Postby RussF172 » 05 Nov 2019 18:13
The photo of HOOD in Hobart reminds me of a story a mate told me a few years back. He was on holidays with the family in Tassie and he has a passion for Naval History and loved looking around old curio shops especially with a maritime theme. He was in a little store in a small town on the coast. Whilst wandering around he happened upon a shelf with a small box containing large cast brass polished letters. There were several "H"s and "O"s in there. After a little game of scrabble he quickly gathered up the letters and took them to the counter and asked for a price. The guy had no idea what they were and my mate quickly handed over a $50 note. The store keeper was happy with that and he left with his box full of letters. His wife was not happy about spending $50 on a bunch of scrap, as she saw it, until he laid out the letters on a picnic table and told her that he knew that when the HMS HOOD and REKNOWN had visited Australia in the late 20's early 30's. HOOD had left one of her ships boats behind for the then fledgling RAN depot in Hobart. Having outlived its usefulness the boat was scrapped many years later and it broken up.
When the letters were laid out it simply spelt HMS HOOD (twice). The letters were about 3 inches high with several small screw holes in each. They had been attached to the sides of the large whaler type boat that HOOD had embarked and left behind. All I can say is "what a find"!