Description
Object description
British boy seaman trained at HMS Impregnable, HMS Ganges and Portsmouth Barracks, GB, 1911-1912; seaman served as signalman aboard HMS St Vincent, HMS Good Hope, HMS Drake and HMS Swift, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, 1912-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1894-1911: family; father's employment; initial employment; reasons for loss of employment with Great Western Railway; problems of obtaining employment. Aspects of enlistment in Royal Navy, 1911: reasons for joining navy; medical examination.
REEL 2 Continues: educational standards required by Royal Navy; question of increase in payment to able seamen; conception of Royal Navy prior to enlistment; father's reaction to his enlistment; enlistment procedure; attitude to leaving home. Recollections of training as boy seaman aboard training ship HMS Impregnable, Devonport, GB, 1911: arrival at training ship, 5/1911; initial procedure and impressions; issue of naval headgear.
REEL 3 Continues: daily routine including ablutions; climbing mast-head; daily divisions; administration of discipline including caning and punishment for minor offences; character of seamanship instruction.
REEL 4 Continues: education; relations between boy seamen and petty officer instructors; attitude towards naval chaplains; holy stoning of decks on Saturday mornings; Sunday divisions; attitude to discipline; typical meals.
REEL 5 Continues: mealtime procedure; recreational activities; offence of silent contempt; types of offences; examination and selection of naval branch. Aspects of signals training as boy seaman at HMS Ganges, Shotley, GB, 9/1911-5/1912: start of signals training.
REEL 6 Continues: flag hoisting; character of competitiveness and evolutions in the Royal Navy; messing arrangements; signalman training and examinations; further signals training at Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Victory, Portsmouth, 5/1912-8/1912.
REEL 7 Continues: status of signal boys aboard ship; pay for boy seamen and ordinary signalmen. Recollections of period as signalman aboard HMS St Vincent, HMS Good Hope, HMS Drake and HMS Swift, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, 1912-1919: responsibilities of ordinary signalmen; story of being on report for signals misunderstanding; relations with officers aboard HMS Good Hope, HMS Drake and HMS Swift.
REEL 8 Continues: relations between signalmen and officers on bridge; contrast in behaviour of officers pre-1914 and post 1918; difference between service on big and small ships; question of signalman promotion; relations between signalmen and other branches of the Royal Navy.
REEL 9 Continues: signalmen's duties during coaling ship; danger of injury on board ship; degree of adaptation to signalman's uniform; 'tiddlying' of uniform; importance of smart uniforms; clothing inspections of uniform; preference of strictly disciplined ship.
REEL 10 Continues: attitude towards naval police; punishment for breaking leave; humiliating nature of naval discipline; comparison between general and canteen messing; sleeping arrangements; tension between seamen living in messes.
REEL 11 Continues: attending lectures about venereal disease; gambling including playing crown and anchor; ways of raising money aboard ship; description of fire aboard ship; story of firing signals to recall ships during Zeebrugge Raid aboard HMS Swift; attitude to service prior to First World War.
REEL 12 Continues: attitude of Royal Navy towards outbreak of First World War; changes in watch keeping on outbreak of war; character of hostilities only personnel; code words used during period aboard HMS Swift on Dover Patrol; memories of surrender of German Grand Fleet; attitude to drafting to North Russia, 1919; character of life in barracks.
REEL 13 Continues: question of corrupt practices in barracks; unfairness of drafts for foreign service; attitude of civilians in Portsmouth to Royal Navy personnel; behaviour of shore patrol.
REEL 14 Continues: attitude towards Agnes Weston's Sailors' Rest homes; details of other seamen's hostels; atmosphere in Agnes Weston's Sailors' Rest home; story of dropping holystone on boat carrying unpopular Royal Marine sergeant; incidents of seamen taking action against unpopular senior personnel; issue of rum ration.
REEL 15 Continues: use of rum ration as means of payment; effect of marriage on seamen's lives; adjustment to civilian life after leaving Royal Navy.