Description
Object description
British Engine Room Arificer served aboard HMS Gleaner, 1940-1943; served aboard HMS Draug, 1943; served aboard HMS Beagle, 1943-1944; served aboard HMS Whitaker, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Portsmouth, 1920-1936: social circumstances; education and passing Royal Naval apprentices examinations, 1936. Training as Engine Room Artificer at HMS Fisgard at Chatham and Plymouth, 1936-1940: nature of training; wartime move to Plymouth; car crash injuries. Aspects of service as 5th ERA aboard HMS Gleaner based at Rosyth, 8/1940-12/1943: continued emphasis on training as ERA; problems with leaking boiler tubes during convoy to Gibraltar; duties; examinations and promotion to Chief Petty Officer; stories of using extra fitted Lewis guns in action against German aircraft and possible success in shooting down German seaplane during East Coast convoys; conditions; E Boat attacks on convoys; period in dry dock at Leith; lack of secrecy illustrated by civilian awareness of impending ship movements. Aspects of period aboard HMS Draug based at Rosyth, 1943: ships lack of seagoing capability; reciprocating engines; story of act of sabotage to engines after dispute with dockyard personnel; question of Scottish anti-English attitudes. Aspects of period aboard HMS Beagle, 9/1943-1/1944: convoy to Freetown, Sierre Leone.
REEL 2 Continues: convoy to Freetown, Sierre Leone; Arctic convoy to Murmansk, Soviet Union including departure of battleship escort to engage Scharnhorst, cold conditions, problems with pump, German submarine and air attacks, food and visit ashore at Murmansk; development of serious asthma attacks and question of medical treatment. Recollections of service as 3rd ERA aboard HMS Whitaker based at Pollock Dock, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 3/1944-10/1944: propeller shaft arrangements; story of discovering method of allowing the port and starboard engines to run in harness; electrical turbine engines; awareness of danger of location of forward hedgehog magazine next to officers and senior personnel; working up exercises; engine room staff; effect of hedgehog fired in shallow water off Torquay; continued asthma attacks and question of being dismissed on health grounds. Account of being torpedoed, 1/11/1944: effect of torpedo strike; story of case of mistaken identification; status as senior surviving personnel; shoring up forward engine room bulkhead; precautionary orders to launch lifeboats.
REEL 3 Continues: circumstances of petty officer abandoning ship with lifeboats in tow; failure to restart after engine; tow from destroyer; story of rescuing leading writer from wrecked office; misplaced tools; arrival of damage control party from accompanying ship; treatment of wounded; appearance of ordnance artificer; arrival at Belfast. Recollections of period at at Pollock Dock, Belfast, 11/1944-9/1945: clearing debris and identification of corpses from forward boiler room; success in restarting after engine; role of ship providing electricity to other ships in harbour. Review of naval career, 1945-1960. Post-service career: value of naval qualifications in securing career in chemical plant and then waste disposal incinerators; question of mental effects of war service; question of exposure to asbestos and subsequent asthma and lung cancer relating to asbestosis.
