Before RFA Wave Ruler left Anguilla, the Commanding Officer, Captain Duncan Lamb, spoke of his life, 30 year career and thoughts about the Royal Fleet Auxiliary service (RFA).

Captain Duncan Lamb on the Bridge of RFA Wave Ruler

“I didn’t want to sit in an office all my life and have a standard 9-5 job,” he says of why he joined the Royal Navy’s (RN) civilian support arm. “What was more of a coincidence was why I ended up in the RFA, because when I joined I had never heard of them! In fact, I used them as a third option between the RN and P&O Cruises. I fancied being a passenger ship officer at age 17. ‘There might be a bit of fun there,’ I thought! I was a bit young to join the RN. But I think I wanted to get away and do something. My family were encouraging and I was in my slightly rebellious years! I was expected simply to go to university after school and I thought that was a bit of a waste of time. I would not necessarily give the same advice to my children, but that is what happened and I joined the RFA. Looking back it was a good move. It’s an unusual job; it doesn’t have the same boredom factor as the Merchant Navy, where you are going from A to B and doing all your work in port, so there is the opportunity to relax when we get into port.”

Having rebelled and gone off to sea, Captain Lamb began his climb through the echelons of the RFA. Looking at his career, which spans service in the Falklands Conflict and two tours in the troubled Arabian Gulf, an MA in Defence Studies from the prestigious Kings College, London, and a steady progression from Deck Cadet to his present appointment as the Captain of one of the Ministry of Defence’s fast fleet tankers, it is clear that here is a man who has sought opportunities in his life and, once found, has grasped them with both hands. A high flyer and charming with it!
He was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1960 and is married to his “very supportive” wife, Catriona, a doctor. They have two sons. He joined the RFA in 1977 as a Deck Cadet. “It’s the equivalent to a Midshipman in the RN or an apprentice in industry. It’s the training period split between time at college doing theoretical work and time on board the ship doing practical work. Cadets have to do a certain number of months at sea, Bridge Watch Keeping, in order to get their certification, working their way up to their Master Mariner’s Certificate or Chief Engineer’s Certificate.” Captain Lamb studied at Plymouth Maritime College, in the southwest of England. “In those days they thought that the further they sent you away from home, the more work you were likely to do!”
The Captain’s first ship was RFA Olwen, a tanker scrapped in 2000, having been in service since 1965. “There were about 7 of us training. We had to do everything from painting and cleaning, to doing ‘astro nav’ (navigating using the stars) up on the bridge; a complete scope of activity. From a Merchant Navy angle, the grounding that the RFA can give in seamanship and navigation is very good indeed.”
No sooner had the Captain earned his Watch Keeping Certificate than the Falklands Conflict blew up between Britain and Argentina and he had his first taste of war. He joined RFA Resource, an ammunition ship, as Junior Bridge Watch Keeping Officer. “Looking back I was very young and naive. It didn’t touch me that much, I would have to say. In fact, I distinctly remember being more spooked when we left South Georgia heading homeward and got ourselves into an ice flow, with lots of little ice bergs around us. That was more unpleasant than being bombed in San Carlos Water. It was a strange experience at 20 years old to go through. It was one of those momentous occasions but I don’t think I realised at the time just how important it was. It was a career moulding experience to be put in that situation. I think there was a feeling within the RFA that we would be over the horizon and the warships would come back to us to refuel, replenish, re-ammunition and then go back to the front line. I think it was quite an eye-opener that we went to them. RFA Resource went into San Carlos Water about 2 or 3 days after the landings and it was filled with RFAs, offloading stores and troops. They were a target; RFA Galahad was particularly unfortunate.”
Captain Lamb achieved his Master Mariners Certificate in 1988, “A practice sort of degree programme which goes into all the aspects of ship operations,” including 24 months sea time. Then became a Principal Warfare Officer (above water) (PWO), an unusual role for a civilian. “The opportunity was there and I could see the RFA was moving more towards the RN and that was clearly going to be a career enhancing opportunity, which is how it has turned out. It works well and demonstrates how close the RFA is to the RN and certainly my colleagues in the Merchant Navy would laugh at me if I tried to tell them I was in the Merchant Navy! We are very close to the RN. That is why we are here, to support them. We send one or two [Officers] a year on the RN Principal Warfare Officer course. That is a big career course for the RN and if you are going to make command in the RN you need to get through that particular hurdle. Part of the payback from the RN’s point of view is that we are actually appointed to a warship for six months.” Captain Lamb joined the ship’s company of HMS Glasgow as part of the Standing Naval Force, Mediterranean. “I happened to be the Group Gunnery Officer, so as a civilian I was the Gunnery Officer for the NATO Naval Group!” laughs the Captain. “Some of the nations could not quite get their head around it! But I think they realised that the experience and the skills were there, so there was no problem. In RFA Sir Bedevere in the Northern Gulf last year, I had almost as many PWOs on board as had the warship next to me. It demonstrates where we sit; very closely to the RN, but we are still civilian.
“Because I did the course I was always going to be appointed to the bigger, more complicated, more capable ships. RFA Argus, the air training ship, is usually carrying naval helicopters and is quite a complicated ship.” When Captain Lamb was Operations Officer aboard her, the ship was carrying NATO equipment in the Adriatic Sea. He was later appointed to RFA Fort George, carrying fuel and ammunition, first as Operations Officer and then as Executive Officer. He commanded Fort Victoria, “I keep going back to the bigger, more capable ships for my sins and it all leads back to the PWO course. If I hadn’t taken that course it would have put me in a different bracket. I would have made similar progress but it would have been in a different sort of ship.”
Captain Lamb is on a three year appointment to RFA Wave Ruler and will take leave every six months, as do the Heads of Departments and the Executive Officer. This is in contrast to the more junior officers and men, who stay aboard for 3 months, take leave and then may be appointed to another ship for a further 3 months. “It gives us better corporate knowledge at the top management,” he says.
In thirty years the Captain has seen several changes in the RFA. “The movement towards the RN, the fact that no longer can we afford to be the silent people over the horizon, that we are very much front line support to all the services; it shouldn’t be forgotten that four of our ships are dedicated landing ships so they work very closely with the army and we have a constant trickle of RAF pilots coming through as helicopter pilots on our ships which carry helicopters. We have become far more aligned with the services and moved away from our mercantile roots. However, we are still the biggest employer in the UK of merchant seafarers.
“My appointment to RFA Fort George, just after 9/11, sticks in my mind. It was quite interesting pursuing one sanction buster half way across the Indian Ocean to tow it back to Dubai for prosecution! But more and more our ships are getting involved in that sort of thing, which 10 or 15 years ago would have been naval business. “
While in Anguilla the ship offered training and advice to the local authorities. “Each island has its different priorities and we take up on different aspects of it. The one continuity is that we will insist on meeting with disaster management committees and teams and try and sort out what they feel their problems are and what we can do to help. It is becoming fairly common now to work with the local police marine division or coastguard but the fire fighting is still fairly embryonic. The guys that are teaching have just themselves come through the highest naval fire fighting training themselves back in the UK, so they know what they are talking about.”
To youngsters considering the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as a career, Captain Lamb says, “It’s a fantastic life. You need to go into it with eyes open in that there will be hard times when you are away from the family, but in terms of variety of life, opportunity and seeing various areas of the world, it is a fantastic opportunity. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who’s thinking about it. Give it a go and see how you get on.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News