A reminiscent look back at the RAN in the early 80's. Taped from the tv back then so not excellent quality, but fun to watch again after all these years.
Thankyou Sir As a nipper, I grew up on this series, as an adult I thought I'd never get to see it again You Sir are not a King of Kings You are *the* King
You sir are a legend. Have been wanting to rewatch Patrol Boat for years. This series is what got me enlisted into the Navy and I was fortunate to serve on Fremantles out of Darwin at a time when small boats still operated like this.
God damn that brought back some younger days to me. As soon I saw it on my recommended plays, I was in like a dog onto a hamburger patty. That was a great watch, and I enjoyed it. Thankyou.
Good for you mate. It has certainly gained huge overseas support. It was a sleeper once the Aussies went through it, but now has over 60000 views which is so pleasing. Again I apologise for the quality and not finishing the series. The first because I had to copy them from 40 year old VHS tapes, the second because I got posted back to sea and lost the opportunity.
@@GarryRowe Greetings from Texas, where I'd never heard of this series either. Judging from all the very recent comments the recommendation just popped up on a lot of people's screens, and I'm glad it popped up on mine.
@@dougearnest7590 Good on you Doug! As a 25 year Navy man, I still get a lot of enjoyment from watching these, in my opinion the best time to be in Navy since the days of sail! Very carefree days for us who served in the small ship fleet!
Reminds of the most difficult part in patrol boats. What we called Bravo Zero. That is when the whole crew is onboard, either in port or anchored in a bight, and you are standing by for orders. You cannot work on the machinery, there is only an anchor/radio watch & rest of the crew has little to do. Difficult time for those in charge. Understand that, when you are underway, a third of the crew will be on watch, a third will be resting, a third will be performing underway duties. There is plenty to keep everyone busy. When you are in Bravo Zero, most of the crew will be unoccupied. The difficulty is in keeping them from killing each other. Finding interesting things for them to do, etc... I can rem one situation where I sent the small boat ashore & had them buy kites. Yes, simple paper & wood kites. We pulled out the fishing rods, attached the kites to lines, and they flew kites. Of course, it wasn't long before they turned it into contest. Placing pencils & stick on the edges for the purpose of damaging/warring on other kites. None of the kites would survive. On another occasion, we played an rather odd game of laser tag. Well, full contact laser tag. Yes, there were bumps & bruises & minor injuries but the crew stayed together & didn't kill each other. We also went through air conditioner breakdown suffering. Ten days until we received the parts. Patrol boats did not offer the luxury of larger vessels. However, the smaller crew, additional responsibilities, cross training & close quarters provided for a close knit crew capable of huge accomplishments. Patrol boats were some of the best duty in the service.
I'm the last radio operator attached to her when paid off to go to the Sydney Maritime Museum she was a Wonderful ship to serve on David Cogan been trying for ages to see the series
Thank you Garry Rowe for posting these. So enjoyed watching them again. Pity you had no more recorded. Hopefully one day 10 may release the entire series to DVD?
Thanks for the upload Garry, fantastic! I always loved watching it as a kid. I emailed the ABC a decade or so ago pleading with them to release it on DVD. The reply was "it's not commercially viable". It's such a shame, given how good the series was.
Nothing to do with commercially viable.... the non-woke content, borderline sexism, racism, misogynistic content from the late 70's will be too upsetting for the fragile ABC types....
The big problem for them is contracts. In order to release it on DVD, or repeat the series again, they'd have to re-draw contracts with the producers and actors involved with the series, which is time consuming and expensive.
i grew up in Gove and had many visits by Patrol boats over the years HMAS ADROIT, HMAS ARDENT and HMAS AWARE that i can recall, very fond memories. loved the reference to my home town @20:38 thanks for the upload.
Haven't begun watching this as yet. Read the comments section first. I am very glad to have found the vids (thumbs up). I sense mixed feelings about "Sea Patrol", but it was the one I found first. After I watch these (Patrol Boat), I intend to see what "Warship" was about, too, THanks 4 sharing. From USA,
Hope you enjoy them Donnie. Bit different these days and more realistic to the Navy at the time than Sea Patrol, which most sailors thought was a soap opera joke.
Donnie, be prepared to be edificated. You see, WARSHIP is about the RN in a Leander-class frigate of which the RAN also had six in a time when we still tended to be more of that service, while Patrol Boat is pure Aussie matelots (so were out major units but you get my drift). In the A-boats we got away with a lot more than the big guys - to a point. I served in both types among others so my point is accept allowing for film licence you are seeing two very similar navies of that time (which included the three Adams DDG for us). Contact me if you need clarification but enjoy the series
Spent 21 years in the United States Navy and when I enlisted I expected to be assigned to this type of duty. But never set foot on an ocean-going vessel, all 21 years in Naval Aviation. A real treat seeing this series, and more so because Australia is 1 country I always wanted to visit...but never did.
