On Jan 21, 2021, at 6:44 AM, Timothy Collinson - timothy.collinson at port.ac.uk (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:That in a nut shell is how being on a patrol worked.OK, and to the point, perhaps... what was it like on returning to port after a patrol? Immediate newsfest? Couldn't care less? Or were 'gone' (home, presumably) so fast, no one could see you for dust?tcI did a couple Persian Gulf cruises in the late 80’s onboard a Frigate, and was an Electrician at the time. We were lucky when we could get our hands on the “Navy Newspaper” that arrived over the Radio. Basically a single piece of paper, and I want to say it was a weekly. As I recall it had a couple sentences per news item. By the time I was lucky enough to see a copy, it could be a month old news. Some people might have gotten news magazines or newspapers in the occasional “Mail Calls”, but no one I remember. TV/Movies were taken from the ships 600 tape library, or traded between ships.Hitting a port the focus depended on the person. I liked tours, and getting food that wasn’t fixed by our dubious cooks. I’d also hunt up chances to buy books to read.Getting back after a cruise, again it depended on the person. A sizable chunk of the crew would go on leave and head home. We’d keep a minimum watch onboard for the first few days, then things would slowly get back to the normal in port routine. In our case, we were rarely in port. We were young and dumb, no one I worked with really thought about the news, but then again, on that ship I was part of the Engineering Crew.
In the mid-90’s I was on an Aircraft Carrier, the two cruises I did on it were split between the Med and Persian Gulf. I had changed rates, and was a Data Processing Tech. We had access to live TV news (CNN & I think MSNBC). I watch OJ Simpson make his run on Live TV while sitting in the middle of the Persian Gulf. Due to my job, the TV news was always on. Another notable, and disturbing occurrence was that we found out on the one cruise that we’d be going to the Gulf, on the TV news, while floating off the coast of Bosnia. An hour later, the Captain told us of the change, and as we transited the Suez, we watched ourselves on TV. Something else that struck me as amazing, having previously been on the Frigate, was that people could phone home.I wonder now what sort of email offerings there are to folks in the Navy. When I got out, it was restricted, and they were getting ready to ban personal computers (I had laptops on both ships I was on). On the Frigate, I even had a tiny printer.In a Traveller setting, I tend to think my experiences on the Frigate would be closer to shipboard life with regards to news in Traveller. While the Aircraft carrier would be closer to a system defense boat. I’d also imagine that ones job in Traveller would dictate their interest in news. If Military, they may very well have limited interest, outside of what effected them. If they’re a Trader, they’d have extreme interest, as news could dictate what sort of goods they should be looking to transport.