On the 4th of May 1956, David was was transferred to HMS Vernon, at this time this shore establishment was a Torpedo Anti Submarine Training Establishment based in Portsmouth
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David's celebrated his eighteenth birthday at HMS Vernon.
He was receiving training in the handling of torpedo's at Vernon and on the 12th of July his non substantive rating became U.W.3. This stands for under water weapon class 3. The following badge was placed on his uniform to show this.
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On the 1st of August 1956 he was transferred to HMS Cleopatra, once again this was a ship at the end of it's service. David helped strip the ship of reusable parts and prepared her for scrapping. David left on the 27th of November and Cleopatra finally arrived at a Newport yard for breaking up in December 1958.
A few years earlier HMS Cleopatra played a starring role in a film, the film was called Sailor of a King, and Cleopatra played the part of two fictional Royal Navy ships "HMS Amesbury" and "HMS Stratford". As Amesbury she was heroically sunk by a more powerful German raider Essen, and as Stratford, she triumph's at the end of the story.
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