Chapter 12: Pleasuring an Old Friend

Ark Royal sailed for her deployment in a small Task Group of three ships and on the first night Barrack Room Betty’s opened for business and was an instant success. At first the main earner was gambling and booze but as the ship got further away from her home port the temptation for the punters to ‘tap’ the attractive transvestite hostesses became more frequent.

Michele divided her four ‘Betty’s’ into two watches. As they had no other duties on board other than to run 6QDA Barrack Room Betty’s Gentleman’s Club and as the girls lived in the compartment below, it was pretty easy to manage. The ‘on watch’ girls cleaned up Betty’s after the previous night’s entertainment. Betty’s didn’t close until the punters had had enough so it was usually the early hours of the morning.

They cleared away the empties, washed glasses and ashtrays, wiped down tables, vacuumed the carpet and restocked the bar. Michele was meticulous in ensuring their Club was kept spotless. Then the next two ‘on watch’ Bettys changed into their evening gowns and glammed up ready for the first punters to arrive at 1700. The ‘oncoming watch’ of the other two Betty’s joined their compatriots in the club around 2000 when things got busy.

That way the girls had every second day off to rest, relax, and attend to their own personal needs. Michele had the collateral duty of keeping the books with Rod Latham. The books and cash were kept in a safe that they had installed in the girl’s messdeck.

Rod, Knocker, and Spike had their parts of ship to deal with during the day but they arrived at the Club around 1600 to help set up for the night’s entertainment. They would sometimes rub up against the girls and try to get a freebie but Michele was adamant that what the girls did on board was business and if anyone wanted sex it had to be paid for.

Jason (Spike) Jones continued to implore Michele to rekindle their relationship but Michele told him in no uncertain terms that it was over. She treated him like a pest rather than taking anything he said personally; she was just too busy to worry about his feelings.

At Michele’s insistence Rod had done a deal with Chief Sick Berth Attendant or (SBA) to ensure the girls got a weekly health check and venereal disease test. As a ‘cardholder’ the Chief Sick Berth Attendant was a member of the club and he had the choice of taking payment in gambling chips or a free fuck from one of the girls.

The girls spent most of the day dressed casually as women and only dressed as sailors in the forenoon when they surreptitiously made their way up to the port after ladder bay for fresh air. As the ‘Captain of the Maintop’, PO White put the area out of bounds every forenoon ‘for deck scrubbing’ and it was AB Spike Jones’ job to police the space and ensure the four sailors were left in peace in the unlikely event that someone questioned where they worked on board.

Membership to 6QDA Barrack Room Betty’s Gentleman’s Club was strictly controlled by Rod and Knocker. Recommendations for membership were passed to them by word of mouth and applicants were closely vetted to ensure they would keep their membership an absolute secret and that they had the funds to pay their way. As a CPO Writer, Rod had access to the pay office and could check to see how much pay each of the potential applicants were drawing each fortnight. Barrack Room Betty’s was strictly a cash only business.

The dichotomy was that they needed to build membership fast to start making a profit but they could only enrol those they implicitly trusted. As it turned out it didn’t take long to get a membership pool that was big enough to start making a good profit within a couple of weeks of departure from Pompey.

As is the want of the RN even today, the Task Group didn’t just sail off on deployment, they remained on station off the British coast conducting exercises and by the time they arrived in Gibraltar for an overnight fuelling stop it was fourteen days since they had left Pompey.

‘BRB’ as the girls and punters had begun to call the club was closed alongside as everyone except for the duty watch would take short leave and step ashore.

Michele, Doris, Polly and Mary were entered into ‘Cooks and Stewards’ Leave Book so they had leave on arrival and did not have to wait for libertymen to be piped at the end of the working day.

They changed into male ‘steppers’, abbreviation for ‘stepping rig’ or civvies, and stepped ashore overseas for the first time. There wasn’t too much to see in Gib but they saw what there was; the monkeys, the old fortress and browsed in a few shops for ‘rabbits’ which is what sailors called gifts bought ashore. They ended up in an old pub drinking ‘pussers neaters’ rum, which was no longer issued in the RN but stockpiled in Gib and sold in the hundreds of pubs on the small rock.

They woke up in their messdeck with horrendous hangovers in the late forenoon of the next day, the ship having sailed at 1000.

