Description
Object description
British seaman served as stoker aboard HMS Malaya in GB coastal waters and North Atlantic, 1936-1937; served as shipwright aboard HMS Eagle in North Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, 1939-1942 including sinking by German submarine U-73 during Operation Pedestal, 11/8/1942; served aboard HMS Valiant, Eastern Fleet in GB coastal waters and Far East, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Weymouth, GB, 1918-1936: family; education; reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy, 1936. Aspects of period as stoker aboard HMS Malaya in North Atlantic and GB coastal waters, 1936-1937: duties as stoker; collision with merchant ship in Bay of Biscay. Recollections of operations as shipwright aboard HMS Eagle North Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, 1939-1942: reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; amusing story about call to action stations during showing of film 'Gunga Din' (1939); attitude to serving aboard aircraft carrier; duties in Mediterranean, 1940-1941; problems of negotiating Suez Canal, Egypt to Indian Ocean; role hunting for German submarine supply ships; loss of aircraft in accident and return to GB, late 1941; morale aboard aircraft carrier.
REEL 2 Continues: question of predominance of inexperienced crew on board during return to Mediterranean, 1942; convoy duties in Mediterranean, 1942. Recollections of torpedoing and sinking of HMS Eagle by German submarine U-73 during Operation Pedestal in Mediterranean, 11/8/1942: introduction of new anti-aircraft fuses prior to start of Operation Pedestal, 8/1942; his damage control action station; German submarine U-73's attack on aircraft carrier; question of Captain Lachlan Mackintosh's actions after torpedoing of ship; abandoning ship and period in water; reaction to treatment of survivors; recapitulation of sinking of aircraft carrier.
REEL 3 Continues: swimming skills; period in sea after sinking. Recollections of period as shipwright aboard HMS Valiant, Eastern Fleet in GB coastal waters and Far East, 1943-1945: drafting to battleship, 12/1943; role of ship in Far East; accident to ship in floating dry dock in Trincomalee Harbour, Ceylon, 8/8/1944; repairs to ship after dock collapse; work as joiner and with diving party on return to GB, 1945. Memories of taking passage aboard HMS Belfast from Far East to GB, 1947.