There’s two pieces over at Silent Running worth a close look. Tom Paine reviews an excellent book on Royal Navy signals. Not everyone’s idea of a light read but some examples :

From Senior officer to submarine, apparently in difficulties: WHAT ARE YOU DOING? From Submarine: LEARNING A LOT.

and

During the Munich crisis a destoyer and a submarine were carrying out exercises together off Gibraltar. On return to harbour a large and heavy-laden German freighter passed nearby.
From Submarine to Destroyer:
REQUEST PERMISSION TO START THE WAR.

Go read it ‘coz there’s more.
The next piece is from Murray and is about his father’s 37 1/2 years in the Royal Navy. What especially attracted me to it was that given his father’s job he almost certainly new my father who also did a 37 year hitch.
And a way to connect the two posts ? If you like the dry wit of the signals then you will enjoy the Navy novels of John Winton. Amazon’s got quite a few but the three to look out for are ” We Joined the Navy “, ” We Went to Sea ” and ” Down the Hatch ” . All three feature Lt Commander Badger ( ” The Bodger “) who at one point is described thusly: ” He walked along the quay with the hopeful air of a man about to be offered a drink “. The author was roughly a contemporary of my father at Dartmouth and maybe of Murray’s as well. The books do for the Navy roughly what McAuslan ( George McDonald Fraser ) does for the Highland Regiments. Very funny excellently written stories.
And two stories from one of my contemporaries who served :
During the Falkland’s War he was a fighter controller on a carrier ( Ark Royal ? ). As one damaged two seater jet was coming into land it was obvious that it was going to miss and go straight into the sea at high speed. The last words of the pilot ? ” Cancel two late lunches “.
While he was at Dartmouth there was a nasty little sport, going on a ” grimmy run “. On a night out cadets would roam over Devon and the aim was to pick up the most unattractive woman one could with, of course, a winner being declared for the ” grimmest “. One night while indulging in this sport his pick looked at him and said ” You’re at Dartmouth aren’t you ? And you’re on a grimmy run.”
Well, shuffles feet, goes red, umm ” Yes”.
” Well ” she said ” you’ve forgotten there are female cadets now. So am I and I’ve just won “.