I never saw this before ! ! ! . . . . .I saw John F Kennedy when he was running for president, and there was a lot of PT-109 and "Mosquito Fleet" stuff, But I never saw THIS . . THANK YOU VERY MUCH ! so very cool . . .
One of his crew, John McGuire, appeared on a black and white "To Tell The Truth" back in the early 1960's. By the way, the PT 109 movie actually tamped down JFK's heroism as they didn't want the audience to think they were exaggerating, thereby "breaking the dramatic spell" of the movie's flow. Side note, the opening shot of McHales Navy with the theme music was of a privately owned reconfigured British MTB. Then during the show they used two plywood scaled down replicas as PT 73 or to show additional boats.
This is soooo nostalgic! Sooo CUTE! Soooo f****g fantastic! Big Thank You! The show is as old as me (and Robert Colbey's son ;)) but never had a chance to watch. In germany it was known as "Between Sun and Pacific", first aired in 1990 on a channel that not everyone had. After reading all the comparisons with the other show, I would like to comment: 1. There are 30 years in between! 2. If you want realism, you should watch a documentation! Ambush, Defiance, Hammersley, Nathan James, Red Oktober,... All these ships... all these shows are made for ENTERTAINMENT! Nothing else! So please! Just enjoy this nostalgic stuff! Begging you to upload season 2!
Lived in OZ in the late 80's for 12 months, mostly in a tent, so I missed all the 'good' TV programs . What the Globalists have done to the best PPL on earth is a crime
Very similiar to the British series " Warship " in the 70s , about life in a Leander Class Frigate H.M.S Hero .l wonder if any Actor(ess) appeared in both series? l'm going to enjoy watching every episode !
@@jindalee4471 10 even produced another season of it in 1989, screening it in 1990. ABC still owns the rights to the show, but say they can't release it on DVD due to cost.
Thanks mate really enjoyed it. Haven't seen it since first aired on ABC. I had no interest to watch Sea Patrol. It had a feeling of Home and Away sea going version.
Pretty much a mirror image Graham, except we added the 'Australia' flash to the top of the sleeve. Medals remained the same until 1975. The Queen's image, may she rest in peace, will disappear next year, replaced no doubt by something even more controversial. Keeping Charlie on our coins though!
Thank you so much for this. I have been trying to find this for years. I consider it one of best Australian dramas ever made. I don't remember it being replayed on Channel 10. Would you have the 2nd series with the Freemantle Class?
@@electronwave4551 It was produced and first aired by the ABC. This is the very first ep and has been recorded off Ch 10 and thus, is a re run. It's strange that an ABC production was played on 10. The second series had the newer Freemantle Class PBs.
Loved watching Patrol Boat on channel 2 when it was made. Watched every episode. Wished it would be released on dvd. The channel 9 version was only a copy of the original obviously more modern. It was interesting though how on sea patrol they phased out the Fremantle class to the new bigger patrol boats like in the original when the Fremantle class came in
Final comments. 1. The crews of patrol boats never wore uniform at sea except when entering and leaving harbour, during exercises or interceptions or when rendezvousing or operating with main fleet units because of water restrictions and no laundry facilities. We wore Pirate rig which invariably was a sarong, shorts and a t-shirt polo short or hawaiian shirt. The seizing and boarding of the FFV is close to the real deal. Finally, the dance etc at the nurses' quarters is also pretty close to fact. In those days, sailors at sea for weeks at a time and the nurses ashore in remote areas had little opportunities for fun, relaxation, alcohol and even sexual enjoyment. Dances etc such as shown were fairly common events although larger ports such as Broome may have issued invitations to more general functions. They would not be permitted in the modern RAN where sailors are permitted a ration of beer even in foreign ports and are breath tested when they are required to report back aboard by midnight. To me it is ironic that in a service that has always expected its sailors to act as mature adults it now treats them like naughty children in case the Minister, media, higher command etc may make unfavourable comments. Woke personified
Loved this show. VERY hard to find. Thanks for the uploads cobber! BTW I find it interesting that the replacement for the replacement for the replacement of the Attack Class boats isn't a whole lot smaller than the River Class HMAS Stuart seen here, and costs $300 million AUD!! More capable in blue water sure than an Attack class, but NO hope of doing the close inshore work seen in this episode. It's also slower.....
