Description
Object description
British boy trained with Marine Society aboard training ship TS Warspite on River Thames at Woolwich, GB, 1906-1907; boy seaman trained at HMS Impregnable, Devonport, GB, 6/1907-9/1908; served aboard HMS Sutlej in Mediterranean, 9/1908-1/1909; seaman served aboard HMS Natal in GB coastal waters, 1/1909-1/1911; served aboard HMS TB-117 in GB coastal waters, 1911-1912; served aboard HMS Goliath in GB coastal waters, 7/1914-8/1914; served aboard HMS Hannibal in GB coastal waters, 8/1914-2/1915; petty officer served aboard HMS Abdiel in GB coastal waters and North Sea, 3/1916-4/1917; served aboard Q Ship, HMS Ceto in English Channel and North Sea, 1917-1918; served aboard HMS Gibraltar in GB coastal waters, 1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1892-1906: father's green grocery and coal merchant businesses; social circumstances; education; interest in sailing and failed attempt to stow away on ship; drinking habits; application to Marine Society and father's reaction.
REEL 2 Continues: mother's role in family. Recollections of training with Marine Society aboard training ship TS Warspite on River Thames at Woolwich, GB, 1906-1907: initial impressions; ship layout; baths; morning routine; food; school lessons and role as school room monitor; seamanship instruction including boxing compass and rules of navigation; educational classes; sail drill and method of furling sail.
REEL 3 Continues: sail drill and method of loosing sails; seamanship instruction including knots, splices, sail making, boat drill with sails and oars.
REEL 4 Continues: laundry; uniforms issued; method of drying clothes; filling water boat; playing in rigging and increasing confidence aloft; evening muster in front of Captain Triggs; discipline and punishments; organisation of drafts of trained boys to Merchant Navy; review of Marine Society training ships; kitting out for service in Merchant Navy.
REEL 5 Continues: continued contact with TS Warspite and Marine Society; bounty paid by Royal Navy for recruits from Marine Society; service aboard coastal merchant vessel delivering Portland Stone from Weymouth; reasons for wanting to join Royal Navy. Recollections of training as boy seaman at HMS Impregnable, Devonport, GB, 6/1907-9/1908: advanced and specialised training; status and role as first class boy; review of differences in Royal Navy and Marine Society seamanship training including sail making, method of raising anchor and mooring ship; nature of discipline.
REEL 6 Continues: nature of discipline and punishments; story of interview with Captain Ogilvie after punishment caning and period in cells picking oakum after going Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) and attempting to strike petty officer while serving aboard HMS Natal; punishment duty cleaning spit kits.
REEL 7 Continues: Recollections of training as boy seaman aboard HMS Sutlej in Mediterranean, 9/1908-1/1909: status as training ship run according to strict regulations; account of assisting Italian civilian authorities at Messina, Italy, 28/12/1908 including tidal wave caused by eruption of Mount Etna, prior lectures in midwifery and first aid and building shelter for casualties on beach. Recollections of period as seaman aboard HMS Natal in GB coastal waters, 1/1909-1/1911: organisation of watch systems, action stations and night action stations.
REEL 8 Continues: competition between ships illustrated in exercise of putting out collision mats; methods of coaling ship and varying difficulty on different ships; work of enamelling parties and importance of ship's appearance; method of painting ship and wearing canvass suits.
REEL 9 Continues: method of washing and holystoning decks; cleaning brasswork; cleaning and maintenance of boats; washing clothes; uniform worn; crew inspections.
REEL 10 Continues: nature of captains' and admirals' inspections; story of dispute over assigning seamen to clean magazines whilst serving aboard HMS Titania; successful attempt to be excused morning prayers and Sunday church services; story of leaving padre in communal mixed bathing establishment in Japan.
REEL 11 Continues: naval regattas including selection of boat crews, training, preparations of boats, rowing as starboard stroke and nature of race days; recreational activities including boxing, wrestling, macramé, making rugs; hair cutting, lower deck tailors and 'dhobying' laundry 'firms'.
REEL 12 Continues: question of permission to set up 'firm'; dancing; concert parties; introduction of recreational lectures aboard HMS Titania; prospects of taking over father's business on leaving Royal Navy; question of gambling and Crown and Anchor; visits to home port Chatham; leave allowance; coastal cruises and attitude of resorts to sailors coming ashore in holiday season.
