ustrated Biography 1916-1941 •
BRUCE TAYLOR Illustrations by Thomas Schmid
Foreword by Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Baill...
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ustrated Biography 1916-1941 •
BRUCE TAYLOR Illustrations by Thomas Schmid
Foreword by Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly
The Battlecruiser
HMSHOOD
The Battlecruiser
HMS An Illustrated Biography 1916 -1941
BRUCE TAYLOR B.A. Manc. D.PHIL. Oxon.
Illustrations by THOMAS SCHMID
r In memory of His Majesty's Battlecruiser
Hood 1916-1941
II glorious ship, a great ship alld a happy ship'
Half title: The sealed pattern of Hood's badge, designed by Major Charles ffoulkes and approved by the Ships' Badges Committee on 6 September 1919. The badge is derived from the crest of Admiral Viscount Hood (1724-1B16) and shows a Cornish chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) holding a golden anchor. Beak and legs should be bright red. The motto Ventis secundis is also Viscount Hood's, meaning 'With favouring winds'. The date 1BS9, usually omitted, alludes to the first major ship of the name, the BO-gun Edgar converted to screw propulsion and launched in that year; she was renamed Hood in January 1B60. The badge, less the Navy crown, was used to adorn the ship's boats and guns (in the form of tompions) along with other artefacts and areas of the ship, including the Commander's lobby. The largest version, over 22 inches in diameter, was set on the bridge. Frontispiece: Officers and men on the forecastle of HMS Hood as she passes through the Pedro Miguel Locks, Panama Canal, 24 July 1924.
Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, ot unbecoming men that strove with Gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wane: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order mite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
TENNYSON, Ulysses, II. 51-70
Text e 2005 by Bruce Taylor Colour illustrations e 2005 by Thomas Schmid
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Taylor, Bruce HMS Hood : an illustrated biograph)' 1916-1941 I.
Great Britain. Royal
First published in Great Britain in 2005 by Chatham Publishing,
I. Title
Park House, I Russell Gardens, London NWt1 9NN
623.8' 253' 0941
and
1SB, 186176216X
avy 2. Hood (Ship)
in the United States of America and Canada by Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5034
Library of Congress Control No. 2004116081
Chatham Publishing is an imprint of Lionel Leventhal Ltd
ISBN 186176216X
Illustrated London News
All rights reserved. No pari of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocop}ring, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without either prior permission in writing from the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. The right of Bruce Taylor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Printed in China by Printworks International Ltd
Contents
ote
6
Abbreviations
6
Foreword
7
Introduction
8
Author's
Chapter 1
Genesis, Design and Construction
10
Chapter 2
A Tour of the Ship
20
Chapter 3
Glory Ship
60
Chapter 4
Routine, Work and Rest
80
Chapter 5
Life Aboard The Hood in Colour
114 following 144
Chapter 6
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
146
Chapter 7
War Clouds, 1936-1939
122
ChapterS
To War
182
Chapter 9
The End of Glory
203
Conclusion
229
Admirals, Captains, Commanders and Chaplains by Commission
230
Scheme of Complement of HMS Hood, 12 December 1919
231
Appendix III
Composition and Family Attachments of HMS Hood, c.1934
231
Appendix IV
Daily Routines in Peace and War
232
Chronology, 1915-1941
234
Roll of Honour
242
Sources
248
Glossary
251
Index
252
Acknowledgements
256
Appendix I Appendix II
6
Author's Note
Abbreviations
In preparing the pages that follow I have been confronted with the problem of presenting frequent citations from disparate sources in a consistent yet intelligible manner. Every effort has been made to preserve the character and intent of the originals but spelling errors have been corrected and punctuation inserted or adapted for clarity. The reminiscences of Boy Fred Coombs (1935-8) deposited in the Imperial War Museum (91/7/1) proved particularly challenging in this respect, much confusing detail and grammar having to be stripped away without sacrificing the qualities that make it uch a unique memoir. In order to help orientate the reader dates are provided after names to indicate an individual's period of service in the ship. Similarly, a man's rank or rating is usually indicated where appropriate. The variety of forms resulting from the use of this system seemed to me balanced by the value of the information imparted in what is a thematic rather than a chronological study, and in what was a highly stratified community. Readers will decide how effective this has been. It may be helpful to remind readers of the traditional currency of the United Kingdom before decimalization in 197 I: there were twelve pence to a shilling (known as a 'bob') and twenty shiJlings to a pound (also known as a overeign or a 'quid'). Among the many coins engendered by this system was that known as 'half a crown', worth two shillings and sixpence. The epigraphs at the head of each chapter are of course from William Blake's 'The Tiger' of c. I789. Citations from documents in the Public Record Office are Crown Copyright. The copyright of much of the remainder rests either with their authors or their descendants. Credits are given after each photograph where it has been possible to establish either the source or the copyright with certainty. Extensive efforts have been made to locate copyright holders in the remaining cases and these are invited to contact the author with proof of copyright. Citations from books and articles are acknowledged by means of a reference in the footnotes.
Able Seaman Admiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron Admiralty Fleet Order AFO APC Armour-Piercing Capped (shells) Battle Cruiser Squadron BCS British Empire Medal B.E.M. Churchill Archives Centre, hurchill CAC College, Cambridge Captain Capt. CB. Companion of the Order of the Bath CB.E. Commander of the Order of the British Empire Cdr Commander CERA Chief Engine Room Artificer CO. Commanding Officer CPC Common Pointed Capped ( hells) CPO Chief Petty Officer (D) Dental Director of aval Construction o C Distinguished Service Cross D.S.C Distinguished Service Medal D.S.M. Distinguished Service Order D.S.O. (E) Engineering Electrical Artificer EA Engineer Officer of the Watch EOOW Engine Room Artificer ERA (G) Gunnery HA High Angle High-Angle Control Position HACP High-Angle Control Station HAC His Majesty's Australian Ship HMAS His Majesty's Canadian Ship HMCS His Majesty's Ship l-IM His Majesty's Submarine H~'IS 1 Imperial War Museum, London IWM IWM/ A Imperial War Museum, Sound Archive King's College, London KCL LHCMA Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, KCL LS Leading eaman Lieutenant Lt Lieutenant-Commander Lt-Cdr Midshipman Mid. Military Medal M.M. Manuscript MS ( T) avigation AAFI Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes non-commissioned officer CO ational Maritime Museum, MM Greenwich AB ACQ
U.S. aval War College, ewport, Rhode Island Ordnance Artificer OA Ordinary eaman 00 Officer of the Watch OOW Ordinary Signalman OSig. OTel. Ordinary Telegraphist PO Petty Officer PRO Public Record Office, Kew pounds per square inch p.s.i. Qualified Ordnanceman or QO Qualified in Ordnance R.A . .R. Royal Australian avy Reserve R.A. .YR. Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve Capt. Rory O'Conor, Rllllning a Big RBS Ship on 'Ten Commandments' (With Modem ExeClltive Ideas and a Complete Organisation) (Portsmouth: Gieves, (937) R.C . Royal Canadian avy Radio Direction Finding R.D.F. RFA Royal Fleet Auxiliary R.I.N. Royal Indian avy R.M. Royal Marines R.M.A. Royal Marine Artillery R.M.L.I. Royal Marine Light Infantry Royal Mail Steamer RMS Royal Navy R. . Royal Naval Division R. .0. Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth RNM R. . R. Royal Naval Reserve R. .V.R. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve R.N.Z. Royal ew Zealand avy r.p.m. revolutions per minute Regulating Petty Officer RPO Sick Berth Attendant SBA shaft horsepower s.h.p. Signalman Sig. S.O.D.S. Ship's Own Dramatic Society Steamship SS Sub-Lieutenant Sub-Lt SWWEC The Second World War Experience Centre, Horsforth, Leeds (1') Torpedoes Telegraphist Tel. Temporary Temp. Transmitting Station TS nrotated/ nrifled P Project ile/Projector nited States avy .S.N. nited States Ship uss WC
7
Foreword by Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly, K.B.E. C.B. O.B.E.
s PPOSE I MUST BE the last of HMS Hood's ship's company to have erved in part of each of her four final commissions between August 1932 and ovember 1939. From Cadet through Midshipman, Sub-Lieutenant and Lieutenant, I gazed with reverence at Admirals James, Bailey, Blake, Cunningham, Layton and 'A'hitworth. And I served Captain Binney, Tower, Pridham, Walker, Glennie, and Commanders McCrum, O'Conor, Orr-Ewing, Davis and, in the Engineering Department, Commanders (E) Sankey, Berthon and Grogan, the last of whom went down with the ship. Each one in his own way was a great man; some greater than others. Few can have been so consistently lucky as I at being permitted to watch such a posse of inspirational leaders. I did not recognise it, of course, but history was being made. As a result of failures in the First World War the Royal Navy, led by poor Boards of Admiralty, reversed much of Lord Fisher's work, ruthlessly discharged officers, and by inept handling of pay cuts created in 1931 the first major naval mutiny since 1797. The officers under whom I was so lucky to serve, together with Kelly, Chatfield, Henderson, Backhouse, Ramsay, Drax, W.W. Fi her, Fraser and dozens of others I never knew, led the avy and all its intricate elements spiritually from its nadir at Invergordon to war readiness only eight years later. It was they who made it such an unconquerable element of our fighting forces as its numbers rose from 161,000 in 1939 to 750,000 in 1945. Crowned as the greatest warship ever built, HMS Hood was an icon. For two decades from her cradling at John Brown's until 1939 she was used unsparingly in all her beauty and power as a political pawn sustaining the Pax Britannica before two years of war took her to a silent grave. It was when she was called on to fulfil her fighting role and ride the stormy northern seas as the backbone of the fleet in the winters of 1939 and 1940 that her company suffered such unspeakable hardship. Hood's peacetime role had denied her the refit that would have made her watertight and the reconstruction that would have made her proof against plunging fire. And so when battle was joined she was gone within a few minutes leaving just three of the 1,418 men whose equable spirit had defied the elements since she left Portsmouth for the last time in August 1939, three weeks before the Admiralty made that general signal TOTAL GERMA y. With the losses in the Battle for Crete mounting by the hour and the Hood sunk, May 1941 was probably the worst month for naval casualties in the whole war. The three Dockyard Towns of Portsmouth, Devonport and Chatham, already reeling from air bombardment, became very quiet as summer drew near and many tears were shed. 'Stick it oul. avy must not let Army down. It takes three years to build a ship but three hundred to build a tradition' signalled Cunningham in the Battle for Crete as one after the other the carrier, battleships,
I
cruisers and destroyers of his fleet were lost or damaged by air attack. Though none could have foretold it, it was this simultaneous naval, land and air battle stretching from Greenland to the Eastern Mediterranean in May 1941 which cost Germany the war. In the West it was the sinking of the Bismarck, at the expense of the Hood, which put an end to German surface operations in the Atlantic. In the Eastern Mediterranean it was the resistance of British and imperial troops in Greece and Crete, of pilots who flew what aircraft could be found against the might of Axis air power, and of the Royal avy which, at terrible cost in ships and men, delayed the inevitable and decimated Hitler's only complete airborne division. The removal of the Atlantic surface warship threat gave safe passage to a miJlion An1ericans to their D-Day jumpoff position in Britain. The battles for Greece and Crete caused Operation 'Barbarossa', the German attack on the Soviet Union, to be postponed by six weeks. 'Barbarossa' planned to destroy the Soviet by first taking Moscow but the Germans, like apoleon, failed to reach the city before the terrible Russian winter set in. HMS Hood lies 9,000 feet at the bottom of the Denmark Strait and through the marvels of technology her wreck has been filmed and shown to a worldwide audience. Nevertheless, the cause of her disintegration remains shrouded in mystery. Perhaps in another decade or so closer inspection will determine how came the end. There have been many books about HMS Hood but until man can exist and move 9,000 feet down on the ocean bed I doubt if there will ever be such a history, such a biography, such an obituary as Bruce Taylor has written. The astonishing volume of research he has managed to achieve brings alive not only Hood's irreplaceable years of ervice in the cause of peace, but also the neglect to update her fighting potential and the pattern of her operations in war that led to almost unbearable conditions for her gallant company who somehow kept her going against all odds. It has been a privilege watching Dr Taylor knit together a vast and varied theme into what must surely be, for many years to come, the definitive account of an awe-inspiring piece of Britain's naval history. St Tudy, Cornwall St Valentine's Day, 2004
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
8
Introduction
HIS BOOK HAS BEEN WRITTEN to address two longstanding needs in the field of British naval history. First, to give due treatment to the greatest warship to have hoisted the White Ensign since the \fietory, one that explains how she acquired her exalted status, why her loss temporarily shattered the morale of the British people; why, perhaps, she retains the hold she does over the imagination of those who never knew her. econd, in doing so, to provide a new perspective on the genre of ship biography, one that for the first time marries the technical reality and operational career of a vessel with the experience and mentality of those who breathed life into her, made her what she was in all her vast complexity. To provide, in short, the first integrated history of one of the great capital ships of the twentieth century, the ultimate expression of a nation's power, the summit of technology and innovation, and the most evolved community in military society. Any historian attempting a 'total history' of a warship must gird himself for prolonged research among widely scattered sources in many fields. As with most recent ships in the Royal avy, the fabric and structural history of HMS Hood has been the subject of considerable investigation. This is just as well since naval history requires of its practicants an unusually firm grasp of the immediate physical and technical environment of their subject if they are to do it justice. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how the present volume would have evolved without the benefit of John Roberts' remarkable 'Anatomy of the Ship', first published in 1982.' But the fabric of a ship is one thing, its operation quite another. To be afforded a plan or photograph of a 15in turret is not, alas, to be given any significant idea of its functioning, much less the impact ii bad on those who worked in it. Indeed, to study the Hood's engine spaces in particular is to be made aware that certain items of equipment acquired a character all their own, one intimately associated with those given responsibility for serving or maintaining them. an any member of the Engineering Department have thought of the boiler room fan flats without thinking also of Chief Mechanician Charles W. Bostock? For the Hood, which had the rare distinction of being the only ship of her class, this becomes an important consideration, one which among other things implied extended periods of service for a core of speciali t ratings. Equally, while the Hood's career is either well known or readily traced in official sources, the tenor of her shipboard life-hitherto largely unstudied-is far harder to follow or reconstruct. For here lies a nearinsuperable challenge to any who would write the social hi tory of a warship: where they survive at all the overwhelming majority of documents are in private hands, though increasing numbers are becoming available to researchers in one form or another; long and richly may this flow continue. In times past it was common for naval writer to exhort their readers to join the Navy League; this one will confine himself to exhorting his readers to entrust their
T
I
John Roberts, The Balfl(,CTuj~r Hood
[Analomyofthe Ship] (2nd cdn, London: Conway, 2001; 1st edition, 1982). 2
Department of Documents, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE 16HZ.
documents or memoirs of service to the Imperial War Museum.> However, the richest source for the life and being of the ship has come through personal contact with the dwindling band of survivors of her successive commissions. In this the Hood is, numerically at least, much less well provided than other ves els of comparable size. On 24 May 1941 she was 10 t with over 99% of her company and perhaps 70% of those who had sailed in her since the outbreak of war, including many who had given her five, ten or even 20 years of service. A high proportion of those who knew her best therefore succumbed either in the Denmark Strait or to the savage attrition suffered by the Royal Navy during the conflict as a whole. onetheless, the author has been able to uncover significant information from surviving crewmen dating as far back as the 1933-6 commission. The atmosphere of the 1931-3 commission, which comprehended the Invergordon Mutiny, has been reconstructed mainly from oral histories along with the testimony of a single veteran. For obvious reasons the World Cruise of 1923-4 is a well-documented interlude in the history of the ship but the scythe of time has deprived this writer of any truly detailed or first-hand information on the four commissions of the 1920s. Further investigation would no doubt attribute this not only to generational factors-it was the 1970s before the preservationist movement set in-but to the poor morale among both officers and men that increasingly characterised the avy as the 1920s wore on. For the material that survives, in whatever form it is transmitted-letters, diaries, memoirs, oral histories or direct contact with veterans-further obstacles and pitfalls remain where its interpretation is concerned. To read the memoirs of an officer and a rating of the same commission is to appreciate the gulf-like gap in outlook and prospects separating the two sides. There was mutual respect, collaboration and comradeship in adversity, but to pretend that HMS Hood was 'of one company' is to ignore the fundamental realities of service afloat. Both then and since, the opinions voiced are invariably bound up in the assumptions and realities of class which continue to characterise British and particularly English society generally. The views range from those of Boy Fred Coombs, frequently marked by a morbid bitterness and disgust, to those of officers such as Admiral Sir William James in which a supposition is made of harmony and satisfaction which existed among only a small proportion of ratings. Between these extremes are memoirs offering penetrating insights into the life and atmosphere of the ship, among which those of LS Len Williams and Vice-Admiral ir Louis Le Bailly stand out. Nor are these the only considerations. The war years are much the best documented period in the history of the ship but, with a few notable exceptions, censorship at the time and restraint thereafter have conspired to make this material comparatively less candid and valuable than that from earlier cOlnlnissions.
9
Introduction
Some 15,000 men served in the Hood between 1919 and 194 I and this book is based on the partial records of 150 of their number-a mere 1%. Inevitably, citations are often made which reflect the very decided opinion or agenda of their author, either at the time or later. In the pages that follow the present writer is careful to draw a distinction between opinions purely those of their author and those which can be taken as representative of the views of a wider community of men; between those written at the time and those the product of memory, more reasoned and ordered in their perceptions but less accurate in their detail or emotional tone. Then there is the matter of confidentiality and withholding of information alluded to just above. The 'Silent Service; whose members set down and publi h their memoirs rather less frequently than those of the other armed service, yields its secrets only with the greatest reluctance. The sense of a world apart which only those who lived it can share or understand remains strong. Beyond this, service in a ship usually implies a bond of loyalty and attachment to be broken only by death. In preparing this volume the author has become aware how much information about the Hood-inevitably concerning her less agreeable aspects and episodes-is known but neither revealed nor admitted. This of itself has something to say about the mentality of those studied in thi book, about the values of the community in which they served and about the self-perception of the avy of the time and since. The following pages therefore contain many stark revelations about life aboard, particularly in wartime; many more are no doubt passing into oblivion. Personal enormities of one sort or another are part and parcel of any large community but the general condition of the ship, both structurally and in terms of her morale, is another matter. The Hood was undeniably in a state of advanced dilapidation by 1939 and her crew were to suffer for it in the months and
years to follow. Many British warships required their men to serve in conditions similar or worse, but few were as hardpressed as she while at the same time operating under the rigours and discipline of big-ship life. The morale of the ship was never broken but it is clear that by late 1940 and early 1941 many were finding the strain of war service intolerable. Naturally, some men bore their lot easier than others. If the view offered in Chapter 8 alter the prevailing impression of 'the Mighty Hood' then it is fair to her last company that it should be written, as it would have been written had she survived to be scrapped and they to enjoy the fruits of peace. Commemoration cannot be allowed to efface reality. The achievement is the greater for the suffering endured. The ultimate end of historical research is to understand a society or community with the same clarity and richness with which we grasp our own. On that criterion the present volume must be regarded as falling some way short. Nonetheless, with its limitations, this study offers a vision of the Hood and her world which goes far beyond anything previously available for this vessel, or any other for that matter. Moreover, it offers a tentative methodology and approach upon which others might build if warship history is to progress beyond the uninhabited corridors of technical data and conjectural analysis in which it is now largely conceived. Above all, these pages cannot fail to demonstrate that the culture and community of a capital ship was even richer and more imposing in its order and design than the structure which enclosed it. If nothing else, they demonstrate that those wishing to grasp the essence of a ship must approach her first and foremost through her people. It was iron men not steel ships that made the Second World War the swansong of the Royal Navy, victorious in terrible adversity. Let that never be forgotten.
Hood alongside the South Mole at Gibraltar in 1937 or 1938. lengthy interludes in Mediterranean waters kept her from the reconstruction she so
desperately needed. HMS Hood AMoc~r;onI~rcMfCoIl«tlOlt
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
10
1
Genesis, Design and Construction Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee? HE BATTLECRUISER HMS Hood was the fine flowering of a shipbuilding industry that had lead the world in technology, capacity and innovation since the early nineteenth century. Above all, she was born in the crucible of war and in the context of the greatest naval building race in history. Despite the tragic fate that awajted her, the Hood remains a monument to an era of naval and industrial organisation then reaching the height of its powers. How she came to be built and readied for service is the subject of the following pages.
T
........>
I
See Northcott, HMS Hood. pp. 1-14, Roberts, Barrlecruisers. pp. 55-62, and Brown, 71,e Grmfd
1
Fleet, pp. 98-100. The other two w~re Howe (Cammell Laird, Birkenhead) and Rodm!)' (Fairfield. GO\'an). A fourth was ordered on J3 June: A"so1J (Armstrong \Vhit'Worth,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne). ) The battlecrui.ser debate is framed by James Goldrick in 'The Problems of Modern Naval HislOC},' in lohn B. Hattendorf (ed), Doing Nnml History: EsS(1)'s Toward Impro\'emeru (Newport, RI:
3v31 War College Press, 1995),
pp.15-19.
The immediate origins of HM battlecruiser Hood can be traced to a note sent by the Controller of the Navy, Rear-Admiral Frederick Tudor, to the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, in October 1915' In it Tudor requested designs for an experimental battleship based on the successful Queen Elizabeth class but incorporating the latest advances in seakeeping and underwater protection. Central to the Admiralty's brief was a higher freeboard and shallower draught than previous construction, features that would not only permit more effective operation under wartime loads but lessen the threat to the ship posed by underwater damage. Between ovember 1915 and January 1916 d'Eyncourt evolved five designs, the most promising of which had a greatly enlarged hull and beam in order to achieve the necessary reduction in draught. However, these studies were rejected in a lengthy memorandum by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet. Whereas the Royal avy had a marked superiority in battleships over the High Seas Fleet, it had no answer to the large Mackensen class battlecruisers then under construction for the German avy. Accordingly, six more design were produced in February, based on the earlier studies but emphasizing speed over protection. Of these one was selected for development, resulting in a further pair of designs in March. It was the second of these, Design 'B', which received the nod from the Admiralty Board on 7 April 1916 and upon which the ship that came to be known as HMS Hood was based. The final studies had been evolved under d'Eyncourt's supervision by E.L. Attwood, head of the Battleship section of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, assisted by S. V. Goodall. What did this design consist of? On a standard di placement of 36,300 tons--over 5,000 tons more than any other ship in the Royal Navy-Design 'B' promised a speed of 32 knots through the use of the lighter small-tube boiler. A length of 860 feetapproaching the length of two and a half football fields--meant that there would only be three graving docks in Britain capable of accepting her, those at Portsmouth, Rosyth and Liverpool. There were to be eight 15in guns in a modified turret design along with Su.1een of the new 5.5in mountings. An 8-inch main armour belt was believed to offer better protection than the 10
inches of the Queen Elizabeth class thanks to the introduction of a sophisticated arrangement of sloped armour. However, horizontal protection showed no improvement on earlier designs, being restricted to a maximum of 2.5 inches, and that only on the lower deck; elsewhere it was no more than 1.5 inches. On 17 April orders for three hips were placed by the Admiralty, one, eventually called Hood, at John Brown & Co. of Clydebank.' Then came Jutland. On 31 May and I June 1916 an action wa fought 100 miles off the Danish coast which was to have far-reaching consequences for the Royal avy. Of these only one need concern us here: the fate of the British battlecruisers, three of which blew up under German shellfire. The battlecruiser was a product of the fertile mind of Admiral Lord Fisher, the mercurial genius who transformed the Royal avy in the years before the First World War. Fisher's intentions are not readily divined, but he evidently recognized that a guerre de course, a concerted campaign on British merchant shipping, would form a key element of German naval strategy in the coming war.' To counter this he took the principal innovations of his other brainchild, the Dreadnought, and created the battlecruiser, a ship which married the size and fighting power of a battleship with the swiftness of a cruiser. However, ship design is a science based on compromise and in order to anain speeds in excess of 25 knots major sacrifices in armour protection had to be made. The first generation of battlecruisers therefore represented a risky and prodigiously expensive solution to the problem of commerceraiding and cruiser warfare, but the expenditure was vindicated fir t at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914 and then at the Dogger Bank in January ofthefollowing year. In the first action the main units of Vizeadmiral Graf von Spee's Deutsche SiidseegescJnvader were sunk by Invincible and I"flexible 8,000 miles from Britain, thus ending German hopes of a sustained offensive against imperial trade. In the second the armoured crui er Bliicher was overhauled and crushed by weight of fire from Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's battlecruisers. However, there was another side to Fisher's concept, that of fast scout for the battle fleet, and for this role the battlecruiser was to prove significantly less well equipped. Inevitably the moment came when the battlecruiser began trading salvoes with ships of similar firepower and at ranges which presented a severe danger to her thin horizontal protection. The First World War, it turned out, was fought over ranges far greater than had been anticipated by ship constructors when they designed the armour layout of their ships. Whereas most capital ships had been optimized to absorb hells fired from 4, 6 and 8,000 yards, the ranges at which Jutland in particular was fought-I 0, 12 and 14,000 yards-brought shells to target on a far steeper trajectory than their protection had been designed to resist. This was particularly true of the British balllecruisers, much of whose horizontal plating was no more than 1.5 inches thick.
\
Genesis, Design and Construction
The first indication of vulnerability to plunging fire came at the Dogger Bank when Lion was disabled after repeated hits from Konteradmiral Franz von Hipper's battlecruisers. But it was not until jutland that the inherent weakne of British battlecruiser design and operation became fully apparent. By the time the Grand Fleet turned for home three of the nine battlecruisers engaged that day had been sent to the bottom with all but a handful of survivors. It is clear that inadequate measures against flash and poor cordite handling contributed to these disasters but the stark reality is that, unlike their opponents, British battlecruisers proved unequal to the demands presented by combat over long ranges. For all this, the battlecruiser was one of the great offensive weapons in naval history. Though flawed in concept, she possessed the quality other vessels of her generation ignally lacked: the ability to force the enemy to battle in an age when technical advance made it far easier for a commander to decline action if he chose. Appalling as the events at jutland were, no commander would very well have exl'ected his forces to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the main body of the enemy. It was in the way of war at sea for men to be killed and their ships to be destroyed. Admiral Lord Chatfield, captain of the Lio'l at jutland, captures the sentiment of the officer corps: Beatty decided on a burial at sea, and a signal was made to that effect. I assembled the ship's company aft, and in the presence of the Admiral, and my officers and men, 1 read the funeral service. It was a hard task. So, we cast into the deep, in their hammocks, our many shipmates, those whom I had commanded for over three years and whom I knew so well. But what finer end could they have had or wished for? They had served for many years their country, not themselves, and we left them on the battleground, as perhaps their forefathers in elson's time had been left.' Even after jutland the fact that the battlecruisers were the spearhead of the fleet gave them a prestige unmatched by any other squadron in the Royal avy. For the fighting officer burning to engage an elusive enemy, this was a time to live and these the ships to serve in. In this respect there is little to choose between the mentality with which Beatty and his men went into battle at jutland and that which governed Vice-Admiral Holland's attack on the Bismarck 25 years later. Whatever the judgements of history, however deficient in tactics or design, however disastrous the outcome, it was in this cast of mind that the battlecruiser was traditionally taken into action. But for now the Battle of jutland presented the designers of the Hood with a number of severe challenges. Proposals for increased protection were tabled in june but on 5 july d'Eyncourt submitted a revised version of Design 'B' which was eventually accepted on 4 August. The armament was unchanged from the March legend but belt armour was increased to a maximum of 12 inches and barbettes from 9 inches to 12. The angled 12-inch belt now provided the equivalent of 14 or 15 inches of vertical armour while a 460-foot long bulge packed with steel tubing offered torpedo protection the equal of any prior to the Second World War. However, horizontal protection saw relatively little improvement and was still no better than 2.5 inches despite the addition of 3,1 00 tons to the displacement. This might just have sufficed had the
II
Hood's magazines not been placed over her shell rooms as was hitherto the norm in British de ign. As it was, this amount of protection was regarded by both jellicoe and Beatty as inadequate and within a few weeks improvements had been made to both turret and deck armour, which had reached a maximum of 3 inches over the magazines when the final design legend was approved in August 1917. The governing criterion was that at least 9 inches of armour would have to be penetrated in order for a shell to reach the magazines, but numerous thin decks offered considerably less protection than one thick one. Put simply, the Hood did not have an armoured deck and in this lay the fatal weakness of her design, however superior her arrangements to previous construction. Though occasionally classified as a fast battleship, by later standards the Hood failed to make the transition from a battlecruiser and ultimately proved incapable of meeting the requirement that had sooner or later to be made of any warship: the ability to withstand punishment from ships armed to the same standard as herself. It has long been supposed that Hood's keel was laid at Clydebank just as the battJecruisers were steaming into action at jutland on 31 May.s Star-crossed she may have been, but work did not begin on ship 0.460 until I September 1916. The origins of the John Brown shipyard lie in the engineering firm of j. & G. Thomson founded in Glasgow in 1847. By the time the business was purchased in 1899 by john Brown & Co., owners of the Atlas plate and steelwork at Sheffield, the yard had established itself as one of the world's premier shipbuilders. Among its many notable contracts were the Servia (laid down in 1880) for Cunard and the City of ew York (1887) for the Inman Line, the largest liners of their day, together with the battleships Jupiter (1895) and Asalri (1897) for the British and japanese navies respectively. To these the new century would add the Lllsitania (1904) and the Aqllitania (1911) for Cunard and the battleship Barlra'lI (1913) for the Admiralty. Later came the liners Qlleen Mary (1930) and Quem Elizabeth (1936) and the battleship Vanguard (1941). But john Brown made a particular speciality of battlecruiser construction and five were built there fTom 1906, more than in any other yard: Inflexible, Australia (1910), Tiger (1912), Repulse (19J5) and finally Hood. The keel-laying of the Hood was the crowning moment in a programme of warship construction dating back to the tum of the twentieth century. At stake was the preservation of Britain's maritime supremacy against the formidable threat posed by German naval and industrial power. In order to secure victory British industry had to draw on a wellspring of experience, technique and innovation which makes the 'Great aval Race' the final expression of the Industrial Revolution. Then as now the building of a capital ship was among the most challenging of human endeavours. The process required the skills and labour of thousands of men and women, of architects and engineers at the Admiralty, smelters and forgers in Sheffield and tracers and drillers in the yard itself. From across the country the output of dozens of mills, factories, mines and workshops poured in by ship, rail and lorry, over 40,000 thousand tons of materiel from hardened plate to turned cabinetry. The construction of the Hood will, it is hoped, one day form the subject of a book in its own right." In the meantime perhaps the following pages will suffice to give an impression of the enormous feat of ingenuity, work and organisation repre ented by it.
