Description
Object description
A portrait of life onboard HMS Eagle on a voyage from Mombasa to Singapore.
Full description
(Reel One) The opening sequence shows the crew at PT on the flightdeck - whilst the instructor has a fine physique, others of the crew show themselves to be reluctant exercisers. The commentary provides a brief biography of HMS Eagle. The crew shower after their exertions. CU of a sailor's pin-up. The men relax - listening to a record player, playing a guitar, writing letters, sleeping. Film of air operations intercut with scene in the flying control position - aircraft are Buccaneer S.1s of 800 Squadron, 899's Sea Vixen FAW.2s, and the Scimitar F.1 tanker aircraft of 800B Squadron. The commentary notes that the Buccaneers have a "nuclear capability". Captain Roxburgh on the bridge - helmsman - remote machinery control room - engine room, where temperatures often reach 120 degrees in tropical waters. A Vixen lands on - shot from the deck landing projector sight. Pilots talking together about their day is intercut with a second Vixen taking the wire and a Scimitar being waved off. Lunch in the wardroom. Issue of the rum ration. Self-service cafeteria in men's mess - waiter service in the wardroom. Captain's routine paperwork. Aerial view of the carrier from a SAR Wessex. MS as a Scimitar is struck down, followed by a shot from the lowered lift to the upper and lower hangars. Sequences in the sickbay and aircraft hangars are intercut, juxtaposing surgery and aircraft maintenance. Ship's radio service broadcasts a record request programme - a sailor receives a Shirley Bassey record, played at the behest of a distant girlfriend, and some consequent chaffing from his mates - the song is continued over a sequence of sailor's photographs of wives and sweethearts. 'Hands to Flying Stations'. Pilot briefing. Off-duty sailors perform 'Get Off My Cloud' - intercut with flightdeck operations, the refrain being juxtaposed with a series of launchings. Evening relaxation in Petty Officers' mess - in keeping with the decor, which is in imitation of an English pub, there is much inebriate singing - the POs' ration is nine cans of beer per day and "in hot climates many of them get through it all". On the flightdeck, flying operations completed, the aircraft are struck down for the night.
Content description
(Reel Two) Men are woken from their bunks by the refrain of 'Call Hands'. Breakfast in the mess. Officers are woken more gently with a cup of tea, and a gracious, napkins and newspapers breakfast. The Captain judges defaulters - a man late returning from leave gets some sympathy but no clemency, and is stopped two day's pay and two day's leave. The day's air operations begin - the dramatic launchings of Sea Vixens and Buccaneers are intercut with more prosaic shipboard activities - the laundry, staffed by Chinese contract workers, MO on sickbay rounds, the dental surgery, the ship's Chinese tailors and cobblers. Landing by Gannet AEW.1 of 849 Squadron, D Flight. Scimitar is readied for launching. Executive Officer's weekly inspection of the messdecks. Sequence showing the transfer of stores from a Fleet Replenishment Ship (either Resurgent or Retainer) - the operation is filmed at some length from both ships, and with a variety of ingenious camera angles, including up the forward lift well from the hangar, and down from the mainmast to the flightdeck. The operation is accompanied by cheery music from the band and interesting statistics from the narrator - Eagle's weekly consumption includes 200 gallons of ice cream and 40,000 cans of beer. More entertainments - a pop-group performs 'Let the Good Times Roll', happy hour on deck with some playing hockey and jogging, while others just sit about or sunbathe. A study of sailor's tattoos, including the classic fox hunt down a man's back. A dinner in the wardroom: the officer's monthly 'Saturday Night at Sea'. The evening makes a decorous start, an orchestra serenading the diners. Early in the evening standards are enforced - Commander Smith sends one Lieutenant out of the mess for a minor breech of manners - but once the port begins to circulate the celebration becomes increasingly rowdy, ending with one officer performing a striptease while others conga about him, and men somersaulting over lines of armchairs. The officer's entertainments are contrasted with a rather innocent series of revue sketches being enjoyed by the men - a hunting theme played on rubber tubing and a funnel, a comic Roman dialogue - and the lonely sobriety of the Captain, "always on duty" even while eating in his cabin. On Sunday there are religious services for those so inclined, followed by the quarterly full dress inspection by the Captain. The ship's radio room allows crewmen to 'phone home'. 849D's COD.4 Gannet flies in with mail. Ship's radio service provides news in an 'Eagle Round-Up'. After 30 days at sea the ship finally enters Singapore, accompanied by eight Wessex HAS.1s of 820 Squadron flying in arrowhead formation. "It's sad to think, even if it is necessary, that in a few years time this graceful ship and her sisters, Ark Royal, Victorious and Hermes, will all be scrapped. They are in a way the last survivors of almost four centuries of British imperial sea power."
Physical description
16mm