Adshead, Gilbert (Oral history)

British boy artificer trained aboard HMS Tenedos, Chatham and HMS Indus in Devonport, GB, 1909-1912; served aboard HMS Lord Nelson in Home Fleet based at Portland, Dorset, and in Mediterranean Fleet based at Mudros, 1913-1917; artificer served aboard HMS Thisbe with Harwich Flotilla, GB coastal waters, 1917-1919; served aboard HMS Stuart at Malta and Constantinople, Turkey, 1920-1922

REEL 1 Recollections of background in Forest Hill, London, 1893-1909: education; family circumstances; background to recruitment as boy artificer including father's role, choice of engineering trades depending on examination results, interviews and medical examinations. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle during training aboard HMS Tenedos, 1/1909-6/1911: nature of training establishment. REEL 2 Continues: nature of training establishment; PT; daily routine; specially selected instructors; reception; examinations and selection for training as fitter and turner; workshop training; increasing recognition of importance of engineering personnel; uniforms issued and desire to purchase doeskin No 1 suit from naval tailors. REEL 3 Continues: question of purchasing doeskin No 1 suit from naval tailors; quality of uniform and kit; question of regular kit inspections and personal responsibility for repairs and replacement; relationship between artificer trades; captain's inspections; role of naval pensioners in cleaning ship; organisation of boys in sections and role of petty officer boys; messing arrangements; messdeck accommodation including method of lashing hammock. REEL 4 Continues: messdeck accommodation including sea chests, bins, reading rooms and smoking deck; swimming instruction; absence of overcrowding; specially selected officers and instructors; nickname, 'The Admiral'; origins of boy artificers; shore leave and recreations; food and cooking arrangements; ship's canteen. REEL 5 Continues: ship's canteen; nature of discipline and story of boy thrown out for practical joke on inspecting admiral; stories of practical jokes played on instructors; punishments; relationship with officers, instructors and senior boys. REEL 6 Continues: relationship with boys; recreations on shore leave; pay; church services and opinion of padre; cricket activities and weekend leave. Recollections of period training aboard HMS Indus at Devonport, 6/1911-1/1913: nature of training establishment; sports activities. REEL 7 Continues: opinion of padre; engineering trade test, written examinations and passing out as 5th class engine room artificer; question of absence of seamanship training; theoretical engineering classes; story illustrating popularity of padre; preference for service aboard HMS Indus in contrast to HMS Tenedos; rat problem on lower decks; ship's canteen; shore leave; cricket activities. REEL 8 Continues: shore leave and question of Aggie Weston's Sailors Rest Homes; crucial role of officers in maintaining crew morale illustrated by service aboard HMS Lord Nelson, 1913-1916 and example of Lieutenant Commander McGee aboard HMS Thisbe, 1918; competitive nature of rivalry between ships. Period in Chatham Barracks, 1/1913-3/1913: boredom. REEL 9 Continues: working parties carrying out repairs to warships; question of relative time on shore and sea postings; conditions of service; strict nature of discipline; story of naval tobacco being smuggled out of barracks, 1916; recreations; facilities for sailors at Aggie Weston's Sailors Rest Homes. REEL 10 Continues: permanent shore personnel; application procedure for leave passes. Recollections of service as engine room artificer aboard HMS Lord Nelson, 3/1913-11/1917: joining ship at Sheerness; continuation of training and nature of repair work; nature of ship including armament, armoured ram, torpedo nets, reciprocating coal and oil burning engines, self-contained watertight arrangements and electric lifts; composition of engine room staff and organisation into watches. REEL 11 Continues: communication of orders by engine room telegraph; organisation of engine room watches; overall uniform; methods of coaling and oiling ship; increasing status of engineering personnel; question of relationship between lower deck specialisations; competitive approach to 'spit and polish' between ships. REEL 12 Continues: question of nature of 'spit and polish' ended by outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; question of spit and polish during subsequent service with HMS Thisbe and HMS Stuart, 1917-1922; messdeck accommodation and furniture; washing facilities; off duty periods and recreations. REEL 13 Continues: food and messing arrangements; ship's canteen; issue of rum ration and exchange of rum for services. REEL 14 Continues: question of seamen storing run ration; story of visit by First Lord of Admiralty, Sir Winston Churchill at Sheerness; question of gambling and Churchill's intervention to allow seamen to play cards; story of meeting Churchill during walk ashore on Isle of Arran; disciplinary offences and punishments; relaxed nature of discipline on destroyers; role of master of arms. REEL 15 Continues: roles of master of arms, commander and captain; role of coxswain on destroyers; relationship with Royal Marines; role of petty officers and relationships on lower deck; crown