Chatfield, TIU! 1m')' and Defe"ee. pp.149-5O. 5 See Jan Johnston, Ships for a Natiorl: 101m Brow" & Company 4
etrdeballk. t847-1971
(Glasgow:
West Dunbartonshire Libraries & Museums, 2(00). I am most
grateful to Ian Johnston for his assistance with this section. 6 By Ian JohnslOn.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
12
1
Roberts, The Battlecmiser Hood, pp. 10-13. Thomas & Patterson. Dreadnoughts jrl Camera, pp. 5-13 & 24-30, Johnston, Beardmore B"i[l, pp. 3 9, and Talbo'-Booth,
All the l\'orld's Fighting Fleets. 3rd cdn, pp. 57-9.
The design of a ship began as we have seen with a brief from the Admiralty to the Director of aval Construction.' Accordingly, the D C and his team started by calculating the proportions and characteristics of the hull and the balance of propulsion plant, armour and armament which would govern its design. After a preliminary hull form had been worked out it was tank-tested at the Admiralty Experiment Works at Haslar near Portsmouth to establish the metacentric heights, centres of gravity and buoyancy, wave resistance and coefficient of the vessel as well as the optimum shape of propellers and submerged surfaces. Then came detailed plan showing the arrangement of armour and machinery spaces and the projected weight, structure and dimensions of the completed vessel. Once approved by the Admiralty Board these were dispatched to the shipyard contracted to build the vessel so that copies could be made and the preparation of working drawings initiated. It was u ual for armament and machinery contractors to produce their own working drawings but where Hood was concerned the Admiralty placed far greater reliance on John Brown's own draughtsmen and those of the other three builders than had hitherto been the case. Work began in the mould loft, at John Brown's an immense room over 375 feet long on whose floor the frames of the ship were traced in full size onto black scrieve boards. Each set of scrieve boards contained not only the shape of the frame but also the position of every rivet, bolt, heer line, buttock line and deck to which it would allach. These were taken to the plate shops where metal for frames and bars of different types was selected, cut, heated
The keel plate and double bottom of Ship No. 460 taking shape on NO.3 slip at John Brown & Co. towards the end of 1916. The box construction which formed the basis of the hull can just be made out. This photograph has been taken from the stern of the ship looking forward. The baulks of timber upon which the hull will rest are gradually being assembled in the middle distance. N.tlONl Arch/11ft of SCo~nd. Edmburgh
and then bent on steel slabs until they conformed perfectly to the prescribed contours. This done, the shipfitters began punching holes in the places indicated so that every frame and bar reached the building slip ready to be bolted and then riveted in place. A similar procedure was followed with plates, which were drilled, sheared, planed, flanged, bevelled and pressed to the de ired shape and curvature ready for positioning on the hull. Meanwhile, beams were being imparted their correct camber and moulds made for major components such as shaft brackets. The first constructional step was the laying of the keel plate, the backbone of the ship, in a carefully selected and prepared berth. Then the transverse and longitudinal frames were joined to the keel to form the watertight compartments which were the ship's first defence against the sea. The box-like construction which resulted had originated with the Rel/owlJ class battlecruisers and over it were fixed the bulkheads that divided the Hood into 25 watertight sections. Though pierced with huge gaps for funnel uptakes and turrets, longitudinal strength was preserved with girders running the length of the ship, the forecastle and upper decks forming the upper part of a slopesided box to which the ship owed her structural integrity. While the bow and stern frames were being assembled the blacksmiths' shop was busy turning out forgings of every shape and dimension as electricians began laying the first of many hundreds of miles of wiring. Then came the installation of shafts, screws, bulges and bilge keels before the paint shop dispatched squads of men to apply the coats of red lead paint which announced the ship as ready for launching.
The Hood's rudder frame at William Beardmore's Parkhead Forge. Glasgow, c. 1918. It will be packed with wood (fir) and plated over before being fitted to the ship. N.tlOMl Archiws of ScorJ.rwt EdInburgh
Genesis, Design and COl1strtlctiOIl
The reputation for toughness of'Clyde-built' ships rested to a considerable extent on the quality of their riveting. Ian Johnston describes the work of the riveting parties and the caulkers who followed them: These could be either machine or hand squads. A hand squad comprised a right and left handed riveter to alternately hammer the rivet, a 'holder on' who was positioned behind the plate to hold the heated rivet in place with a tool called a 'hobey, and a 'heater boy'-who could be 50 or 60 years of age. The heater boy was important as he had to arrange his fire in such a fashion that he had an adequate supply of different types of rivet likely to be required properly heated and ready for use. The riveter could call out to the heater boy-'efter four a long yin' or it could be 'a wee yin'. In confined or awkward spaces an additional member of the squad, known as a catch boy, could be employed to insert the rivet. Where a riveting machine was used, the squad comprised a riveter to operate the machine, a holder on and a heater boy. When the riveters had completed their work, caulkers took over. They finished the shell by caulking each plate overlap with a pneumatic caulking machine to ensure an absolutely watertight seam.' Though laid down in September 1916, constant design alterations meant that construction work on the Hood would be significantly delayed. On 2 November a shipyard report noted that
13
Sufficient information is gradually being obtained from the Admiralty to enable more material to be ordered for this vessel and to employ a few more men on her construction, but in view of the alteration in her design, comparatively low progress can only be made until beginning of next year' Alterations were still being made but on I March 1917 John Brown & Co. was 'Informed by the Admiralty that Hood is to be pushed with all despatch'. However, the pressing need for merchant shipping in view of the German submarine offensive against British trade now prevented the yard devoting its full resources to the project. Satisfactory progress was reported on 22 June 1917 but construction of the hull was being hindered by a shortage of manpower. 0 further shipyard reports are available on the Hood until January 1919, by which time she had been launched and was in the process of fitting oul. This absence can only be explained by the need to preserve secrecy as requests continued for improved protection in the light of test firings and battle experience. These resulted in May and June of 1919 in the removal of four of the sixteen 5.5in guns and then four of the eight above-water torpedo tubes, the last major changes to be made to a design whose construction was by now far advanced. Already in September 1918 the first barbette plates of face-hardened steel had been lowered into place in the fitting-out basin, part of an armour scheme that would eventually require 14,000 tons of plate. The manufacture of armour plate was a highly evolved process
• Johnston, Beardmore Built, p. 39. 'Thi and the succeeding citations
from Glasgow Uni\·crsit)· Archives. Upper C1rde Shipbuilders 1/5/15-21.1 owe them to the
kindness of Ian Johnston.
Hood's four propellers being transported the 400 miles separating the Manganese Bronze & Brass Co. of london
and John Brown of Clydebank. -8) and
Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly. letters to the author, 12 July 2002 and 1 February 2004. Apart from \\I'alSOo
the following were lost on
24 May 1941:)ohn E. Binnie, Sydney s. sloyles, Charles R.
Bostock and Walden J. Biggenden. Le Bailly, The Man Arolmd ti,e Engine, p. 82. 7l Bradford, The Mighty Hood. p. 112. n
In harbour, the Engineer Officer of the Day has unparalleled scope for involvement in chaos-a turbo-generator will trip (all lights start dimming), a 'Red Alert' will require the flashing up of an extra boiler, the laundry machinery will 'fall over', the firemain will develop a leak, the possibilities are endless. The day will culminate in Engineer's Rounds which, if carried out according to the book, will involve visits to every space manned by the Department, concluding with the writing up of the register. It is after such exertions that testing the Wardroom gin for purity, instead of the boiler feed water, will provide a brief relaxation before the Duty Picket Boat is towed in with a damaged propeller. Despite the hazards lurking in the Harbour Machinery Room, it's really more peaceful being at sea..." The implications of this labour in war are to be imagined. Unlike the Hood's seaman complement which kept a two-watch ystem, the Engineering Department worked in three eight-hour watches. With regular boiler cleaning this meant somewhat more than an eight-hour day even in peacetime in harbour. But in war it translated into a daily sea routine of not less than eight hours
on Steaming Watch and eight at Damage Control or Ammunition Supply Stations, quite apart from the dawn and dusk action stations that required every man in the ship to be at his post." The return to harbour heralded not a few days' comparative rest but the resumption of boiler cleaning in the most overworked capital ship in the avy. No wonder the Hood's stokers apparently came close to mutiny in December 1940.69 Evidently, it tooka special type of man to endure this regime. Until the Invergordon Mutiny the Hood's stokers were drawn largely from the mining communities of the British Isles. However, by the mid-1930s this sort of man had little interest in a naval career and the Admiralty even less in exposing the Navy to the militant politics he threatened to bring with him. The Admiralty therefore began to recruit teenage stokers from the traditional forcing grounds of the avy in southern England. Despite concerns for the poor standard of education among recruits no steps were taken to improve the literacy of the new intake. Rather than the year or more that boy eamen spent under training in one of the shore establishments, stokers received no more than eight weeks' drill followed by two months' mechanical instruction before being drafted for sea service as Stoker 2nd Class. Progression to Stoker 1st Class came by means of a test to demonstrate competence in handling various types of machinery. For the ambitious a threemonth period as an Auxiliary Watchkeeper was followed by an examination which, if successful, would grant him a certificate and the chance of further training ashore. Others would take advantage of the Mechanician Scheme which allowed stokers of above-average ability to specialise in equipment maintenance with the prospect of warrant rank. But, her eight (E) officers and three warrant engineers apart, the key figures in the Hood's Engineering Department were the 35 engine room artificers, men who entered the avy after a challenging written examination and spent no less than four years under training before going to sea. Louis Le Bailly, then a Sub-Lieutenant (E), has this unforgettable reminiscence of his first visit to the Hood's engine spaces on rejoining the ship in May 1937.
Members of the Double-Bottom
Party pose by Starboard No.1 S.5in gun, c. 193B. Stoker Ken 'Nobby' Clark on the left. HMS Hood ~tionKJ.fk CoIl«fIQn
On my first morning the Senior [Engineer] took me into all the machinery spaces including numerous glory holes known as cabooses, mostly housing ventilation machinery. But throwing open one caboose door he let me take a glance at five whey-faced elderly men in blue overalls, each holding a glass. 'Those five chief engine room artificers (Ch ERAs), Maycock, Bradfield, Edmiston, Snell and Hemmings: he said, 'are among the most senior skilled men we have. I know, and they know, they have no right to be drinking prairie oysters of rum and raw eggs in the forenoon but they would give their lives for this ship. If we had to go to sea in an emergency it would be their skills on which we would depend. Listen to them, learn from them and never mind asking them anything. If, after six months, when you come to get your watchkeeping ticket, you know a quarter of what they do about this ship, you will have done well.''" The Engineering Department was distinguished from others in the Hood by the fact that its personnel frequently gave very extended periods of service to the ship, men who over time became indispensable in their work and indivisible from her character. In the late 1930s there was Mechanician Chilvers of
A TOllr of the 511ip
the evaporators, hief Engine Room Artificer Edwards of the motor boats, Mechanician Ridgeon and Stoker PO Binnie of the steam picket boats, and Chief Stoker Stoyles, doyen of 'A' Boiler Room. Presiding over the fan compartments was the highly skilled but slightly eccentric Chief Mechanician Charle Bostock whose great claim to fame was a certificate provided by the etley mental asylum stating that he was entirely sane. There was Chief Stoker Cathmoir of the 'Hood's Harmony Boys', Chief Stoker Biggenden with his registers in the Engineers' office and Regulating Chief Stoker Abbott who from a tiny office on the upper deck handled the affairs of 260 stokers. Then there was Harry Watson, the 'Double Bottom Chief loker' responsible for all fuelling and fuel supply arrangements and the only man to have visited each of his ship's 500 watertight compartments, and Stoker PO Watson (no relation), for many year entrusted with the spare gear store above the forward engine room control platform. Four years after Le Bailly's tour of the engine spaces half of those mentioned in these lines did indeed give their lives for her. Among them was Chief Stoker Harry Watson who on the morning of 24 May 1941 ended 21 years' unbroken service in the ship, the only man to have served her all her days." The Royal avy was equipped with ships whose performance and reliability often owed less to their design than to the skill and endurance of those who operated them in what were often terrible conditions. To the ordinary hazards of life below the waterline the onset of war added its own miseries. There was the threat of scalding by ruptured steam mains, of disintegration by torpedo, mine, bomb and shellfire, of drowning in sealed compartments thick with oil and black with smoke, and always the hideous clanging of every concussion and detonation against the ship's side, like 'the inside of a giant's kettle against which a sledge-hammer is being beaten with uncertain aim'." Some of the finest men the avy ever produced did their ungrateful work in the engine spaces of her vessels, 'men who, deep in the hot heart of the ship, have little room for hope if she is overwhelmed'." Although it is the gallantry of fighting above decks that captures the imagination,
43
naval historians will always have to contend with the accomplishment of those who, in bringing their ship into battle, afforded her commander the one weapon he could never dispense with: mobility.
A large party of stokers gathered in the eyes of the ship at Malta
on Christmas Day 1938. The Engineering Department saw proportionately little turnover in personnel before the los5 of the
ship in May 1941.
Gunnery The turn of the twentieth century saw a revolution in naval gunnery which was to transform the nature of war at sea. By 1914 improvements in rangefinding, fire control and ordnance were giving ships the capacity to engage each other at far greater range than had seemed possible ten years earlier. ntil 1908 British gun designers had looked to increase the range of their weapons by accelerating the muzzle velocity of their shells, which they accomplished by extending the calibre of the gun and increasing the weight of the propellant charge. However, it was soon realised that this improvement wa
HMS Hood Auo-The main purpo e of the Hood's secondary armament was to ward off attack from smaller vessels and aircraft, for which speed and volume of fire counted more than range and size of shell. Until they were removed in 1939-40 the Hood's outfit consisted principally of twelve breech-loading 5.5in guns disposed in two batteries on the forecastle and boat decks amidships. The 50-calibre 5.5in gun was designed by Coventry Ordnance Works for a pair of light cruisers ordered by the Greek government and subsequently taken over by the Admiralty as Birkenhead and Chester in 1915. With its lighter 82-pound shell, the manually-operated 5.5in was not only easier to work but offered a rate of fire almost double that of the 6in mounting which preceded it. Meanwhile, greater elevation gave the 5.5in a range of 18,500 yards, 3,000 further than the 6in. Besides the Hood, the 5.5in was fitted in the 'large light cruiser' Furious, the carrier Hermes and the submarine K J7, but the introduction of powered mountings in the 1920s brought an end to this line of development. onetheless, the 5.5in has secured its place in history, for it was while serving one of Chester's gun that Boy Jack Cornwell was mortally wounded at Jutland, the latter joining the constellation of Britain's naval heroes and the former passing into the collections of the Imperial War Museum. Fire control was provided on imilar lines to the main armament, though scaled down both in size and complexity. Targeting data was supplied to the 5.5in Transmitting Room by four directors, two on each side of the spotting top (moved to the signal platform in 1934) and two more on the boat deck. Each was topped with a nine-foot rangefinder. The Transmitting Room, lying on the lower deck beneath the conning tower, produced aiming instructions for the guns by means of a pair of Type F fire-control clocks. Unlike the 15in Transmitting Station, it was capable of supplying data for two separate targets, one for each battery. As with the turrets, corrections to the elevation and training of the guns were transmitted to dials in each mounting, the layer and trainer making the requisite adjustments with their handwheels. In the event of a failure of the primary system the guns hifted to quarters firing which divided the twelve mountings into four groups of three, each controlled by an officer of quarters from a nearby po ition on the quarterdeck. It was originally intended to fit a total of sixteen 5.5in guns, the extra four mountings being positioned to fire aft from the forecastle and boat decks.
However, consideration of weight required these to be eliminated and the Hood was therefore completed with a secondary armament which could not engage a target finer than 30 degrees on either quarter. As fitted, the Hood's battery was thus limited to firing arcs of D-135 degrees off the bow in the case of Port and Starboard No. I groups, and 3D-ISO degrees for Port and Starboard o. 2 groups. eedless to add, each gun was capable of independent control. The most remarkable aspect of the Hood's 5.5in battery was the means by which it was supplied with ammunition. The shell rooms and magazines for the secondary guns were located in the hold and on each of the platform decks in spaces adjacent to those for the main armament. Shells and 22-pound cordite cartridges stored in Clarkson's cases were selected and loaded by hand onto eight dredger hoists which brought them in a continuous stream up to the ammunition working spaces on the main deck. Here they were retrieved from the hoists and passed through flash tight scuttles to teams of men waiting in the lobbies with steel barrows. Loaded with shells and cartridges, the barrows were then wheeled at full tilt down the ammunition passages lying almost 300 feet along each side of the ship. Rising from these passages was a second range of dredger hoists, one for each of the six guns on that side of the vessel. Reaching the appointed hoist, the barrow man saw his cargo through the flash tight loading scuttle before racing back for more. To imagine the 5.5in batteries in action is therefore to form a picture of scores of men chasing back and forth along the main deck, dodging ladders and each other while charging at doorways wide enough to admit only one barrow at a time. Accidents were common, and at 200 pounds it didn't do to have an altercation with a loaded shell barrow. Louis Le Bailly: ... My initial call to battle came as I was luxuriating in my first bath for a week after the ship had returned to Scapa Flow. Girding my towel around my loins, I leapt over the coaming of the wardroom bathroom straight into a steel barrow loaded with two 5.5" shells wheeled by an enthusiastic sailor. I came off worst. As I tried to staunch the wound the 'all clear' sounded.'" But 5.5in ammo supply certainly had its lighter moments. As AB John Bush (I928-9) recalled, there was an irresistible temptation to use the hoists for the dispatch of other items to the guns, items that had little to do with ordnance: During my time I worked mostly as a QO [Qualified Ordnanceman) among those 5.5's, and had fun with the dredger hoist ammo supply which occasionally brought up odd socks and vests. One of the supply doors was opposite the for'd seamen's bathroom!"O The business of firing the guns began with the order 'Load! Load! Load!' with which the ammunition started its circuitous journey from the depths of the ship. A 5.5in gun had a crew of nine men, including a layer, trainer, sight setter and breech worker, the other five acting as loading numbers. On reaching the batteries (or the boat deck in the case of the Port and Starboard o. 2 guns), the shells and cartridges were fetched from the receiving tray of the hoist and prepared for loading. At the order'Commence' a hell would be thrust into the chamber,
III
See Roberts. The Bartlecruiser Hood. p. 21. RaskilJ. The \Var at Sea,l, p. 404. and id.. Churchill and the Admirals. p. 296.
". CAC, LEBY t12, MS of The Man Around the Engine. ch. 13. p. 4. lJO
John Bush to David 'Veldon, Walsall, t 9 September 1965.
56
The Batt/ecruiser HMS HOOD
Above: A S.Sin shoot by Marines manning Port NO.4 gun, (.1935. To the left of the gun men stand by with shells and cordite. Obscured inside the mounting
are the gun layer to the left of the barrel and the trainer to the right. The figure standing on the mounting in overalls may be an ordnance artificer. The breech operator stands on the right while a second man prepares to sponge out the chamber from a barrel of water. HMi Hood ADoc.I.tlOnlWillrs CoIl«tJon
Right: Stowage for ready·use shells and sponge on the bulkhead abaft Starboard NO.1 5.5;n gun, late 19305. HMS Hood Auocj.r/OftlH'99'nson CoIl«t.lOI"I
IJI
Two S.Sin guns were installed at
Coalhouse Fon. East Tilburv in 19-10 where the)' remained until the 1950,. Ull am gralefullo Mr Nigel Ling for bringing this incident to my attention. l)j Eller. Remm15Ctmces, II, p. 461.
the cordite rammed in after it and the breech slammed shU[, an electric circuit closing as the lever turned. Once his sights were 'on' the layer squeezed the trigger, the gun erupting with a yellow fla h a it recoiled on its cradle. '0 sooner had it returned to the firing position than the breech was wung open, the chamber cleared and the next shell inserted. A well-drilled crew could get off twelve rounds per minute, but for all its utility the 5.5in shell proved to have significantly less destructive power than its 6in predecessor. Trouble was also experienced loading the gun at high angles of elevation, though the fire-control arrangements were in any case unable to exploit the additional range offered by the gun. The mountings also proved susceptible to weather damage, while the one-inch splinter shield afforded the men less protection than that behind which Cornwell and his companions had been cut down at Jutland. Above aU, the Hood's 5.5in battery was extremely labour-intensive, requiring 350 men to supply and operate it-only 50 fewer than were needed for her main armament. The threat of war therefore urged the replacement of the 5.5in with a modern weapon and the result was the installation of the twin 4in Mk XVI high-angle gun between 1939 and 1940. However, the de perate shortage of naval ordnance meant that the Hood's 5.5in guns had by no means reached the
end of their ervice. At least four were assigned to shore defence on the south coast of England in 1940 and another can still be seen at T6rshavn in the Faeroes. '" Two more were dispatched to Ascension Island where they were set up as a battery overlooking Georgetown in 1941. They were soon in action, engaging U-124 on 9 December after she had surfaced to hell the island cable station as a diversion while Axis submarines rescued survivors from the supply ship Py/holl and the raider A/lalltis. 1J2 The guns, abandoned after the war, maintain their vigil over the Atlantic. The replacement of the 5.5in guns began at Portsmouth in the spring of 1939 with the removal of Port and Starboard o. 2 guns on the boat deck. This was completed in April and May of the following year with the extraction of the remaining ten gun, thereby clearing the port and starboard batteries of their ordnance. Also removed in the spring of 1940 were the four 4in quick-firing Mk V gun which, inadequate though they were, had formed the mainstay of the Hood's anti-aircraft defence until the installation of the first porn-porn mountings in 1931. The replacement for both these types came in the form of seven twin 4in high-angle mountings which were installed on the reconstructed boat deck. Fitted to a Mk Xl)( mounting, each Mk XIV gun was capable of firing 20 shells per minute at a maximum elevation of 80°. Their installation required the removal or conversion of all existing fire-control equipment for secondary or high-angle guns. Suitably modified, the 5.5in director on the signal platform were retained for surface targets, but the High-Angle Control System was upgraded with its Mk III variant, two sets being installed on the signal platform and another on the after control position. The nerve-centre of the Hood's anti-aircraft capability was the High-Angle Control Position, transferred to the space vacated by the removal of the submerged torpedo tubes in 1937. Highangle fire control operated on the same principle as the director system, though complicated by the speed and three-dimensional trajectory of it target. The HACS tachymetric calculating tables had therefore to supply not only the elevation and training pointers to the guns, but also the fuse setting for the shells 0 that they could detonate at the altitude of the aircraft. The guns were usually fired remotely from the HA directors but could also be activated by the gun layer or breech worker. In the event, the Hood did not survive long enough for any truly effective HA system to be installed and this remained a weak point in her defence. The verdict of Ltdr Ernest Eller, the U.S. avy's official observer in Hood in the spring of 1941, cannot be disputed: While on board I inspected the ship from the bottom to the top and particularly the fire-control equipment with the anti-aircraft armament. These were inadequate. The fire-control director was far behind our . The guns were the 4.5s [actually 4 inch] and they weren't as accurate as ours or as long range.'" With their increased volume of fire the installation of the twin 4in mountings required significant conversions to the Hood's secondary magazines and shell rooms. The quick-firing 4in gun used fixed ammunition so rounds could be stored in magazines and shell rooms alike, but stowage had to be provided for both high-angle and low-angle rounds of which a
57
A TOllr of the Ship
total of 500 were carried for each of the fourteen barrels. This called for the conversion not only of the old 4in HA magazine, but also the small-arms magazine on the platform deck directlyabove it and the Engineers' store in the hold. Dredger hoists continued to send shells up to the two working spaces on the main deck, but the steel barrows were done away with and new procedures instituted. The ten dredger hoists serving the batteries had of course departed with their guns, but those supplying the two boat-deck 5.5in guns were retained so that 4in rounds from the forward shell rooms could reach the boat deck. Matters were somewhat different aft where the two hoi ts supplying the old 4in HA guns were pressed into service for the new guns. These hoists had been designed to bring shells and cordite from the lower platform to the old HAs in a single step and it must be assumed that measures were taken to convert them to receive shells from the aft working space on the main deck. Whatever the case, the resulting arrangement still required the loading numbers to run back and forth across the boat deck cradling 65-pound shells for their guns.''' But these four hoists could never be expected to provide the guns with sufficient ammunition for a prolonged engagement and the Admiralty had therefore to resort to a singularly dangerous expedient where 4in ammunition supply was concerned: the installation of numerous ready-use shell lockers across the boat deck. The overdue improvement of the Hood's secondary armament was therefore bought at the expense of her integrity under battle conditions. On 24 May 1941 her boat-deck crews would pay the price. Nor, with hindsight, wa the effectiveness of the secondary armament sufficient to warrant the danger it now posed to the safet)' of the crew. In 1934 and 1935 the Hood's 4in Mk V guns had won her the first two Home Fleet High-Angle Trophy competitions but this standard of gunnery was not maintained and in the spring of 1936 Capt. Pridham bluntly informed his 5.5in crews that 'they were not fit for me to take into action against even an Eyetie ship'.us Matters had greatly improved by the time of Pridham's departure in 1938 but recommissioning, months in dockyard hands and the installation of new armament made for a very green ship on the outbreak of war. Drill and organisation left much to be desired, a successful attack by a Ju 88 in the North Sea in September 1939 going completely unchallenged by the Hood' gun crews. As late as August 1940 Vice-Admiral Sir James Somerville was reporting 'much-needed exercises and practices' in gunnery, brought home no doubt by Italian high-level bombing in the Mediterranean. I " The new 4in mounting required a crew of sixteen. A layer and trainer aimed the guns by following pointers in the usual way, but each barrel was loaded by a relay of men forcing shells into a sliding breech block, the gun firing automatically before ejecting the casing. It behoved the loading number to ram the shell home with his fi t or else ri k losing his fingers in the breech mechanism. 00 B.A. Carlisle (1940-1) recalls the procedure: We did fire our 4· anti-aircraft guns in practice shoots and most of the trainee ODs were given a stint at loading these guns. One had to pick up a 4· shell and when one's time for loading came round rush up and heave it into the breech making sure it had been driven home: these
mountings had twin guns and being very right-handed I was fortunately loading on the left-hand gun where one's right shoulder and arm gave the shell the necessary push. The noise of the firing was deafening and I don't recall being given ear plugs. 1J7 Each mounting was capable of firing 40 rounds per minute, but this rate was soon slowed by the labour of retrieving shells from lockers and hoists and the efforts of the loaders to avoid tripping over the empty casings accumulating about the gun. This apart, it seems that accuracy was never particularly good, even against surface targets. Lt-Cdr Joseph Wellings U.S.N., observing from the destroyer Eskimo, made these notes of a 4in target firing as the Hood approached capa Flow on 19 October 1940:
I~
AB Robert Tilburn's evidence to the second Board of Inquiry into the loss of the Hood also alludes to ammunition being supplied 'through the hatch abreast the after funnel', presumably that on the port side of the ship; PRO, AD~I 116/4351. p. 364. m Pridham, Memoirs, II. p. 168. 1J6 Simpson (ed), Tile Somerville Papers,p.131. lJ7 S\V\VEC, 2001/1376, p. 5.
