I can well remember being shown round and sitting in the cockpit of a Firefly at HMS Gannet at Eglinton and the smell of oil, rubber, sweat, for the life of me I don't know how to describe it but everything about the aircraft, pilots and their life (in the mid 50s) I found fascinating.
Are you sure you were in a Gannet and not the club I found myself in when in Hamburg a few years back?
A run ashore with the Royal Navy's finest, you never know where you will end up.....