I’m sure you have heard the saying that art sometimes imitates life. Well during my youth I had an experience of a hobby imitating and actual event in history, I didn’t get the relevance at the time but now I am much older I thought I might share it with you.

For those who are unaware there was once a German battleship called the Bismarck. It was the biggest and most advanced ship of its time and as a result the entire British fleet was determined to sink it from the moment it was put to sea. Among the British fleet was a ship called The Hood, it was sunk during a battle with the Bismarck. Eventually the Bismarck was sunk but it took a mighty effort to finally send it to the depths of the sea.

Forty years later I had a hobby building model warships. Among my collection were the Bismarck and the hood.

On the day my grandparents and I moved from the country to the city I decided that my model ships would have to stay behind and made the decision to take them up to our dam and send them straight to the depths of Davey Jones locker.

One by one I placed them in the water and took shots at them with my slingshot using marbles for ammunition. I remember it was the most fun I had in weeks as I was not entirely happy about moving to the city and had been in a deep brooding mood for quite some time. I had left my two prize ships till last and placed them in the water together, once again the Hood and the Bismark would do battle and this time I was certain the British ship would prevail.

I had it all planned, each shot would be as if it had been fired from the opposing ship. I fired at the Bismarck first and scored a direct hit but did no damage, and then there were several shots that missed. Eventually after running out of marbles and using rocks I had both ships riddled full of holes but both refusing to yield, I decided to put and end to the fight as my father was yelling from the house that it was time to go.

My good friend Dale had joined me as he had come to say goodbye, I loaded a large rock into my slingshot and was sure the Bismarck would be consumed by the depths, I aimed and fired but the rock landed just beside the ship. The ship flew through the air and landed on the Hood providing the fatal blow and the pride of the British fleet was once again defeated. The Bismarck should have been sunk but just like her predecessor she was proving elusive, she had holes and cracks in both sides and the top section was all but gone yet still she remained vigilant. We spent the next five minutes pelting it with rocks until Dale picked up a large section of concrete, waded out and dropped it on top of the ship, it was gone.

So just like the battle years earlier the Hood fell first at the hands of the Germans and then it took a mighty effort using all available firepower to sink arguably the greatest battleship of all time. If only I had known then the significance of what had taken place on that small dam in the middle of a country paddock. Could the spirits of those two great vessels and the brave souls who fought for them have had something to do with the outcome as they did all those years ago?

As we left the farm for the last time I asked my father to turn on his cassette player, the song that was playing was a Johnny Horton classic “sink the Bismarck”. I now have my own copy of that song and often listen and reflect on a simpler time, when I created my own piece of history.