and anchor games; sweeps as flagship of Home Fleet based at Portland following outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; suspension of sweeps following sinking of cruisers, 1914; casualties from 1909 entry of boy artificers; voyage out to Malta, 1/1915. REEL 16 Continues: illustration of effects of rough seas and necessary damage control after storm in Bay of Biscay, 1/1915; story of firing shell to break up water spout; question of effects of war on conditions of service; importance of sports activities. Recollections of operations with Mediterranean Fleet based at Mudros, 3/1915: nature of Mudros harbour; absence of leave; period engaging Turkish forts and howitzers in Dardanelles; losses attributed to static and floating mines of ships including Bouvet and HMS Ocean during attempt to force straits, 18/3/1915. REEL 17 Continues: aspects of attempt to force straits, 18/3/1915, including question of effectiveness of Turkish mines and guns, ease in hitting stationary land targets, question of suspension of naval attack and minimal view from action station in after dynamo room; story of cat's reaction to guns firing; stories of various pets including monkey causing havoc in captain's cabin and goat butting seaman overboard whilst weighing anchor at Portland. REEL 18 Continues: origin of term 'snotties' for midshipmen; background to preparations of trawlers and volunteering as part of naval crews put aboard to replace civilian crews during subsequently cancelled minesweeping operations in Dardanelles; necessity of troop carriers to return to Egypt for reorganisation of cargo prior to any landings. Recollections of operations in support of Mediterranean Expeditionary Force landings on Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, 4/1915-1/1916: supporting landing at V Beach, 25/4/1916, including effects of prior naval bombardment, view of beaching of River Clyde and effects of currents, assistance of naval lighters and personnel to bridge gap to beach and situation on beach; support fire prior to capture of Sedd el Bahr; Turkish guns on rails and sheltered underground; continual threat of Turkish shell fire at Gallipoli; donating bread to troops ashore; mutual admiration between navy and army; activities of Turkish 'Asiatic Annie' and 'Christians Awake' guns; Turkish searchlights; continual threat of Turkish shell fire at Gallipoli. REEL 19 Continues: importance of Achi Baba; firing behind Turkish lines; Australian landings at Anzac; story illustrating relationship between General Birdwood and Australian troops rescue of survivors from HMS Triumph. Periods at Mudros Harbour and off Salonika, 1/1916-11/1917: constant readiness for action in harbour; action in Mudros harbour; story of failure to open fire on Zeppelin; Zeppelin raids; destroyer's success in shooting down Zeppelin. German air raid during period at Chatham Barracks, 11/1917. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle aboard HMS Thisbe with Harwich Flotilla, 11/1917-11/1918: greater sense of responsibility within small crew; role checking oil turbine engines. REEL 20 Continues: oil fuel; question of wartime absence of 'spit and polish'; closer relationship between branches of lower deck in destroyer; cramped messdeck accommodation; washing; hard lying allowance; role of stoker acting as servant to engine room artificers' mess; food; question of hostilities only personnel. REEL 21 Continues: period as senior ERA with skeleton crew when ship was laid up on River Medway, 1918-1919; question of adequacy of pay and pension arrangements; review of post-war service; role of Harwich Flotilla in sweeps towards Heligoland and attempts to intercept German vessels; experiments with Sopwith Camels towed behind ship and launched from raft. REEL 22 Continues: story of Lieutenant Errol taking off from raft, bringing down Zepplin using ballonets and bombs and landing back on raft; role of submarines in finding way through German minefields; story of being mined on port stern whilst searching inside Norwegian territorial waters for German destroyers; problems with jammed rudder whilst being towed back to Immingham; introduction of German delayed action mines and story of evading detonation of delayed action mine through high speed. REEL 23 Continues: navigation by dead reckoning through British minefields and importance of engine room following exact orders; absence of casualties and story of escape of coxswain on being mined; rendezvous with surrendered German submarines off Orford Ness Lighthouse, 11/1918, including arrangements, nervousness of German crews, checking list of crew and discovery of cases of murdered officers. Recollections of service aboard HMS Stuart at Malta and Constantinople, Turkey, 1920-1922: prior movements and voyage out aboard HMS Conqueror; question of return to pre-war routine and similarity of shipboard regimes; effect of officers on crew morale. REEL 24 Continues: reactions to overseas service; sporting activities; awareness of political tension and preparations for possible outbreak of war during period at Constantinople; sailors' rest homes and recreations on shore leave at Malta; inspections prior to shore leave; relationship with Maltese civilians; food provision; question of competitive approach between ships on 'spit and polish'.