REEL 13 Continues: civilian visits during ship open days; relations with civilians in various ports; story of sailors diving overboard to spend more time ashore; shore leave in Chatham including inspections, visits to London, music halls, question of homosexuality, contact with prostitutes.
REEL 14 Continues: story of relationship with woman in London; supplementing money by working for father during shore leave; opinion of sailors' rest homes including dislike of religious aspect of Agnes Weston's Royal Sailors Rest Homes, contributions towards Royal Sailor, Chatham and rejection of Aggie Weston's temperance campaign; messdeck accommodation, furniture and utensils; role of leading seaman in charge of mess catering; role of cooks of mess in preparing meals for galley cooking.
REEL 15 Continues: use of old stored rations; story of cook's mistake in cooking soup; examples of meals prepared; breakfast; role of leading hand in paying and dividing mess canteen bills; breakfasts, tea and supper; ship's canteen including role of Maltese contractors and question of them bribing officers.
REEL 16 Continues: ship's canteen and role of canteen committee; opinion of canteen and general messing systems in Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham including use of spare funds for mess improvements; reaction to effects of introduction of general messing aboard ships; nature of petty officers' mess including servants and standards of behaviour expected; issue of rum ration including ruse employed on destroyers to obtain extra ration and 'splicing the mainbrace'; role of Master-at-Arms.
REEL 17 Continues: question of bribery of Master-at-Arms; comparison of conditions of service in messes aboard HMS Natal and HMS Hannibal including extra furniture in petty officers' mess, ventilation and crowded conditions. Recollections of period as seaman aboard HMS TB-117, 1911-1912: preference for destroyer service; role of coxswain; skeleton crew; messing arrangements; cleaning and painting ship; mess accommodation and cooking arrangements.
REEL 18 Continues: relations with stokers and signallers; opinion of cooks. Aspects of fleet review aboard HMS Goliath in GB coastal waters, 7/1914-8/1914: mobilisation of entire fleet and modernisation programme; manning ship for review by King George V; inspections; dispersal to home ports; outbreak of First World War, 4/8/1914. Recollections of operations as seaman aboard HMS Hannibal in GB coastal waters and North Sea, 8/1914-2/1915: state of readiness; move to war station guarding entrance to Scapa Flow at Stromness, Orkney Islands; constant readiness for action; lack of submarine defences at Scapa Flow; establishing shore gun emplacements; submarine scares and role manning searchlights; varying schemes for anti-submarine defences; role providing boarding crews for ships discovered travelling without papers; acting as boarding crew aboard Norwegian freighter taken to Leith, 25/12/1914.
REEL 19 Continues: effects of war service including painting over brasswork; initial constant watch keeping; introduction of coconut matting on decks of destroyers; changes in ship's canteens; nature of wartime discipline; rescuing crew from SS Oceanic aground of the Isle of Foula, Shetland Islands, 8/9/1914. Recollections of operations as petty officer aboard HMS Abdiel in GB coastal waters and North Sea, 3/1916-4/1917: role minelaying around entrances to Kiel, Germany; reliance on high speed to escape on German detection; detachment to Grand Fleet in order to lay mines to cut off Imperial German Navy High Seas Fleet and success in sinking German ship during Battle of Jutland, 31/5/1916-1/6/1916; method of laying mines; question of German counter-measures; sight of sinking of HMS Invincible at Battle of Jutland, 31/5/1916. Recollections of period as petty officer aboard Q Ship, HMS Ceto in English Channel and North Sea, 1917-1918: role as Q Ship disguised as minelayer; armament of torpedoes and guns; operations lying off Goodwin Sands; crew.
REEL 20 Continues: role maintaining searchlights on North Foreland. Aspects of operations as petty officer aboard HMS Gibraltar, 1918: role commanding anti-submarine trawler from HMS Gibraltar; role of HMS Gibraltar as mother ship in provisioning fleet of trawlers employed on anti-submarine role; replacing used depth charges and detonators. Reflections on period as petty officer with Royal Navy, 1916-1918: effects of promotion to petty officer, 1916: move into petty officers' mess; importance of captain backing up petty officers; role supervising work of electrical and torpedo ratings; question of discipline and control over shore leave; review of privileges granted petty officers; role liaising between officers and ratings; pay.
REEL 21 Continues: story of meeting future wife; service attitude to marriage; financial difficulties as married man; attitude as married man to overseas service; situation for naval wives; question of establishing relationship with children and letter contact with wife; career on leaving Royal Navy; various jobs obtained through Soldiers and Sailors Employment Agency; joining family firm.