I "discovered" this series on RU-vid only today. Have you seen "Sea Patrol"? Similar series, I believe, at a later date. Ran 207-2011 (5 seasons, but for first season filmed aboard HMAS Wollongong and Ipswitch, Armidale Class Patrol Boats (ACPB). Found it on Crackle TV (unfortunately replete w/commercials). Now into the 4th seasons and, surprise surprise, my spouse is enjoying it, too. A few hokey happenings in the acting that, I think, got by the advisors (like running after the bad guys with Browning 9mm HPs (I understand to be the standard of the Aussie Navy) with hammer down. Kinda hard to shoot the bad guys in a hurry that way. Also some of maybe a bit too much "familiarity" between the male and female members of the crew(?). Regardless all, you might enjoy it as much as "Patrol Boat".
These are quite watchable. Thanks for the upload. I'm a little surprised that they didn't get the Late Show treatment and comically over-dubbed. See Bargearse for a cop show (Homocide??) that didn't escape.
@Andrew Stackpool Yes, but think of the schoolyard humor that they could have added. "5-inch gun? How long to reload when you fire that?". Probably needs so more work.
@@gorillaau The DDGs had five-inch guns which were basically automatic. They fired at about 30 rounds per minute. reloading was about the same rate and not much slower than a 40/60 Bofors
Stuart, HMAS Stuart, Derwent, Paramatta and Yarra were Type 12s; the later TORRENS and SWAN were modified Leanders as the others were modified Type 12s. We called the class Rivers and they were all top ships.
@@andrewstackpool4911 Yes didn't see the bridge extension clearly, but just like our Rothsay type 12's but yours had seacat on the aft like our Leanders , great ships sadly no longer with us !
Amazing how similar our duty was in the US Coast Guard. The Korean trawlers used the same tactics dodging us in and out of the exclusive US fishing grounds. Our liberty ports were nothing like having a bevy of cute nurses waiting for us, however.
HMAS ADVANCE Is now semi retired at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, next to HMAS VAMPIRE and HMAS ONSLOW. Well worth the visit. You can board the VAMPIRE and The ONSLOW, not sure about the ADVANCE.
for those who enjoy this kind of old salty tv-programmes, i would like to point to the british series 'Warship'. and after you have seen all episodes, nearby is tv-series 'Sandbaggers'.
I served in the Fremantle and Armidale class patrol boats in the late 90's and the 2000's. One of my CO's would play the Patrol Boat theme when we would leave port. I don't know what was funner, the fact that he thought it was a good idea or the fact that nobody knew where the music was from?
As a Texan, I'd never heard of this show. Now having watched Garry's uploads, I'm desperate to find the rest. Anyone have any suggestions on where to find it? I want to find out how things with Borgia worked out
Garry, thanks for uploading this series. I am enjoying it, though I have to use subtitles in order to understand some of the dialog, due to dialect, 😅 Still, very interesting, like the later or more recent series “Sea Patrol” that I also enjoyed, because of similar ships and plots (action etc.). Thanks.
Good Evening; No need to apologise for any perceived lack of picture quality .. I found it most acceptable, and enjoyed it greatly. If this is a 1979 series, might you, perhaps, have access to another Australian television series broadcast around 1973-1975-ish entitled .. 'BARRIER REEF' ? .. if so, might you perhaps be able to upload both series' of this, (or did it run to [3] series ? .. I'm unsure.) .. Fingers crossed in optimistic anticipation .. Mr.Swann, South-West U.K.; (P.S. .. I was born in 1962, thus must have been between 11 & 14 when we saw 'BARRIER REEF' in the U.K.)
Greetings Mr Swann, and thank your for your comments. I had to google the series Barrier Reef, as I have never heard of it. I see it had popularity in the UK where '19 episodes had premiered on British television on BBC1 between 5 October 1970 and 15 February 1971 and four more aired between 5 April and 3 May 1971 in advance of Australian broadcast'. Good luck getting hold of it, I fear it has sunk without a trace.
Hi .. Re. 'BARRIER REEF' TV series; Here are the 'Opening & Closing Credits' .. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nJ6X8J_EXeE.html (exciting stuff ! .. I loved the orange 'jet-boat'). I used to really enjoy watching this series, and would especially like to see the one again where one of the divers stepped on a venomous Stone Fish, and the other divers has to find the ‘beastie’ in order to take a sample of it’s venom in order to get the correct antidote into him in time. Another of my favourite episodes was the one where the ‘autopilot-interlock’ ‘jammed’ and the red-headed lady researcher remaining on board was in peril as the ship steered itself towards the reef, (and, try as she might, she could in no way manage to disengage the interlock !) Gripping Stuff !! I've added another comment with a link to a chap in California who MIGHT have copies of all the episodes made, ( litmustest@shaw.ca ), in the hope that you might be able to .. 'negotiate, obtain & upload.' ‘Copyright’ permitting, (and who would make a fuss about it after all this time .. surely no-one would ? .. would they ?), if you COULD upload all of the episodes, I’d really enjoy them. Thank you, A ‘British enthusiast of ‘old-telly’ .. Mr.Swann@@GarryRowe
For those that also watched A Country Practice, a young Grant Dodwell and Penny Cook (uncredited) later to be a item in that series in the future along with Di Smith who joined the Country Practice cast a few years later.
