Description
Object description
Album with affixed prints, and associated loose prints, covering the service of Leading Stoker J S MacDonald aboard (HMNZS) HMS ACHILLES during her first 'active service' patrol of 1939-1940, particularly in the period of the Battle of River Plate.
Album: Covers the ship and company of HMS ACHILLES during the first active service patrol of 1939-1940 and includes many amateur photographs on board the ship alongside the familiar commercial and official photographs taken which depict the end of the Graf Spee at Montevideo. 'Tourist style' photographs and postcards accompany the relatively unusual ones which show the ship's company undertaking activities in locations in South America such as: taking refreshment in a canteen in Talara, Peru and fishing off the coast, taking a liberty boat ashore at Valparaiso, Chile, speed-boat try outs off Valparaiso, and visiting the Falkland Islands. Further amateur photographs show the ship's company undertaking daily tasks during their tour of South America and make reference to convoy escort duties around the continent. Also covered is rest and relaxation during the time at sea including fishing and sports contests on deck which included wrestling, running and deck hockey.
The coverage of the ship's encounter with the GRAF SPEE includes images of shrapnel splinters and where they entered the ship, including through one sailors kit locker; the splinter damaged bridge; the very familiar images of the burning GRAF SPEE after she was scuttled; the lower decks cleared and company assembled on the quarterdeck; relaxing on the deck after the engagement; informal views of the torpedoes crew and one of the HA gun crews, on watch on the open bridge, repairing the wireless aerials; arriving in Buenes Aires; British prisoners removed from GRAF SPEE before she was scuttled; ACHILLES approaching the wreckage of the GRAF SPEE after the New Zealand ship leaves Montevideo
Loose prints: ; Ship's company of (HMNZS) HMS ACHILLES parading through Auckland as part of a welcome home parade after the River Plate (February 1940); GRAF SPEE after Battle of River Plate; ACHILLES's CO Captain W E Parry with Rear Admiral Henry Harwood.