Description
Object description
British stoker trained with HMS Victory II at Portsmouth, GB, 1912-1913; served aboard HMS Irresistible, 5th Battle Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, 1913-1914; served aboard HMS Birmingham, 2nd Light Cruiser Sqdn, Battle Cruiser Fleet in GB coastal waters and North Sea, 1914-1916; served aboard HMS Kennett, 5th Destroyer Flotilla in Mediterranean, 1916-1918; served aboard HMS Cleopatra, 2nd Light Cruiser Sqdn in Baltic Sea, 1919-1920
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Bognor Regis, GB, 1896-1912: interest in joining British Army and reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy; employment as newspaper messenger boy and grocer, 1908-1912; interest in joining British Army and reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy; parent's reaction to enlistment; family and social circumstances.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of enlistment at Royal Navy Recruitment Office, Portsmouth, GB, 1912: social origins of naval recruits; background to recruitment underage and subsequent difficulties in remembering 'official' date of birth on drawing bounty on leaving Royal Navy and joining London Fire Brigade, 1934; procedure and educational tests; medical; necessity for references. Recollections of period training as stoker at HMS Victory II, Portsmouth, GB, 1912-1913: reception.
REEL 3 Continues: reaction to increased levels of discipline imposed as punishment for earlier mutiny in barracks; kitting out and method of laying out kit; nature of discipline; swimming test; comparison of discipline in British Army and Royal Navy; question of promotion prospects of seaman.
REEL 4 Continues: background to opting for career as stoker; basic training; training in engines and boilers based on stoker's manual; practice in firing boilers using stones; introduction to various forms of machinery; nature of oral examination; use of combined coal and oil engines and difficulty in cleaning out boiler; attachment to engine room artificers for practical training aboard ships.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of period as stoker aboard HMS Irresistible, 5th Battle Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, 1913-1914; HMS Birmingham, 2nd Light Cruiser Sqdn, Battle Cruiser Fleet in GB coastal waters and North Sea, 1914-1916 and HMS Kennett, 5th Destroyer Flotilla in Mediterranean, 1916-1918: role as trimmer filling skids in bunkers; torpedo nets; method of raking out clinker from furnace; fearnaught uniform worn to counter heat; opinion of Kilroy Clock system of monitoring furnaces; watching pressure gauges to keep up steam pressure; layout of furnaces underneath boiler and importance of trimming to keep fire even; hand and automated methods of removing ashes.
REEL 6 Continues: monitoring dynamo generators and effect of all searchlights being switched on during review whilst aboard HMS Birmingham, 1914; monitoring evaporators, tests for water quality and use of zinc to purify water; method of cleaning boilers and rebowing tubes; story of stoker trapped whilst rebowing tubes aboard HMS Kennett.
REEL 7 Continues: painting ship's double bottom and water tanks; cleaning out oil tanks; problems cleaning furnace; role in bunker whilst coaling ship and incident of being trapped in bunker by inexperienced man on shute.
REEL 8 Continues: appointment to ship's motorboats; method of operating Thorneycroft and Wolseley Engines on motorboat; prior accident aboard presentation motorboat and repairs; difficulty of walking along boom to board motorboat.
REEL 9 Continues: duties as motorboat mechanic; motorboat canopy; story of near accident whilst taking Admiral Walter Cowan in motorboat to meet French Navy destroyer whilst serving aboard HMS Cleopatra, 2nd Light Cruiser Sqdn at Bothnian Bay, Finland, 1919; uniform worn in engine room; cocoa; method of bathing on deck aboard destroyers; comparison of food carried aboard destroyers and large ships including salted pork.
REEL 10 Continues: victualling allowance and role of mess caterer in purchasing extra food from canteen, ashore or paymaster's store; mess swear box; relations with ratings; incident of man lost overboard and subsequent auction of his possessions to benefit his family; question of homosexuality; question of hobbies and recreational activities; question of gambling; sporting competition with Seamen Branch; story of cricket match.
REEL 11 Continues: nature of relations with engine room artificers and engineering officers including stories illustrating welfare role of officers and recieving light punishment for removing light bulb in effort to get to sleep; case of sailor attempting suicide through seasickness.
REEL 12 Continues: public caning; nature of punishments and discipline; bribery to obtain weekend passes aboard training ships; minimal service in barracks; changes in ship's routine on outbreak of First World War, 4/8/1914; story of rough weather whilst carrying Archduke of Austria to Norway; effects of war on relations with stokers; route marches ashore at Queensferry after patrols aboard HMS Birmingham 2nd Light Cruiser Sqdn in North Sea, 1914-1916; relations with civilians.
REEL 13 Continues: Aspects of operations as stoker aboard HMS Cleopatra, 2nd Light Cruiser Sqdn in Baltic Sea, 1919-1920: operations against Russian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic in Baltic Sea, 1919; signs of dissatisfaction amongst ratings awaiting demobilisation; awareness of situation; attempts to assist Finnish civilians; question of Soviet war crimes prior to arrival at Bothnian Bay, Finland; lower deck reaction to Bolshevik propaganda. Aspects of post-naval career: background to securing early discharge due wife's nervous problems, 1920; difficulty in acclimatising to civilian lifestyle; continued interest in Royal Navy; service with London Fire Brigade; question of relevance of Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) training.