram boat which he had used to move from his yacht moored nearby to cross over to the barge. The man was very well dressed and smart and was smoking a pipe which made him look very sailorlike – in a civilian sort of way ! He looked like Popeye !Then the man made a very silly move . With quite a long rope he tied up the bow of his tiny boat to the bollards on our stern.! He should have tied up to the barge but he didn’t !Of course I didn’t see him do this and had no idea he was there .Our crewman quickly +picked up the forbidden orders and ran quickly from the barge shop and jumped onto our boat. Immediately I threw the throttles of the turbines into full ahead and the 20 metre attack boat gave a big roar and took off from the barge – quickly it reached 80 kph or 50 knots of speed ,roaring through the waves, bouncing and crashing through the seaway.Then I heard a shrill screaming and I thought the turbines were being driven too fast and I powered down to lower revolutions and put on the propeller shaft brakes to pull the speed down.Then for the first time I looked back long the boat. I saw the small punt bouncing and crashing through the water and the Popeye man being violently thrown around and I realised where the shrilling and screaming was from ! His sailor suit was being ripped off and his hat was missing – his pipe was gone – and then he was gone !We performed a special fast turn and rescued the Popeye man and he wasn’t happy ! Nor was my Commander who gave me punishment drill for two weeks – he just couldn’t see the funny side of it all !