Submarine Museum - Gosport

Even after 12 years in Gravesend, it is only now that I live in Lee on the Solent close to my place of birth and home town that I feel my life has some stability, that I am not in some sort of state of perpetual motion. I shall retire in four years and expect to stay in this general area. Greg receives regular property advertisements and today we went to look for a house in nearby Alverstoke. Reluctant to return home for an afternoon of inertia, we went on an unplanned visit to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum.

With no long journeys to and from work any more I have been able to make better use of my plentiful leisure time and I have often been surprised and delighted with attractions exceeding my sometimes subdued expectations. Today was such a day. Dull weather was no deterrent to enjoyment of an excellent attraction. The exhibits and galleries are very good and, even before one boards HMS Alliance, Holland 1, the Royal Navy's first submarine makes an absorbing sight. Alliance is admittedly in a sorry state and is the subject of a restoration appeal (part funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund) but the guided tour was brought to life by the profoundly engaging Soapy Watson a retired submariner of nearly 80 who kept my attention for well beyond 45 minutes and could have kept it for much longer. I left entirely uplifted.




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