Speed of Hood during practice: 20 knots. Destroyers continued to act as anti-submarine screen. Target a battle raft about two-thirds size of ours. Target course about Leh: Part of the crew of the
Hood', Starboard 4in Mk V HighAngle gun pose by their weapon
in ga,ma,k, in July 1932. Like all ,hip, in the Royal Navy, the Hood developed an elaborate organisation to deal with gas attack following the Great War. Vice-Admiral Tomkinson's 3D-foot gig hangs on its davits and Renown lies beyond. Wright" Log.n
Below: Preparing the launch of a kite for target practice with the pom-poms or 4in High-Angle gun" c. 1935. HMS Hood AuocMtlonlWillis ColIKrlOll
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
58
parallel to course of Hood. Target speed about 5 knots. Port broadside firing range about 7-8,000 yards. Salvo interval: 7-9 seconds; number of salvoe : 10. All but two salvoes at least 500 yard over and to right of target. Two salvoe were in line about 200 yard short. Starboard broadside range 5-6,000 yards. Salvo interval: 6-9 seconds; number of salvoes: 10. First salvo landed about 800 yards short. Target was not crossed until the seventh salvo, which was off in deflection.'''' Thirty years later and in the light of his own war service in the Pacific, Wellings offered this appraisal of the Hood's principal gun nery systems: We believed Captain Glennie of the Hood operated a smart, efficiently-run ship, and that he was very gunnery conscious. He conducted some form of gunnery exercise at every opportunity. We thought that the Hood's main battery of eight 15 guns mounted in four twin turrets fired some excellent target practices. However, we thought N
A sequence of photos showing a practice shoot at sea for the crew
of Hood's Starboard NO.3 4in Mk XIX mounting, c.1940. In the first photo the crew are waiting to go into action. The layer and trainer are out of sight on either side of the barrels while the loading numbers queue up with their
64lb shells. The white·gloved hand seen on the left side of the mounting is probably that of the Captain of the Gun. In the second photo a pair of empty casings are being automatically ejected onto the deck where a man prepares to sweep them out of the way. In the third, shells are being thrust into the sliding breech blocks. The two men in
duffel coats on the edge of the mounting are probably breech numbers. Note the shells ranged on deck and the ready-use lockers behind the gun. Cd, Jeffrey Wi!Ii.m
Cr~wford
u. \Veilings, 0" His Majesty's Ser"ice, p. 44. N\\'C, \Vellings. Remi"iscences, p. 74. The 'we' refers to Wellings and officers of the destroyer H"tS Eskimo. 1
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
There was certainly no shortage of adherents in the Hood which won the Arbuthnot Trophy three years running between 1933 and 1935. However, as O'Conor indicated, cross-country running was something of a trial and with this twin brothers Fred and Frank oombs (1935-8) would certainly have agreed. It is the autumn of 1935:
Below: Hoods athletes pose at Malta in the winter of 1938-9
with the Arbuthnot Trophy for cross-country running, probably the last major sporting competition she ever won. One of the ship's liferings hangs from a length of ventilation trunking beside 'X' turret. capt. Harold Walker in the centre. M,John#W~
... To make a change, we took the opportunity to get ashore by taking parr in a cross-country running race. It was a mistake to be regretted for a long time. All the runners were landed on Weymouth Pier to wait the starr and, unfortunately, found a nice fresh water tap which was nectar compared with the Aat, stale water aboard, 0 took in a bladder full which was a mistake as a toilet could not be found before the start. After a lot of milling and pushing about 150 of us set off... but we soon became separated. Frank thinking that Fred was up in front increased his pace and Fred thinking that Frank was behind slowed down and we never did meet up till it was too late ... Frank, seeing that he had caught up with the ... well known figure of Leading Steward Barnes, the avy runner, in front, decided that if he stuck near them there wa more chance of stopping to relieve himself when the country bit was reached. nfortunately that bit was never
reached and he wa still suffering from the effects of a bladder full of beautiful tap water when the finishing line was reached. Also, unfortunately, seeing a sign for toilets he was encouraged to make a sprint for them and in doing so passed a Leading Seaman, Potts, a promotion-seeking experienced runner who took offence at being pushed into 5th place by a common Boy and was heard to be casting parental doubts on a crafty Boy... Frank, on returning aboard, attended the Sick Bay where he was found to have a temperature and was kept in. On being visited by the Doctor he was told that he had strained his stomach muscles and was confined to bed for a few days' Running was one of the activities in which officers competed alongside the men but others like cricket, golf, squash and polo remained very much the preserve of the wardroom. However, rugby was increasingly played by ratings of the Devonport Division after the Great War, many of whom no doubt saw it as the perfect opportunity to get some of their own back on officer. In this they were not alone. Mid. Ross Warden (1940-1) recalls a physical match between the Hood's wardroom and gunroom officers in the autumn of 1940: This was a golden opportunity to settle any outstanding scores. Anything goes was our motto, but alas we found our senior officer more than able to return elbows, knees and (when the referee was not looking) the occasional fist. Twice our Commander, who was referee, threatened to call a halt. However, there were no fatalities, and a good time was had by all.'O The avy had a great tradition in rugby and in 1933 there were no fewer than 50 living members of the Royal avy and Royal Marines Rugby Union with international caps, among them W.j.A. Davies, Constructor Commander in the Hood in 1937-8 and still regarded a one of the game's finest players. The other sport offering the chance of beating hell out of an officer was of course boxing. AB Fred Copeman, Invergordon mutineer and champion pugilist:
Right: The captain of Hood's victorious 1926 Battle Cruiser Squadron Cup football team poses with Capt. Harold Reinold on his left and Rear-Admiral Cyril Fuller on his right. They are on the starboard side of the Night defence control station, its viewing slits closed off with louvre shuners. HMS Hood AssociafionlReinold ColIKrion
'I\¥!ol, 91/711, p. 46. 10 \-Varden, 'Memories of the Battle Cruiser H.M.5. "Hood": p. 84. II IWM/SA, no. 794, reel 12. Copeman did not sen'e in Hood.
Mind you, I was a bit of a boxer and a footballer. I was all sport. And I was well known in the avy, you see, especially in [the championships]. And I was lud:y because in the ... championships I always met a big fat commander. And there's nothing better than the thrill of thumping an officer. And I used to thump them good and proper. I really had a good one there. I used to take a pasting, you know. But once I got that on they didn't last. And they always used to wait for old Fred. 'Right. p we gO!'1I But it wasn't one-way traffic by any means. Cdr (G) E.H.G. 'Tiny' Gregson lost in the Hood in May 1941, won consecutive heavyweight boxing titles between 1925 and at least 1931. Regrettably, this was another sporr in which the Coombs twins came unstuck. Malta in the spring of 1937: Between us we brought the crowd to its feet when it was Fred's turn to go in the ring. The fights were being staged in the Corradino Canteen in Malta, which was packed with the normal complement of sailors on shore for their
63
Glory Ship
usual few pints ... and a lot of boxing enthusiasts ashore to see the fights. At that time Service boxing was pure amateur with no fancy boots or gum shields. The only difference being that the boy from the red corner tied a red sash round his waist and the other wore green. Other than that it was navy blue socks and white blancoed gym slippers below the ordinary white sports shorts and vest up top. There was no need for a boxer's hair cut as our instructors and the ship's barber made sure that we still had the Boys' hair cut of short back and sides which could mean nearly bald. As in amateur boxing, no shouting or cheering was allowed when the fight was taking place, this being reserved for in between round breaks. There was a fair buzz went up when the difference was seen between the two boys' sizes. Most of the support was for Fred as the underdog is always the favourite but, as usual in boxing, a 'good big 'un' will always beat a 'good little 'un'. After the success of his first fight in going in under a bigger lad's guard he had been advised to do the same and was getting away with it and we thought he was ahead on points in the first round. Whether his opponent from the battleship Barham had used his first round to practise in was not known but half-way through the second round ... saw Fred still keeping out of his way with long left jabs and, occasionally catching his opponent with what we colloquially described as 'hitting him in the shitlocker' and getting away with it. He did it once too often and, as he went down and under with his right the other lad went up and over with his short left timed nicely to catch Fred's chin going down as his left came up and sitting Fred on his backside. The whole hall was deathly silent as Fred sat there trying to move his head to find out if it was still on his neck. At the back [I] broke the spell by shouting 'Gerrup, Fred!' ... Fred was not listening but all the rest heard it and proved that pathos is next door to humour by breaking out into uncontrolled laughter,leaving just Fred and [I] with tears in [our) eyes. That finished the twins' boxing career as hard hitters. We found that there was always someone who could hit harder but it stood us in good stead and we proved that there was more in our make-up than the ability to get into trouble." Like rugby and football, boxing was one of the few organised sports to survive the onset of war in 1939. On the evening of 29 July 1940 a match took place in the Ark Royal at Gibraltar with Hood's men in the green corner and their hosts in the red. The Hood won by six. bouts to four. Other sports included tug-of-war, fencing, shooting, field hockey, tennis and water polo. The latter enjoyed considerable popularity and games are recorded against the battleship uss Maryland at Gibraltar in March 1922, against the Mayor of Hartlepool's XI in September J 932, and against a Yugoslav naval side at Split five years later which swam out to the ship, thrashed the Hood's team and then swam back to shore after tea on the messdecks." Then there was bayonets, a form of fencing in which the Hood excelled under O'Conor, her men carrying off the Home Fleet's Palmer Trophy between 1934 and 1936. However, the blue ribband events were the sailing and particularly the pulling regattas. On these much of the ship's energies were expended as spring turned into summer.
From the moment of her commissioning in March 1920 rowing was a sport in which the Hood had a head start on the competition. Among the men bequeathed her from Lion was the cutter crew which had triumphed in the inaugural challenge forthe Rodman Cup in 1919. j eedless to say, they had little difficulty in repeating the performance at Portland that autumn, or in winning the Battle Cruiser Regatta at Lamlash on the Isle of Arran in August. Enormous prestige was attached to the Silver Coquerelle, the trophy which awaited the victor in the fleet pulling regatta in June each year. Rory O'Conor, Commander of the Hood between 1933-6, explains why: The Pulling Regatta is the principal sporting event in the Fleet, and for good reason. Eleven men only can represent their ship at football, and at cross-country running the largest team is thirty, but in a big-ship Regatta a team of nearly three hundred officers and men goes forth in the boats to do battle for their ship, and it is no wonder therefore that the Cock is the most highly prized of
Top: Boys boxing in an improvised ring on the forecastle, (.1935. HMS Hood Assoclat/onlWil/is ColleCfion
Above: Hood's marksmen pose with their trophies and weapons on the quarterdeck at Portsmouth, (.1935. With them is Capt. F.T.B. Tower, Cdr Rory O'Conor and Judy, O'Conor's West Highland terrier. Notice the brass tampions with the ship's (hough emblem decorating the muzzles of 'V' turret. HMS Hood /wociiJrionlCloJrk Collecrion
12
1\\';"1,9117/1, p. 59.
" Ibid., p. 70.
.... 64
The Battlecrlliser HMS HOOD
trophies; it is the reward of arduous training and of massed effort on a grand scale. [... 1 There is nothing in this world to surpass the heartfelt satisfaction and delight of a ship's company when the Cock comes on board-it is a moment worth living for and worth working for." Victory, as O'Conor demonstrated in 1935, required an enormous organisation: a large committee chaired by the Commander; an officer in charge of each of the twenty boats; picked racing coxswains to drive the men to the limit; a stockpile of oars, and above all weeks of arduous training. Fred and Frank Coombs were among O'Conor's oarsmen: At that time ... our only worry was that we had been caught up in the hard work of training to meet the needs of the Boys' cutters' crew. We did not mind the hard work of going out in a cutter at varied times during working hours, ... but [having to spendl at least one hour of each day, in our own time, ... pulling on our length of oar handle to raise the weight was sheer unadulterated hard work, particularly when the Instructor was walking round us giving us the occasional clip across the shoulders with a short length of knotted rope or stonnid,l' as it was called to encourage us. [... j After what seemed hour upon hour of boat pulling in practice and on the exercise frame came the honour of being named as bowmen in the Second Boys' Cutter's crew ... Almost every single hour of daylight was spent by some crew of the different divisions out in a pulling boat, practising and practising for the big day which seemed never to come." The gunroom also had its part to play. Vice-Admiral ir Louis Le Bailly recalls the regatta campaign of 1933:
14RBS,p.141.
91/711, p.44. I."IWM, le Bailly, Tire Mall Around the Engine. 26. Mids. Richard p.
Beckwith (1933--4?>. R.P. Thurstan (l933-4?>, R.CP. Wainwright (1933-4?l, Paymaster Mid. J. Chari.. (l932-3?), ,\Iids. T.). ~lacFarlan (1933-4'), A. Gra)' (1932-41) and Sub-Lt C.K.S. A)'lwin (l933-4?). "IWM, 91/7/1, p. 44. 1 'M~I, Elkins/I, Journal, 21 October 1921. 19 Pridham. Memoirs, II, p. 162. Cdr David Orr-Ewing. Executi\'e Officer of the Hood, 1936-9.
Admiral James and Captain Binney... set out to imbue the ship's company with the idea that the Hood should win the forthcoming fleet regatta. The gunroom soon discovered that we had a vital role to play in this. Traditionally the fleet gunrooms raced gigs for the Battenberg Trophy the day before the main regatta. A win by Hood's gunroom would be taken as a good augury for the following day. Failure however would be regarded as a bad omen against the ship becoming Cock of the Fleet. Then short and lean I was, I suppose, the obvious choice for coxswain. But for those who were to undertake the hard work we gathered a formidable crew; Beckwith as stroke, Thurstan, Wainwright, Charles, MacFarlan and Gray. [... 1 But we were young and enthusiastic and how we trained. The chaplain, the Rev J C Waters, himself a notable oarsman was in charge and the new sub, Aylwin, urbane and highly civilised, also took a hand. Even the messman's food improved (subsidised by the wardroom I heard many years later). We practised at dawn and dusk and some afternoons too. I found my duties involved taking charge of the methylated spirit for bli tered hands and bottoms. Gig's thwarts, however well polished, were not far removed from sandpaper." Both attempts were rewarded with victory. Le Bailly:
Hood's gunroom won the Battenberg Trophy: and next day
we raced again and won again. Much money changed hands as Hood became Cock of the Fleet. That evening Captain Binney sent down a case of champagne to the gunroom. Later I have a faint recollection of an invading posse of midshipmen from one of the battleships carrying me forcibly to our wardroom and casting me through the door, when I knew no more. The ne:\1 morning I awoke with the first in a lifetime of hangovers, recovering sufficiently to go over with the rest of the crews to HMS elsoll to receive our trophies from the great John Kelly himself. Fred Coombs: When [the day finally camel it was soon over but the taste of success and jubilations as we... proclaimed to the whole Fleet that the Mighty Hood was now Cock of the Fleet was to be ta ted for a long time." Equally, to surrender the Cock was the greatest of disasters. On 19 October 1921 the Hood lost the Battle Cruiser Cock to Repulse at Scapa Flow. Two days later it was handed over in a funereal atmosphere, the Marine band leading a proces ion consisting of the ship's goat mascot Bill and a party of midshipmen bearing the trophy, all to the strains of Chopin's Deatlr Marclr. However, once Capt. Dudley Pound had received the Cock on behalf of the Repulse he was piped over the side to the Squadron's own air, Tire Barrie-Cruisers.'· Also very popular were the sailing regattas though not as much prestige attached to the e as to their pulling equivalents. They were Francis Pridham's reigning passion during his tenure as captain of the Hood in 1936-8. His description of a race at Gibraltar in March 1938 reveal the skill, hazards and excitement which attended these occasions: During an assembly of the Home and Mediterranean Fleets at Gibraltar for a 'Stand Easy', the Hood created a record by taking all three places in the Gibraltar Cup Race, an annual evenl. The race was sailed in a full gale, and was full also of excitement, since boats were being dismasted and were capsizing aU round the nine-mile course. At one time my White Galley was the only boat of eighty-two competitors not reefed down. I had faith in my fully trained crew and good rigging. But my luck was out. I had taken an extra hand in the boat as 'live ballast', much needed until the gale eased. This otherwise excellent man, being strange to racing with me, failed to hold himself tight up the windward when we were hit by a heavy squall. He fell down to leeward causing the boat to heel over and ship water nearly up to her thwarts. At that time we were well in the lead, but now fell behind while we bailed out for dear life and got going again, steadily catching up all those boats which had passed us, except two. At the finish, Orr-Ewing was first in a cutter, Admiral unningham was second in his galley and I was third in my White Galley. A fine enough performance, but oh! if only I had not got half swamped and had held on to my lead, it would have been even better. I had been keen to beat the Admiral, a renowned boat-sailer, and was within an ace of doing 0" The sailing regattas had a particular hold on those who prized
65
Leh: A water polo match in the Mediterranean in the late 19305. Among the boats at the starboard boom are a whaler and one of the ship's steam pinnaces with her crew. HMS Hood A»oc.~rlonlPrt'cJv./Colimton
Leh: Bayonet practice on the quarterdeck, c. 1935. The Marine detachment was always represented in the Hood's bayonet teams. Notice the decorative brass plaque on the screen door. HMS Hood Association/WiIIl$ CoIIKr'Qn
Above: The conclusion of a race in the 1934 Home Fleet Regatta, during which Hood lost the Cock to Nelson, seen opposite. HMS Hood AsSOClartonlWillis CollKrion
Leh: Capt. Reinold poses with one of his boat crews in the Hood's successful challenge for the title of 'Cock of the Fleet' in 1926. the first of three consecutive victories in the Atlantic Fleet Regatta. The Silver (oquerelle sits before him. The commander to his left is presumably Arthur J. Power, Hood's Executive Officer from 1925-7 and later a distinguished admiral. Behind them is Port 4in Mk V High-Angle gun. HMS Hood AssooatlonlR~noJdCoIlKtJO(l
66
The Batt/ecruiser HMS HOOD
H_... .s.
~HOOO.-
-,...,. .t 1Ut4
"..
.....
-
The Chuffiosoaru5. Hood's mascot for the 1935 Regatta campaign. The name is a pun on ',hough' and ·oar'. The diminutive figure below is George, spirit of the Hood's sporting accomplishments. These two caricatures show the unmistakable influence of Cdr Rory O·Conor. Mn
Nut~ ToIWI"M'f"
Arnold.Forsler. TII£ Wal's of the Nm?" pp. 116-7. ~l Dreyer, The Sen Heritage. p. 276. u R8S, p. 149.
shiphandling as the truest test of seamanship and who felt a profound nostalgia for the lore of sail just as it was disappearing from the life of the avy. Rear-Admiral D. Arnold-Forster, writing in about) 930, captures the sentiment perfectly: In a really stiff freshening breeze a boat-sailer with confidence in himself and his crew will 'carryon' to the utmost limit before shortening sail, despite the solid water which is almost lapping over the lee side. With an eye glued on the 'luff' of the sails, the sheets firmly tended by the most experienced men of his crew, and eased slightly to the heavier puffs, he hangs on to the straining tiller, and steers so as to ride at an easy angle over any particularly nasty wave that would overwhelm the boat if taken direct. The wind often drops to a gentle breeze before the end of the race, and the midshipman of a boat may see their hated rival, whom they have outsailed fairly and squarely, creeping up with a local slant of wind. lothing could be more exasperating. Every eye in the boat scans the surface of the sea for ripples marking the approach of a puff of wind. The sheets are trimmed and everything done to make the most of every breath: the midshipman whistles softly to encourage the wind to come his way, whilst the foremast hands scratch the mast and stick knives into itan old sea superstition. It is not unusual to see two rival ships' cutters drifting down between the columns of ships towards the finishing line, each with twelve clasp-knives stuck like hedgehogs' quills in their masts!'o
ZO
" Tire CIIollgh, April 1936, p. 25. "See ch. 6, pp. 163-4.
However, there were many who believed that athletic excellence was being bought at the expense of fighting efficiency. One of them was Rear-Admiral Frederic Dreyer who flew his flag in Hood from 1927-9:
with great advantage before the First World War.' The Royal Artillery were better advised-they went on with their annual competition firings with coast-defence guns." It should be noted that Dreyer's tenure coincided with a hat trick of Cock and Rodman Cup victories for the Hood's oarsmen between 1926 and 1928. Rory O'Conor, as can be imagined, took quite a different view in Rllllllillg a Big Ship, the manual on ship husbandry he produced in 1937: It is easy to decry as pot-hunting the efforts of the enthusiastic to lead their ship to victory in sporting events, but those who say these things are often the ones who lack the spirit of leadership, or the ability (0 organise, and the will to carry things through. It is in many cases a facile excuse for slackness or indifference. Opportunities to prove ability to lead are too few in times of peace for any to be neglected. Can there be any reasonable person who would sooner be in a dull and apathetic ship as far as sport goes, as compared with being in one who is always keen and spirited? A good ship is one who is always 'there or thereabouts' in the achievement of anything to which she puts her hand. There is no substitute for going all out for your ship whether in work or in play, unless, of course, you are prepared to toddle complacently towards your pension."
lore impressive even than his results was the enormous spirit O'Conor was able to instil in his ship's company. 0 stone was left unturned. The embodiment of this spirit was 'George', a caricature in singlet and shorts who made his first appearance in the run-up to the 1935 Regatta. Here he is a year later in his footballing persona: GEORGE
'Not Eleven-Eleven Hundred.' Spectators from the Hood complete with cheerleader and banner before a football match against the Barham, c.1938. HMS Hood AsJod.rionKt.,1c CoIl«t;on
We carried out excellent and instructive practices by day and night, in which we did very well. But we would have done even better if there had been competitioll not merely in each Fleet but for the whole avy. It seemed to me so odd to say, 'Yes, we will have a terrific competition in our Bisley rifle meetings, but we will not have all- avy competition for guns of larger calibres as were carried out
George is the spirit of the Hood. Everyone in the ship carries a little bit of him and therefore he is only able to go full steam ahead when all the Hoods are present in support. Only eleven men can play for us on the field (not counting the Referee), but eleven hundred can support them! 'Not Eleven-Eleven Hundred' is the Hood's motto, and when all hands are manning the touchline, George will be there too. 23 O'Conor's first campaign for the IGng's Cup in the autumn of 1933 was accompanied by a chough mascot on a pole, borne at all matches. Ties were produced in the ship's colours for officers to wear ashore, green with the chough emblem. To this O'Conor added preferential treatment for his players, the Hood's football team being assigned a separate mess with specially designed kit lockers. By the time it was all over George had been transmogrified into a tax.idermal chough in a glass case, taking his place in a Commander's lobby awash with trophies. For all this, it is clear that by the late 1930s port had done its work in healing the wounds of Invergordon and as war clouds gathered far greater emphasis was needed on fighting efficiency. O'Conor's prescriptions for sporting victory would die with him in the bitter waters of the Mediterranean but the spirit which infused them lived on." Operational demands caused severe disruption to the avy's sporting calendar as the 1930s wore on, though the mantle of victory was one the Hood shrugged off only reluc-
67
Glory Ship
tantly. Patrol duty off pain prevented her competing for the Cock at Alexandria in 1938 but the record of trophies accumulated during her career outshines that of any other ship. Between J 920 and J 938, the last full year of competition, the Hood won the King's up once, the Rodman Cup at least four times, the Arbuthnot Trophy on at least four occasions and wa Cock of the Fleet on no less than five. During the 1933-6 commission she won virtually every competition in the Home Fleet at least once. This success engendered enormous pride in her ship's company. AB Len Williams (1936-41): She was probably the best loved ship in the service, and J, her latest, and very humble torpedoman, was very proud to be of her company." However, as the premier ship in the fleet the Hood had always been given a more than even chance of succeeding in anything she set herself to. As Pridham recalled when assuming command in 1936,
Above: Hood and Admiral Graf Spee about to meet on the football field at Tangier in September 1938. Hood's team colours consisted of green shirts and white shorts; they won 4-1.
J well remembered how Portsmouth had been cleared of all the best runners, boxers and footballers in order that the Hood should excel in any sports. 2'
HMS Hood Astoci.tronlCl.rk Coflfilion
Left: A team of stoker dart
But favoured she was from the very beginning. In November 1920 the Hood's Marine detachment was called on to supply the guard of honour at the burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day, the men lining the Mall with bayonets fixed as the body passed on its way. As can be imagined, this did not go down well with the rest of the battlefleet which looked on the Hood as the only vessel in its ranks to have escaped service in the Great War. A few pint in the canteen ashore and certain men would be passing loud opinions on which was the best or worst ship in the fleet as the liberty boats cleared the jetty. Cdr eville Cambell was a cadet in Hood in the 1920s: When I was returning in a launch at Cromarty, an egg was thrown and burst at my feet. Then a voice yelled from a nearby ship: 'Yah! And what did the Mighty 'ood do in the bloody war?'27 Frequent brawls reflect a degree of resentment and no doubt the swagger of men who believed their ship to be a cut above any in the avy. As AB Bob Tilburn (1938-41) put it, The majority of people who joined the Hood believed they were lightly above average because it was the flagship of the fleet." However, much of this rivalry was essentially good-humoured in nature, the result of high spirits, a release of ten ion and the competitivene s that always existed between hips of different home ports. After months of arduous wartime service Hood and Rodlley viewed each other as 'chummy ships' but this did not prevent a good measure of ribaldry between the crews at Scapa Flow, and not just because the one was manned from Portsmouth and the other from Devonport. Over the winter of 1940-1 a rating in the Rodlley was court-martialled for committing an enormity with a sheep, an event which naturally
players triumphant at Malta. 1938. Darts was a popular messdeck activity and keenly contested in inter·part competition. HMS Hood A1.soc•• rlOfl1CJ.rk CoIl«!1OfI
persuaded the crew of the Hood that,follte de m;ellx, his shipmates all indulged the same proclivity on the windswept braes of Orkney. aD Jon Pertwee (1940-1): That night in the company of a phalanx of boozed-up Hood shipmates, I was weaving down the jetty prior to boarding our liberty boats, when we spied fifty or sixty liberty men off the Rodlley, waiting to be picked up by their boats. 'Let's see if the sheep-loving bastards can swim: cried a primed torpedo-man. With unanimous agreement we linked arms and advancing slowly, systematically swept the poor unfortunate men straight off the end of the jetty into the sea. Inevitably a few of us up front went in the 'oggin' with them, as the pushers at the back couldn't differentiate in the dark between Rodlley's crew and ours and didn't know when to stop. The drop from the end of the jetty was some fifteen feet and the resulting shouting and general hubbub from the tumbling men was tremendous. Apart from that the water was freezing and we realised that if we didn't get out quick, someone was going to drown. Suddenly the feud was forgotten, albeit temporarily, and everybody started helping everybody else to safety. Strange how immersion in cold water will kill off passion, in all its forms. The serio-comic end to the foray was that quite a few of the more drunken participants being capless and therefore
n WiJliams, Gone A LOl1g Journey, p.116. 16 Pridham. Memoirs, 11, p. 146. :1 Cited in Coles & Briggs, Flagship Hood, p. 47. "IWM/SA, no. 11746, reel I.
The Battlecrlliser HMS HOOD
68
unidentifiable, ended up in the 'Lions' Den' by finding themselves aboard the wrong ships_ From thai night on the crews of Rodl/ey and the Hood were understandably never allowed ashore at Ihe same time."
Perrwee. Moon BoolS mId Dinner Suits, p. 158. JO H~IS Hood Association archi\'es.
l'
memoir of toker Bill Stone
(1921-5). The joke alludes to the package tours for holidaymakers introduced by Thomas Cook in the 18505. " See ch. 6, pp. 165-8. "NM~I, Chalfield/4/1-3, fr.
57r-60r. James (0 Chatfield, Churt, Surre)'. undated but c.February 1936; f.6Or. "IIV~I, 91/7/1, p. 68. ).4 Royal Navy and Royal Marines ports Handbook 1933 (Royal ~larines Sports Control Board, Admiralty, 1933), p. 263. The citation is from Rear-Admiral Rodman's lener of donation. l:SS
New ),(),k, Scapa Flow, 10 October 1918. NM~l,
Elkins/I, Journal, 21 January 1921. )0 See W. Connor. To Rio (wd Bark wi,h H.M.S. Hood (London: The Westminster Press. 1922).
