Description
Object description
British boy seaman trained aboard HMS Northampton in GB coastal waters, 6/1903-10/1903 and aboard HMS Victory at Portsmouth, GB, 10/1903-2/1904; seaman served aboard HMS Caesar in GB coastal waters, 1904-1905, served aboard HMS Essex in GB coastal waters, 1906, served aboard HMS Aboukir in GB coastal waters, 1906; served aboard HMS Bacchante on China Station, 1906; served aboard HMS Drake, 7th Cruiser Sqdn in GB coastal waters, 1907-1909; served aboard HMS Spartiate in GB coastal waters, 1909, served aboard HMS Swiftsure in Mediterranean, 1909-1910; petty officer served aboard HMS Glasgow, 4th Crusier Sqdn in South Atlantic, 1911-1916; served aboard HMS Ready, 15th Destroyer Flotilla, Grand Fleet in GB coastal waters and North Sea, 1916-1917; served aboard Q ship HMS Marsh Fort in North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 1917-1919; served aboard HMS Cordelia in Baltic, 1921; served aboard HMS Thunderer in GB coastal waters, 1922-1924
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Bristol, GB, 1886-1904: family and social circumstances; education; employment as baker's boy; employment in brush factory; social circumstances; delivering coke to earn money; method of cooking meat.
REEL 2 Continues: failed attempt to join Royal Artillery. Aspects of enlistment at Royal Navy Recruitment Office, Bristol, GB, 1903: reasons for enlistment; medical and consequent hernia operation; father's initial refusal to sign forms; train journey to Old Admiralty Buildings, Whitehall, London.
REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of training as boy seaman aboard boys training ship HMS Northampton in GB coastal waters, 6/1903-10/1903: reception and assignment to watch and sail duty station on joining ship; seamanship; swimming instruction; washing; breakfast; seamanship instruction; dinner; sail drill and climbing rigging over mast head.
REEL 4 Continues: physical training exercises; hammocks; boxing match to sort out dispute with recruit; discipline and punishments; 10 Inch Guns aboard ship; baths; Sunday inspection and church service; uniforms and question of improvements.
REEL 5 Continues: needlework. Aspects of period of training as boy seaman aboard HMS Victory at Portsmouth, GB, 10/1903-2/1904: public caning after being caught evading duty; boy's public birching; punishments; duties moving pig iron blocks. Recollections of period as seaman and petty officer aboard HMS Caesar, 1904-1905, HMS Bacchante, 1906, HMS Aboukir, 1906, HMS Essex, 1906, HMS Drake, 1907-1909, HMS, 1909, HMS Swiftsure, 1910-1912, HMS Glasgow, 1911-1915, HMS Ready, 1916-1917. HMS Marsh Fort, 1917-1919, HMS Cordelia, 1921 and HMS Thunderer in GB coastal waters, on China Station, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic, 1922-1924: petty officers; dancing to band music; story of selection by Admiral Charles Beresford to meet Kaiser Wilhelm II during his visit aboard ship at Gibraltar.
REEL 6 Continues: cleaning and polishing brasswork; holystoning decks; Sunday inspection; coaling ship; rations, purchase of extra supplies for mess from ship's canteen and cooking; special punishments.
REEL 7 Continues: nature of naval discipline; stories illustrating strict discipline imposed by Captain Charles de Bartoleme aboard HMS Drake; story of throwing grease at policeman, subsequent punishment picking oakum in cells and practical joke played on chief stoker; strict discipline imposed by Captain Charles de Bartoleme.
REEL 8 Continues: role measuring ship's water supply; story of attack on commander by dockyard workers; opinion of officers and their role in maintaining discipline; appointment as gunnery petty officer to command picket boat whilst serving aboard HMS Thunderer; role and conduct of master-at-arms and naval police.
REEL 9 Continues: fights with other seaman whilst aboard HMS Caesar; stories illustrating role and conduct of master-at-arms and naval police; end to corporal punishment, relaxation of discipline and changing relations with officers on outbreak of First World War, 4/8/1914; Captain Cyril Towers attitude to granting compassionate leave whilst aboard HMS Swiftsure; question of increased stealing and decline in discipline following introduction of Hostilities Only (HO) personnel; seamanship training.
