By Alex Clarke
Bilge Pumps, Episode 22. We’re being very current, almost bang up to date for Bilgepumps! No guest unfortunately, it’s just your regular crew, but we hope you will enjoy our musings on the SBS, the future of ship to ship boarding, and all the other things it sparked. However, with no guest and it being rather late in the UK and extremely early in Australia, we decided to call it a night. But it felt too short, so we added in the bonus episode we had been saving for when Navy Con (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/navycon-2020-a-tickets-125821115343) goes live…enjoy.
#Bilgepumps is still a newish series and new avenue, which may no longer boast the new car smell, in fact decidedly more of pineapple/irn bru smell with a hint of jaffa cake and the faintest whiff of cork– but we’re getting the impression it’s liked, so we’d very much like any comments, topic suggestions or ideas for artwork to be tweeted to us, the #Bilgepump crew (with #Bilgepumps), at Alex (@AC_NavalHistory), Drach (@Drachinifel), and Jamie (@Armouredcarrier). Or you can comment on our Youtube channels (listed down below).
Download Bilge Pumps Episode 22: A Whole lot of Bilge; SBS & Ultra Long Range Gunnery
Links
1. Dr. Alex Clarke’s Youtube Channel
2. Drachinifel’s Youtube Channel
3. Jamie Seidel’s Youtube Channel
Alex Clarke is the producer of The Bilge Pumps podcast.
Contact the CIMSEC podcast team at Seacontrol@cimsec.org.
With reference to the motto for the SBS, you may find this story interesting. The Special Boat Service was formed by an army officer called Roger Courtney, a former graduate of Oxford University (whereas David Stirling had been to Cambridge). Courtney had a wicked sense of humour and decided to ask one of his University Dons to help him out with the translation of the motto into Latin (possibly to outdo the SAS’s English motto) “Excreta Tauri Astutos Frustratur”, which translates to Bullshit baffles brains.
Whilst the SBS conducted numerous daring operations in the Mediterranean the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment were utilising similar covert maritime techniques in similarly daring operations in other theatres, including Operation Frankton (of Cockleshell Heroes fame). At the end of WW2 the SBS became a Royal Marine role. As part of this transfer, the motto was changed from Courtney’s micky taking maxim to a new motto “Not by strength, by guile” which formerly belonged to the disbanded Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) – arguably a forerunner to the SAS. This motto remained in use until 2003 when the a revised motto “By strength and guile” and new badge were adopted to mark the SBS coming under Command of the Directorate of Special Forces.