35
All this should of course be taken with a grain of salt but there was one rivalry which assumed a more serious dimension,thal between Hood and another battlecruiser, the Rel/owl/. The Hood might be the greatest ship in the 1 avy but only ReI/OWl/ could claim for herself the attribute of a royal yacht. In 1919,1920 and again between 1921-2 the Renown had carried the Prince of Wales on his wildly successful cruises of lorth America, Australasia and finally India and the Far East. In 1927 he took the Duke and Duchess of York on a state visit to Australia, making her at least as eligible as Hood to the nickname 'Cook's Tours' which had attached to the latter during the World Cruise of 1923-4.30 Though relations were never particularly close, this did not prevent the Battle Cruiser Squadron being welded into a unit of formidable morale and efficiency during the tenure of Rear-Admiral William James (1932-4). However, the great falling out came in the spring of 1935 when Hood and RenolVl/ collided following an inclination exercise off the panish coast. The incident, which is covered elsewhere, reflected badly on James' successor, Rear-Admiral Sidney Baile)', who took a thoroughly partisan line in his attempts to exculpate himself and the Hood's officer of any re pon ibility in the affair" This was quite naturall), resented in the Rel/olVl/ which felt itself the injured party ),et had to carry the can at the subsequent courts-martial. As James later put ii, 'After the courts-martial would have been jusl the moment for the Admiral to have gone on board Rel/olVl/ ... and shown a big, generous spirit', but it was not to be and the incident served to rekindle the age-old rivalry between Portsmouth and Chatham, which RenolVl/ had as her home port." In the event, the Admiralty dissented from the findings of the courts-martial and shared the blame among them but the damage was done and ill-feeling prevailed between the two ships until Rel/owl/ was taken in hand for reconstruction in the summer of 1936. The falling out expressed itself in various ways, from Ret/OWl/'S failure to offer congratulations to Hood on her regatta victor)' in June 1935 to the petty animosity that developed between the two hips' companies_ If the Hood's wartime company decided that Rodl/eyhad a taste for sheep then those of her 1933-6 commission concluded that Re'IOIVI/'s men had a penchant for each other. Boy Fred oombs (1935-8) recall an incident in the spring of 1936: ... The big laugh was to come later on when we tied up astern of the Rel/olVl/ on the orth Mole at Gib. Our crew had to march past the Rel/olVl/ to go ashore and after a few leave-takers had gone ashore a party fell in for in pection. Their station cards were taken and traight away mixed up so that nobody could be identified as to have been in that particular party, which made us think that some senior rates had something to do with it. ome of u were advised to watch the proceedings which meant that there was plent)' on the forecastle looking over the side when the leave-takers went over the gangwa)'_ Ashore, they were marched smartl), past the ship by a killick but when they came to the Ret/olVl/'s quarter deck, he gave another order
and they all started a slow, knee-high trot with one hand clasped firmly over their duck run. They kept it up all the way past the Rel/owl/ then they broke into an ordinary double march and kept it up till they had got out of the dockyard gates. They got a big chuck up from us aboard but not from the Renoll'n, where signals were flashing and telephones rung to complain, but the culprits were ashore and out of it. Our officers must have had a laugh about it too but aU we got wa a warning notice on the notice board and after fruitless enquiries as to who had been in that particular party, it was forgotten." However, rivalries of this sort were not confined to the 1 avy. In the early 1920s the conclusion of the Washington Treaty and the realization that the Royal Navy had lost the predominant position she had held for over a century was the cause of much tension between it and the nited States Nav)'. To this was added the jealousy of the British matelot for the superior pay of his American counterpart, flaunted now in ports all over the world. Rear-Admiral Hugh Rodman U.S.N. may have presented the cup which bore his name in recognition of the 'tie of friendship and brotherhood which have been formed and ripened into maturity between the officers and men of the British and American Navies in the Grand Fleet' but the Grand Fleet was no more." Already in January 1921 the Combined Fleet exercises off Gibraltar had pitted the Royal Navy against the 'American Battle Fleet', and not for the last time either." ow in September J 922, just seven months after the signing of the Treaty, the centennial celebrations of Brazilian independence at Rio de Janeiro provided both navies with an opportunity to show which was the first among equals." The first indication that Hood had been selected to represent the avy came during a vi it to the ship by King George V at Torquay in July. Soon after it was announced that she and the battlecruiser Repl//se would be sailing to Rio where a sports competition would be held for the attending navies. Throughout much of July and August preparations went on at Devonport which made it clear that this was to be rather more than a goodwill cruise. ational prestige was at stake and neither expense nor effort was spared to equip the Battle Cruiser Squadron for the voyage or to strip the fleet of her finest portsmen. On 14 August Hood and Repulse sailed from Devonport, reaching Rio by way of Gibraltar and Cape Verde on 3 September. On 29 August the Hood crossed the Equator for the very first time, celebrating the fact with time-honoured relish. Not even Bill the ship's goat was spared the attentions of Neptune's court. W. Connor: As we were due to cross the Equator on this portion of our journey, preparations were made for carrying out the ceremony of' ro ing the Line.' Various meeting were held by those responsible, though the details were shrouded in mystery, and the novices, of whom we carried a good few, began to get somewhat nervou as the time approached, due principally to the exaggerated rumours which were flying about as to the 'punishment'they would receive. Four days after leaving St. Vincent we arrived at the Equator, crossing the 'line' at nine p.m. A short time previous Father 1 eptune, accompanied by Amphitrite and their 'court: assembled on the fore end of the ship, which was shrouded in darkness;
Glory !zip
the lower deck was cleared, and the guard and band paraded to receive them. uddenly the look-out on the bridge reported 'Line right ahead, Sir'; the Captain gave the order, 'All hands clear away the "line':' Engines were slopped; a voice was then heard on the fo'c Ie hailing the ship, searchlights were switched on, and eptune and hi court were discovered on board in full regalia. After asking the name of the ship, whither bound, the entire court, escorted by the band, marched in stately procession to the quarterdeck, where they were received by the Admiral. Greetings were exchanged and officers were presented to Father Neptune, who announced to all and undry that he would return on board the following morning and hold his court, when various honours would be presented and all novices were to be ready to be initiated in the 'Order of the Bath.' Neptune and Amphitrite, the latter leaning on the arm of the Admiral, then departed. Punctually at nine a.m. the next day Neptune and his court again appeared and proceeded to the quarter-deck, where an investiture was held, the RearAdmiral, Captain, and other officers receiving various decorations, after which Neptune gave orders that all novices, irrespective of rank or rating, who had not previously 'crossed the line' should be at once initiated; for this purpose a huge canvas bath had been erected. The candidates lined up and were inspected in turn by eptune's Physician and his assistants. After swallowing some extremely vile 'medicine' they were passed to the barbers, who lathered them with soap and flour applied with a whitewash brush, finally being 'shaved' with a large wooden razor. Whilst this portion of the operation was in progress the 'victim' would suddenly find himself canted on to a greasy slide which led to the bath, where some twenty lusty 'Bears' gave him a severe ducking, after which he was received by Neptune and presented with a certificate. This was carried out throughout the whole of the day without interruption; no one escaped the ordeal, even the ship's pet, a somewhat hefty goat, being the final candidate." Already at Rio were the battleships Millas Gerais and Slio Paulo of the Brazilian Navy, three cruisers of the Imperial Japanese , 'avy led by the elderly IdzlllllO, and a pair of sloops representing Portugal and Mexico. Then on the 5th the American representation arrived in the shape of the battleships Marylalld and Nevada. Mid. Robert Elkins' journal conveys the bellicose mood of the Hood: The Marylal/d, which is one of the most modern battleships afloat, looked very small compared to ourselves and Repulse. She was also very dirty." The Hood seems to have crossed swords with Marylalld once already, at Gibraltar in March when the Americans had referred to her as 'some fine picket boat'." So there were evidentlya few scores to settle. The first opportunity for getting even came on the 7th when each ship landed a naval battalion for a parade through the city, Elkins declaring Hood's to have been 'by far the smarte t'. Though no points were at stake, Elkins also judged the Battle Crui er Squadron to have provided the best illuminations that night 'since we were the only ships which darkened ship before switching on the circuits'. So
69
to the athletics and on the 8th a day of triumph for the British. Elkins could barely contain himself: In every race our competitors walked through, the Japanese and Americans being nowhere. That is the ort of thing which raise British prestige, which has suffered here just lately at the hands of the Yanks. During a review of the assembled fleet by President Pessoa of Brazil on the 9th only the British Tavy 'cheered ship'. And so on. However, on the morning of the 10th came the first setback for the Squadron. In a result that in retrospect could surprise no one, the Brazilian Navy defeated the British 2-nil in the football final. Worse was to come. In the Regatta that afternoon the Brazilians won the skiffs and, of all humiliations, the Americans took the seamen's cutter race, though a measure of pride was salvaged by the midshipmen's cutter. Things were different in the athletics finals on the J Ith, the Squadron winning nine of fifteen events and, crowed Elkins, 'knocking the Yanks into a cocked hat. The tug of war was an absolute walkover.' But it was the boxing competition that brought the 'Naval Olympics' to a truly memorable climax. That same evening 4,000 British and American matelots crammed into a marquee pitched on the outskirts of the city. There were eight bouts on the programme and on its outcome depended overall victory in the Games. By the final bout the British were leading by four wins to three. The Squadron had reason to be confident since their last boxer was none other than the Navy and British Amateur champion, Stoker Petty Officer Spillar of the Hood. Mid. Gerald Cobb (1921-3?) takes up the story: Spillar advanced to touch gloves with his rival-as all boxers in previous bouts had done-when the American immediately struck Spillar with a straight left, followed by a right hook. Curtains for Spillar. Uproar!'" Only prompt action by Rear-Admiral Walter Cowan, who stepped into the ring and ordered his men to give three cheers for the US Navy, prevented the situation turning ugly. In the event, the bout was declared null and void, Cowan's counterpart apologised and the quad ron won the tourney, but it had been, as they say, a close-run thing. The following day Marylalld weighed anchor and left for New York, cheered as she went by the Hood' company, though what they muttered under their breath is anyone's guess. On the quarterdeck that night the Hood hosted a Grand Ball attended by President Pessoa and the cream of Rio society, probably the most sumptuous event ever celebrated in her. The centre-piece was a huge fountain surrounded by a grove of palm trees hung with coloured lights. As Elkins wrote in his journal, 'Preparations were on a most lavish scale and must cost hundreds of pounds'. The following day, having collected three magnificent trophies for their sporting achievements, the Squadron took part in the closing act of the centennial celebrations, an illuminated water pageant in Botafogo Bay in which the Hood's hief Painter played the part of Britannia. In all the Hood's career, in all her great voyages, there can have been few spectacles to match this. On 14 September 1922 the Squadron swept out of the anchorage and into the Atlantic leaving a flotilla of Brazilian destroyers trailing in its wake. For all its splendour the Brazilian cruise was only a taste of
J71bid., pp. 12-13. The admiraJ and captain referred to were Rear-
Admiral Sir Walter Cowan and Capt. Geoffrey ~lack\\'orth. JI N~H\'I, Elkin I, Journal, 5 September 1922 and successive entries. "HMS Hood Association archives. memoir of Gunner '\\'ind)" ..0
Breeze. R.~I.A. (1920-2). Cited in Coles & Briggs. Flagship Hood,p.2S.
70
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
.. PRO, ADM I 16/22 I9, ff. H, Leo Amery to Admiral of the Fleet
Earl
Beatty, 24 April 1923. ., PRO, ADM 116/22 I9, ff. 9r & 24r. "PRO,ADM 116/2219,ff. 29-30. .. PRO, ADM 1/8662, Capt. John K. 1m Thurn to Vice-Admiral Sir
Frederick Field & Rear-Admiral the Hon. Sir Hubert Brand, HMS Hood. Devonport, 8 O\'erober 1923. ~s
Extracts from Diary of World CruisPrcill.1 Collection
As Chatfield indicated, except for those blissfully on leave the business of refitting caused major disruption to the life and work of the ship, suddenly 'full of noise, pipes and dockyard maties'." Mid. Philip Buckett's (1940-1) journal records a typ-
78
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
AIRCRAFT
The value of air power at sea had been demonstrated during the First World War but the practical difficulties of stowage and recovery along with the unreliability of the aircraft themselves served to limit their operation from British capital ships until proper arrangements were made in the 1930s. 0 provi ion wa made in the design of HMS Hood for aircraft but they soon made their appearance with flying-off platforms being installed on 'B' and 'X' turrets for Fairey Flycatchers as early as 1921. These platforms consisted of ramps which could be unfolded along the barrels when air operations required it, the turrets being trained into the wind to assist take-off. However, until aircraft were equipped with floats and recovery gear their radius of operations was limited by the need for them to put down on an airfield or else effect a ditching liable to claim both crew and machine. ot surprisingly, all this inspired as little enthusiasm among most naval officers as could be summoned for that other contraption, the aircraft carrier. At best air power at sea was regarded as being in a formative stage. Here is the opinion of Lt (E) Geoffrey Wells in ovember 1923: Inez came on board this afternoon and we went round the ship. (... ] I'm not sure she thinks much of it. I suppose none of us will in 1945; we shall have electric ships half as large again or perhaps no big ones at all. Besides, something may come out of these airplane carriers besides bee-like airplanes."
He was, of course, more than half right. The nex"t serious attempt to provide the Hood with an air capability came during the major refit of 1929-31. With the need for spolting and reconnaissance aircraft now fully recognised, the Hood's quarterdeck was fitted with a Fairey III F seaplane, the new Mk IV folding catapult to perch it on and a handling crane to recover it with. The FlIIF was a capable aircraft but its installation in Hood proved to be ill-conceived. Things got off to a bad start when it crashed and sank on take-off in Weymouth Bay on 26 June 1931. The three-man crew was rescued and the aircraft salvaged the following day but the ten members of Hood's RAF detachment would not be sailing in her much longer. The additional weight added during the refit reduced the freeboard of the quarterdeck even further and the West Indies cruise of early 1932 demonstrated the whole apparatus to be
unworkable at sea. The diary of S.V. Goodall of the Royal Corps of aval Constructors says it all: 'Hood's catapult is a washout literally'.'" Within a few months it had all been removed. The installation of a catapult on 'X' turret was mooted in 1937 and again in 1940 while the planned recon truction provided for a double hangar and athwartships catapult. But HMS Hood had shipped her last aircraft and she was among the few capital ships to enter the Second World War without this capability. As Lt-Cdr Joseph H. Wellings .5. . noted following her fruitless patrol in search of the slayer of the Jervis Bay in ovember 1940, either the Hood nor the cruisers carried ship-based aircraft. The weather was definitely suitable for ship-based aircraft for one day and perhaps suitable on another day. Shipbased aircraft would have been very usefuL"
Right: The Fairey IIIF seaplane of 444 Flight RAF with its folding catapult and handling crane on
the quarterdeck. (.1931. A tank for aviation spirit lay abaft the crane. Unfortunately, the Hoods
low freeboard made flight operations untenable and the entire installation was removed
in 1932. s.#ficb
Below: Hood under way off Portsmouth around 1926, a Fairey Flycatcher on 'B' turret. Training of the turret allowed the aircraft to be directed into the wind for take off. BibilOthH fUr l~~ SMtgMt
" Diary of World Cruise. p. 2. 7e Cited in Brown. elson to Vanguard, p. 76. 11 Wellings, On His Majesty's Snvic~, p. 62. The armed merchant cruiser Jervis &y had bttn sunk by the Admiral Schur on 5 November. Sailing with Hood in pursuit of her were the cruisers aiad and Ph"""..
Glory Ship
ical incident one Sunday at Plymouth in April 1940: The Morning Service was held in the Quarterdeck-Olen's Mess deck and was taken by the Chaplain. This service was interrupted by loud sounds of pneumatic drills by the dockyard people working above. Eventually it was stopped by the Duty Lieutenant Commander after the Sermon was started." Inevitably, there were tensions between dockyard workers and officers in particular. Ian Green: There was a certain amount of antipathy between some Navy officers and maties as docloes were called. They thought we were idle. A bit unfair I thought. With that number of people there were bound to be some scroungers and of course it was inevitable that there were times when you had to hang around waiting for work or someone to arrive." As the war progressed these tensions turned to open resentment at the high wages and comfortable lives led by dockyard workers in comparison with their naval counterparts, but this sentiment the Hood and her crew did not live long enough to share. Between the two refits came the summer cruise, always dominated by the Pulling Regatta at Scapa Flow or Invergordon but for Hood particularly a chance to show Britons the Service at its finest. How many boys gazing at her from clifftop, beach or pier must have set their hearts on a career in the avy? Here is Sir Ludovic Kennedy's boyhood memory of the Atlantic Fleet entering Invergordon in the I920s: But I have left to the end the most thrilling event of the holiday, and one to which I always looked keenly forward. This was the avy's annual visit to Invergordon. Early one morning someone in the household would shout out 'They're here!' and we all ran on to the lawn to see for ourselves. There in line ahead, ten miles away across the Moray Firth, standing out sharply against the high ground of the northern shore, and with their grey paintwork glinting against the morning sun, were the ships of the [Atlantic] Fleet-battleships, battlecruisers, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, almost like toy ships, all slowly and sedately mal" in the bushes. Equall)', there was great pres ure from old-timers for young sailors to prove their manhood through sexual initiation in a brothel. In the handbook for naval chaplains he published in 1944, the Rev. Harold Beardmore, Hood's chaplain from 1939-41, dilated on the situation his readers might encounter: One finds a number of men who are not hardened to loose living. ometimes the lapse took place after a party where the man had too much to drink, and his resistance to strong temptation was weakened awhile: frequently one comes across a comparative boy who has it pressed upon him by ome old-timer that he could never call himself a sailor until he had been with a woman. Thus it was in the form of an adventure that he went wrong, probably with some girl who, for want of a better term, might be called an 'amateur: and who in the eyes of the }'oung man was probabl)' safe as far as disease was concerned. The important thing is to get hold of the patient before the hardened sinner endeavours to comfort him by sa)'ing, 'That's all right, mate; we all get our unluc\.:y run; no need to take it to heart.' This is firstcia propaganda on the part of the devil." And so yarns were pun of the bLLxom harlots of Trinidad and t Lucia, of the 'White House on the Hill' at Arosa with its long queues of white-uniformed sailors, of the Oriental beauties of Singapore and Honolulu and of course the varied delights of outhsea and nion Street in Plymouth. But occasionall)' an encounter with a prostitute in foreign climes might end badly. In September 1937 an official visit to Yugoslavia to celebrate the birthday of King Peter afforded the Hood's crew a week in the port of plit and its hinterland. A first run ashore found the Coombs twins and their pals in one of the harbourside cafes: It was all very pleasant. We sat there sipping and trying to get used to their local wine or whatever it was and being served by two young and good-looking, clean and smart girls. The next thing, one of our party was seen slipping through the small door following one of the girls. The remainder could only guess what was happening but were alarmed when, a bit later, some Police and Gardia of some kind bur t in the little door and could be heard torming up the tairs. Wondering what to do, we could only go outside and wait for developments and soon, after a lot of houting and commotion, the Police bundled the girl
103
downstairs, knocking hell out of her just as the window went up and the fourth member of the chums came to the window, looked out and dropped his shoes out before starting to climb down a drainpipe that came down near the window. 1... 1 Quite a few people were pas ing and all the rest of the lads could do was to pick his shoe up for him and help him back across the lane into the cafe ... He told us he had just finished 'emptying his kitbag' when the commotion on the stairs had tarted and had ju t got out of bed to put his trousers on when the door burst open. This gang entered and grabbed the girl and started shouting at her and giving her a good hiding. He was petrified and when they had gone looked for the best way out which was the window ... After he had recovered [we] decided that the best thing was to get the hell out of it. .. 100
98'WM/SA, no. 22147, reel 3. .. Beardmore. The \\'tHers of U"cerraim)'. p. 66. . 91/7/1, p. 71. Ibid., p. 51.
100 1\\'~1. 101
Evidently, the pair had fallen foul of King Peter's draconian laws against prostitution. Return to home port invariably brought pleasures of a different ilk, perhaps a reunion with wife and family or, in the case of the Coombs twins, a visit from their girlfriends after an lengthy train journey from Sheffield. It was Navy Week 1936 and, amidst a carnival atmosphere, the Hood lay awash with visitors in dry dock at Portsmouth. For Fred and Frank there were certain naval traditions to be lived up to if possible: After... a good look round the ship, both above and below decks, except for not daring to offer to show the girls the Golden Rivet, which was reputed to be riveted into every R.N. ship, normally in some secluded part, well out of the wa)' of prying eye, we [spent the evening] passing the time away and smooching on Southsea Common and promenade, which was later to be converted into a vast, gras -covered bed. The popular tune at the time was 'Chapel in the Moonlight', but Southsea became renowned for the number of girls' knees, bent not in prayer but only earning their railway fare, and the words 'Bobbing Arseholes in the Moonlight'.lo,
Some o'f 'England's best
ambassadors' sampling local beverages at a bar in Corfu, July
As in every other sphere, the onset of war brought with it a
1938. HMS Hood Auoci.rlOfllSourN Cof/Ktlon
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
104
quickening of amorous life. While the Hood was refilling at Portsmouth in the last summer of peace, Jim Taylor and his companions on the Boys' Messdeck were given strict instructions to avoid the cafe at o. 12 Great Southsea Street, the petty officers' brothel. '.2 Condoms were issued free and in quantity but 'Rose ollage', the ship's VD ward with the legend 'Only those who have been purified can be pure' posted on its door, continued to have its patients, despite the red-ink entry on a man's medical history and damage to his prospects that followed'·' In the quarterly report he submilled on the medical condition of the ship in April 1940, Surgeon-Cdr K.A. lngleby-Mackenzie, the Squadron Medical Officer, listed four ca es of gonorrhoea and one of syphilis, though two of the former were to the same man'·' Though diagnosed and discharged to hospital, the syphilitic not untypically denied all exposure to infection, whereas the others admitted contracting theirs during the ship's brief stays at Greenock. In his report for the next quarter, which the Hood spent largely at Plymouth and Liverpool, Ingleby-Mackenzie recorded nine fresh cases of gonorrhoea and the installation, complete with framed instructions, of an ablution cabinet in the urinals near the port battery in which the men could discretely take prophylactic measures after an encounter ashore.'·s Still, this shows a decided improvement on 1932, when the ship recorded a total of 75 cases of VD, many contracted during a spring cruise in the Caribbean'" 1 eedless to say, such liaisons occasionally brought consequence other than disease. With due allowance for post-war embroidering, the following aside by OD Jon Pertwee is worth citing:
Cim'ersation between the author and Jim Ta)'lo, (1939-40) in Portsmouth,6 February 2003. '" IIVM, 91/7/1, p. 62. ,.. PRO, ADM 101/565,Medical Officers' Journal, 1 Januarr-31 March 1940, \'01. 28, ships H-I, ff. 37,-43,. '" PRO, ADM 101/565, Medical Officers' Journal, I April-3D June 1940, \'01. 28, ships H-I, ff. 43v-44r & 40v. ,.. PRO, ADM 101/536, Medical Officers' Journal, 1932. 107 Pertwee. Moon Boots and Dinner Suits, p. 154.I.T.A.L.Y. stands for " trust and love rout and IOl
H.C.L.L.A. .D. 'Hope OUT lo\'e lives and never dies: Other IIoms
de plume were'~lontagu \\'haler' (an allusion to the rig of one of
the avy's boats) and 'A. Vent: Lt Horace Davi~ R.M. was losl on 24 ~ta)' 1941. .ot Ibid .. p. IS5. '''IIV~I, 91/7/1, p. 69. 110 Cited in Coles & Briggs. Flagship Hood, pp. 12J--.l.
Lieutenant Davies also had the well nigh impossible task of running to earth those lusty lads who had given I/OI/IS de plul/le and aliases to various female conquests in port. Among the favourite names to be assumed was Able Seaman Derek Topping. When the arm of a derrick or crane is about to reach the perpendicular, the operator would shout 'Derrick Topping' meaning the crane arm had almost reached its limil. This pseudonym was frequently given after a night of love and passion, to minimise chances of identification should the sound of tiny mistakes be heard pattering up the companionway. Another much-used name was Able Seaman B. ~. Lever. The initials B.M. standing for breech mechanism, and lever referring to the lever on a gun that opens and closes the breech. So pathetic letters of remarkable similarity would arrive with envelopes marked S. WAL.K. (sealed with a loving kiss), possibly reading: Dear Derek, You said you was going to rite but you never. I am now three months gone. I am disparate has I am beginning to show-wot are you going to do about it? Rite soon. I.T.A.L.Y. Dori . P.S. H.O.L.L.A. .D. The e impassioned pleas were posted on the ship's notice board and brought forth little response other than cruel laughter. Derek Topping and Basil M. Lever should've felt very ashamed of themselve .,.,
The remainder, with wives or partners a world away and perhap little inclination for adventure, had to find contentment in the privacy of their cabin, hammock or caboose and await a reunion all the sweeter for the length of its parting. Of course, there were activities ashore beyond mixing with the opposite sex. Proverbiall)', there was unrestrained consumption of'the Demon Drink', however much the avy might try to discourage it. Jon Pertwee has this wartime reminiscence: When at anchor in Scapa Flow, off duty liberty men used to go ashore to taste the pleasures of Lyness night-life. This, for the majority of the men, meant going to one of the enormous AAFI canteens and, armed with Naval issue coupons, imbibing their allotted two or three pints of beer. Clever barterers, however, always managed to coUect a pocket full of additional coupons, which allowed them the long-looked-for opportunity of going on a monumental 'piss-up'. After several such outings I sold my beer coupons and opted for other joys of the flesh. ,.. Getting them back on board was no mean feat. The Coombs twins had the misfortune of crewing one of the boats sent to bring the men off after a night's carousing on the Cote d'Azur in May 1938: A lot, as drunk as newts, were stood on the wooden jetty with their girlfriends and others and would not climb aboard us. We struggled to carry some of them aboard the launch, only to see some of them crawl on their hands and knees to the other end and out again so eventually we went back to the ship with whoever would stay and went back with six big marines to get the others aboard. It went on a long time and it ended up with the cells on the ship that full of drunks that they had to release the more sober to find room for the more drunk.'" One of the drunks was toker Harry Holderness: No one was interested in returning until a stoker petty officer, who had drunk his fill, said he was going aboardand soon we were all following him. When the boats arrived at the Hood, which was three miles out, the officers were furious because the ship had not sailed. Most of us were singing and waving long French loaves. Commander Orr- Ewing called for us to be quiet and ordered the coxswains to take the boats round the ship until we were silent. But that set us singing 'Side, Side, Jolly Ship's Side'. Once round, however, we all quietened and filed aboard. The stoker petty officer, who had drunk too much, got a recommend for getting us all aboard"· No wonder the task of returning a boatload of drunken sailors was among the sternest tests a midshipman could face in his time aboard. There were severe punishments for the drunk and di orderly, but with the outbreak of war came recognition of the importance of allowing the crew to let off steam and thus a more tolerant attitude towards inebriated libertymen. AB Len Williams remembers the Hood at Greenock in early 1940: There was a considerable difference in height between
Routine, Work alld Rest
high and low tide in the Clyde area, and when the lads began to come back from leave, some of them the worse for wear and singing their heads off, it proved quite an evolution to get them safely down the steep ladders and into the boat. Captain Glennie, being a wise gentleman, and knowing the ways of sailors, had told the ship's company that he did not mind how his lads got back on board, provided that they DID get back. 'I do not wish to go to sea in an emergency with any of my crew missing' he warned us. Consequently, many and varied were the condition the sailors were in when we finally got them on board. On one occasion we lowered a steel provisioning net into the liberty boat, and loading the helpless ones carefully into it, hoisted them inboard with the main derrick. However, I cannot remember us ever letting the skipper down. We always sailed with a full crew.'" Apparently there was no more cherished desire among certain matelots than to fetch up with a wealthy widow ashore, and in this endeavour not a few went adrift on foreign service. During the 1936-9 commission none pursued this goal more ardently than 'Tiny' Fowler, one of the ship's divers. Here is Fred Coombs' version of events. The date seems to be january 1938 and the place Marseilles: One of the best yarns was started on that visit when Tiny Fowler, our huge ... diver went adrift. Whether or when he had met his friends before could only be guessed at, but he clearly knew where to meet them because he went ashore the first night at anchor and that was the last we saw of him 'til just before we sailed, when a smart, medium-sized motor yacht came alongside. They must have known what they were doing as they came to our forward gangway... where a glamorous grandma came on the bottom platform with Tiny Fowler to do a bit of snogging before the Regulating Crushers came running down to Tiny to run him back up into custody.'"