REEL 10 Continues: painting ship; story of occupying topmast whilst being lowered; dispute between Admiral Charles Beresford and Captain Percy Scott over relative importance of gunnery or painting HMS Drake correct colour to match other ships of 2nd Cruiser Sqdn; erecting jury mast for signals; stories of eccentric petty officer and his subsequent death aboard HMS Good Hope, 12/1914; continued instruction as ordinary seaman prior to promotion to able seaman; attending gunnery course as petty officer at HMS Excellent, Naval Gunnery School, Whale Island, 1916, including strict nature of discipline, weeding out process, gun drill on various guns.
REEL 11 Continues: washing and repairing uniforms; activities of lower deck tailors making up replacement uniforms and personalised styling; polishing brasswork.
REEL 12 Continues: scrubbing decks; coiling ropes; painting ship; preparations for active service on outbreak of First World War, 4/8/1914, including removal of layers of paint as fire risk and removal of wooden fittings; practice in German ship recognition; return of 'spit and polish' following Armistice, 11/11/1918; nature of messdeck lifestyle; mess furniture and eating utensils; issue of rum ration aboard HMS Thunderer.
REEL 13 Continues: introduction of payments to seamen not taking rum ration; story of smuggling whisky aboard HMS Glasgow at Montevideo, Uruguay; recreational activities and question of gambling; naval regattas; Aspects of periods in Victory Barracks, Portsmouth, GB: visits to Portsmouth; working parties in dockyard; assisting during steam trials of HMS New Zealand.
REEL 14 Continues: forming armed shore party from HMS Bacchante during stokers' mutiny in barracks; strict nature of discipline; bribing naval police; Sunday inspections; rifle drill; route marches; permanent shore personnel; rations.
REEL 15 Continues: inspections prior to going on leave; recreational activities on visits into Portsmouth; visits to Sailors Rest Homes including Aggie Weston's Sailors Rest Homes; story of meeting Aggie Weston; taking pledge as teetotaller and question of prostitutes; venereal disease precautions and syphilis problem.
REEL 16 Continues: venereal disease precautions; friend's attack of syphilis; treatment for and prevalence of venereal disease; question of promotion and necessity of passing stokers' training test before qualification as able seaman; pay and methods of supplementing income by providing various services; pension arrangements; question of pay improvements.
REEL 17 Continues: reasons for preference for overseas service; service aboard HMS Bacchante on China station, 1905. Recollections of period as seaman aboard HMS Swiftsure in Mediterranean, 1910: ship's goat mascot; competitive exercises in putting out torpedo nets; practice in towing HMS Triumph; weighing anchor by hand and causes of accidental injuries.
REEL 18 Continues: accidental injuries during competitive exercises; training on gun loading simulator; question of spending time on upper deck and sleeping on mess deck; cruises; recreational activities during shore leave at Malta; punishment for over-staying leave; Maltese religious sites; recreational activities on shore leave at Malta; relations with Maltese civilians; 'bum boats'; food; near accident during gunnery sports ashore.
REEL 19 Continues: story of fight with drunken stoker whilst on shore patrol duty; instance of being arrested for dispute with Maltese civilian during religious festival; naval regattas; reactional activities during visits from foreign warships and fights between crews on shore leave; story of hiring Maltese boats; relations with Irish civilians during shore visits at Bantry, Ireland; spit and polish.
REEL 20 Continues: Recollections of period as petty officer aboard HMS Glasgow, 4th Cruiser Sqdn in South Atlantic, 1912-1914: state of crew morale; movements; collecting drunk officers from shore leave; story of rescuing British woman form prostitution in Buenos Aires, Argentina; shore leave; daily routine including watches and off duty recreational activities.
