HMS ROYAL EAGLE, AN AUXILIARY ANTI-AIRCRAFT VESSEL [Allocated Title]

Life onboard an auxiliary coastal anti-aircraft vessel, the paddle-steamer HMS Royal Eagle.

I. Reel One. Onboard Royal Eagle, the ship at moorings. Men rush from a deckhouse to their action stations, pulling on steel helmets. Boulton Paul turret and single 2-pounder are elevated. CU sequence as crew man a 2-pounder - they change the angle of aim and the bearing of the gun as orders are issued by a RNVR Sub-Lieutenant - in the background to all this can be heard the muffled instructions of the camera-crew. HA down the port side of the ship as a whaler is lowered from davits. A group of the crew sing 'A Drunken Sailor' and 'Ole King Cole' - some have H.M. PATROL cap-ribbons, one HMS PEMBROKE, and the banjo player is ROYAL FLEET RESERVE. Two engineer warrant officers speak of the engines "holding up", and one expresses the hope that "when the war is finished we'll take those pleasure trips again". The scene is repeated but one man keeps fluffing his lines.

II. Reel Two. Miscellaneous shots about the anchorage. Cameracraft closes on HMS Golden Eagle (4.236) to take off liberty men. MS silhouette of HMS Royal Eagle at dusk, cameracraft passing down her port side. Cameracraft closes on the starboard quarter of HMS Aristocrat to transfer stores - the ship's crew are busy painting the side. Pay parade - one of the men wears the cap-ribbon of the anti-submarine trawler HMT Stafnes.

III. MS off the port quarter of Royal Eagle underway in the anchorage. Engine room scenes - CUs of the reciprocating engines at work, the starboard paddle-wheel as seen from the engine room, the ship's Engineer Lieutenant. LS to convoy under escort. MS beneath the port bridge wing to waist 2-pounder position. LA.MS of the bridge, the front of which is painted with an eagle emblem, and pan right to 2-pounder on the focsle. The ship comes to anchor. Helmsman at work. Decks are manned for entry into port. CU of wake from the starboard paddle. CUs of 2-pounder and Boulton Paul emplacements. Two Gloster Gladiators fly past. Practice LA shoot by the ship's 2-pounders. Ship's wake seen in low sun conditions. Life at sea - cooking and serving of food, men in hammocks, men at leisure in a very crowded seamen's mess, Lieutenant-Commander RNR playing shove ha'penny with one of his Lieutenants, cards in the officer's mess. Final LA of White Ensign fluttering from peak.

35mm