105
otherwi e committed to another eight or ten years in the 'Andrew' was well worth the remote possibility of recapture, and by the time the Special ervice Squadron sailed for Hawaii six months into the cruise 151 had deserted from her seven ship, all but ten in Australia.'" eedless to say, the Navy lived and worked to a harsh code of discipline, one that came down heavily on those who infringed it. Mindful of Invergordon, Capt. Rory O'Conor made no bones about the constitutional framework under which every man served: ... Those in authority can afford to act calmly, seeing that they are backed by the authority of the whole Service and the aval Discipline Act, with the Lord Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons in support.'" The point was not lost on the majority of men. As CPO Harry Cutler put it, 'We knew what to expect. Those who got into trouble were those who kicked over the traces and refused to submit to discipline.'''' The structure of this discipline mirrored the organisation of the ship herself. LS (later Cdr) joe Rockey of Plymouth: The routines were quite strict and well laid down and if you did not carry them out you expected to be penalised, and if you disobeyed of course it meant that you were passed further along the chain of command, dependent on the error you'd made or what offence you'd committed.'" Enforcement of the King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions by which the Navy was governed was entrusted to the Master-at-Arms and the ship's three regulating petty officers or 'crushers'. The Master-at-Arms, or 'jaunty' as he was known, was a man to respect. An experienced petty officer selected for toughness and intelligence, the lower deck held few secrets from him. As the senior Chief Petty Officer in the ship he wa the only rating afforded a private cabin and thus the privilege of sleeping in a bunk. His inAuence on the lower deck was enormous:
Three months later at Golfe-juan Fowler was at it again: Lofty Fowler was not allowed ashore this time but had worked them a Aanker by hiding in the forepeak of the picket boat that had been used by the officers to go ashore. He went by nipping out when the officers had gone and before the crew could stop him was off. The crew swore blind that they did not know that he was aboard but that was the last we saw of Tiny 'til the day we sailed. 1 1 The next day when we went in to fetch the few stragglers... one of our first customers was Tiny Fowler, drunk too, but with what looked like a dowager duchess on one arm, a bunch of Aowers and a basket full of eggs, some of which had got broken and were running down his trousers, on the other. If his lady friend had intended the eggs to restore his vitality she was unlud,y as Tiny returned peacefully. '" Fowler had ample time to savour the memory in the army detention quarters at Corradino, Malta. Then there was desertion. At no time in the Hood's career did more men desert than during the World Cruise of 1923-4. Evidently, the chance of a life in the sun for a man who was
The Master-at-Arms in a ship is a man whose co-operation and friendship one should cultivate. He is as a rule most helpful when he sees you are all out to encourage him in keeping the ship free from such things as leave-breaking, theft and immorality. A good Master-at-Arms can probably do more than any other member of the lower deck towards making a ship's company happy and contented.'" But if the Master-at-Arms chose to wield his considerable power with a heavy hand then life for many on the lower deck could be made intolerable, as indeed it would be for any ul1\vise enough to 'get athwart his hawse'. Occasionally the need for men to be detailed for disagreeable duty required the crushers to trawl the lower deck for volunteers and for such occasions it behoved one to be on the right side of the jaunty and his men. But their main duty was in keeping discipline and enforcing observance of naval and shipboard regulations both ashore and aAoat. This meant patrolling the messdecks for illicit drinking or proscribed games like Crown and Anchor, or against the bullying, violence and intimidation that occasionally reared its head. It might also mean landing with a shore patrol to moni-
III
'''illiams. Gone A Lotlg }oumey. p.
140. IIlIWM, 91/7/1. p. 63. I I ) Ibid.. p. 69. 114
O'Connor, The Empire Cruise, p. 228.
m II'
RBS, p. 84. Conversation with the author in
Devonport, 23 ~1ay 2003. IWM/SA, no. 12422, reel I. III Beardmore, Tile \Vaters of 111
Uncerta;tlty. pp. 53-4.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
106
tor the behaviour of libertymen and counting them back on their return to the ship. In his capacity as head of the ship's police, the Master-at-Arms was always in attendance at Commander's defaulters. the miscreants and their crimes enumerated in a large book carried under his arm. During the regime of Cdr Rory O'Conor (I 933-6), Commander's defaulters took place at 08.20 each morning save Sunday. It was a duty to which he gave the utmost importance: The Commander needs to be in a consistently judicial frame of mind for his magisterial duties ... Appearances are often misleading. and when they are unfavourable to the accused one may be misled into an injustice. Remember the old Chinese proverb: 'A man may be a teetotaller, but if his nose is red. no one will believe it:'" Some 3,000 defaulters having passed through his hands during the 1933-6 commission, O'Conor was able to offer reader his accumulated wisdom on the dispensing of justice: The majority of small offences are committed by thoughtlessness or mischance and not by intention. and after one solemn warning most men are careful not to reappear as defaulters. [... J In dealing with defaulters a Commander comes face to face with an endless variety of motives and mischances which bring men to his table. cap in hand. It is a central truth of human nature that men's faults are the corollary of their virtues, and that without our faults we hould be different men for good, as well as for ill. Justice is most just when tempered with mercy. ". \Vhere punishment was concerned, the following measures were recommended for leave-breakers: First offence: econd offence: Third offence:
If reasonable explanation-Caution If no reasonable explanation-Scale Scale Captain's Report'"
cale' here meant stoppage of leave, though stoppage of pay was an additional consequence of going adrift. Other infractions would receive one of the many punishments in the naval inventory, from 10. 16, an hour's extra work, to No. lOa, two hours' rifle and bayonet drill after tea. Of cour e, if one had an identical twin aboard it was possible to mitigate the worst effects of a punishment through artful substitution. Two sailors in this ambiguous situation were Fred and Frank Coombs, boy seamen with a knack for getting into trouble:
'" RBS. pp. i9 & 80. ". Ibid.. pp. i9 & 83. m Ibid., p. 80. '" IW~t. 91/i11. pp. 48-9. HMS 5, Vince", was the boys'
training establishment at
Gosport. '" RBS. p. 19t. m See ~orthcott. HMS Hood, p. 59, and Roberts, The BaNlecruise, Hood. pp. 18-19 fortables of the ship's complement of boats_
We had become well accustomed to doing plenty of jankers, but Gib added a further dimension as in the Med awnings were generally left rigged, which gave us the advantage of not being seen by the higher decks or the bridge. We soon came up with the idea of sharing the punishment by changing places at some place in our hourlong trot around 'A' and 'B' turrets. From our time at t Villcelll we had always hared our loads in punishment by taking turns to do the mustering and the evening drill. The fact that we now had two huge turrets to screen Iu I from the Instructor and four convenient hatches leading to a
lower deck to choose from made things much easier for us. No matter at which point our keeper stood to keep an eye on us, there was always one hatch not in his vision where we could change over. .. The other boys under punishment, who we had thought might object to our swapping over, made no secret of the fact that they were as keen as us to see our tormentors taken out for a trot. Though a lot were aware when one of us was on punishment and poor old [PO) John Bunney tried to catch us at it by nearly doing as much running as us ... we were never caught doing our vanishing act as one ran up lonto I the upper deck and one went down to the 10wer. .. 1ll In the event of a serious or repeated misdemeanour the offender would be sent before the captain for jurisdiction under the aval Discipline Act. Captain's defaulters usually took place around 11.00, the Master-at-Arms once again in attendance. The captain was the only officer aboard who could punish a man by warranl, that is either by confining him to the ship's cells for a maximum of fourteen days or by stripping him of his rate, his good conduct badges or his Good Conduct Medal if he had more than fifteen years' service. In the case of boys or midshipmen this extended to authorising a caning, administered by the Master-at-Arms to the former and the Sub-Lieutenant of the Gunroom to the latter. Officers were tried by court martial, a tribunal composed of their fellow officers acting under naval law but over who e judgements the Admiralty reserved plenary power. Really serious cases, men whose crimes fell beyond the punitive jurisdiction of the captain, were discharged to the detention quarters ashore for periods up to 90 days. Others, like Hood's mutineers in 1931, would find themselves ejected from the avy'Service No Longer Required' or subject to criminal prosecution.
·......11>..Eventuall)', after two or three year, the day came for the Hood to sail for home and payoff so that another crew might recommission her. It was a solemn moment. With the off-duty watch mustered by divisions on deck, the band of the Royal Marines truck up Rollillg Home and an enormous paying-off pendant unfurled from the main topgallant as she got under way, a bunch of golden bladders secured to the fly to prevent it trailing in the water. The length of the pendant traditionally reflected the duration of the commission or the number of men embarked. The same procedure, to Rille Britallllia, was followed on entering harbour, crowds lining the shore while families waited on the jetty to be reunited after months, sometimes years, of separation. Within hours the ship had paid off, many of her people scattered to the four winds never to meet again.
Boats, Floats and Drifters 'There is no truer saying than the old one that "A SHIP IS KNOWN BY HER BOATS)~'I2J The manning, sailing and maintenance of a capital ship's boat represents a world unto itself, rich in lore and tradition. The Hood's flotilla, constantly changing as a result of damage, exchange and the introduction of new types, usually numbered sixteen or eighteen vessels from 16-foot skiffs to the SO-foot steam pinnaces.''' These fall into three distinct categories: sailing boats, steam boats and the motor boats which by the I930s were on the verge of mak-
Routine, Work and Rest
ing the first two extinct. The largest of the sailing boats were the 42-footlaunches, of which Hood always carried at least one. However, much the most important were the 27-foot whalers, 32-foot cutters and 30-foot gigs, the first two clinker-built and the la t of carvel construction. These were standard equipment in the Navy, their provenance denoted b)' brass badges with the device of each ship affixed to their bows; those belonging to Aagship mo til' bore a representation of the admiral's Aag. For most of her career the Hood carried between eight and ten sailing boats and in them she competed in the pulling regattas each summer. Gigs were stowed on the boat deck but the two whalers and two of the four cutters shipped until 1940 were kept on davits for u e as eaboats, two on each side. The launching of the ship's eaboat, essential for emergencies, was one of the evolutions which punctuated the naval day. Capt. Pridham's account of the lacklustre drill he found on assuming command in February 1936 gives an idea of the procedure: On reaching open water, as first priority I exercised the seaboats (the lifeboats). A life-saving 'evolution' I had been brought up to regard as requiring absolute efficiency and utmost speed. I was shocked to see evidence of ignorance of the elementary details of lowering and hoisting boats at sea. The Commander expected me to stop the ship's way before he gave the order to 'slip'. I had never dreamt of uch slovenliness. Hooking on and hoisting were equally lacking in any vestige of smart work. The little tricks of manipulating the boat's falls and lifelines when hooking on, which I had learned as a midshipman, were apparently unknown to my Commander or to the boats' crews. The boats were hoisted lazily at a slow walk. On eeing this I made my disapproval known to all hands by ordering the Commander to lower the boats again and have them hoisted at the run. It was a risk, but it worked. '" However, the workhorses of the Hood's Aotilla were the two 50-foot steam pinnaces or picket boat and the 45-foot barge provided for the use of the admiral and his staff. Completely decked in and capable of making II knots in calm water, on these magnificent vessels fell mo t of the ship's daily errands. Payma ter Lt-Cdr E.C. Talbot-Booth R.N.R.:
107
and had a boat hook to en ure that this was done. I was, however, not entirely free in the use of the boat hook as there was a series of defined movements to adhere to. 121 On the e steam boats a generation of sailors and midshipmen would lavish their care and attention both aboard and aAoat. Boy Fred Coomb : One of the rewards ... was to be ... given the jobs as 1st and 2nd Picket Boat' crews a Fender Boys. We took a great deal of pride in polishing the black, highly polished boat's side with wax polish when lifted inboard. That black boat's side and the near white wooden decks were our respon ibility and we spent hours of diligently applied hard work in polishing the ... side when possible and daily scrubbing of the decks to near white with a piece of shark's skin, sand and salt water that the sun could bleach and show the regular black pitched joints up to perfection'" The gleaming brass funnel of Hood's 1st Picket Boat had come from the battlecruiser Lion in 1922 and on it Mid. Le Bailly and his companions devoted not only their time and energy but also the remains of their daily pay in Brasso. The crew beautified the
Left: 'Away seaboat!' One of the Hood's 32-foot cutters being lowered fully manned from its
Every day each ship of any size appoints a D.S.B. (Duty Steam Boat) which is responsible for performing most of the ordinary routine in harbour, such as fetching off postmen in the morning, running officer ashore, probably towing some heavily laden boats with liberty men going ashore in the evening and a thousand and one odd jobs. he lies at the bottom of the rope ladder attached to the boom projecting from the side of the ship until such time as she is called to the gangway to undertake some duty.'"
davits in the late 1930.. The fall at the bow is about to be cast off and the men on the starboard side are just getting their oars ready. The device on the bows denotes the boat as belonging to a vice-admiral's flagship. HMS Hood AssociiJtionlMiJJOn ColI«tion
Left: One of the Hood's cutters at sea, in this case for the melancholy task of recovering
the body of a pilot officer killed in a crash off 5t Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight on 5 March
Boy Jim Taylor was Bow Boy in Rear-Admiral William Whitworth's barge in the spring of 1940:
The Admiral's Barge was a splendid craft having a crew of about six or seven: a Coxswain, a hief Petty Officer, a Petty Officer, a Stoker and Boy on Bowand tern. As Bow Boy I had to ensure that the boat came alongside smoothly
1935. HMS Hood Auoc;'tlonlWiliis Coll«t.ion
III 116
Pridham. Memoirs, II, p, 147, Talbot-Boolh, All tile World's Fighting Fleers, 3rd ron. pp. t27-8.
HMS Hood Association archi\'es. "'IW~t, 91/7/1, pp. 53-4. ll~
..
~-------------------------------------------- ~ The BattJecruiser HMS HOOD
108
One of the steam picket boats secured to the boom in a heavy
swell. The midshipman in command holds the jacob's ladder for one of his men. The coxswain is at the wheel in a
sou·wester. The boom was planed flat on top to allow the men to run along it. Crewmen usually boarded by sliding down the 'lizard' ropes. one of which can be seen on the right. The brass funnel tops for the Hood's steam boats came from the battlecruiser Lion. Note the boat
badge on the bow. HMS Hood AsJocutlOfllC~,1c CoIlKtlon
interior with tasselled curtains and cushion covers of duck and blue jean while those kiLled in the art of fancy ropework produced turk's heads for the boat hooks and elaborate fenders for the sides. The result was a vision of gleaming paint, scrubbed wood and polished brass, the pride and joy of the two crews responsible for her. However, in Cdr Rory O'Conor's view, boat crews had not only to act the part, they had to look it also: A clean boat is sometimes spoilt by men of indifferent appearance. Picked men, both as workers and on account of good physique, are the men to represent the ship in her boats.'" And so O'Conor always selected bronzed matelots of formidable aspect to crew his boats. But the ultimate touch was a distinctive outfit and very occasionaLly an admiral or captain was wealthy enough to dress his boat's crew in speciaLly-tailored uniforms. If the avy gave great importance to the appearance of its boats then it also prided itself on their handling and operation, entrusting each to a midshipman under the fatherly eye of a coxswain. The responsibility gave him not only his first taste of command afloat but also his first prolonged contact with the men at close quarters. As O'Conor put it, The finest training as a seaman and for command that he can possibly have is in a boat if he is given complete charge. Should the boat have two crew, there should be a midshipman for each, working only with his own crew, and hoisted in and out with them in the boat. I... ] The Midshipman of a boat must share aLI the vicissitudes of wind and weather with his crew, and it is not right for him to accept an invitation to go below in another ship while his boat lies off, with the crew exposed to the elements.'" The boats' crews therefore enjoyed a spirit of teamwork and endeavour exceLled by no other section of the ship' company. Mid. George Blundell was in command of the Hood's 1st Picket Boat during the World Cruise of 1923-4:
,,, RBS, p. 131. uo Ibid.. p. 2i. III
'Wr-.l, 90/38/1. \'01. III, Anecdote 3. pp. 1-2.
m Ibid.
Both Hood's picket boats were oil-fired 50 footers. Each had a double crew of one midshipman, one Petty Officer oxswain, two Able Seamen Bowmen, one Able Seaman
Sternsheetsman, one Stoker Petty Officer for the engine room, and one Stoker for the boiler room. At the time one did not give it a thought, but, looking back, their competence-and loyalty-were incredible. Not once during the whole of my time did my boat run out of fuel, fail to have steam immediately after being hoisted out, fail to carry out the whole trip ordered on leaving the boom, or not be manned peedily by the proper crew. On the World Cruise, when in harbour, the two picket boats ran almost continuously the whole day, the early boat mooring up at midnight and the late boat at 2 a.m. or later. [... ] How marveLlously aLI the crew backed one up: they provided aLI the thrill of a close-knit, trusting team. When one heard the pipe 'Away First Picket Boat' it wa a point of honour to try to man the boat before one's crew. I used to hare up from the gunroom, race along the shelter deck, charge along the lower boom, and dive head first down the lizard. Once I lost my dirk doing that! On the World Crui e picket boat midshipmen always wore their dirks whether in monkey jackets or bum freezers, and, at least in Hood, manned and left their boats at the boom, never at the gangway.'" From an engineering standpoint the operation of the picket boat was like a miniature version of the ship itself. Blundell: The engine was a twin cylinder compound reciprocator complete with condenser, air pump, circulating pump and lubricating pump. The boilers were of the smaLl-tube 'Yarrow' type, fed by feed and fuel pumps. Forced draught could be applied by closing the boiler room hatch and running the fan. Communication between the Stoker P.O. and the Stoker was usually done by hitting the bulkhead with a ring spanner! The large propeller was right handed, and because stern power was equal to ahead power, stopping power was enormous, so that when going astern on coming alongside the stern could 'kick' quite viciously to port. A good stoker petty officer, head sticking out of the engine room hatch, one hand on the throttle valve and the other on the rever ing link, was a great help in going alongside and in stopping in the right place! [... 1The midshipman controlled the engines by means of a pull-up handle which rang a gong in the engine room: one gong for stop, two for ahead, three for astern, and four for ease up or slow.'" Whereas the smaller boat could be hoisted in and out by the 40-foot derricks and the seaboats brought up to their davits by their falls, the barge and pinnaces, each of which weighed sixteen tons, required the services of the main derrick. RearAdmiral Arnold-Forster describes the procedure: Silently the great steel derrick is topped up and swung out over the ship's side, the ponderous hook of its lower purchase block swaying in the air as the ship gently rolls and pitches. By mean of boat ropes the picket boat, with fenders out, is slowly hauled alongside; in their plunging boat the crew, who have been preparing their stiff wire three-legged slings, lift up shoulder high the heavy ring joining the legs, and watch for a chance of slipping it over the hook of the derrick purchase. Though the motion of the ship at anchor is only slight, the 16-ton steamboat, if
109
Routine, Work and Rest
allowed to start swinging like a huge pendulum, would do untold damage. So before the men come up out of their boat, stout 'rolling tackles' for steadying her are passed down for them to hook on. As the boat's crew swarms up the ship's side, boat ropes, derrick guys, and rolling tackles are hauled taught. All eyes are then turned towards the derrick officer who, in oilskin and sou'wester, and holding up a pair of hand flags, is silhouetted in the glare of a light high up on the after bridge. He is watching the boat rising and falling in the sea. just before she sinks into a trough he signals 'Up purchase, full speed!' then-as the slings tauten-'Up topping lift!' The powerful electric boat-hoist motors hum round; everyone holds his breath. If well done, there is a hefty jar as the weight comes on. If not-a terrible jerk that shakes the mast, makes the whole ship quiver, and brings a tremendous strain on all the gear. As the long, dripping boat comes up out of the water, more steadying tackles are hooked on to her. A slight mistake now may stave in her planking. Firmly held, she is swung in by the derrick guys, and carefully lowered over the boat deck, where her crew and a few shipwrights wait to receive her. The warrant shipwright jumps about in the glare of the light, making frantic signals with his hand for plumbing the boat exactly over her gaping steel crutches. Pushed about and coaxed by many hands, she settles down in her close-fitting bed with a creak. The derrick head is quickly lowered and secured, and ropes coiled down. 133 The recognised expertise of the Royal avy in seamanship owed much to the emphasis it placed on boat handling in the training of its officers. Lt-Cdr joseph H. Wellings, official observer of the U.S. Navy, discovered as much while staying in the ship during the winter of 1940-1: My visit with the midshipmen developed into a sentimental journey in small boat sailing (my favorite hobby and sport). I listened to their small boat sailing expert describe the various types of sailboats and sailing races. I was certain after watching their young commissioned officers and midshipmen sail boats, that as a group they were much better small boat sailors than our younger commissioned officers and midshipmen.'" However, accidents were not uncommon. George Blundell: One of my early picket boat memories lies in taking some officers from the Hood, alongside the detached mole at Gib., to land at Flag Staff Steps. The more junior officers, including the snotties' nurse, were sitting on the gratings on the casing, whilst the engineer, paymaster and surgeon commanders were in the stern sheets. I misjudged the alongside badly and ran the bow firmly on the submerged bottom stone platform of the steps. Being the senior officers in the boat, the three commanders, looking somewhat shaken, made to land over the bow. In ringing tones I sang out' obody is to leave the boat'. I then ordered my passengers, including the three commanders, to stand on the stern sheet gratings. As the officers of commanders' rank appeared somewhat hesitant at carrying out my order to stand on the stern, perhaps I was
over-peremptory with them. However, the stern went down and the bow rose up and the crew were able to right the boat's precarious attitude. Much relieved, I sang out 'Carryon ashore'. I can see the faces of my three commanders now: the engineer looked very angry, the paymaster nonplussed, but the P.M.O. (Dudding) was beaming. In due course I was reported for insolence, my leave was stopped and I received a dozen from the sub. 135 Nor were they the preserve of midshipmen. Louis Le Bailly recall an incident at Malta on the morning Vice-Admiral Andrew Cunningham hoisted his flag in Hood, 15 july 1937: With everybody's nerves as taut as bowstrings, it was not long before the beautiful steam barge was called away to take Cunningham to pay his respects to the Commanderin-Chief, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound. What possessed the admiral's coxswain, a rather grand chief petty officer who conversed normally only with the admiral's staff, I shall never know but just as he was about to leave the starboard quarterboom he saw the admiral descending to the quarterdeck. Quickly he rang down for Full Ahead and, turning hard-a-starboard in full view of the quarterdeck elite, placed the barge fair and square in the path of a picket boat. The barge was stove in just for'd of her boiler room and it at first seemed both boats might sink. It took 80 men on four guy ropes to work the Hood's main derrick and never before had they been assembled with such speed. The admiral, by now also steaming slightly, was dispatched in the captain's small motor boat to keep his appointment with the commander-in-chief. '36
'Hood was always a wet ship.'
Sub-l! (E) louis le Bailly and gunroom companions in the process of winning a bet against the wardroom that they could not sail a cutter from Tangier to Gibraltar between dawn and sunset one day in the autumn of
1938. Vic~Admi,./
Sir L.ouis L~ e.iIIy
Like much else in the Navy, the business of boat handling was distinguished by an elaborate etiquette, centuries in the making. Rear-Admiral Arnold-Forster provides a flavour of it: ... Every boat approaching an anchored warship after dark is challenged by the hail 'Boat ahoy!' sung out sharply from the bridge forward or from the quarter deck aft ... It is the coxswain's business to answer the hail instantly. The correct answer depends on who is in the boat. If officers of lieutenant's rank and above are in the boat the answer is 'Aye, aye!'; for anyone below that rank 'No, no!' If the captain of the ship is in the boat, the reply given is the ship's name; for an admiral the answer is 'Flag!' A boat not coming alongside simply answers 'Passing!' [... ] Besides these old sea hails, the recognised salutes given by boats have been handed down by generations of seamen---except those for steam and motor boats, which are naturally more modern. The larger pulling boats-----': turret shell room in the hold and with a joint capacity of 32 warheads. Directly above them were the submerged tubes set ell echeloll on the platform deck. The principal working space was the Torpedo body room on the main deck which was served by a pair of elongated lifts descending to the Submerged torpedo room two decks below. Embarkation of torpedo bodies and warheads was performed through a hatch on the forecastle by the forward breakwater, the hardware being lowered through the upper deck and down to the working space below. Supplying the submerged tubes was therefore a straightforward matter but torpedoes for the above-water tubes had evidently to be trundled along the upper deck and assembled ill situ. How were the torpedoes aimed and fired?'" The process was considerably easier than for guns since no elevation data was required. Target bearing and deflection data was provided by a total of eight torpedo deflection sights mounted on the fore bridge, in the conning tower and in the after torpedo control tower on the boat deck. Range was calculated on three 15foot range finders, one atop the after control tower (removed in 1937) and two abreast the Midships searchlight platform between the funnels (both removed in 1940; 12-foot 5.5in rangefinders on the signal platform used thereafter). Until 1929 the resulting information was fed into the Torpedo transmitting room on the lower deck abaft 'B' turret. Here a Dreyer Table generated a setting for the torpedo gyroscopes; after 1931 this calculation was performed in the Torpedo control position on the bridge. Once set, an electric circuit was closed and the 'tinfish' fired remotely from the Torpedo control tower or the after control tower. Whereas submerged torpedoes were discharged with compressed air, the upper-deck ones were launched by a cordite charge. As the torpedo left the tube a lever controlling its supply of compressed air was tripped, the paraffin feeding the heater ignited, the oil jet triggered and the engine started with a whirl of counter-rotating propellers. Torpedoes were provided with two detachable heads, first a practice one containing teak ballast and a calcium flare for
But for the two Boards of Enquiry investigating the loss of the Hood in 1941 hertorpedoes represented a far more sinister danger to the crew. Both were concerned to explore the possibility that a detonation of the upper-deck torpedoes had caused or contributed to the loss of the ship. '55 Witnesses to the disaster and those who had recently served in her were asked whether the armoured mantlets covering the torpedo tubes were likely to have been open or closed as she went into battle. Captain William Davis, Executive Officer until September 1940, confirmed that they would have been shut. I" An explosives expert, Capt. John Carslake, indicated that it would require not a near miss but a shell actually detonating on the warhead to cause the explosion of a torpedo. I" Although members of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors dissented from its findings, the second board concluded like the first that there was little evidence of a torpedo detonation and attributed the loss of the ship to a magazine explosion. Among the dissenters was a member of the second board, D.E.]. Offord, head of the Director of Naval Construction's damage ection through the 1930s, and the DNC himself, Sir Stanley Goodall. lss Though the theory of a torpedo detonation still has its adherents, subsequent analysis has tended to endorse the judgements of the two boards. '59 The hundred men who formed the Hood's Torpedo Division were as close-knit a group as any in the ship. In the mid-1930s the 'tin fish men' produced a stylised version of the ship's badge which replaced the anchor with a torpedo. Len Williams was one of their number between 1936 and 1941:
Hood's torpedo division were a happy-go-lucky lot; we were about 90 to 100 strong and by age and service were the oldest division in the ship. Over 50% of us were threebadge men, which meant that they had at least 13 years service to their credit. At this period, most torpedo men were fairly senior men due to the great competition to get into the branch to begin with.
I'"
However, the Torpedo Division's duties extended well beyond tinfish and the hale oil used to lubricate them. Until 1929 the Torpedo Branch was also responsible for the distribution of all
Routine, Work and Rest
113
Left: A Mk IV torpedo leaves one of the port upper-deck tubes on
electrical power on board. This, so said the ship's guide book, included 200 miles of electrical cable and 3,874 light fittings. The increasing sophistication of electrical systems of course warranted the formation of a separate branch but this had been strangled al birth by an Admiralty convinced that technical specialisation was a threat to the fighting spirit of the Navy. In lieu of this the Admiralty decided in 1929 to transfer all high-power distribution-that relating to propulsion, damage control and habitability-to the Engineer Branch while leaving the Torpedo Branch in charge of low-power electrical supply-gun firing, fire-control, emergency, searchlight and telephone circuits'61 The /-load's electricity was generated by eight 200kW dynamos which supplied current at 220 volts DC into a common ring main controlled from the main switchboard on the lower deck beneath 'B' turret. Low-power supply, which depended on numerous motor generators, was controlled from a second switchboard nearby. The outbreak of war for the first lime brought a universitytrained electrical engineer to the /-load in the shape of Sub-Lt (later Electrical Lt) John lago R.N.Y.R. Within two weeks of his arrivallago had had a new system of emergency lighting for the ship approved by Capt. Glennie.'·' Among those charged with its maintenance was LS Len Williams: I had recently been promoted to Leading Seaman and was put in charge of all the electrical emergency circuits, which included [automatic electric ballen jlanterns, temporary circuits, sick bay operating lamps etc. I had an assistant, and it was a full-time job for we had some seven hundred of these auto lanterns alone to check over and maintain. They had to be kept charged up and periodically tested to see that the relays did not stick. In view of what happened later it was heartbreaking to know that no opportunity was given to the ship's company to make use of these safety arrangements when trouble did come.
I.'
Modifications were still being made in the spring of 1941: During the refit I thoroughly overhauled our emergency electrical system, and with the aid of some old motor-car headlamps was able to produce some fairly efficient emergency operating lamps for our action medicalleams.'64 Nor did the Torpedomen's responsibilities end there. Along wilh the Engineering Department, the Torpedo Division was entrusted with the ship's ventilation which supplied or extracted air from her internal spaces along miles of trunking. The fans for the living and working spaces were powered by electric motors working on the ship's low-power supply. In order to avoid piercing the armoured bulkheads each major section of the ship was served by fans and motors on a unit system. These it was Len Williams' job to inspect: I changed my job onboard from Torpedo maintenance to ventilating fan maintenance which was a watchkeeping job, necessitating a visit to every running fan in the ship during one's period of duty. These large fan motors provided the forced ventilation between decks, some being supply fans and others exhaust. It was essential that the lubrication and the electrics of each fan be checked during each watch. As there were hundreds of these fans of all shapes and sizes,
the detonation of a cordite charge. Crewmen watch beside
Port NO.6 S.Sin gun; late 1930s. HMS Hood AwxiarionfPercival Col/ecrion
Below: Still issuing smoke, a practice torpedo is hoisted aboard after being recovered by one of the ship's whalers in the late 1930s. The trolley that will return it to the Torpedo body room can be seen in the upper
part of the photo. HMS Hood AssrxiationlMawn Collection
and in various awkward positions, it took one the whole of one's four-hour watch to get around them all.'·s Although the /-load's ventilation system was a considerable advance on earlier designs it was found to be inadequate in e>..t remes of heat and failed to prevent the incidence of tuberculosis aboard. Moreover, in relying on natural supplies of air drawn in through ventilation fittings out on deck it made flooding unavoidable in heavy seas, especially on the messdecks forward. At the best of times the crew lived in an environment of'canned air' with foul smells periodically wafted through the lrunking. As Surgeon-Cdr K.A. Ingleby-Mackenzie related in April 1940, not even the Sick Bay was spared: The atmosphere in the Sick Bay has at times become very heavy at sea: and this has been cleared by turning on an internal circulation of air in the forward end of the ship, though as the heads are involved in this circulation, the air ventilated is not always of as salubrious an aroma as one would wish. Accordingly another method has now been adopted for the Sick Bay, namely the exhausting of air from the Sick Bay by a special fan placed near the main door down into the CO, room: and this has had a decidedly beneficial effect: and has been regularly used of late. 166 Unfortunate as it was, this along with the constant whirring of the fans was part of the reality of life afloat, the backdrop against which all served and from which no one was spared.