REEL 21 Continues: relations with other seamen; question of qualifying as able seaman; question of homosexuality; venereal disease lectures; preparations for active service following news of outbreak of First World War whilst in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 4/8/1914; activities stopping merchant vessels of various countries. Recollections of operations as petty officer aboard HMS Glasgow, 4th Cruiser Sqdn during Battles of Coronel and Falklands, 11/1914-12/1914: meeting up with HMS Good Hope, HMS Monmouth and HMS Otranto; situation; opening fire on East Asia Sqdn, Imperial German Navy; explosion of HMS Good Hope; effect of German shells hitting port quarter; damage control to control leak; taking up position on searchlights.
REEL 22 Continues: taking up position on searchlights; damage control duties in coal bunkers; speech from Captain John Luce; background to reports that HMS Glasgow had been sunk; question of meeting SMS Karlsruhe during voyage to recoal at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands; escort by HMS Defence to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and dockyard repairs; arrival of reinforcements under Admiral Doveton Sturdee and use of HMS Glasgow as decoy to attract East Asia Sqdn, Imperial German Navy to Port Stanley, Falkland Islands; raising alarm after sighting East Asia Sqdn, Imperial German Navy whilst coaling ships, 12/1914; role of HMS Glasgow on reconnaissance outside harbour and in providing smoke screen to cover emergence of British ships; dispersal of East Asia Sqdn, Imperial German Navy on sighting HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible; role in case of German torpedo attack; sight of battlecruisers opening fire; pursuit of SMS Leipzig, SMS Nuremberg and SMS Dresden; casualties during successful gunnery duel with SMS Leipzig; launching boats and rescuing members of SMS Leipzig's crew; question of medical treatment of German officer; severe German casualties resulting from continuation of fire on SMS Leipzig while German ensign was still flying; discovery of SMS Dresden at Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile; boarding SMS Dresden prior to sinking; success of SMS Dresden in evading discovery in Magellan Straits, Chile; opening fire using lyditte shells on SMS Dresden lying inshore at Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile.
REEL 23 Continues: boarding SMS Dresden prior to sinking result of charges placed in magazine; pig taken from SMS Dresden; failure to find SS Prinz Eitel Freidrich; effects of German hits on ship and refitting at Simonstown, South Africa; relations with South African civilians. Recollections of operations as petty officer aboard HMS Ready, 15th Destroyer Flotilla, Grand Fleet in GB coastal waters and North Sea, 1916-1917: reasons for preferring conditions aboard big ships to destroyers; ruse to save man asleep on duty; relaxed discipline aboard destroyers in contrast to big ships during peacetime; hard lying allowance; North Sea sweeps; cleaning ship in harbour.
REEL 24 Continues: story of firing gun at Zeppelin whilst on sentry duty at HMS Excellent, Naval Gunnery School, Whale Island, 1916; North Sea sweeps and question of non-emergence of German High Seas Fleet; opinion of performance of Admirals John Jellicoe and David Beatty at Battle of Jutland, 31/6/1916; question of daily routine aboard big ships at Scapa Flow. Recollections of operations as petty officer aboard Q Ship, HMS Marsh Fort in North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 9/1917-1/1919: background to securing drafting after period of hospitalisation despite questionable fitness; nature of ship; submarine alarm and method of revealing and firing concealed 6 Inch Guns; problems in training merchant seaman gun crew.
REEL 25 Continues: relations with merchant seamen gun crew; lack of washing; apparent failure of attempt to sink German submarine; severe casualties from submarines whilst escorting convoys to Gibraltar and through Mediterranean; story of successful attempt to salvage abandoned SS Marconi; second apparent failure of attempt to sink German submarine; story of coming under shell fire from German submarine and it's subsequent escape in Mediterranean; dog's loss of nerve from shellfire; subsequent credit with sinking submarines.
REEL 26 Continues: Recollections of period as petty officer with Royal Navy, 1919-1926: story illustrating severity of pre-war discipline; cooking arrangements; pay; shore bombardment by HMS Cordelia of Riga, Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, 1919; question in decline in standards of discipline and comradeship; opinion of ranker officers.
REEL 27 Continues: background to naval vocational training; choice of civilian jobs and securing work in charge of floating bridge on leaving Royal Navy, 1926; question of problems faced by former Royal Navy personnel in obtaining civilian employment; Royal Navy vocational courses prior to release.