I’m here because of sea patrol I watched the entire series however they just kept adding seasons I wish they just stick with the first season Some of the other episodes are really good. It’s just I miss the old hammersly and the old good crew. Reason why I’m making this comment is the Hammersley was small This ship is surprisingly even smaller. And looks barely stable. I have high hopes for this series. I will come back to this comment once I finish it. Welcome aboard🎉
Greetings from Texas - and former US Navy man here, never served on anything as small as a patrol boat, or even a destroyer (though I would have preferred something smaller.) What was the significance of being addressed as "Number One" as opposed to "XO" or just "X"?
Number One (or The Jimmy, or Jimmy The One) is the informal Royal Navy term for the second in command of a ship - First Lieutenant is the formal term. It was used initially in the RAN as well, but we moved over to the term Executive Officer, or XO after WWII as we slowly cut a few of the old RN apron strings and spent more time around the Yanks I guess. In most RAN ships the XO is usually referred to as X informally, or when one is drunk. At the time of this series, Number One did persevere and was sometimes used in "Big Ships" (the providence of Captains and Admirals) and was meant to confer a more "proper" title upon the holder in deference to their rank/position. In the Pirate Navy that was small boats....it would never fly
For a change I thought this was a damn fine video -- OK at times it was a bit far fetched but overall it got the "small boat" idea across fairly well! Maybe the "not commercially viable" came from some admiral who thought it as not the way to depict how the Navy does things!
As a former Attack class officer, I admired Robert Coleby's acting which he carried over into the second FCPB series. He looked and acted the real thing and was even mistaken as a real officer at HMAS WATERHEN. The other actors also settled well into representing an A-class PB; some better than others. But there is no doubt a steady Navy hand astern the scenes played its part.
Concur, though we did occassionally take the piss out it the morning after a screening over a brew at Seamanship School the following day. was compulsory viewing though!
The doors are swinging around dangerously every where the officers go.That just doesn't happen aboard ship . Doors are latched in front and behind you every time one passes through at all times .
No stewards to hold them old sport. Nah I kid and agree. However. Try having the boat rise in a seaway, then drop sharply with a slight twist meaning the officer in the upper berth got left hanging in mid air but now over the deck before the boat hit the next wave meaning you hit the deck without moving. No damage but you sure woke in a hurry
Hey Garry, thanks for posting these episodes. Would you by any chance have one called “Cold Turkey” from 13 July 1983 ? I flew the N24 Nomad depicted in that episode. Thanks and Cheers, Mach
Obviously a tv film - shame it was so disjointed - presumably gaps for adverts. Nice to see a Leander again, but when I was in, we didn't have a missile pod aft, but anti-sub mortars behind the helo deck.
Proud to say server HMAS Advance known as Ambush the the ABC Series Serves on number boats during my career Advance crew was great Bass Straight Highway Patrol Was our T shorts slogan Which I still have 👍
Thank you so much for sharing these videos! I watched both seasons of PATROL BOAT decades ago on German Television (in a dubbed version), and it became instantly one of my all time favorite tv series. I hoped for many years to get the chance to watch it again. Actually, now is the first time I can experience it in its original language version. Do you also have the other 18 episodes? By the way, I also think that in PATROL BOAT the plots were more realistic and the actors much better than in the SEA PATROL series (which I also watched on German TV).
Good to see some International interest! Sorry Odysseus, as I have stated elsewhere the following episodes were either destroyed by VHS tape deterioration, or I had been been posted back to sea and no longer had the opportunity to tape them. This is all I could recover.
Mate, as a former A-boat man I agree wholeheartedly. Patrol Boat WAS the RAN small ship fleet almost to a tee. And a steppingstone for many future flag rank officers, if they survived the hazards of small boat service. We did tend to step to an extent out of Navy standard protocol etc.
I notice the simmeralty between this show and Sea Patrol. both XO been transfurred to patrol boats and both XO rather be on frigets and first time being on patrol boats.
Except here, the CO hadn't bonked his XO on Staff Course. In real life she would never have been posted to Hammersley assuming they had not both been court martialled.
@Andrew Stackpool It wasn't a staff course. He was the instructor and she was a student at Watson bay 5 years early when they where on the same course together. He broke up with her.
@Andrew Stackpool in season 1 the first episode it is where we all learn about there pass at Watson bay how they were having a secert relationship and it was also mention again in the episode "guns"