Roberls, The Battlecrfl;ser Hood. p.14. lltl fago. Letters (at sea, 9 October 1939). 16} Williams, GOlle A LOllg jOllmey, p.142. 1601 Ibid., p. 151. '" Ibid.. pp. 121-2. 161
1M>
PRO,AD~1101/565, ~Iedical
Officers' Journal, 1 Januar)'-31 March 1940, vol. 28, ships H-I, f. 37r.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
114
5 Life Aboard On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?
NE OF THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES of life and war at sea is that a ship, however large or small she may be, is at once the home, work and weapon of all who sail in her. More than that, she is their only succour and defence against the remorseless power of wind and water which is the common enemy of all seafarers. For this reason, as for the large number of those embarked in her, the life and functioning of a warship has more of the quality of a community than perhaps any other military unit. Whereas a soldier may expect to serve out his time in the same regiment, it is the fate of a ship's company to be scattered by recommissioning or war after no more than a few years. But no matter how short her lease there is always time enough for her distinctive personality to impress itself for good or ill on all her people, and for these in their turn to leave their mark as indeltbly on her. In thi way the cycle is renewed in the experience of other crews and men until either the violence of the enemy or the breaker's torch fulfils her destiny. Welded in discipline, tradition and war, and yet capable of annihilation in a matter of seconds, it is the transient yet lasting quality of naval life afloat that affords it much of its fascination: short in time yet rich in memory. This is true of no ship more than it is of HMS Hood.
O
•. . . . . .11 ••• For Cadet Le Bailly, joining his first ship in 1932, his arrival aboard was a solemn and exhilarating moment. Thus it was that Dick Litchfield, I and two others foregathered at the Keppel's Head, Portsmouth, one evening in early August 1932. From our modest attic bedrooms we could see the quarterdeck of the great ship which was to be our home. Next morning, clad in our number one uniforms, we duly repaired on board. [... J From the moment we reported to the officer of the watch, the whole rhythm of life was a boy's dream come true. They were all there, as Taffrail and Bartimeus had told us they would be: Guns and Torps, the Springer and the Pilot, the Schoolie and the Chief and the Senior, the Chippie, the Bo'sun, the PMO and of course our lord and master the Sub.'
Le Bailly, Tile Mall Arollnd rite Engine, p. 20. 'Taffrail' and 'Bartimeus' were the pseudonyms of two naval writers of stature, Captain Taprell Darling and Pay Captain Sir Lewis Ritchie. 1 Coles & Briggs, Flagship Hood, p. 132. 'IWM, 91/7/1, p. 38. ~ The detail in this section owes much to Mr George Donnelly (Stoker, 1936-8),10 whom I express my gratitude. I
Some, indeed, could say no more of the Hood than that her beauty was echoed in the friendly atmosphere they encountered aboard her, unusually so for a ship of her size. The Rev. Edgar Rea, joining as the ship's chaplain in September 1936, was relieved to discover several familiar faces from earlier commissions, while Paymaster Cadet Keith Evans found himself playing deck hockey within half an hour of stepping aboard. However, for most their arrival was more modest, though no less impressive for that. Hammock and kit-bag over his shoulder and ditty box in his hand, a rating would traipse up a gangway amidships to be received without fuss or cere-
mony into his new home. Ted Briggs: Then we were marched up the long gangway to be swallowed by this whirring monster. Everything seemed twice as big as normal. The mess decks were colossal; a series of scrubbed wooden mess-tables reached out at me like massive conjuror's fingers; mess-kids gleamed in innitation of sterling silver; even the overhead hammock bars glinted, while the faint whiff of fuel oil and the constant humming of the air vent engulfed me. This sense of space and clean-cut lines did not diminish in the boys' mess deck, where we were deposited to make ourselves at home.' How different had been the reaction of Boy Fred Coombs, reaching the same messdeck four years earlier. For him and those, including his twin brother Frank, who accompanied him, the reality of life afloat evidently came as a dreadful shock: On joining the Hood in Portsmouth Dockyard on 31 March 1935, struggling up the long steep gangway with, first, our bags and, after scathing remarks about our slackness, a run back down to fetch our hammocks, we felt like flies on top of a dung heap. After a guided wander down steel ladders, on identical-looking corridors, through huge steel doors, we ended up somewhere in the bowels of what seemed like an inhuman, airless and windowless white-painted mass of long passageways and boxes, in what was, in reality, a barracks. We felt more like the maggots underneath the dung than the flies on top. [... ] After being led through some deserted messdecks and enclosed compartments, we found all our bags and hammocks heaped at the bottom of a steel ladder after being thrown, a deck at a time, through three decks to the lower level, which led to our mess deck. That rough handling of our hammocks was to be the first indication that life was rough at sea and on ships.' The seamen's messdecks in which Briggs and Coombs were to make their home for the next few years differed little from those in other capital ships of the Royal Navy. Ranged on the upper and lower decks were fifteen enclosed messes for senior ratings and eleven open ones known as 'broadside messes' for the bulk of the ship's company-over 1,100 men in peacetime.' [n a typical open mess, such as that of the Torpedomen and the Quarterdeckmen on the port side of the upper deck amidships, accommodation was provided for about 200 men in a space up to 70 feet long and 30 across. The main feature of each was a row of long wooden tables lying athwart the ship and supported either on folding legs or else suspended from the deckhead by means of a series of highly-polished steel bars. On either side wooden forms provided seating for up to 20
I
Life Aboard
115
Above: The Torpedomen's mess looking aft and inboard in the early 19305. The messdeck has been scrubbed, polished and tidied for morning Divisions; note the shoes under the table. The tables are suspended from hooks and the deckhead is covered in ventilation trunking and bars for slinging hammocks. To the left is a range of highly polished kit lockers. Just left of centre in the background is a ventilation fan while a second range of lockers to the right forms a partition between this mess and that of the Quarterdeckmen beyond. 5ellicks
men per table. Each of these tables constituted a 'mess' in its own right and it was here that a man ate his meals, read his mail, played games and spent much of his life cheek by jowl with his comrades. Every mess had its number, even to port and odd to starboard, the numeration beginning forward and proceeding down from the upper to the main deck. The atmosphere of a large messdeck is nowhere better described than in the following passage by Lt-Cdr W.B. Harvey, who began his career as a sailor: At one end of the table a game of solo, euchre, brag or any other of the innumerable card games was in progress, usually with slightly resented 'advisors' hovering in the background; Spoff Hammond who ran the 'goffer' shop would be mixing a concoction in a bucket to sell as lemonade; 'Brigham' Young would be writing to one of his many girls, sorting out their photos in his ditty box; 'Nobby' Hall, prospective Med Fleet light heavyweight champion, doing his shadow boxing; cooks of the mess peeling spuds and over all a buzz of conversation, jokes, taunts and cat calls making a noisy, happy background, repeated in all si>.."teen broadside messes.' For Divisions each morning the white linoleum cloth that covered the tables was rolled back to reveal the scrubbed deal wood beneath and the mess cutlery artistically arranged on top. At the gangway end the 'Cooks of the Mess' polished and stacked the assortment of 'fannies' with which each was equipped with military precision. Fred Coombs: At the other end of the table was another highly polished tin box holding some tea and sugar in separate compartments, which we were advised was to make tea in a large, odd-shaped tall teapot with removable tea strainer, with a small lid, the only recognisable thing being the pout to pour from. Teatly arrayed in front of the box, with the teapot on top, was a mess kettle and lid alongside a round, wire-handled, flat-bottomed can and lid, all highly polished, which, with a large soup ladle, were to be our mess utensils. Underneath the table was a highly
polished and clean bucket, even though it was to hold any leavings such as the tea leaves from the teapot.' Along its length a series of shallow racks fitted to the underside of each table provided space for shoes and so forth while no doubt adding to the general sense of cramped discomfort. The opposite end of the table was usually hinged to the ship's side, along which ran stowage for dilly boxes, boots and other items. Just above the table was a lamp-traditionally oil-burning but in Hood always electric-together with the mess number neatly done in black paint, and a small notice board containing special orders and the duty roster for cooks of the mess. Higher still was additional stowage for ditty boxes and the rack for 'mess traps' (assorted utensils) that completed the culinary outfit of each mess. Fred Coombs:
Above: The same Torpedomen's mess looking forward and outboard in July 1932; the angle of view is in pre
The last class of boy seamen trained at HMS St Vincent, Gosport before the outbreak of
war seen under gunnery instruction in the summer of 1939. Several, including Jim
Hawkins and Sammy Milburn (second from right) found their way to the Hood; Milburn was lost with the ship. W:H. 1.
~wt.IfIS
If the moment of his arrival aboard might well provide a boy seaman with his first inkling of the rigours that awaited him in his chosen profession, a few days would quite likely add a taste of its frequent drudgery and occasional injustice. On his second morning aboard Fred Coombs and his companions were subjected to the same ordeal as that described above by Boy Jim Taylor. Maybe the weather was worse and his subsequent experiences more bitter, but there can be no denying the disgust and disillusion in Coombs' account: The next day we mustered at 6, still trying to crunch with our teeth the hard ship's biscuit before someone robbed us of it. On mustering with the rest of the upper-deck part of the ship's company, we were all reported to the Duty Officer who gave the usual order to scrub decks. The only difference that morning was that, in the unusually cold weather for
Portsmouth, when the sea water was pumped and hosed on the decks the water froze and turned to icy slush as it ran on deck and over the side. As normal in the R.t ., the last order was always obeyed and, as normal, the lower end in the pecking order, tho e with no boots and socks, Itook] off boots and ocks, rolled our trousers up and, on the orders of the leading seaman in charge of our small section, were told to grab a long-handled heavy scrubber and 'scrub aft'. Of those who did not own or have ... a pair of eaboots, mo t seem to have vanished or faded away as soon as the icy slush was seen and felt on bare feet to set us all hopping and heading for a still dry part of the deck. The Duty Officer, who was no doubt till wearing hi uniform jacket and trousers over his pyjamas and heavy woollen scarf, was sat in his nice warm cabin, sipping nice warm tea as we waited for his nice hot bath to be run for him, was wondering why different leading hands and petty officers kept running to his door to tell him that it was freezing up there. Don't know how long it took him to get back on deck but do know that, when he did, all he could find was his senior ratings and those wearing seaboots still washing the decks but, instead of scrubbing them, trying to broom the slush over the side before it froze solid. Can well imagine what the ship's commanding officer said to his juniors when he saw the dirty slush frozen to his fre h1y-painted lovely ship's side, but by that time he had it all to himself and his senior ratings as we were all below in the muggy warmth getting thawed out and into heavier underwear before breakfast.6 ' Whatever the reality, there is no doubt where Cdr O'Conor stood on the matter of allous or negligent leadership: It has been said that the traditional practice of the Commander turning out with the hands in the early morning, to start them off with the order to scrub and wash the upper deck, is old-fashioned and illogical, and more than once the purpose which he serves by so doing has been called in question. 1... 1Traditional practices are seldom easy to defend on any but sentimental grounds, but it is believed that, in this case, there are definite and solid reasons for the Commander being there when the hands turn-to first thing. He stands in a special and unique position in regard to his hand, and in hi mind's eye there should always be a continuous and up-to-date picture of their work and of the routine. If he is not up at the start of the day, he will never have the same grasp as the Commander who makes it his duty to be there. And if he is not there at the beginning, how is he to appreciate the conditions for scrubbing decks on cold, dark and wet morning or in rough weather?"
For the Coombs twins, however, poor leadership was as nothing to the demoralising effect of petty discipline: The first time that we were both rattled for a very minor offence was by a young midshipman, of about our own age but educated. We found out why these snotty-nosed youngsters were called snotties and began to realize why all those who hoped for 1promotion I, whether officer or man, were fighting each other to bring their names to the attention of our seniors. Such as us, with no ambition and
Life Aboard
very little interest, were thought to be good food to feed on. Even the maggots would have had better ta te but it suited them and that was all that mattered. We went to build the mound of their ambitions·' The opinions of Fred Coombs are unusual in their vehemence, particularly in the Hood which is remembered as a happy ship throughout most of the 1930s. But they encapsulate much of the resentment and frustration that at one time or another burned in the heart of all ratings who went down to the sea in ships in the inter-war period. To be sure, the Coomb twins were, on their own admission, hardly whiter than white; in fact, they were notorious for always being in trouble. But their sentiments, expressed in vivid sailor's language, would have been shared by many in their more desperate moments. A Coombs recalled, It was explained to us by the odd older members of the crew-a lot of whom were survivors of the wartime fleets, now drastically reduced-[thattheyl only put up with the poor conditions and pay to avoid the mass unemployment that awaited them if they did not achieve Pension Age." Where officers and morale were concerned the view of Telegraphist Dick Jackman (I937-9) was perhaps more typical of the younger rating: I cannot comment on life in the wardroom, except that it was of a very high standard and very much resented by the lower deck for whom very little wa done to make life enjoyable. Petty restrictions such as making the wearing of uniform compulsory at all times, ashore and afloat, with the exception of banyan parties when sports wear was worn, could have been relaxed. One needed to be a contortionist to get out of, and back into a sailor's uniform ..... Cdr O'Conor, that most reform-minded of officers, gauged the issue of morale in rather simpler terms. Seen from the oppo ite end of the spectrum, the whole problem boiled down to nagging by officers and superiors: The tendency to nag arises from human fretfulness, and there is nothing to urpass it for making an intelligent man feel insubordinate. Injustice is far easier to put up with than any form of bully-ragging. The Commander has to make it clear early in the commission to all those set in authority under him that, no matter what is done or left undone, he will not have tllings aggravated by nagging. I... llf a man is sulking, the chances are that someone has been nagging him'· Equally, it was as well for someone in authority to avoid any ort of confrontation with the men. The Rev. Harold Beardmore, chaplain aboard between 1939-41: When visiting the messdecks see that you don't get involved in an argument: (a) when a rating takes an opportunity of getting at you or your job, or (b) when he gets 'hot under the collar' about some social or service matter. It is best to send for the man at some convenient time, and discuss the
127
malter thoroughly over a cigarette in your cabin. One finds that when the man is by himself he is much more reasonable than when surrounded by his messmates, before whom he may like to pose as a bit of a sea-lawyer" Coombs, for his part, eventually reached the conclusion that 'the uneducated, too-thick-to-think lower end were not at a disadvantage by being uneducated if they made up their deficiency by using their common sense'." Time would amply vindicate this view. As he lived to discover, the coming war altered the sailor's lot beyond all recognition. Though Coombs and his companions could not know it, they and their ship were living in the twilight years of the old Navy. ""'here opinions on the men were expressed at all these were usually full of respect, affection and admiration. That of ViceAdmiral Le Bailly is typical:
'-I\\'~t, 91/7/1, p. 42. "Ibid. et E.mail to the author. 8 January 200·1. .. RB ,p. 84. •• Beardmore, n,e Waters of Uncertain'}'. p. 54. -, IW~t, 91/7/1, p. 45. .) Le Bailly, n,e .\Iml Around the Engine, p. 22.10 1932 a cadet's pay was 3/6--
To the majority of men, the Hood's officers seemed, in Ted Briggs' words, to be 'like God Almighty'." AB Bob Tilburn describes the altitude of most: In those days you were not necessarily frightened of those officers, you were in awe of them. Because they were so far above you, not only in the mental scale but in the social scale as well. It was still very feudaL" Typically, Fred Coombs took a rather more jaundiced view, though it was one shared by many: The way of the R.N. [wasl that when we went to sea on exercises we, the lower end, were too thick to understand why we did what, for [which reason wei were never informed. Steaming round the ocean was for the officers' benefit; if we were involved, the only information was that which we read on the notice board and not why [... 1 There was still a lot at the top end who still thought that education and breeding were the be-all and end-all of Sen~ce life." Despite Coombs' remarks, considerable effort were made after Invergordon to keep crewmen informed of the ship's movements and the diplomatic context of her activities. William James, who flew his flag in Hood between 1932-4, was surely the first admiral to clear lower deck to explain forthcoming exercises to the men. ' In the 'Notes for ewly Joined Officers' he prepared during his tenure, Capt. Francis Pridham (1936--8) made it quite plain where the advantage of doing so lay: It is not difficult to give your men some idea of the duty the ship is being employed upon. The purpose of the exercises about to be carried out, why the ship is about to visit Arzeu or Barcelona, why the paravanes are being got out early in the morning watch, etc. etc. The more you can interest the Ship's Company in what is going on the better. Moreover, you will thereby shon-circuitthe disgruntled man who spreads the yarn that they are being bully-ragged and driven unnecessarily."
But though the Invergordon Mutiny ushered in a significant change in officer attitudes, there can be no doubt that arrogance and thoughtlessness lay at the root of much di gruntlement and disaffection on the lower deck. O'Conor tacitly admitted as much: All men, young and old, are sensitive and it does not do to speak roughly, or someone will be burning with indignation from a neglect of courtesy, of which you may remain profoundly unconscious. 7
In most instances the men could draw on a subtle and evolved language to express their disgust or disappointment at those given command over them. A tone of voice, a nuance of body language, a show of reticence, all spoke volumes to those on the receiving end. There were moments, however, when extreme aggravation called for more direct means of communication. Shoddy or listless work, mass leave-breaking and desultory performances in fleet sporting events were a sure sign of poor morale and failing leadership. The tenure of RearAdmiral ir Walter Cowan and Captain Geoffrey Mackworth in 1921-3 rivals the Invergordon Mutiny as the most unhappy period in the Hood's long career. Both fell victim to pranks by their subordinates." One fine day somebody pushed Bill the ship's goat mascot through the skylight of Cowan's sleeping cabin and into his bed. On another occasion Mackworth, who was fond of asking for working parties of six Marines, received a box of toy soldiers in the mail along with an impudent note which resulted in the entire detachment being subjected to a handwriting test. Neither culprit wa ever discovered. But there were gentler ways of letting off steam. The pukka accent in which much of the wardroom spoke was the subject of ridicule on the lower deck and many was the officer who acquired a nickname. Len Wincolt: The nicknames that men give to their officers are more informative than many people think. If an officer is given a number of nicknames, and more and more are conjured up, it is a sure sign that he is far from popular. If on the other hand he gets one which sticks to him, one can be certain that he is respected'· Equally, the officer whose men called him a 'gent' was being paid their very highest compliment. But most were glad to keep their distance and generally had as little contact with officers as possible. The following remark made ell paSSattf by CPO Bill Lowe discloses the prevailing approach: ... However, there wasn't a lot of game played in those days, except by the officers who used to play quite a bit, but we never used to worry about them."
A party of Hood's officers landed for field training at St Andrew's Barracks, Malta c. 1937. The major hurdle in officer promotion was that from lieutenant-commander to commander; fewer than half made the cut in peacetime. Front row: Sub-Lt (E) L.E.S.H. Le Bailly. unknown commissioned warrant
officer, It-Cdr C.H. Hutchinson, Lt-Cdr M.E. Wevell. Lt J.F.A. Ashcroft, Sub-Lt l.S.L. Crabb. Rear row: Mid. D.eS. Currey, Mid. eM. Bent, Mid. T.S. Sampson, Paymaster Sub-Lt A.B. Webb, Mid. G.H.G. Crane, Mid. B.e Longbottom, Mid. H.W. Wilkinson. V/CP--Admir.1 SIr louIS L. ~ilfy
Pridhanl, Notes for Newly Joined Officers, p. 6. .2 Taverner, Hood's Legacy, p. 73. U Arthur (ed), TI,e Navy: 1939 to tile Presetlt Day, p. 89. .. IWM, 911711, p. 45. IJ Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly, letter to the author, 22 February II
2003.
.. Op. cit., p. 5. " RBS, p. 84. .. HMS Hood Association archin's; Gunner "Vindy' Breeze, R.M.A. M \Vincott,lm'ergordotl Mutineer, p. 136. .. Arthur (ed), The Navy: 1939 to the
Present Da)'. p. 86.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
130
,. I\VM, 90/38/1, \'01. III, Anecdote
3. p. 6. The coxswain in question was PO A. IV. Jeffrey (sic).
.1 Vice.Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly. letter to the author. 24 December 2002. Le Bailly, The Man Around tile Engine, p. 37. .. Ibid., pp. 37-8. 'J
Members of the gunroom sharing a joke on the quarterdeck with Commissioned Boatswain J.McK. Kirkcaldy
D.S.M., c. 1932-3. Most recalled their time in the gunroom as one of learning. laughter and
friendship. Paymaster Mid. J. Charles (lost in the Barham, 2S November 1941),
Cadet L.E.S.H. Le Bailly, Kirkcaldy, Cadet G.W. Vavasour, Mid. G.R.A.
Don VIC~Adm".1SIr LouIS
l. ".IIfy
owhere is this attitude more exquisitely captured than in the following exchange between Mid. George Blundell, then in command of the /-load's first picket boat, and his Westcountry coxswain. The year is 1924. I have often reflected on what a lot the petty officers tactfully taught me on how to behave. One day we landed a number of officers just after lunch: the ship's company was still at work. On return I asked the coxswain (Jeffreys was his name; he was a darling man) 'What do the men think of the officers going ashore in working hours?' Jeff looked at me with that 'three badge'twinkle in his eye. 'Lor' bless you, ir,' he replied, 'We likes to see them out of the way.' I have never forgotten that wise remark.°' The /-load's wardroom numbered around 45 officers out of a peacetime complement of about 1,150 men. As was the case throughout the Navy, the ship's officers were divided into two branches, Executive and ivilian. The distinction is important because it was not until after the Second World War that officers of the so-called Civilian Branch could aspire to their own seagoing commands. Among the Executive Branch were the specialists in Gunnery, Torpedoes, avigation and Signals together with the 'salthorse' officers who were content to make their careers without specialised training in any discipline. This branch was, of necessity, completed by the Captain and his principal executive officer, the Commander. Officers of the Civilian Branch wore the same uniform as their executive colleagues, though their particular specialisations were distinguished by coloured cloth between the gold stripes on their cuffs. In the case of Engineer officers this was purple. Paymaster wore white, In tructors blue, hipwrights and Constructors silver-grey, Surgeons red and Dentists orange. Unusually for a capital ship, the /-load's officer complement was
remembered as a friendly and homogenou body throughout much of her career, 'probably as happy as a big hip could ever be'." However, this cannot disguise the tensions and snobbery that occasionally surfaced in the wardroom, particularly between executive officers and the Engineer Branch which was stripped of its executive status by the Admiralty in 1925. Executive officers derided engineers as 'plumbers', 'dustmen' and 'dirty fingernail types', to which the latter responded with 'dabtoes', 'crab wallahs' and 'fish heads'. In 1937 Sub-Lt (E) Louis Le Bailly, fresh from the RO)'lI1 Taval Engineering College at Keyham, found himself greeted on the quarterdeck by Cdr David Orr-Ewing, a gunnery specialist, with the words 'Are you another of these pacifist subs from Keyham?'.93 The notion that the technical disciplines were at odds with the spirit of a fighting service and their practicants ill-suited to seagoing command remained deeply ingrained. Evidently, there were many in the Tavy who had as yet failed to grasp the technological realities that the coming war would so ruthlessly assert on it. The gunroom to which, as a sub-lieutenant, a chastened Le Bailly repaired on arrival was the domain of the midshipmen, the Royal Navy's officer in waiting. Until 1932 it was part of his training as an officer that every cadet emerging from the Royal aval College at Dartmouth should serve up to two years aboard a capital ship, and the /-load's gunroom complement was never less than 25. Thereafter cadets spent a year in the training cruiser Frobisher before being promoted midshipmen and let loose on the fleet, a development which caused the /-load's gunroom complement to drop to around fifteen with a turnover of half a dozen or so every four months. The gunroom was a large and austere compartment on the port side of the upper deck served by an adjoining pantry. Sub-Lt Le Bailly, returning after a four-year absence, was relieved to find things much as they had been during his earlier occupation: With some trepidation I entered the gunroom door at the armchair end reserved for sub-lieutenants. The brass stove, which I had assiduou Iy polished, was till there and to my delight I was welcomed by a near-contemporary as the coruler of his little kingdom. I soon discovered that the gunroom was still a place where laughter mostly prevailed and the food as bad as ever with the same grinning, but now even more pear-shaped, messman peering through the serving hatch; where the same tin lockers in which I had kept my journal and sight book were still used by the midshipmen; where the only daylight came from the skylight. The same leather-coated cushions on the benches at the ship's side were even more worn as were the two leather armchairs of which I could now claim one. 94 The gunroom was mostly taken up by a large polished mahogany table at which the 'young gentlemen', suitably attired, were waited on at dinner by a pair of mess tewards. During the I930s at least, catering for the Hood's gunroom was, by choice, left in the hands of a civilian messman. Louis Le Bailly: Dinner, as with our other meals, was dispensed by the same wily Maltese messman and his acolytes who took a shilling a day from our pay. Our wine bill was limited to 10 hillings a month as cadets and 15 hillings as midshipmen. On this we could treat ourselves to a sherry,
Life Aboard
a glass of beer on guest nights and an occasional glass of 1arsala when we returned, cold and shivering, with our boat cloaks and uniforms wet through from a rough boat trip. Spirits, had we been allowed them, were almost unknown to u and few could afford or wished to smoke. o' Though the bullying made notorious by the novels of Frederick Marryat and Charles Morgan was largely a thing of the past, the gunroom remained a spirited community which, like its public-school equivalents, deferred to authority yet frequently took pleasure in the misery of its inmates. Equally, it was often a forcing ground for lifelong friendships between officers. Ragging, especially on gala nights, was a popular and often violent diversion to which senior officers traditionally turned a blind eye, though in 1938 the gunroom created something of a stir by including inflated condoms among its Christmas decorations." Rear-Admiral Peter La iece (1940) recalls some capers off Scotland early in the war: It was a high spirited gunroom and one evening we went ashore to Helensburgh, on the northern side of the Clyde, to ee a film; on leaving the cinema we 'borrowed' a framed picture of the film star Loretta Young; this was borne back on board, signed by all concerned, and hung in the gunroom as a trophy. Later on it was captured by a raiding gunroom from another ship; in due course it was recaptured. It was then replaced by a Barber's Pole also acquired from Helensburgh. Suffice to say the Barber's Pole went from ship to ship until after the end of the war when I rediscovered it. [ ... J 1stilJ have the picture of Loretta Young... 97 The prevailing atmosphere i captured by Paymaster Lt-Cdr E.G. Talbot-Booth, R. .R.: Although discipline is probably stricter than in any other force in the world, there are times when the bounds are loosed to an extent which cannot be understood by foreigners. There are occasions when the junior members of the Ward-room Mess will make a swoop or raid on the Gun-room, or midshipman's mess and a tremendous scrap will ensue. The compliment may be returned and a fierce combat ensue on the floor of the senior mess to the detriment of boiled shirts and winged collars. Five minutes later perhaps the junior midshipman is knocking at your cabin door his hand raised to the salute while he gravely informs you that your boat is alongside. o, The Sub-Lieutenant of the Gunroom could be delegated the authority to administer up to a dozen cuts with a cane or dirk scabbard for minor offences, though this form of punishment was forbidden by O'Conor during his tenure as ommander in 1933-6. As he later wrote, 'The old argument, that a Snottie preferred half a dozen to having his leave stopped, is disposed of when it is realised that neither treatment is suitable for an officer'." O'Conor also stamped out both early-morning gym and the degrading rites of'creeping for Je us' and 'fork in the beam', the gunroom punishments that sub-lieutenants had inflicted on their juniors since the days of the sailing navy.'DO The time was ripe for change:
131
Punishments that are suitable for schoolboys are not suitable for adolescents of the age of 18 to 21 whom it is intended to regard as officers. We must have it one way or the other. Either treat them as schoolboys-messengers, truants-or else make up our minds that they are officers and that we are going to treat them a sUCh. 'OI With O'Conor the midshipman of the Royal avy finally came of age. In most cases life as a midshipman afloat gave an officer his only taste of sleep in a hammock. With no designated sleeping compartment, midshipmen usually slung their hammocks in one of the flats on the main deck aft, sub-lieutenants enjoying the comparative luxury of a shared cabin. The large white chests with which generations of midshipmen had gone to sea were stowed in the chest flat on the port side of the main deck aft. earby was the Subordinate officers' dressing place and an adjoining bathroom, the former fitted with stowage for clothing and equipment and the latter with a steam main that provided just enough hot water for the sub-lieutenants' baths and no more; their juniors maintained the acquaintance with coldwater bathing struck up at Dartmouth. Touring the ship in January 1926 the journalist George Aston, who had first gone to sea before the Great War, was mightily impressed at the improved conditions for midshipmen since his day: In my time he had only a chest (for which he paid) to wash in and to keep all his clothes in. Then he was given a 'bathroom', so called, with flat tin baths. Still only the chest flat to dress in. Now he has a chest, provided by the Government, a chest of drawers and part of another one, a bathroom as on hore, with hot and cold water, and a dressing place with lots of room to keep his gear-in Hood long lines of hooks and spreaders for coats etc. etc. owadays he has his sextant supplied, instead of paying for il. 102 On the basis of a fortnight spent aboard while the ship was refitting at Portsmouth in June 1939, Mid. H.G. Knowles would certainly not have agreed. The gun-room's only ventilation is a solitary skylight, while the chest flat and sleeping flat lack even that. The chest flat, recently a thieves' paradise, has always to be kept locked, while nine of us try to keep our clothes in our trunks, no chests having been supplied, most of the hanging room already taken up by the coats of other midshipmen in a space far too small, where everything disappears unaccountably amongst a maze of trunks and boxes. 'OJ
to
Ibid., p. 23.
