Description
Object description
Silent 8mm black and white and colour footage shot by Lieutenant-Commander George C Blundell on board the 10,000-ton County Class cruiser HMS Kent as it calls in on Wei-Hai-Wei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Borneo in early 1939.
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START 00:00:00 Monochrome scenes on board HMS Kent with views of the name plate on the quarterdeck, X and Y twin eight-inch gun turrets and the mainmast (from which the White Ensign flies) and a view along the starboard side from the ship's gangway in its stowed position; another warship (the light cruiser HMS Cardiff) can be seen in line ahead. Views of the foc'sle showing the bow jackstaff, the two anchor chains and capstans, a Chinese crew member and off-duty (?) RN ratings resting on deck. An interior shot of the wheelhouse, where an officer keeps watch over the helmsman, and an exterior view filmed from the bridge of the foc'sle with aerial recognition markings - a large Union Jack painted on the roof of A turret and the ship's initials 'KE' painted on B turret - clearly visible. A clear view of the 4,000-ton C Class light cruiser HMS Cardiff on HMS Kent's starboard side.
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00:01:27 Scenes ashore at Wei-Hai-Wei, a British enclave in mainland China, showing three rickshaw runners pulling three Britishers along a dirt road, a rickshaw boy named Ah Yu (Blundell's personal driver). Views of the local club for British expatriates.
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00:01:57 Scenes on board HMS Kent showing the bow anchors being raised and mud on the starboard anchor being hosed down by a Petty Officer with a water hose and the small motor dinghy (known as the 'skimming dish') being lifted on board. Views filmed on 17 June 1939 from the aft control position showing the wash created by the cruiser as she steams at top speed during full power trials (the letters 'KE' can be seen painted on the roof of X turret) and from the quarterdeck, where the cameraman leans over the starboard rails to include the admiral's sternwalk in the shot. Shots of the depth charge rail at the stern of HMS Kent on the port side - the depth charges are seen minus their hydrostatic fuses - and naval ratings grouped around the rail as they receive instruction from Chief Torpedo Gunner's Mate 'Daisy' Bell (in the centre) whilst HMS Kent is moored in an anchorage. Shots showing two depth charges being rolled down the rail over the side and producing underwater explosions astern of the ship while it is moving at speed.
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00:04:01 Clandestinely shot scenes filmed through a porthole on board HMS Kent at HMS Tamar, Hong Kong's naval dockyard, showing Admiral Percy Noble, Commander-in-Chief, China Station, and a British Army officer bidding farewell to three Japanese army officers and their senior British Army escort at the end of their courtesy visit; the old nineteenth century vessel with the white hull is HMS Tamar. A view of the Royal Navy river gunboat HMS Ladybird and a Royal Navy sentry on duty in the foreground.
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00:04:32 A view of a large building overlooking the Straits of Johore as HMS Kent steams towards Singapore naval base on 20 June 1939. A shot from the aft control position as ratings spread the canvas awning over Y turret and the quarterdeck before arriving at Singapore naval docks; a Union Jack is clearly visible on the awning. Wearing tropical whites, Admiral Sir James Somerville, Commander-in-Chief East Indies Station, walks up the gangway onto HMS Kent, where captain and a party of naval ratings is ready to receive him.
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00:05:26 Scenes on board HMS Kent at sea off Singapore during naval exercises on 21 June 1939: a live high-angle firing exercise with the port Mk XVI 4-inch high-angle/low-angle gun battery and Kent's sistership, HMS Berwick, and the submarine depot ship HMS Medway. A view of HMS Berwick on Kent's starboard quarter shows the large boxlike seaplane hangar astern of the three funnels; there is smoke visible as HMS Berwick's starboard 4-inch gun battery opens fire. Kent's Vickers Supermarine Walrus seaplane is seen being launched twice from its steam-driven catapult, the second time under the supervision of the flying officer in the aft searchlight platform. The seaplane is retrieved from the sea and hoisted on board by the cruiser's starboard lifting crane - note the crew of the safety boat ready to be lowered into the sea at a moment's notice in case of an accident.
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00:08:50 Scenes showing Siamese and Royal Navy officers (?) seated on the quarterdeck of the Siamese royal yacht (?) and a framed portrait of the young King of Siam, Ananda Mahidol Rama VIII (1935-1946), on board. A view of the starboard side of HMS Kent, with the Walrus seaplane on its catapult and the quarterdeck awning clearly visible. Views of the large two storey wooden house and attached garden where Lieutenant-Commander Blundell stayed whilst in Bangkok and a water buffalo grazing in the grounds. Brief glimpses of Bangkok - the Chao Phraya river with small river craft and two freighters in mid-stream, two bicycle rickshaws heading across a modern steel cantilever road bridge and people flying kites in Sanamluang park whose skyline is lined by Buddhist pagodas.
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00:10:44 Scenes filmed on 24 - 25 June 1939 featuring the Ma-on-Shan, a type of two-masted yacht known as a wishbone ketch and owned by Blundell's friend, RAF Squadron Leader Geoffrey Francis, being rowed ashore from the Ma-on-Shan in a small dinghy with three men and their wives/girlfriends, on the jetty at Seletar yacht club, sailing past Chinese junk and a Short Sunderland flying boat in the Straits of Johore, relaxing on board the yacht and leaving it on board a small motor dinghy. Views of a palace owned by the Sultan of Johore and a sleeping rickshaw driver (almost hidden by the shadow of the tree he is resting under). Shots showing two British men in the grounds of a pineapple canning factory owned by a friend of Blundell called Bill Johnson, Malay workmen excavating the foundations for a building and removing soil in baskets and a modern factory shed and office building.
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00:13:30 Scenes filmed on 26 June 1939 showing an Admiralty tug, HMT St Just, towing HMS Kent out of Singapore naval base and the ship's Royal Marine band playing under the awning on the quarterdeck. Views of the French cruiser Lamotte Picquet (whose decks are entirely screened by tropical canvas awnings) and several Short Sunderland flying boats belonging to Royal Air Force 230 Squadron at their moorings at Seletar as HMS Kent slowly steams through the Straits of Johore between Singapore and the mainland of Malaya. One Sunderland piloted by Squadron Leader Francis is seen setting down on the water, taxiing past HMS Kent and taking off.
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00:15:12 Views of the town of Sandakan, centre of the commercial timber industry in North Borneo, as HMS Kent enters the anchorage there; also present is HMS Falmouth, the yacht of the C-in-C East Indies Station. View of the tall sandstone (?) cliffs overlooking the bay at Sandakan. Scenes filmed during an anti-gas warfare exercise on HMS Kent showing a rating holding a gas float in his right hand, Chinese crewman leaving the ship down the ship's gangway and on board one of HMS Kent's motor launches and gas floats emitting gas vapour some distance from the ship.
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00:17:10 Colour footage on board HMS Kent showing ratings scrubbing and hosing down the quarterdeck and cleaning the crosstrees on the foremast.
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END 00:18:12
Physical description
8mm