"Fair Winds And Following Seas" To The Last Survivor HMS Hood

Royal Navy Lt. Ted Briggs, retired, the last survivor of the World War II sinking of British battle cruiser HMS Hood, has died at the age of 85.

Briggs was one of only three seamen among the 1,418-strong crew to survive an attack by the German battleship Bismarck on May 24, 1941. A salvo from the Bismarck hit the Hood during the Battle of the Denmark Strait and the magazine exploded, tearing the ship in half. It sank within three minutes.

Briggs, an 18-year-old signalman, later described how he had been sucked under by the sinking ship before being propelled to the surface, where he saw HMS Hood disappearing below the waves.

"I turned and swam as best I could in water 4 inches thick with oil and managed to get on one of the small rafts she carried, of which there were a large number floating around," he wrote in an account posted on the HMS Hood Association's Web site. "When I turned again she had gone and there was a fire on the water where her bows had been."

Briggs said he saw two other survivors, Midshipman William Dundas and Able Seaman Bob Tilburn, on rafts nearby. "There was not another soul to be seen," he wrote.

The trio were picked up by a British destroyer three hours later.

In 2001, the wreckage of the Hood was found, almost 10,000 feet below the ocean's surface between Greenland and Iceland. Briggs helped lay a plaque on the underwater wreckage, which was designated an official war grave by the British government.

Briggs used to say 'I was not a hero, I was a survivor,'"

Briggs retired on 2 February 1973 with the rank of lieutenant. In the year he retired, at the Queen's Birthday Honours he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

HMS Hood, sunk in battle on May 24, 1941 by the KMS Bismark

Sky Bean

The youngest grand boy was over this morning. He is almost seven months old and is getting up on his hands and knees. He is very interested in anything going on around him. Since he is the youngest of three boys there is always something going on around.


He can low crawl all over or roll into where he can't crawl. The on your knee crawl seems to be a bit of a problem. If you look at the pictures you can detect he has moved but he it seems he can only go backwards. But that does not stop him from trying.

My prediction is he will walk early. He does not want to be left out and his older brothers are doing stuff, regardless of what it is, he wants to do.

A great recipe for early participation.

Crappo, The Hornworm

A few weeks ago we found another hornworm trashing the tomato plants. They are somewhat of a multi-fisted eater, if there is such a thing. Kinda like me with barbequed pork and french fries.

Anyhow it was decided that this particular hornworm would be placed in a old pickle jar and transported for some of the grandboys to view; kind of a nature thing you know. All of the other hornworms suffered some sort of instantaneous demise.

Originally the hornworm was placed in an old pickle jar with a large handful of tomato plant stalks with many leaves. By the next morning the stalks were bare and the hornworm was on the bottom of a doo-doo filled jar.

Well Nana cleaned out the jar and was getting ready to refill it with some more tomato plant chow. While cleaning the jar, she had left the hornworm, now named Crappo, on the entry-way sidewalk. By the time the jar was cleaned, Crappo was gone, but was located in a few minutes busily burrowing into the dirt next to the sidewalk.

Here was a clue, so a few handfuls of dirt were placed in the bottom of the jar. By the next morning Crappo was buried in the dirt. His outer layer turned a dark brown and no more action was forthcoming for a few (no one kept track) weeks.



Crappo manged to get about 99.9% out of the pupae sheath but that's where he gave up the ghost. Though Crappo's story did not end well the grandboys now have captured some hornworms of their own. Hopefully they will fare better with theirs, named ChewBacca and Master Yoda.

New Rule, Not B-Out Me

My blushing bride and I went to see The Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor this weekend. It is your basic Brenden Fraser adventure flick, sorta, kinda like "George Of The Jungle" does Indiana Jones. However, a hot bag of lightly salted and buttered popcorn with a large diet soda can turn many movies (even some chick flicks) into an afternoon of bliss. We liked it.

After returning home, blushing bride was telling the four year old grandson in North Carolina how good the movie was when he told her that in the future, we were not allowed to go B-Out (without) him. It seems that he was highly disappointed his grandparents went B-Out him.

This Is What Happens When Your Mother Is An English Major

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The English Major's Son

Practices for Hamlet in the bathtub.



"That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once..."

Posted by DadaMama at 08:24 PM in Superbaby | Permalink

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The Old Salt is going to have to work real hard with this lad.

Heres A Thought

Unfortunately, you do indeed appear to have no discernible leadership qualities. Furthermore, you seem to be overly cautious, timid and lacking in self confidence. A career in the military may not be for you. Have you thought about the Air Force?