HMS Hood Association archives. Paymaster Cadet Keith Evans. "La ieee. Not a Nifle to Five Job. p. 29. 96
Austere as it was, life as a mid hipman in Hood was taken with stoicism and humour, a common sentiment of difficulties shared and challenges surmounted in the formative phase of one's creer. Louis Le Bailly: 1 and my group (1932) lived quite happily in the Flat around the X turret barbette as there was no room in the chest flat. Much clothing was common and one of my messmates had a large stamp made which inscribed his handkerchiefs with 'Stolen From .. .'l"
.. Talbot-Booth. All the 1V0rld', Fighting Fleets, 3rd edn, p. 223.
"RB ,p.2S. 100 IWM/SA. Rear-Admiral Edmund Poland. no. 11951, reel 4. RBS. p. 28. ,,, KCL, LHCMA, Aston tltO, pp. 52-3. 10) IWM. 92/4/1. 9 June 1939. lIN Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly. 101
leiter to the author, 22 February
2003.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
132
Moran, TIle Anatomy of Colmlge, pp.92-3. ,.. RBS. p. 27. 101 Warden, '~Iemories of the Battle Cruiser H.~t.S. "Hood": p. 84. ''"tWM. 90/38/1. vol.lII,Anecdote 3. p.4. 109 IWM/SA no. 11951, reelS. lloRB ,p.27. III IWM.92/4/1. III jenson, Tin Hats, Oilskins 6S_ _ To be drafted from the Hood meant being severed from a unique community, one that could never be recreated except in the mind's eye. For many, of course, the news must have come as a blessed relief but for others it was undoubtedly a source of great adness. Whatever their emotions, very few can
m IWM. 911i/l. p.60. RBS. p. 55.
1S6
m Williams, Gone A Long fOllmey. pp.149-50. lSI Glo\"er, 'Manning and Training the Allied Navies', p. 211. Arthur (ed). The Navy: 1939 to the Present Day, p. 86. 160 Rea,A Curate's Egg, p. 154. This figure has not been verified. .11. Le Bailly, The Mati A.routld the Engitle, p. 55. IU Williams, Gone A Lotlg fOLlmey, p.151.
I"
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
142
As our train passed over the Forth Bridge, we looked across to the dockyard and saw the 'Old Lady' lying alongside the basin wall. I would not be honest if I did not admit that I was very close to tears as we watched her pass out of sight, as our train sped onwards towards Edinburgh. I had joined her a very humble eaman Torpedoman and had left a Petty Officer. lowed Hood a lot and I was grateful.
or could there be much ambivalence in the memory. The sentiment of toker Jim Haskell, a veteran of 1934-8, echoes the enduring conviction of a generation of men who sailed in her: 'To me Hood was always my avy, the finest ship I ever served in'.163
'''';'11>... The Chaplain and his Parish
Cited in Taverner. Hood's Legacy, pp. 138-9. 1M The Rev. Gordon Taylor, The Sea Chaplains: A History of the Chaplains of the Royal Navy (Oxford: Oxford Illustrated Press, 1978). '" See ch. 6. p. 156. 166 M I, Hl\IS Hood, ship's em'cr, 11. no. Il(b). Carey was chaplain of the \\~rspjte. 16~ Le Baill)', Tile Man Around the £"gine, p. 35. ." Beardmore. The Warers of U'lcerta;1Ity. p. 24. 169 Cited in Bennett, Cowan's War, p.54. I'" Beardmore. The Warers of Ur,cerrainr)', p. I·t, 16.1
Chaplains had gone to sea with the Royal avy since the Middle Ages but it was not until 1913 that the first chapel was in tailed in a British warship.'" The ship was the battlecruiser Qlleell Mary and its installation was owed to Capt. W.R. Hall and Cdr William James whose innovations are discussed elsewhere. l • s Divine service continued to be held out on deck or in one of the messdecks in bad weather but the chapel now offered a place not only for Holy ommunion and other services but also for those seeking a moment's respite from the crowded life of a man o'war. The appearance of chapels afloat therefore answered a long-standing need and they were soon being fitted throughout the Grand Fleet. Among the papers relating to the Hood at Greenwich is a letter written by the Rev. Walter Carey to the Admiralty requesting that all future capital ships be so provided. I" His prayers were to be answered in the shape of HMS Hood, the first vessel to include a chapel in her original design. The Hood's chapel, dedicated to St 1 icholas and Our Lady, was a well-lit space below the quarterdeck on the quieter starboard side of the ship. The altar was placed against the aft bulkhead and backed by a series of brocade hangings on rails. The decor changed as time passed but by the early 1930s a reproduction of The Last Slipper by Leonardo hung over the altar with other religious pictures ranged opposite the scuttles. The accoutrements were such as one might find in any English church ashore: oaken furnishings and about 40 whitewood chair together with a complete set of vestments in all the ecclesiastical colours. In some ships, notably Rodney and Nelsoll, enormous lengths were gone to panel the entire space and provide stainedglass covers for the scuttles. In Hood, however, joinery was limited to the Communion rail and some panelling in the Sanctuary, both of which were made in the ship's workshops. Also in the chapel was a memorial to all who had died while serving in her. The chapel was kept clean by a 'sweeper', one of whom, aD Ron Paterson (1933-6) eventually took holy orders. Presiding over the hip's spiritual wellbeing was the chaplain. Among the many remarkable people who served in the Royal avy in the first half of the twentieth century a special place is reserved for 'that notoriously eccentric and loveable crew of clerics, the naval chaplains'. ot the least extraordinary of these was the Rev. Harold Beardmore whose manual for aspiring chaplains, The \Vaters of Ullcerta;lJIy, drew heavilyon hi service in the Hood from 1939-41. The Chaplain Branch provided a padre for each ship of cruiser size or larger
I.'
as well as to destroyer, submarine and motor-boat flotillas, and to shore establishments around the world. avy chaplains messed in the wardroom and in Hood were accommodated on the upper deck amidships or, by the late 1930s, in the bridge tructure on the boat deck. The Chaplain's office or 'vicarage' lay on the upper deck abaft the conning tower, among the main living spaces in the ship. The chaplain's primary function was to lead the services which formed a statutory part of each day: prayers after Divisions at 09.05 every day except Sunday when Divine Service was held around 09.45 (later in wartime). In Hood the latter was celebrated either on the quarterdeck or, in foul weather, on one of the messdecks or in the recreation space beneath the bridge. After the removal of the last 5.5in guns in 1940 services were quite frequently held in the Starboard Battery. 'Church' on Sunday had to be rigged by the First Lieutenant with seating, usually deals on upturned buckets, and the Union Flag draped over the lectern. In the Hood a pair of gleaming wooden benches was brought from the Captain's lobby for the occasion along with a harmonium from its closet.ln 1939-41 Beardmore always set the stage by having recordings of church bells played over the ship's broadcasting system. The men, already gathered by divisions, now took their places; attendance at Church wa compulsory for all ranks and ratings not required for essential duties. When all was ready the First Lieutenant went aft and reported 'Hands ready for Church' to the Captain, just then completing his Sunday Rounds, the inspection of each department. The aptain then took his place in the congregation, the Church Pendant flying in place of the Ensign. On a signal from the Chaplain the bandmaster lifted his baton for the opening hymn. The service was performed in accordance with the Liturgy of the Church of England as contained in the 1662 Prayer Book. As Beardmore added, 'If this service is to be popular and achieve anything, it must be (I) cheerful, (2) dignified, and (3) short'. The result differed little from a service ashore except in its length; three popular hymns thundered out by the men, the les on read by the Captain and a ten-minute sermon with a story to teU. Most commanders were content to leave the liturgical details to the chaplain, but not Rear-Admiral Sir Walter Cowan who flew his flag in Hood from 1921-3. Here is part of his opening salvo to the Rev. Arthur Deane Gilbert on (1922-3):
I"
I hope you will not have the Litany in my flagship; but if you insist will you please omit the petition where we ask to be delivered from battle, murder and sudden death. Hang it! I've never been trained for anything else.
I.'
Divine Service in Hood was often followed by Holy Communion in the chapel, the sacramental wine kept locked away in a drawer to avoid it quenching the raging thirst of a member of the ship's company. nlike his Army and RAF counterparts, avy chaplains wore no uniform other than the peaked cap of an officer. As Beardmore put it, 'The Padre is a man apart, in that he has no specific rank and is thus different from the other officers'.I7· Beyond his pastoral duties, the fundamental role of a chaplain was to act as a liaison between officers and ratings: You will soon realize that the happiness of the ship must
Life Aboard
begin in the Captain's cabin, and generate for'ard via the Wardroom, Warrant Officers', Chief and Petty Officers' Messes ... and a tactful Chaplain with a cheerful personality can help enormously to foster a spirit of sympathetic comradeship born of true leadership.l7I No one appreciated this role more than the Captain: Here again you will find one who is pleased to have you on board, for he is a man upon whose shoulders fall a tremendous responsibility, and his task is eased in many ways if he feels that in you he has a man in whom he can confide, and place the utmost trust and confidence. After many years of experience of human nature, he is the first to realize what an influence for good you can exert upon the officers and men it is his privilege to command.'" This, however, placed the chaplain in an extremely delicate position with respect to both parties. In describing his predicament the Rev. Beardmore reveals something of the mentality of the Royal Navy: They expect you to know what you believe and why you believe it. .. Both the aval officer and the rating have a very high regard for sincerity, but they despise hypocrisy, and just as they soon discover from your sermons whether you are a man who has something to say as against the man who must say something, so they soon weigh up your true motives and outlook on life. They do not really expect you to be the same as them. They like to see you wearing your clerical collar, and unless he is playing games, they are apt to be a little suspicious of the priest who continually goes to social functions disguised as a layman. r... J Do what you do by conviction and they will reverence your sincerity... 173 It was therefore incumbent on the chaplain to form a bond of trust with each section of the ship's company: Soon after you have joined the ship, make a point of calling on the Warrant Officers and meeting the President of the mess ... ; they are the men of long service and can be a great help to you and like to feel that they are part of your parish. Don't confine your visit to once a weekwhen you take the Church notices round; take them up in turn to the Wardroom in the dog watches, for a yarn and a drink, and they will soon appreciate your friendship. Visit the Gunroom fairly frequently so that you will keep in touch with the Sub-Lieutenants and Midshipmen; it is a good plan to ask each Midshipman in turn to supper on Sunday night-in this way you get to know them and do not feel that you are always accepting their hospitality without returning it. r... J If you show them that you are keen to help develop their character and powers of leadership as future Commanding Officers, you will find that they will 'open up' and probably come in for another talk later on. Every Chaplain has his own methods, which must depend of course upon his own personality. '" Equally, a chaplain had to be careful to divide his time in proportion to the composition of his flock:
143
Avoid anything which may label you 'an officers' parson'; more than one Chaplain has been thu labelled by the ship's company because he happens to be a keen bridge player, and gets caught up with a section of officers who play in the dog watches and after dinner. Those are the times when the Chaplain can wander round the messdecks, or organize some upper deck games or concerts for his parish. If they only see you at Morning Prayers, in the chapel, and on Sundays, then you are not doing your job. 17S By making contact in a quiet way each day, the men will gradually come to realize that (a) you like tlleir company, and (b) tllat you are tlleir friend. The latter must depend upon your own personality and the power to convince them that you never betray their confidence nor carry tales aft to the wardroom. A chaplain can easily be thought a spy, and therefore treated with reserve by the ship's company if the word is passed round that the Chaplain 'only comes for'ard to find out things' ... '76 On the other hand, it didn't do to dither on the messdecks: As you get to know your parish you'll find it easy to have a cup of tea in one of the messes at 'Stand Easy; but remember not to stay after the 'Carryon with your work' has been piped, otherwise you will be unpopular with the Chief Petty Officers, whose duty it is to see that the men leave the messdecks. I say this against myself, having been 'chased off' a messdeck for this reason. l77 Occasionally, however, the chaplain would learn of a grievance on the me sdecks: If you find during your visiting and your conversation with the ship's company that they are obviously unhappy about their leave ashore or the routine, have a private talk with the Commander; he will appreciate this, and knowing that you are trying to help him keep the men happy and contented, will look into the grievance and see how things can be adjusted. I " Another dimension of the chaplain's duties was welfare work in the event of personal difficulty with respect to family or finances: You will frequently have to assist men sort out some financial problem-in these days ratings marry young and often do not realize their liabilities until the first baby arrives, and the wife, who probably had a job previous to her confinement, can no longer assist the family income. Every Chaplain has his own views about lending money, but, in principle, I am certain one should never lend money to ratings. If we lend to one rating we should do it to similar 'hard cases' if one is to be consistent. One cannot do it officially, and if the ratings learn that you do lend money, you will be continually worried.'" Then there was bereavement, of which Beardmore sawall too much as the war and particularly the Blitz of Britain's cities unfolded in 1940-1:
171
Ibid., p. 18.
I12lbid.,p.14.
m Ibid., pp. I 1,12 & 24. ... Ibid., pp. 19-20. '" Ibid., pp. 18-19. 116 Ibid., p. 52. m Ibid. 1"lbid., pp. 54-5.
,,, Ibid., pp. 59-60.
144
The Batt/ecruiser HMS HOOD
The Admiralty inform the ship when the next-of-kin of a rating has died or been killed. It i worth while making an arrangement with the Captain that compassionate telegrams which are going to give the man a 'shock' should be handed to you. You can then send for the man concerned and break the news to him. The man will be grateful to you if you offer to assist him to word a leiter or telegram of condolence. If you have a chapel, suggest to him that you both go and pray for the person who has passed on, and for those who mourn, then leave him there in the only place in the ship where he can find peace... 180 aturally, such misfortune could occasionally have an adverse effect on a man's behaviour: The Commander will tell you that Able Seaman Bloggins, whose service record is good, has suddenly started breaking his leave, or getting drunk ashore, or committing disciplinary offences in the ship. Ask the Master-at-Arms to send the man to your cabin, sit him down, and have a friendly talk with him. It is possible that he will tell you what is the motive behind his strange behaviour. It may be some domestic trouble-his wife may have gone off with some other man, his house may have been bombed, and he's just fed up and 'going on the drink' to try and forget it. Ask the man if he would like you to tell the Captain what the trouble is. 1... 1 The Commander will tell you whether he has 'stood over' the case before dealing out punishment, or whether he has had to pass on the case to the Captain, for his jurisdiction. I' 1 However, as Admiral Sir William Davis recalled of his tenure as Commander of the Hood in 1939-40, the Captain's discipline was as nothing alongside a dressing-down by the Rev. Beardmore: A serious talk by the Chaplain was much more to be feared than literally hours of e":tra work! To this day I remember the occasion when I was seeing a real old-timer at the defaulters' table, for, I think, his usual offence of trying to give the Master-at-Arms a black eye on return from shore leave late at night. I said to the Master-at-Arms: 'Is this to be a Captain's Report or a talk by the Chaplain?' The accused burst out:' ot a talk again please, Sir, by the Chaplain. I will never get drunk again, but I shall never forget what he said to me last time'.I" 1110
Beardmore, The \Vaters of 60. Ibid., p. 55.
Uncerrai"r)~ p. 1'1
Cited in Taylor, The Sen ClIaplai/ls, p. 438. IS) Beardmore, The Warers of 18!
Uncertainty. pp. 41-2.
'" Ibid., pp. 42-3. 18$ Applegarth School archives, Beardmore to Miss Weighall, HMS Nelson, II July 1941. 186 Cited in Taylor, Tile Sea Chaplains, p. 438. 181 See Ch. 5, p. 129. "'twM, 91/711, pp.56-7. 189 lago. Letters (Scapa Flow, 17 November 1940). 190
Pert wee, Moon Boors and Dil/"er Suits, p.161.
But it was in battle that the chaplain really came into his own: The Chaplain's duty in action is to do what he can to strengthen the morale of his parishioners, especially those who have the unattractive jobs down below, jobs which demand that they have to wait until something happens, and when it does happen it is of course of an unpleasant nature, a bomb or a shell hitting the ship. These ratings form the damage control and repair parties. In times past it was possible to visit and talk to these men and make them realize how important they were, for one has to remember that the men who make up these parties are very often those who have not had the martial training of
a seaman, a stoker, or Royal Marine. They are for the most part inexperienced youngsters, stewards, cooks, N.A.A.F.1. Canteen Staff. The question is, therefore, frequently asked: 'Under such modern conditions which is the best place for the Chaplain?' To this question I would reply, that as soon as the Chaplain has gained experience of ships and men and really knows his parish, then one of the finest places for him in action is in some place on the bridge from which he can see everything and by means of a microphone broadcast to the ratings down below who have no idea what is happening. It is often difficult for the Captain to spare an experienced officer to play this part, while it is quite apparent that the person who does it must be some one in whom the officers and men will have confidence, and whose voice they will recognize. I" Beardmore seems first to have assumed the role of broadcaster at Mers-el-Kebir in July 1940, and on the morning of 24 May 1941 the measured delivery of his successor, the Rev. Patrick Stewart, was the last voice many of the Hood's men ever heard. However, during a lull in the action the chaplain's place was elsewhere: If there are casualties, they will be transferred to one of the Medical Distributing Stations during a lull in the action. You should arrange with the Medical Officers to inform you on the bridge when they think your presence necessary in either of the Medical Distributing Stations. They will know that you, as Chaplain of the ship, can be of the utmost assistance to them when things begin to happenoperations, etc. [... J You can, therefore, steady the uninjured who have never seen dead or dying men, and can also be of great help in inspiring a wounded man with confidence before an operation or surgical treatment. [... ]It is during such times as these that a Chaplain realizes the value of regular visits on the mess decks, and of taking every opportunity of keeping in touch with his parishioners and putting first things first. The Chaplain who has learnt to mix freely with both officers and men, sharing their everyday hazards, sunshine and squall, their laughter, their humour, and their domestic problems, is the man whose voice on the broadcaster they will be the first to welcome, and whose presence they will appreciate if they are in pain, or about to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. l84 Certainly, surviving memoirs of the Rev. Harold Beardmore, who died as Bishop of St Helena in 1968, leave little doubt as to his contribution to the Hood's morale before his departure to the Nelsoll in February 1941. Beardmore, who always took his bull terrier Bill to sea, could be relied on to raise spirits during the long night vigils, dispensing chocolate, chewing gum and an encouraging word to the watchkeepers. The many activities he organised on the messdecks from whist drives to 'Deep Sea Scouts' did much to keep the men's minds off the war. Nor did his work end with Hood's loss. After the sinking he was sent by the Admiralty to console next-of-kin in Portsmouth. l85 As Admiral Sir John de Robeck was once heard to say, 'Provided a ship has a good Commander and a good Chaplain you will never find anything much wrong with her'.I86
The Hood in Colour HE IMAGES ON THESE PAGES are stills from two colour films shot b)' the Hood's hief Engineer, Cdr (E) R.T. Grogan, who joined the ship on 5th Ma)' J 939 and peri hed with her two )'ears later. The footage, which was shot with a J 6mm cine-camera, dates from the summer of 1939 to the autumn of J 940 and reveals the ship from the lime of her full-power trials in June or Jul)' 1939, through the earl)' months of the war and finall), to the period following her 1editerranean interlude in the summer of J 940. The intended result, a film titled TIle IVllr frolll tile Hood with oundtrack, has )'et to come to light but the surviving footage provides a remarkable visual record of the ship as she entered the concluding phase in her life. Robert Terence Grogan was born in Kent in c.1901 and presumabl)' entered Dartmouth around the outbreak of the First World War. A brilliant engineer with a reputation for breakneck driving at Brooklands, Grogan was appointed to Hood having been Senior Engineer in the new crui er Sileffieid. But Grogan's main shipboard hobb), was film-making and sound recording. The latter not onl)' allowed him to record the King's radio broadcast while the rest of the wardroom slept off Christmas lunch in December 1940, but also to install a device beneath the log of the forward control platform to catch engine-room gossip
T
from Lt (E) Louis Le Baill)'.' The first showing of Grogan's uncut work appears to have been to a wardroom audience in OClober J 939. This material seems mainl)' to have been of the ship running full-power trial Ihat ummer (nos. 5-12) but no doubt included footage of the penrfisll episode the previous month (see p. J 90) when Grogan is recorded as having been on deck with his camera. The shots of the flag deck (no . 15-17) probabl)' also date from this period. Grogan was in action again in mid December when Hood escorted the first Canadian troop convo)' of the war into Greenock with Resoilltioll, ReplIlse and IVllrspite in compan)' (no. 2 J). The appearance of either Georges Leyglles or MOlltml1ll in one of the sequences suggests he was also filming during the patrol conducted with the French nav)' at the end of November. By early 1940 Grogan's work had been given sanction by the Admiralty and was being broadcast by British Gaumont News, though usually in black and white. Years later, Rear-Admiral Peter La Niece, a midshipman aboard in Ihe first months of J 940, recalled standing be ide Grogan as he shot some of the footage that has become the stock of countless war documentaries:
been issued with an official camera by the Admiralty. I was tanding right beside him when he took the very sequence which found its way into the archive and which still reappears time and again in documentaries on television; whenever I see thi clip of capital ships ploughing through heavy eas I am always reminded of these patrols' Grogan's camera appears again during the Hood's Mediterranean interlude, first at Gibraltar (no. 22) and then apparently during one of her sorties into the western basin. The last identifiable footage is of the ship at Rosyth in the autumn of J 940 (no. 23). Reports of further wardroom screenings in October J 940 indicate that Gr gan had shot footage of Hood and Ark ROylllunder Italian aerial bombardment in July or August but this ordeal is not among the frames captured here.' Perhaps in some forgotten loft or packing case lies a canister of film and its synchronized radiogram entitled Tile Wllr frolll tile Hood waiting to add a further dash of colour to her last )'ears. Let us hope so. I
The Engineer Commander was a movie camera buff and his reputation was such that he had
1 J
(ago. utters (Greenock, 25 December 1940), and Vjce-Admiral Sir Louis u Baill)'.letler to Ihe author. I Februar) 2()().1. La ~ie-Cited in Coles & Briggs. Flagship Hood, p.65. }4 Purser, 'Invergordon: First S.I
Hand-last Word?', p. 163. " Cited in Coles & Briggs, Flagship Hood, p.66. 56 Ereira, The J,,,,ergordotl Mutiny. p. 137. and CoI~, Itlvergordotl Scapegoat, pp. 130-1. 57
Pursey, 'In\'ergordon: First
Hand-last Word?', p. 163. " See also Coles & Briggs, Flagship Hood, pp. io-l.
o sooner had the last ship passed through the Sutors guarding the entrance to the Cromarty Firth than the aftermath of the Invergordon Mutiny began. On the evening of Thursday 17th the Hood's officers were invited to a S.O.D.. opera performed by the ship's company which, as Pursey recalled, 'treated [the] whole affair as one big lark'." But no one could be under any illusion as to the challenges that lay ahead. That morning married men on the 1919 scales had made it plain that they did not wish their hardship statements to be taken by
divisional officers with no experience of family affairs. Cdr McCrum obliged with the unprecedented step of himself receiving their statements in his cabin. It was the start of a new era in officer-sailor relations. Shortly after 06.30 on aturday 19 eptember the Hood docked at Portsmouth. Leave wa given until Monday evening and the pubs of Pompey filled with blabbing sailors, Communist agitators and badly disguised secret-service agents. Hardship statements continued to be taken, but on 21 September the government announced that the pay cuts would be reduced to a maximum of 10 per cent. In the event an order passed on I October placed the entire avy on the 1919 rates less II per cent. The lower deck could savour a victory of sorts but for the government and the avy the damage was done. ews of the mutiny had been followed by a run on the pound and within days it wa announced that Britain had been forced off the Gold Standard. Meanwhile, the Admiralty began to set its house in order through a policy of punitive action and vigorous self-exculpation. On 6 October Admiral Sir John Kelly, a confidant of King George V and much respected on the lower deck, succeeded Hodges as Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet. It was a condition of Kelly's acceptance that he be allowed to make a clean sweep of the fleet and sweep he did. He was particularly adamant that the Invergordon ringleaders be rooted out and expelled from the avy. Despite the amnesty promised by Chamberlain to Parliament after the fleet had left Invergordon, 120 men were confined to barracks before it sailed north in early October, ten of them from the Hood. 0 sooner had the general election of 27 October returned MacDonald's ational Government than most of these were discharged, the first of nearly 400 undesirables to be ejected from the avy over the next few months" or were these the only casualties. Despite favourable remarks on his conduct, in its zeal to absolve itself of blame the Board of Admiralty began gradually to lay responsibility for the mutiny at Tomkinson's door. There is certainly much in the view that Tomkinson allowed matters to develop by not preventing the meetings being held ashore, but his treatment by the Admiralty represents the final chapter in one of the most discreditable episodes in its history. After a decent amount of time had been allowed to elapse, on 2 February 1932 the Admiralty issued two letters addressed to Tomkinson, the first promoting him vice-admiral and curtailing his tenure as squadron commander by eight months, and the second censuring him for his handling of the mutiny. Of this Tomkinson received his first inkling by means of a BBC broadcast picked up in the Hood's WIT office as she layoff Trinidad on 16 February. Tomkinson fought a bitter rearguard action but it was to no avail and his career in the avy was broken. It is a measure of how out of touch the Admiralty was that no official investigation of the causes of the Invergordon Mutiny was ever carried out, a decision which provoked much criticism in the avy. Months after the event senior officers were still unaware whether their conduct had met with the approval of the Admiralty or if they would eventually join the list of casualties. The gulf-like gap between the views of the Board on the one hand and those of the officers who lived through it on the other is nowhere better demonstrated than in the extracts which follow. First the Admiralty's view, promulgated to the Atlantic Fleet in October:
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
The Board of Admiralty has given full consideration to the reports received on the serious refusal of duty which occurred in some of the principal hips of the Atlantic Fleet at Invergordon on the 15th-16th September last. otwithstanding the decision that, owing to the exceptional circumstances, no disciplinary action should be taken, this insubordinate behaviour was, in Their Lordships' opinion, inexcusable. Their Lordships note with great satisfaction that, in the whole of the rest of the avy, the ships' companies acted, at a very critical time, in accordance with the high tradition of the Service. They desire, however, to impress on all Officers and Men that this failure in discipline by a small part of the Fleet has done grave injury to the prestige of the whole avy and to the country. They look with confidence to every Officer and Man to do his utmost to restore the proud position the Royal avy has always had in the eyes of the world." Against this 'ineffable display of smugness' can be set Capt. Patterson's reasoned conclusions as to the cause of the mutiny, in which, like Tomkinson, his sympathy with the men is quite apparent: I am of the opinion that the primary cause of the intense outburst of feeling on the part of the lower ratings was the sudden shock they received in the announcement of the reductions without any previous preparation. The feeling of unjust treatment was sufficient to unite them and make them very easily influenced to take strong and concerted action on their own lines, rather than await more patiently the orthodox methods which they were convinced would not be effective in the short time available'o The gently chiding tone of Patterson's comments no doubt helped seal his fate as well, and he surrendered his command together with Tomkinson in August 1932. Within a few months, however, the Board that had presided over the Invergordon Mutiny was itself no more, and by year's end the Atlantic Fleet had become the Home Fleet. Historians will record that the 'quiet mutiny' was in fact less a mutiny than a strike, though it was one which after the frustrations of the Great War and the trials of the 1920s came close to destroying the Navy. Luckily, a new Board of Admiralty proved equal to the task of restoring its fortunes. For the Hood, too, a new regime awaited, one that, for a few fleeting years, brought her to the height of her glory. For the lower deck, meanwhile, the Invergordon Mutiny was looked back on as a rubicon in its relations with authority. As LS Sam Wheat put it, It did a bit of good. It did make them ee that you had
intelligent people in the Service, and that they were not going to be trampled on." How this realization affected the Hood is what concerns us next.
