HMS SOAK-help me with this, please

Subject: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: GUEST,SKIPPY
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 05:30 PM

Together we can sort this!
I have recently found a pewter tankard in a skip (no surprise there then!)
It is engraved thus :-

                         PRESENTED TO
             LT. CMDR. SIR M. ROSE.K.S. O.C.O. S.S.
                      FROM CAPT.AND CREW
                         H.M.S. SOAK
                      "UP PERISCOPES"

There is no "S" class sub. called "soak" - not a surprise.
Lt cmdr Rose not listed anywhere in RN records or found by any search engine?
My mate "Salty Sea Dog" has never heard the term before.
So what is this all about them?
Look fwd. to solving this
Regards Skippy

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: GUEST,Skippy
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 05:36 PM

Sorry about the "Shouting" accident
Skippy

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: Les from Hull
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 06:17 PM

My first thought is that this is a nickname for an RN ship. As Lt Commander Rose was not in command, but there is a captain it suggests that the vessel is larger than a submarine (or possibly a nuclear sub).

Could it be a joke presentation for Commander Rose (possibly deriding his spotting a 'periscope'). A presentation on leaving the ship might be a bit more substantial.

I'm pretty sure that there was never an HMS Soak, but I'll check my sources for you.

What's all that lettuce after his name - that sounds like part of the joke.

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 06:39 PM

Could it have been a prop for some kind of dramatic play or somesuch?

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: GUEST,Skippy
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 06:41 PM

Agree with all of your thoughts Les.
Not a nuclear sub. the tankard has the feel & patina of 1940/50s, sorry should have given that last fact in the original.
I suspect as you do that this is a "wind up" - but I would like to get to the bottom of it, if I can then the tankard and the story can be returned to the ship in question or to a suitable museum (after I have a had a few pints out of it at a few suitable festivals.
Rgards Skippy

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: GUEST,Skippy
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 06:45 PM

Thanks Katlaughing
Could be a prop - but no one would see the engraving, however there could have been a need during a play for someone to be seen to read the inscription.
Regards Skippy

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Feb 03 - 06:50 PM

Some group's insider joke about a someone with an erection in the bath tub?

Spaw

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: Devilmaster
Date: 27 Feb 03 - 12:40 AM

I posted an email to Tom Lewis, perhaps he can help.

Steve

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: GUEST,Skippy
Date: 27 Feb 03 - 12:28 PM

Thanks for that Devilmaster.

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Feb 03 - 12:36 PM

Seems to me this is a typical jovial presentation to someone leaving ship, or some nautical post. The "Up Periscopes" expression to me ties in with that interpretation; it literally means looking forward to what's ahead (on the surface while still submerged).

Be curious what Tom comes up with.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: Crane Driver
Date: 27 Feb 03 - 06:45 PM

Sounds to me like a "joke" presentation - I imagine young Lt Rose in charge of the ship's boat taking the crew into harbour, then by a feat of lousy seamanship, filling the whole thing with water. "Up Periscopes" they cry, as "HMS Soak" vanishes under the waves. OK, so I've got an overactive imagination. But if he'd managed to Soak a Captain, or better yet, a Commodore, perhaps it would have been worth a commemoration.

We'll probably never know.

Andrew

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: GUEST,Roy
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 03:44 PM

HMS Soak was a fictional submarine invented by members of the corporals club at RAF Jever in 1956/7 al members carried a rank and the whole thing was based on Carlsberg Lager, You were sworn in holding a bottle of the stuff. Th Captain would declare a cruise, that would be the start of a major drinking day, The day would consist of a cricket match with bottles of Carlsberg as wickets. Should any member offend the Captain they then faced a Court Marshal if guilty, the fine was a set number of bottles of Carleberg. Medals were awarded for various drinking feats,the medals were placed over the bar at Dirty dicks pub near Liverpool Street station on return to the UK. I wonder if any former members will ever read this,Roy

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE
From: maeve
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 03:55 PM

Wow! Thanks, guest, Roy. There's no telling who might see your post; after all, you came upon the thread 8 years after the last post. I'll let Skippy know you stopped by.

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 06:37 PM

Just hope that Skippy still has the tankard. I sounds to me like the Good Ship Soak deserves at least a granite monument in a place of some appropriate status, and the tankard would make a great topknot for a spire.

So far as I can recall, my first sight of this thread was today, but my thought was "Drinking Club" at the second post. Such fictional boats (ships), airplanes, and the like were not particularly rare among the "frat rats" I associated with some at (US) Universities, although none that I was aware of had a closely similar name.

That they played cricket is admirable, as the clubs of the ilk that I heard of apparently did nothing much other than drink (and make rude noises after).

John

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 08:13 PM

Roy-

Thanks for letting us in on this salty special event.

I do hope the original poster, Skippy, check in on his thread. All questions are ultimately answered on Mudcat, although sometimes it's taken over ten years.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: My guru always said
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 03:52 AM

How lovely to read this question answered, many thanks Guest Roy! Guest Skippy, is now a member as Skipy, so I shall PM him.

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 05:44 AM

The RAF has always had a 'tradition' of drinking clubs , often based on one Squadron - 205 Sqdn in Singapore in the late sixties had an enviable record as such , but withh postings , there were fewer active actual squadron members , and it became Changi Pigs Association . I was NEVER a member !!!

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: skipy
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 12:30 PM

Fantastic! Took a few years, but I KNEW "the cat" would crack it!
Turns out RAF Jever was 118 Hunters & 2 (FR) Swifts. I will do some more research & the tankard will go to the RAF Museum. Glad it turned out to be RAF as I "did" a mere 26 years myself!
Thank you to those who sent me a PM.
Hope "GUEST Roy" gets back to me, he can E me on:- [e-mail]

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 01:34 PM

Love to see an old thread wrapped up like this, ship shape and Bristol fashion.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: skipy
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 05:06 PM

Just to keep you guys "up to speed" I am now in contact with GUEST Roy & he is going to put together all that he can remember so that as much info. as poss. can go to the RAF Museum along with the tankard.
By the way:- on the original post I typed my name wrong! I am Skipy not Skippy.
Skipy

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: My guru always said
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 05:14 PM

Fabulous, well done Dave!

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: maeve
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 05:28 PM

What a good example of what Mudcat can help achieve...in addition to all of the wonderful music information. Thanks, Max.
Good for you, Skipy!

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: skipy
Date: 06 Sep 11 - 02:10 PM

Now got a page of details about HMS Soak at RAF Jever Germany, late 50s. Also formed a facebook group incase anyone types "HMS Soak" into google of facebook. Might find an old mate of Roys!
Skipy

Subject: RE: HMS SOAK-help me with this, please
From: Dave Earl
Date: 15 Sep 11 - 03:26 PM

Just by way of an aside .

When I was left school I had a job (not much of a job) in the City and used to travel in by train to Liverpool Street.

From time to time I'd be dragged (kicking and screaming of course)into Dirty Dicks for a pint or two before getting the train home. There were all sorts of mementos and stuff hanging from the ceiling and on the walls.

I don't think the drinking school mentioned here can have bee the onlt such recorded at Dirty D's. My father had a pie smokers pen knife stamped "Dirty Dicks" which he probably got from there.

BTW it was still there a few years ago when I happened to be up that way.

Dave