Object description
British boy seaman trained aboard HMS Impregnable and HMS Ganges in GB, 1917-1918; served as boy telegraphist aboard HMS Donegal in Atlantic, 1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Manchester, 1901-1917: father's employment; family; education; work as apprentice fitter at Lancashire Dynamo and Motor Coy; reasons for leaving apprenticeship. REEL 2 Continues: payment in munitions work; employment in cotton warehouse; enlistment in Royal Navy at Deansgate recruitment office; rationing and use of allotments. REEL 3 Continues: character of blackouts; German Zeppelin raids. Recollections of training as boy seaman aboard training ship HMS Impregnable, Plymouth, 9/1917-1/1918: reception on arrival at training ship; behaviour of instructors; daily routine including stowing hammocks, breakfast and deck scrubbing; holy-stoning decks and brasswork. REEL 4 Continues: cleaning ship on Saturday mornings; character of Captain's inspection on Sunday; breakfast on board; attending seamanship classes. REEL 5 Continues: continuing education; boat work; anchor drill; examinations to determine naval occupations; swimming instruction and test; educational and recreational activities; lack of privacy. REEL 6 Continue: role of instructor boys; strict maintenance of discipline; kit issue and boy's attitude towards it; adapting uniforms; story of issue of tropical kit in Far East, 1919. REEL 7 Continues: Aspects of training as boy telegraphist at HMS Ganges, Shotley, 1/1918- 2/1918: character of wireless and telegraphy; messing and sleeping arrangements; night patrols to maintain discipline; types of radio sets; daily routine; 'make and mend' days; German Zeppelin raids and use of air raid shelters. REEL 8 Continues: Aspects of voyage across Atlantic aboard Alsation, 3/1918-6/1918: watching US Independence Day festivities; relations with American Marines during journey on troopship from New York to Halifax Aspects of operations as boy telegraphist aboard HMS Donegal in Atlantic, 1918-1919, coaling ship; organisation of canteen messing. REEL 9 Continues: duties of cooks of the day; typical meals; inadequacy of messing allowance; comparison between canteen and general messing; buying extra food to supplement canteen; question of wastage of food in barracks. REEL 10 Continues: Spanish influenza epidemic during convoy escort duties; memories on Armistice, 11/11/1918. Period in Victory Barracks, Portsmouth, 1919: life in barracks; discipline in barracks; shore leave in Portsmouth.
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