[Lemataf]

Hello,

Interesting thread, thanks.
Here is my RN pipe, certified ww2 period. A friend of mine, marine nationale pre-ww2 till July 40/Catapult french ships seizing in UK, then briefly RN July-Sept 40, then transferred to Free French Naval
Forces until end of war, gave it to me. My friend served on different f.f.ships (including Flower class corvette Aconit K58, ex-HMS Aconite, when she sunk U-444, then U-432 in less than 12 hours; then on River class frigate La Surprise K292, ex-HMS Torridge).

On both ships, he served as boatswain.

This pipe was part of La Surprise commissioning equipment for his service, provided by the RN, together with two official RN Manuals of Seamanship (which he also offered me). He told me that he never used this RN pipe, as he already had his personal one, from his previous time in marine nationale & preferred keeping using it.

I hope that the forum administrators will tolerate that in one of below pictures, a free french navy breast insignia appears too. These pics were previously taken back in 2017, for another forum post I did, related to f.f. Frigate La Surprise, and the breast insignia is another gift to me, by another friend of mine, also ex f.f. sailor aboard La Surprise during ww2, who wore it aboard at the time. If you estimate this picture inappropriate on this forum, let me know, and I will remove it.

Another pic shows the pipe laying on one page of above listed manuals, describing how to properly deliver a boatwain’s call.

Cheers,

Jean-Daniel