Another Adventure At Blue Springs

These are pictures taken by my daughters and blushing bride while on an adventure a couple of weeks ago at Blue Springs.


In the foreground are three of the grandboys. In the background is the jump pier. Each of them jumped off the pier into the water with their Aunt Jacqui. They all thought it was exciting and a little bit scary



As usual you will find my blushing bride with the babies. They and the Nana are resting in the shade, it was another very hot day.



Here is Baby Sky with his sun hat on. He likes to wear hats and have his picture taken. He likes to make adults smile.



Ise looks like he is having a great time as he comes out of the water. The day was hot, but the water in Blue Springs is not.



Gus also appears to be having fun. He has his swimming goggles on so he can see better underwater.



I will leave it up to you to decide whether you think baby Dee is having a good time or not.



This is Will as he arrives at the park. He always looks a little anxious but he went off the pier with the rest of them, scary or not.



More of Nana in the shade. Nana doesn't care if it is hot outside but she's not much for cold water.



Here we have Jac in the water with Will and Ise.



Baby Dee modeling her hat.



Baby Dee in her "At Rest" position. She likes to sleep with the edge of the baby blanket over her face.



This is a great picture of Mom and Son having fun at Blue Springs.



Another picture of some of the boys and Jac in the water.



Some kids really are camera hogs. He is a natural, just point a camera in his direction and he's on.



There is at least one indication in this picture that there is a difference between the air temperature and the water temperature. Look at Ise's face.



I told you Will often looks concerned. But I assure you he had a great time.



This is proof that Baby Sky was there with his mom. I guess she was just camera shy that day.

An August Day At Silver Springs, Florida

A few days ago we spent the Day at Silver Springs, Natures Theme Park. We enjoyed it so I thought I would put some of our pictures up for viewing.

Nana on a glass bottom boat surrounded by some of her grandchildren.

Gus and Will are ready to roll, or maybe I should say float.

This may be Wills first boat trip. He keeps his eyes on everything. The pink cheeks indicate this Florida day is somewhat warm.

Sky is somewhat relaxed in Nana's arms. He only gets excited when it's time to eat.

As you can see, cameras were the order of the day. Digital cameras are greater than sliced bread.

Here you can get a better check on the days sweat level. On a scale of 1-10, it was probably a 12.

All of the grandchildren are trained to react when a camera is pointed in their direction. Some of them have reached the age where they no longer smile when asked. Sometimes they get tired of getting their pictures taken.

All of the older kids really liked the Carousel.

Of course their Mom's and the Nana did also.

More pictures of Nana, you can see she is still bothering that baby.

This little guy has not yet learned to smile on command. However, it does not take much effort to get a smile out of him yet. He loves the attention.

My toe shots for the competition toe shoot.

This guys job is to keep an eye on the forest at the back of Silver Springs.

This is a Jeep they said was left over from one of the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies from the 40's.

These are the older boys. It would appear they were having a good time.

This is the American Alligator in its native habitat. This alligator is a wild creature that lives on the water flowing out of the park. This is not an exhibit. That is why we were in a boat.

This is baby Dee, she is also a tad sweaty. However with multiple feedings and diaper changes she held up remarkably.

Another shot of the carousel, we hit that a couple of times.

You can see from this shot that both babies seem to travel well.

The gardens at Silver Springs were well maintained.

Here is a topiary or two depending on how you count them, as a set ot two singles.

More greenery along one of the walkways.

My blushing bride, the infamous and world renowned "Nana".

A picture of one of the springs taken from the lift ride. The lighter colored water is one of the springs. There are multiple springs at Silver Springs.

Check out the way this tree grew.

Some of the glass bottomed boats awaiting passengers for a waterborne tour of some of the springs.

A group of tourists looking for adventure in Silver Springs.

Some of them start smiling when they see a camera pointed in their direction. Then you have to take their picture so they won't be disappointed.

Silver Springs has two white alligators at their park. You will have to guess which one this is. When we were there this one was on the right.

This large American Alligator has a private pen. The keeper said he "does not play well with others." They have one gator who lost a tail and another who lost a leg to this big boy.

This Nile Crocodile I thought was the scariest. It was obvious that when I was looking at him, he was looking at me. He kept positioning himself behind the glass to keep an eye on me. He looked like he would attack in a heartbeat if he had the opportunity.

This is a large American Crocodile and I do mean large.

Not everyone had a smile on all day long. This was not the only grumpy face, it just happened when I had the camera and nothing else to do.