Description
Object description
British telegraphist served aboard HMS Amethyst during Yangtse Incident in China, 1949
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Teignmouth and Ashburton, GB, 1926-1943: family; education. Aspects of period as signalman with Royal Navy in GB, South Africa and Ceylon, 1943-1949: volunteering for Royal Navy, 1943; pattern of training in GB; service with radio station in South Africa, 1944-1947; drafting to Ceylon, 1947-1949. Recollections of period as telegraphist aboard HMS Amethyst during Yangtse Incident, China, 4/1949-7/1949: joining sloop, 1/1949; patrolling off Federation of Malaya; arrival in Shanghai and orders to move up the River Yangtse to Nanking; voyage up River Yangtse, 4/1949; effect of Chinese People's Liberation Army artillery shelling of ship, 20/4/1949; work attending to wounded; problems destroying Typex Machine; swimming ashore; returning to ship in whaler under fire; work in wireless office on signals.
REEL 2 Continues: problems of signalling Nanking and Hong Kong; attempts to lighten ship; move up river; arrival medical help with Royal Air Force Short Sunderland Flying Boat; further moves up river; Lieutenant Commander John Kerans taking over command, 22/4/1949; burial of dead and cleaning up of ship; problems of using codes for messages to outside world; establishment of meeting between Commander John Kerans and Chinese People's Liberation Army; failure of British ships to aid ship; question of scuttling ship; problem of depleting of oil supply; stand-ins he got to allow him to get rest; effect of lack of oil; question of boredom of crew.
REEL 3 Continues: question of making copies of signals; running out of transmitter values; how he was waited on; Chinese censoring of mail; making record request to British Broadcasting Corporation; British Broadcasting Corporation banning of song 'I'd Like to Get You on a Slow Boat to China'; ration situation including effect of food shortage on stomachs; photographs taken during incident; recognition of rules of the sea on river; flying ensigns; heads of department meeting with Commander John Kerens, 20/7/1949; choice of moment to slip anchor, 21/7/1949; use of ferry to disguise escape; effect of Chinese People's Liberation Army artillery fire, 21/7/1949; signal he sent to Hong Kong, 21/7/1949; problems ship met downriver, 21/7/1949.
REEL 4 Continues: failure of Chinese People's Liberation Army manned forts at Wusong to fire on ship; exchange of signals with HMS Concord; re-supply from HMS Jamaica; reception in Hong Kong, 7/1949; ill-feeling created by Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI); civilian treatment of ship's crew in Hong Kong; belief that ship would be sunk, 21/7/1949; behaviour of crew during Incident; question of inaccuracies in reporting of Yangste Incident; after-effects of Incident; banning of Simon the ship's cat from wireless transmission office; fate of Simon the ship's cat in quarantine. Aspects of service in Royal Navy, 1954-1966: guard ship duties aboard HMS Gambia during pilots strike; aid work after Xante earthquake, 1954; action stations aboard HMS Albion during Operation Musketeer, 10/1956-11/1956; pattern of naval career, 1957-1966.