Interview with Arthur Smith

British boy seaman trained at HMS St Vincent, Gosport, GB, 1938-1939; served aboard HMS Hawkins in GB coastal waters, 1939; served aboard HMS Royal Oak, 2nd Battle Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, 1939 including sinking by U-47 at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, 14/10/1939; boy seaman and seaman served aboard HMS Manchester, 18th Cruiser Sqdn in GB coastal waters, North Atlantic, Norway and Mediterranean, 12/1939-3/1941; served on shore duties with HMS Lanka, Colombo and HMS Highflyer, Trincomalee in Ceylon, 12/1941-8/1943; petty officer served as diver in GB, Ceylon and Singapore, Malaya, 1943-1946; civilian airline steward and manager with British European Airways (BEA) in GB, 1948-1979

REEL 1 Background in Colliers Wood and Sunbury-on-Thames, GB, 1922-1937: family; father's wounding during military service in First World War; education; family circumstances; memories of family dog; employment as rewind boy at cinema. Aspects of enlistment as boy seaman with Royal Navy in GB, 1938: early interest in Royal Navy and reasons for enlistment; selection tests; reaction of parents to his enlistment; terms and conditions. Recollections of training as boy seaman with No 58 Class at HMS St Vincent, Gosport, GB, 1938: reception on arrival; first night; issue of uniform; issue of small suitcase and service number; assessment tests; character of instructors; discipline; method of obtaining tobacco; climbing mast. REEL 2 Continues: daily routine; amusing story of gunnery course; knot training; examinations at end of course; seamanship training; trip on destroyer; attitude to doing field training; boat pulling with Chief Petty Officer Joe Wheeler; canteen suppers; trick played in latrines; restrictions on wearing boots in dormitory; educational classes; winning prize for educational activities; weekly routine; boat pulling and sailing including use of static concrete cutter; discipline; sporting activities including football and boxing; quality of rations and method of supplementing them; uniforms. REEL 3 Continues: recruits who didn't adjust to course; opinion of training; gun crew and drill; classification of boy seaman; signals training; official attitude to boy seaman smoking; origins of boy seamen. Aspects of period as boy seaman aboard cadet training ship HMS Hawkins at Portsmouth, GB, 1939: story of discovery of pie; reception on arrival on board ship; reasons why boy seamen were segregated from seamen; instructors; character of mess; mess routine; role as 'captain of the heads'; continuation of training; technique for getting into hammock. REEL 4 Continues: prior recollection of swimming tests at HMS St Vincent, Gosport; procedure for 'going ashore'; acquiring tattoo; use of Agnes Weston Rest Home; pay; leave taken during service, 1938-1940; writing home; recreational activities. Recollections of period as boy seaman aboard HMS Royal Oak, 2nd Battle Sqdn, Home Fleet in GB coastal waters, 1939: drafting to battleship; initial impressions of battleship; character of battleship; location of mess deck and lack of washing facilities; instructors; familiarisation with ship; action station; duties cleaning brass on water tight doors; restrictions on movement off duty; reasons why ship was an unhappy ship; character of mess deck and importance of cleanliness; adjusting to mess life. REEL 5 Continues: action station in shell room and 4 inch anti-aircraft; question of effectiveness of anti-aircraft QF 4 Inch Naval Gun Mk XVI; different naval branches on board ship; chain of command; role of steerage hammock boy; degree of contact with captain; prior recollection of being placed on captain's report for hitting instructor at HMS St Vincent, Gosport; move of ship to Torquay; duties provisioning royal yacht; move to Invergordon; familiarisation with ship; Sunday Divisions; 'make and mend'; captain's rounds on Saturday mornings; method of cleaning decks; punishment for avoiding cleaning decks; colour of ship; paint chipping and red leading; role of Royal Marines; relations between Royal Marines and seamen; amusing story of marine officer's encounter with seagull; role of Regulating Branch. REEL 6 Continues: move to Scapa Flow; ashore at Kirkwall; weather and atmosphere in Scapa Flow; sight of fleet at Scapa Flow; torpedo and gunnery exercises; use of sea boats; hearing declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; performance of ship in rough weather; experience on being on lookout during storm during patrol; defences at Scapa Flow; wartime changes; swimming practice. Recollections of sinking of HMS Royal Oak by German submarine U-47 at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, GB, 14/10/1939: duties on lookout; first torpedo explosion; treatment for make statement that it was a torpedo; second batch of torpedoes; abandoning ship; attempt to swim ashore and loss of boy seaman; rescue by Royal Air Force marine crewmen from HMS Pegasus. REEL 7 Continues: treatment on being pulled from water; concert party for survivors; attending board of inquiry; move to Thurso; character of survivors' train journey to Portsmouth; arrival at home; details of abandoning ship; question of impregnability of Scapa Flow and cause of initial explosion; question of initial thought that explosion was internal; casualties amongst boy seaman on board; conditions in water; importance of training on his survival; encounter with Boy Seaman Bert Pocock; behaviour on survivors leave; attitude to having survived sinking; boy seamen survivors' drafting to HMS Frobisher. Recollections of operations as boy seaman aboard HMS Manchester, 18th Cruiser Sqdn in GB coastal waters and North Atlantic, 12/1939-4/1940: character of cruiser; behaviour of chief petty officer; conditions for boy seamen; reasons for ship being a happy ship; opinion of