Ralph Hammond-Innes
Links with ASTO
By a remarkable coincidence a direct link exists between Ralph Hammond Innes and ASTO's President, John Lang.
Ralph's wife Dorothy was a Lang from the same family and, not having any children of their own, or any real Innes family connection, their only links with any family were through Dorothy. She was an actress and playwright and, like John, had family links with the writers Andrew Lang and Sir Walter Scott.
In the early 1950s John's family moved to East Anglia and lived about 3 miles away from Ralph and Dorothy's home in Kersey. During this time his naval officer father was commanding the Persian Gulf based frigate HMS Flamingo and, in 1954, Ralph spent some time on board gathering background information for his novel The Doomed Oasis.
In the meantime John had already discovered the appeal of sailing and some of his earliest ventures afloat were with Ralph on board his yacht Triune of Troy on the River Deben in Suffolk. Ralph meanwhile, writing under the name Ralph Hammond, dedicated one of his little known children's books to John's sister, Sandy.
Ralph Hammond Innes at sea onboard HMS Beaver in 1985
gathering background information from a ship's officer
As the years unfolded the family links were maintained but it wasn't until John, having followed in his father's footsteps in the Royal Navy and was commanding another frigate, HMS Beaver, that a closer friendship was forged. Ralph always had it in mind to write a novel about what he called a "navy" ship, and spent some time with John embarked to gather material for Medusa, published in 1988. He was kind enough to dedicate it to, "My wife's cousins, the John Langs, father and son, who when in command, have done so much over the years to involve me in the work of the Royal Navy."
Love of sailing was a common thread in the mutual affection between Ralph and his extended family and it would have given him the greatest possible pleasure to know that one of them was to become the President of the organisation he loved so much. The extraordinary thing about it is that John's election as President had nothing to do with the original link with Ralph.