They got to work getting the club ready to open that afternoon but were hopeful there would not be too much of a crowd, almost everyone on board having been ashore the day before and likely as hungover as they.

But Michele was in for a pleasant surprise.

AB Jason Jones’ job when the club was open was to be the doorman and bouncer. The door to 6QDA was a standard steel waterproof door which, opened outwards held in place by six dogs or clips. But on the inside was an ornate solid wood door that opened inward and when the club was in operation the steel door was clipped open and access was through the wooden door which was policed by Spike Jones.

In keeping with making Betty’s a refined establishment, Jason wore a black tuxedo and white ruffled shirt. At first he had complained about having to wear the suit but Knocker convinced him otherwise.

On the first night at sea after the stop in Gibraltar, business at Barrack Room Betty’s was slow as expected. At around 2100 a young Lieutenant wearing officer’s night clothing consisting of blue uniform trousers with dress shirt and dinner jacket came down the ladder into 6QDA and approached AB Jones.

HMS Ark Royal had embarked twelve Phantom FG Mark 1’s from 892 Naval Air Squadron and LEUT Steven Winters, having spent his time in purgatory at HMS Chelmsford, was one of the pilots. There was no flying programmed for the next day and it was obvious that he had imbibed quite a bit of alcohol at and after dinner in the Wardroom.

“I say old chap, I presume I am in the right place,” LEUT Winters held up a BRB business card between two fingers.

Spike recognised Steve Winters immediately and his blood boiled. He remembered him arriving at their Recruit School Christmas Party and taking his then girlfriend Michele away and fucking her in his office and then driving off laughing in the night in his MG sportster. He also remembered Michele being disappointed that LEUT Winters had not come back for more at their New Year’s Eve party.

“Sorry sir the club’s closed,” Spike replied condescendingly.

Just then the door burst open and a rather inebriated Petty Officer scrambled over the combing.

“Fuck me! Good evening sir; hope your luck’s better than mine I just dropped fifty quid on blackjack,” he hiccupped, surprised to see an officer and staggered over to the ladder.

Music and loud banter drifted through the door and Spike blushed with embarrassment. The door opened again and CPO Rod Latham came out; he too was dressed in an evening suit. Michele had insisted that the club exude class.

“Good evening Lieutenant Winters sir; the Chief Steward told me that you had joined our select band of miscreants. Allow me to escort you to a table and get you a drink on the house,” Rod beamed at the young pilot.

Steve Winters raised his eyebrows at Jason Jones disapprovingly and entered the club. Rod led him over to the blackjack table and went to the bar and poured a gin and tonic and gave it to Polly and nodded over towards toward Steve Winters and winked. Polly sauntered over and delivered the drink.

“Welcome to Barrack Room Betty’s,” she beamed.

The smile on her face changed to one of amazement when she realised whom it was.

“Lieutenant Winters sir; it’s a pleasure,” she curtsied.

Steve Winters was surprised that the attractive transvestite knew his name but she looked vaguely familiar. Polly saw him frown as he tried to recollect from where he knew her.

“HMS Chelmsford sir, the Christmas party?” she smiled.

“Oh course, enchanted,” he took her hand and kissed it and motioned to the seat beside him.

Spike was looking through the door and was relieved that LEUT Winters was sitting with Polly. Michele was ‘off watch’ as they were not expecting many customers this evening but he still felt his jealousy rage through him at the suave sophisticated young officer who had fucked his girlfriend.

Steve drew some chips and began to play blackjack with Knocker White dealing and Polly keeping him company. There were two other punters at the table and the conversation was casual, to do with anything but the navy.

Doris was Polly’s fellow watchkeeper that night and she was sitting in the corner being pawed by a PO stoker who she was about to tell to pay up and fuck her or just fuck off. She was quite amazed when she saw Steve and Polly sitting together at the blackjack table and she extricated herself from the lap of the drunken stoker. He showed his disappointment and waved a tenner at her.

“Ok luv; I’m up for it,” he whined.

“Oh just sit there and wait; if you haven’t had a wank by the time I come back I’ll take you next door and fuck you if you can get it up,” Doris pronounced.

She expeditiously made her way over to the sound powered phone connected to the messdeck below and cranked the handle. Michele answered the phone.