officers. REEL 8 Continues: move to Scapa Flow, GB, 12/1939; participation in Northern Patrol; cruising and action stations; reasons for not removing clothes off watch; use of caboose next to anti-aircraft gun; wearing of towel round neck; clothing worn; story of collecting 'Pusser's Pea Soup'; comfortable nature of hammock; Vice Admiral Geoffrey Layton's attitude towards Germans illustrated by encounter with German blockade runner Wahene during Northern Patrol, 21/2/1940; role of ship as Admiral's Flagship; role as loader on QF 2 Pounder Naval Gun; action station in shell room; quality of rations and explanation of term 'scram'. Recollections of operations as seaman aboard HMS Manchester, 18th Cruiser Sqdn in GB coastal waters, Norway and Mediterranean, 4/1940-3/1941: role of ship during Norwegian campaign, 4/1940-5/1940; German Air Force attacks on ship, 4/1940. REEL 9 Continues: de-gaussing of ship at HMNB Rosyth, GB; promotion to ordinary seaman; move to Mediterranean, 11/1940; opinion of Italian Air Force bombing; role of ship during Battle of Cape Spartivento, 27/11/1940; opinion of Italian Navy; ashore in Alexandria, Egypt; role of cruiser as guardship at Immingham, GB, 8/1940-9/1940; drafting to Royal Naval Barracks, HMS Victory Portsmouth, GB, 3/1941. Aspects of period as seaman on anti-aircraft course at Gunnery School, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, GB, 1941: pattern of training; character of Oerlikon Gun; attitude to firing anti-aircraft guns; discipline and instruction; opinion of Royal Navy gunnery; role of Chief Gunners Mate; sights on Oerlikon Gun; abortive drafting to join HMS Hawkins in South Africa. REEL 10 Continues: Aspects of period as seaman on shore duties with HMS Lanka, Colombo and HMS Highflyer, Trincomalee, Ceylon, 12/1941-8/1943: voyage from South Africa to Ceylon; jamming of QF 2 Pounder Naval Gun during Japanese attack on Ceylon, 5/4/1942; boom defence duties at HMS Highflyer; return to GB, 9/1943. Recollections of period as petty officer diver in GB, Ceylon and Singapore, Malaya, 1943-1946: qualifying as petty officer; character of diving training at Diving School, HMS Excellent, Whale Island, GB; control of air and pressure in diving suits; weight of diving suit; divers' air supply; regulation of diving depths; reaction to first dive; need to regulate suit's buoyancy. REEL 11 Continues: type of work carried out on ships; amusing story of collecting bed fender in Portsmouth Harbour; rope signals used; clothes worn under diving suit and conditions in diving suit; procedure for making stops during rise to surface; problems with oxygen cock on Slindon Suit; use of oxygen/hydrogen torches; drafting to Ceylon to work on sunken floating dock; method of raising floating dock; use of modified gas mask for diving; clothing worn; amusing story of grabbing fellow divers leg; move to HMS Terror in Singapore, Malaya, 1945; lack of rank distinctions in diving team; opinion of Japanese prisoners of war; lifestyle; character of diving work. REEL 12 Continues: attempts to recover Bofors Gun from harbour; method of raising sunken ship; use of hands to survey sunken ships; diver's pay; clearing sunken floating crane using explosives; incident when he was surrounded by barracuda; problems when raising ship; decision to leave Royal Navy and volunteering for submarines; experimental 'frog suit' work at Brixham, GB; reasons why best frogmen were non-swimmers; opinion of commanding officer; demobilisation and enlistment in Royal Fleet Reserve (RFR); story of call-up on reserve during Korean War, 1952; attitude to having served in Royal Navy. REEL 13 Continues: Recollections of period as airline steward and manager with British European Airways (BEA) in GB, 1948-1979: applying for employment as airline steward; training at Northolt; importance of take off routine on Douglas DC3; relations with air stewardesses; first flight to Glasgow; flights in north west of England; uniform worn; flying from Speke Airfield, Liverpool; punishment received for colleague's drunken behaviour; move to Northolt; attempts to obtain leave from Mavis Gunn; flights to Jersey, Channel Islands; passengers carried; amusing story of night-time forgetfulness in hotel; flight to Stockholm, Sweden and removal of need for foreign language rule; problems with turbulence; character of Vickers Viking; passengers carried to European destinations; character of flight to Istanbul, Turkey. REEL 14 Continues: incident of mysterious ball of light appearing in aircraft; character of Airspeed Ambassador; precautions taken during flights to Cairo, Egypt; Silver Wing Service flights; memories of Lady Norah Docker and other Very Important Persons (VIPs); story of Judy Garland's arrival on Vickers Viking; story of flying Anthony Eden for conference in to Geneva, Switzerland; style of travel; sight of First World War trenches from the air; amusing story of evacuating aircraft in Brussels, Belgium; serving from galley door on Airspeed Ambassador Elizabethan Class; captain's tricks on stewards; character of Vickers Viscount; flights to Czechoslovakia amidst security scare; loss of friend Tommy Cable during Munich Air Disaster, 2/1958; causes of crash; introduction of Hawker Siddeley Trident and Vickers Vanguard; character of Douglas DC3. REEL 15 Continues: amusing story of earthquake in Istanbul, Turkey; standard of service; memories of early European flights; role managing regional divisions of cabin crew in GB; attending industrial relations course and union meetings; reasons for leaving airline; emergency evacuation from Vickers Vanguard on Malta; narrow escape from fatal Vickers Vanguard Flight 706 which crashed at Aarsele, Belguim on 2/10/1971 and attending subsequent funerals; story of landing low on fuel at Frankfurt am Main, Germany; attitude to working for British European Airways (BEA).