· .......t r--
155
The appointment of'Darby' Kelly brought a breath of fre hair to the Atlantic Fleet. 0 sooner had hi appointment taken effect than he was moving from ship to ship, addressing the men in their own pungent language, admitting past wrongs and attempting to instil confidence in the future. Anxious no doubt to lay a ghost, within a month of the mutiny Kelly had brought the fleet back to Invergordon for a week of intensive drill where earlier it had lain idle. Despite Kelly's report at the end of November that the fleet was at a high level of efficiency, morale remained low, particularly in the Hood which Tomkinson suggested should be recommissioned with a fresh crew. To have done so would have placed her in the same category as the Valiant and the Adventure, which were ignominiously paid off before the end of the year. The Admiralty refused and Christmas leave was taken early. In the ew Year Tomkinson led the Hood on a spring cruise to the Caribbean accompanied by Repulse, Norfolk, Dorsetsllire and Deilli. Under normal circumstances this might have acted as a huge fillip for morale but the cruise was overshadowed first by enormous seas between the Lizard and the Azores and finally by the news that both Tomkinson and Patterson had fallen victim to the attrition of senior officers that followed the mutiny. It is also clear that Tomkinson's personality made for an extremely unhappy wardroom, and by the time he hauled down his flag on IS August 1932 the Admiralty had reconsidered it earlier decision not to payoff the Hood. The arrival of Rear-Admiral William james that same day heralded a new era for the Hood, one which was to make a lasting impression on the avy as a whole. The collective sigh of relief is captured in a tanza by Paymaster Lt j.T. Shrirnpton, a member of Tomkinson's staff, penned two days before james' arrival: The summer days are on the wing, The bathers' cries are echoing, When news of a momentous thing Through the warm air goes humming; We hear the staff now softly sing, 'The King is dead-long live the King!' The new regime, the new regime, The new regime is coming.·' WiJJiam james was born into one of those upper-middle class families from which the avy has drawn much of its officer corp. His early years were blighted by the portrait of him as a child executed by his grandfather, the artist Sir john Millais, which, as the advertisement for Pear's soap, became one of the first icons of Briti h marketing. From this came an enduring nickname: 'Bubbles'. Despite this stigma, james entered the Navy where he was in the vanguard of officers who embraced the revolution in gunnery led by Admiral Sir Percy Scott at the turn of the twentieth century. He first came to prominence in 1909 as Gunnery Officer of the crui er alai, his crews smashing all records for speed and accuracy during the annual firing competitions of the Home Fleet. More even than his technical ability, james had the gift of drawing the best out of his men and when W.R. Hall, his last captain in the Natal, was appointed to the battlecruiser Queen Mary in 1913, james followed as executive officer." Between them, HaJJ and james refined the divisional system and devised a revolutionary watch routine destined to be adopted by all British capital ships on the out-
" Reproduced in Divine. Milt;"! at It1vergordon. pp. 208-9. .. PRO, ADM 178/110, Pan",on',
Report of Proceedings. p. 6; Tomkinson's conclusions in his Report of Proceeding', 22 September 1931, p. 13, are
remarkably similar. " IWM/SA, no. 5807. 62IShrimptonJ. Verses. p. 3. 6J James, The Sky h't1s Alulays Blue,
pp.77-ll2.
156
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
first time in my eighteen years al sea I was told what the peacetime job of the Royal avy was. To train for war in order to keep the peace. To 'show the flag'. In home waters to show the British public what they were paying for and abroad to be good ambassadors for Great Britain. From then on it was 'tails up'.·'
Vice-Admiral William James inspecting the port side of the boat deck abreast the forward funnel in 1933 or 1934. Inboard, covered in a grille, is one of the vents for 'A' and 'B' boiler rooms. Third from right is It-Cdr J.H. Ruck-Keene; fifth from right is Capt. F.T.B. Tower and next to him is Cdr Rory O'(onor. It was under James that the Hood began her lengthy recovery from the Invergordon Mutiny. HMS Hood AssociationlWillis Collection
break of the Great War. This implemented, they turned to conditions aboard, and it was in this ship that cinema, a chapel, bookstall and electric washing machines made their first appearance afloat in the Royal Navy. ext they saw to improved bathing facilities for stokers and allowed petty officers to rearrange their accommodation in line with their new standing in the Service. James left the Queerl Mary in January 1916, just months before she was destroyed at Jutland, but the ideas and procedures pioneered in her were enshrined in New Battleship Organisations, the influential manual on ship husbandry he completed early that same year. M The Hood therefore provided fertile ground for James' particular talents, and rarely can a ship have needed them more. As he later wrote, I never met a more unhappy party than when I relieved Tomkinson. He and his Flag Captain Patterson were at daggers drawn, and the Commander, McCrum, had lost all interest through being hunted by Tomkinson whose habit it was to find fault with everything.·s
M
65
Cdr W.M. James, New Battleship Organisations and Notes for Executive Officers (Portsmouth: Gieve's, 1916). CAe, ROSK, card index.
James. Tile Sky \Vas Always BIlle, p.163. "HMS Hood Association archives, Address to the Association, 24 May 1980. in 1980 newsletter, p. 2. .. Wincotl, Juvergorrlotl Mutineer, 66
p. 69
n.
James, Tile Sky \Vas Always Bille, p.179.
As so oflen , James broughl with him as Flag Captain a companion from earlier days, in this case Thomas Binney, his executive officer in the cruiser Hawkins. It was to prove an inspired choice. Judging that the Hood had 'a first-rate lot of officers and a fine ship's company', within weeks these two had persuaded the Admiralty to drop its decision to pay her off, judging this 'a confession that it was beyond the powers of naval officers to dispel the gloomy atmosphere and restore vitality and happiness'." But restore them they did. James' overture to the crew on his arrival set the tone for the rest of her peacetime career. Admiral Longley-Cook remembers the occasion: We sailed to Southend and again on a Sunday forenoon 'clear lower deck, everyone aft'. He addressed us. How differently! '1 am proud to have joined you' and for the
True to his word, James' tenure began with week-long visits to Sou thend and then Hartlepool, one of the towns worst affected by Ihe Depression. Children's parties were held aboard and entertainments arranged for the men ashore. At Hartlepool the ship played the town at water polo and hundreds of jobless miners were invited aboard to have tea with the men. As a display of the Admiralty's new sensitivity it could hardly have been bettered. Apart from eliciting some dreadful stanzas of poetry from James, the Hood's visit to Hartlepoollefl a lasting impact on one small boy who had to content himself with admiring her from afar: Ted Briggs. Thereafter the ship went from strength 10 slrength. Kelly's campaign to restore confidence and morale after Invergordon turned on a relentless programme of drill, exercises, training, discipline, housekeeping and sport, and James did not disappoint. Within the space of a year the Hood, showing unusual proficiency in gunnery, had demolished a battle practice target, won the fleet anti-aircraft gunnery competition and become 'Cock of the Fleet' at the Home Fleet Regatta in May 1933. In Oclober of that year a landing party near Invergordon was performed with such enthusiasm that James had to rebut claims, splashed in banner headlines around the world, that the Hood was in the grip of another mutiny. Apart from Ihe leadership provided by James and Binney, the recovery of the Hood's morale owes much to her executive officer, Cdr C.R. McCrum, to his right-hand man and Mate of the Upper Deck, the ex-lower deck Lt-Cdr Harry Pursey, to the First Lieutenant Lt-Cdr Eric Longley-Cook, and to Engineer Cdr A.K. Dibley. Among the Hood's officers were at least two more who had benefited from the Mate Scheme, Lt (E) Ernest Mill (later a rear-admiral) and Sub-Lt T.J.G. Marchant. Pursey seems to have had a share of unpopularity as 'the Commander's nark' but the fact that three of the ship's officers had begun their careers on the lower deck cannot have been lost on the crew and such evidence as survives suggests an unprecedented entel1te between officers and men in the months and years after Invergordon. There is evidence, too, that the broader outlook of the engineer officer began to make itself felt in relations with the lower deck; men who, in Len Wincott's words, were 'not dependent for prestige on any particular show of aloofness from the mob'." Like so much else in the locust years, the mechanics of this process now seems lost to posterity, but the accomplishment is real enough. Though largely overshadowed by the regime that followed it, there can be no doubl Ihat Ihe successes of the mid-1930s would not have been possible without the qualities of leadership shown after Invergordon. James did not strike his flag until the summer of 1934, but when he recalled his lenure as having been surrounded by 'officers and men who had responded eagerly to everything I had asked of them ... in an atmosphere of happiness and high endeavour', it was to the 1931-3 commission that he was referring above all.·9 Yet it was not all happiness. Morale had improved markedly but problems remained which lay at the heart of the crisis affecting the avy as a whole. The
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
Invergordon Mutiny exposed many failings in naval organisation, but in shipboard life it did so in three areas above all: in the widespread disillusion over prospects and promotion; in the strained relations that existed between departments; and finally in the failure of the divisional ystem in which the Admiralty had reposed such confidence. The restoration of the Hood as the greatest ship in the lavy in the years to come cannot be understood without reference to these issues. Through the 1920s promotion to leading seaman and petty officer had been slowed by the great numbers of men who had achieved higher rating during the First World War. Although a man was entitled to take the examination for leading seaman at 21, it might be six or seven years before a vacancy allowed him to be rated accordingly. Wincott was a case in point, passing quickly for leading seaman but still an AB at the time of his discharge from the Navy several years later. This situation provoked considerable resentment on the lower deck, and it is no surprise that the Hood's petty officers and chief petty officer did their best to keep out of the way during the 'breeze' at Invergordon. Their unenviable position is captured in a paragraph of Tomkinson's official report: The attitude of the Petty Officers from the outset appears generally to have been a passive one. They carried on with their own work, but made little attempt to get the lower ratings to work, and on Wednesday 116 September) it was reported to me that some Petty Officers were showing signs of joining up with the disaffected men. This was to be expected as time went on, since their sympathy was with the men in their grievance, if not with their method of indicating it.'" Nonetheless, by the late 1930s many considered that the petty officer of the Royal avy was not the man he had been twenty years earlier. Francis Pridham, Captain of the Hood between 1936-8, puts it in perspective: One too often hears it said that our Petty Officers are a poor lot and are of a lower standard as such than they have been in past. I believe this is an exaggeration. It has never been within my experience to find a high proportion of Petty Officers individually competent to influence a ship's company. For this we have always been dependent on a few outstanding Petty Officers possessing high qualities of character and personality. These Petty Officers have not acquired these qualities through training; they are still to be found, and I believe always will be. It is unreasonable, however, to expect a high percentage." Do not expect too much of your Petty Officers. We cannot expect that their standard shall be a very level one; large numbers are being made and many are of very limited experience. Endeavour to avoid putting one in charge of a job without first discovering whether he knows how to set about it." Certainly, a petty officer's rating was not one to which as many men of real ability now aspired. Enormous damage was done by the mutiny itself, which disillusioned younger men as to the value of 3 naval career at the very moment when the older were
157
beginning to retire into civilian life." Some looked elsewhere, but the 'hungry '30s'left most with little alternative but to sign on for a second term of ervice. During the 1930s the Navy therefore found itself saddled with a rump of long-service ratings whose sole ambition was to reach Pen ion Age with the least possible sacrifice of energy. These men, the 'three-badge Barnacle Bills' of the battlefleets, not only resisted promotion but poured scorn on the ambitions of younger men, ridiculing the 'killick' anchor device which denoted a leading seaman's rating and undermining his authority on the messdecks. '0 wonder Capt. Rory O'Conor, late of the Hood, admitted of leading seamen in 1937 that many'cannot say boo to a goose'." But, as Capt. Pridham told his officers, even younger petty officers had difficulty keeping the older men in line: Keep your eye on the older Able Seamen. In these days the fact that an Able Seaman is wearing three badges, or ought to be, is in many cases proof of his unsuitability. Their influence with the younger men is considerable and frequently bad. [... 1 Bear in mind that the young Petty Officers and Leading Seamen have a difficult job. They find them elves in charge of men older than themselves (to whom the young seamen defer) and some of these will endeavour to trip them up. If you spot any sign of insolence or disobedience do not wait for the Petty Officer to complain or run him in." However, as Pridham recognised, resistance to promotion and the responsibilities that went with it ran deep on the lower deck. The system introduced by the avy to accelerate the promotion of suitable characters, the so-called 'Red-ink recommend', enjoyed only limited acceptance among the men: It is also our business to instruct and educate our men with a view to inducing ambition to better their position in the ervice, a distinct from their rates of pay. It is well known that few men on the Lower Deck regard special promotion with any enthusiasm. Trade Unionism and an innate fidelity to their own kind limit their aim to one of general security, i.e. equal opportunity to rise steadily on a pay scale. The principle underlying the 'Red recommend' is foreign to their upbringing and environment and is regarded with suspicion. The Service aspect does not enter their head. I... ] Few men volunteer readily to move outside the ordinary run." The result by the mid-1930s was that the Navy had in ufficient men of calibre for higher rating, a state of affairs that was not reversed until improved wages, expansion and the approach of war altered the views and prospects of the lower deck. Despite his plans, it was often Barnacle Bill's fate to see his term of service extended through the war years, though, as Wincott recalled, he and his like 'were to prove their worth a hundredfold at Dunkirk' and in a thousand battles aftern Nor did the tensions end there. Friction among seaman ratings over the issue of promotion was matched by that between the various departments into which the lower deck was divided: eamen, artisans and artificers, stokers and Marines. These not only served very different functions but inhabited separate messes and barely fraternised with one another. Ron Paterson,
'" PRO, ADM 178/110, Reporl of 71
Proceedings, p. 12. Pridham, 'lectures on Mutin)", Part I: 'Prevention', pp. 5-6.
n Pridham.· oles for Newly Joined Officer' (January 1938), p. 5. 7J Carew, The Lower Deck, pp. 176-7. "RBS. p. 107. ;'! Pridham, 'Notes', pp. 2 & 6. '. Ibid., p. 5. ~ Wincott, bn'ergordotl Mutineer, p.ln.
158
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
Cited in Rogers. 'H.M.S. Hood', p.40. "I\'I'M/SA, no. 749, p. 19. iI
0>
Boy Seaman and aD in Hood between 1933-6, describes the situation:
RBS,p. 64.
'1lBrowne),'A Low Tech
aval
Landing Party', p. 263.
Of course, you didn't meet anyone outside your own department, so the only time you'd meet the engineering lot and the Marines would be on shore, when there was a sports day." Divisions of this sort were of course in the nature of any large and sophisticated community, but they were greatly exacerbated by conditions in the avy as the 1920s wore on. The Artisan Branch, which comprised no more than 5 per cent of the crew, consisted of tradesmen-shipwrights, blacksmiths, joiners, painters and plumbers-recruited from civilian life to perform essential maintenance of the ship and her fittings. While a majority of the crew observed a four-hour watch system, artisans, who were designated as 'daymen', generally worked regular daytime hours and turned in at night like civilians. Equally, whereas the hands were roused at 05.30 to clean ship, artisans enjoyed what was known as 'Guard and Steerage', the right to stay in their hammocks until 06.00 or 06.30. This, together with their higher pay and petty officer's rank and uniform, was the cause of much resentment on the lower deck, to which their unfortunate official designation as 'Idlers' lent some credence. Plumber 4th Class Ernest Taylor, a veteran of c. J 926-8, recalls the atmosphere:
Fraternisation between seamen and Marines at Malta in the late
19305. Rare before the 19305 but an indication of the changing character and morale of the Navy as war approached. HMS Hood Association/Higginson Collection
The only compliment we used to get was that we were the idle rich ... and that summed us up in a way of speaking to the lower deck .... They didn't seem to appreciate the work we did, and of course the fact that we ... weren't raised from our hammocks until six or six-thirty... I think generally speaking-just generally speaking-the lower deck was a little bit jealous of that, that we had this extra hour, and of course we were, well, the nobodies if you like, except in the trousers."
Though subject to the same norms of service and advancement as artisans, the critical role performed by artificers in maintaining the ship's engineering, electrical and gunnery systems spared them the same degree of opprobrium. Even so, Cdr O'Conor did well to ensure that Every hammock in the ship should be lashed up and stowed by 06.45 on every morning of the commission, including Sunday and not excluding anyone ... 80 But such tensions were trivial compared to those which often prevailed between seamen and the Royal Marines. The ancestors of the Royal Marines had first gone to sea in the 1660s, but the role of the avy's sea soldiers and the discipline for which the Corps was known had maintained a clear distinction between them and their seaman shipmates. The 'leathernecks' as sailors called them were not only'sworn men' but preserved a martial bearing which was anathema to most seamen. While the Marine regarded his seaman counterpart with 'tolerance bordering on condescension' in military matters, the latter viewed him as generally somewhat lacking in imagination in everything else" Neither view had much to recommend it. The skill and calibre of the Marines was widely respected and the ship's band was one of the great assets of life afloat. But at Invergordon it was the sailor's traditional suspicion of the Marines as the officers' first line of defence against mutiny that had reared its ugly head. Though it flared briefly in the Hood this sentiment developed no further because cooler heads kept her Marine detachment in its barracks on the upper deck. By contrast, relations between stokers and Marines were generally good, even if the only point of agreement was a mutual dislike of seamen. The engineering revolution of the late nineteenth century brought large numbers of stokers into the Royal Navy, men whose arrival had a profound impact on the tenor of life afloat. If ailors deplored the stoker's lack of training in seamanship and pitied him his existence in the bowels of the ship, then the latter, who enjoyed better pay, considered theirs a less monotonous and regulated way of life. The differences did not end there. Whereas boy seamen joined the Navy at sixteen, the stoker was often recruited in his twenties from the industrial and mining centres of Britain and consequently po sessed a very different outlook and mentality. Indeed, with neither the attachment to naval tradition of the seaman nor his connection to the age-old forcing grounds of the Service, stokers added a breadth to the Navy which contributed greatly to its character if not its harmony. The discordance was perpetuated by the Admiralty which, in failing to acknowledge the critical role of naval engineering, failed also to provide stokers with the necessary formation to make good that potential. This state of affairs was but one aspect of the reluctance of the inter-war Navy to embrace the technical realities of its caJling, from which every branch suffered in one way or another. By no means, then, could it be said of the Hood that she was 'of one company'. In her, as elsewhere in the Navy, it required officers of the very highest calibre to bridge the gap between distinct worlds. That the opportunity and the men were found to do so before the onset of war is to the eternal credit of both. By the late 1920s the mechanisms reluctantly established by the avy to attend to lower-deck requests and grievances had
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
quietly fallen into stagnation. With them went the lower-deck societies which, having been deprived of their capacity for representation in 1920, could offer little incentive for membership. The Admiralty, for its part, had begun to empha i e that the correct channel for welfare issues lay not in collective representation but in the relationship between an individual rating and his commanding officer: the divisional system. The divisional system of warship organisation was refined by Capt. Hall and Cdr James in the battlecruiser Queen Mary shortly before the Great War. This began by separating the crew into a dozen or more groups based on their trade and the part of the ship for which they were responsible. Each division was placed under a lieutenant or lieutenant-commander who was charged with its discipline, training, clothing and organisation. It was also the divisional officer's responsibility to familiarise himself with the personal circumstances of each man and provide him not only with coun el and assistance in domestic and service matters, but also with an avenue for voicing grievances if necessary. But it was in this, the most critical area of its organisation, that the divisional system had proved unequal to the demands placed on it in the years leading up to the Invergordon Mutiny. For one thing it was neither accessible nor equitable enough to function effectively. Any sailor wishing to speak to his officer was required to make out a written request and hand it to the divisional petty officer who would then submit it to the officer in question. The interview it elf might be witnessed by the divisional petty officer with perhaps even a 'crusher' in attendance. Moreover, the statutory punishments for those bringing charges or voicing complaints that were subsequently judged to be unfounded naturally dissuaded many from taking their problem to officers in the first place. Even if the complainant were vindicated, the liability of being a 'marked man' thereafter was often viewed as being too great to warrant the risk. When a man did approach his officer it was often to meet with a frosty reception. On the eve of the Invergordon Mutiny an attempt by a chief petty officer in the Hood to warn his divisional officer of the plans that were afoot received the order to 'Get below or you're in the Commander's report for prosecution in the morning'." either the modifications made to the King's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions in this respect in 1929 nor those added after Invergordon could dispel the overriding impression on the lower deck that ... you had nobody to represent you in the Navy in those days .... I don't think [the officersl would stand up for you, not the lower-deck man, not at that time." Evidently, the success or failure of the divisional system depended on the degree of interest shown by the officer concerned. To ome extent this interest depended on morale, and the morale of the officer corps of the Royal Navy had been destroyed by the Geddes Axe of 1921 which beached a third of its number. But where the Admiralty proved itself incapable of effedive leadership in this matter one officer set himself to influence his peers with a tested paradigm. That officer was Rory O'Conor. His paradigm was HMS Hood.
.....111>_Rory Chambers O'Conor was born into an Anglo-Irish family
159
in Buenos Aire in 1898.84 In 1911 he entered the Royal aval College at Osborne and spent much of the Great War in the gunroom of the pre-dreadnought Prince of Wales in which he saw action in the Dardanelles. A formidable sportsman, O'Conor represented the avy at rugby between 192Q-4,leading the nited Services team during the 192 1-2 season. His appointment to the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert on being promoted lieutenant in 1919 was an early sign of favour but it was as a divisional officer in the battleship Barham between 1921-2 that he first came to prominence, Capt. Robin Dalglish noting his 'exceptionally good command of men'." Specialising in gunnery, he divided most of the next ten years between HMS Excellent, the gunnery school in Portsmouth Harbour, and various shore and seagoing appointments including the cruiser Emerald and the battleships Resolution and Royal Sovereign. Promoted commander in 1931, it was while he was on the staff of Excellent that 0' onor learnt of his selection as the Hood's executive officer, an appointment which took effect when she recommissioned at Portsmouth in August 1933. Despite being the subject of an ample biography the reasons for O'Conor's preferment at the age of only 34 remain unclear. His zeal and talent apart, the appointment seems to have owed much to Admiral Sir John Kelly, Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, under whom he had served in the Reso/utioll in the Mediterranean in 1924-5. Whatever the case, O'Conor was one of a generation of younger officers determined to take a hand in restoring the tarnished prestige of the avy; for whom the surest means to a happy and successful ship lay in a genuine interest in the welfare of her men; for whom the Royal avy was great enough to afford every man the chance of a fair hearing; for whom punishment existed chiefly to maintain discipline rather than to enforce compliance, and for whom the mere exercise of that discipline could never substitute for engaging the men as befitted their skills and responsibility. Above all, O'Conor and his like brought to their work both a heightened sensitivity to the plight of the ordinary sailor and an enhanced perception of his value as an individual. Among the first of this band wa Sir Atwell 'Lou' Lake, Bt., who as executive officer of the elson had been among the few to emerge with any credit from Invergordon. Although a more formal officer than O'Conor, it was Lake' force of character, love of ship and respect for his men that had made the difference in Nelson in September 1931. Another was C.R. McCrum who e tact and powers of leadership delivered into O'Conor's hands a vessel ripe for the changes he would bring to her life and organisation. Far more than her flag-showing, the Hood's reputation as the greatest ship in the Navy during the 1930s rests on the leading role she played in the introduction of a new dialogue between officers and men, to which first McCrum and then O'Conor made a vital contribution. The task of executive officer in a capital ship was among the most challenging the avy had to offer. Admiral Lord Chatfield, whose two-volume autobiography is one of the finest evocations of life in the Royal Navy ever written, provides the following descriptions of a commander's lot:
There is no greater test of character in the world than to be the executive officer of a big ship. Many shun the responsibility and seek a less exacting duty, such as the command of a small ship; but few captains can efficiently
"
MM, PurseJ'1J4, part 3 of book draft, p. 59.
IJ IW~V
A. Stoker 1st Class Nicholas miles Carr. no. 5809.
we Ta'"erner, A Torch Among Tapers (Bramber. '\T. Sussex.: Bernard Durnford, 2000). "Ibid., p. 10. ...
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
160
Chatfield, Tile Nail)' ami Defence, pp.Sl &77. 81 Cited in Tavcrner,A Torch Among Tapers. p. 223. .. RBS, p. 21. At;
.. Ibid., p. 10.
command a great ship's company unless they themselves have been through the mill, can realize the Commander's difficulties day by day and feel the pulse of his men. If the executive officer of a big ship ... wishes to succeed he must, as a first rule, know everything that goes on in the ship. He must be constantly visiting every part of it and be closely in touch with the ship's company's life and thought. He will thus understand his men, rectify just grievances in time and stop abuses before they can spread. His capacity will be accurately appraised by his officers and still more accurately by the ship's company, who will soon take his measure, and the evilly inclined soon know how far they can go in safety." Equally, the price of failure was very great. Remote as the captain often was from the men, the commander was unquestionably the key figure in the life of a major ship. On him depended the spirit with which his crew approached every endeavour. For him they might either do the least they could get away with or else slog their guts out. O'Conor's arrival in the Hood provided an early indication of how the orchestra of shipboard life was to be tuned for the rest of the commission. Louis Le Bailly, then a midshipman, remembers the occasion in August 1933: I suppose the greatest impact was when he tore up the voluminous Standing Orders and substituted his own 'Ten Commandments'. Their introduction to the new ship's company was dramatic. There was ... a magic lantern on the quarterdeck and the ten were put on one by one as he explained their relevance. Then almost from a puff of smoke,
CDR RORY O'CONOR'S 'TEN COMMANDMENTS', AUGUST
1933
Admiral Sir John Kelly, so beloved by the sailor, appeared from the after hatchway and gave a stirring address." Implicit in O'Conor's 'Ten Commandments' was the notion that every man who gave of his best could expect fairness, respect and consideration from his superiors; that there were rewards for hard work, and that no one could go very far wrong so long as he kept the interests of the ship at the forefront of his mind; that no ship could be regarded as successful if she were not happy, and that all had a share in this endeavour. Never before had such a contract been laid before the lower deck of the Royal Navy, nor was such a system ever sold to her officer corps in such persuasive terms. The assessment of the 1933--{) commission which follows is based not only on the memoirs of those who lived it, but on Rwming a Big Ship on 'Ten Commandments', the influential manual on ship organisation O'Conor published a year after leaving the Hood. The linchpin of the Hood's 'Ten Commandments' was O'Conor himself. What set him apart was his accessibility with respect to the entire crew, of which the outward sign was his celebrated open-door policy. In the course of the day's work innumerable people have business to do with the Commander of a big ship, and his ready accessibility is a matter of importance. Even with a properly decentralised organisation, it is inevitable that the Commander should be constantly sought after for consultation, advice, approval, permission, information, and a hundred and one other reasons. r... ] The Commander wants to feel free to wander about the ship at will, seeing the hands at work and getting to know them. But there is a time for everything, and there should be at least one hour, both in the forenoon and afternoon, when the whole ship knows that there is one place where he can almost certainly be found, and available."
SHIP'S STANDING ORDERS I The Service The Customs of the Service are to be observed at all times. 2 The Ship The Good Appearance of the Ship is the concern of everyone in Hood, and all share the responsibility for this. 3 The Individual Every man is constantly required to bring credit to the Ship by his individual bearing, dress and general conduct, on board and ashore. 4 Courtesy to Officers The courtesy of making a gangway, and standing to one side to attention when an officer passes, is to be shown by every man. If an Officer passing through men during stand-easy, meal hours, etc., carries his cap under his arm, it will indicate that no attention, other than clearing a gangway, is required. 5 Execution of Orders All orders, including those passed by Bugle and Pipe, are to be obeyed at the Run.
6 Punctual Attendance at Place of Duty Every man is personally responsible, on all occasions, for his own punctual attendance at his place of duty. 7 Permission to Leave Work A man is always to ask permission before leaving his work. S Reporting on Completion of Work Any man on finishing the work for which he has been told off, is to report to his immediate superior. Parties of men are to be fallen in and reported. 9 Card-playing and Gambling While card-playing is allowed at mess-tables and on the upper deck, any form of gambling is strictly prohibited. Gambling includes all games of chance played for money stakes. J0 Requests Any man wishing to see the Commander is to put in a request to his Officer of Division. In urgent cases his request is to pass through the Master-atArms and Officer of the Watch.
That place was his day cabin. Mindful of Invergordon, here O'Conor acted out the central tenet of his ethos: that it was an officer's duty to make himself a channel for the problems and grievances of those placed under hin,; that it was his responsibility to ensure that every man could turn to him for a fair hearing: In a great ship's company, there must inevitably arise every variety of problem for the individuals composing itproblems of life, love, leave, illness, death, and hardship of all kinds arising from work, pay, food, sleep, to mention only a few. No request must be ignored-all must be considered and given a sympathetic hearing, and the men encouraged to come forward." The other visible sign of this interest was the length to which O'Conor went to memorise the names of the Hood's 1,300 crewmen. Although he tacitly admitted being able to hold no more than 600 in his mind at one time, the general impression was and remains that he came to know the name of every man on board. Whatever the reality, the endeavour had a marked impact on the atmosphere aboard: Until you know a man's name he has no separate identity for you. Directly you know it, a bridge is slipped across the
Disaster alln Recovery, 1931-1936
gap and you very quickly begin to know a lot of other things too-so will he." An essential part of O'Conor's philosophy was what he called 'consideration for the men' on the part of their officers. This elCtended from reducing the amount of time libertymen had to waste waiting for boats and drifters to the introduction of a revised weekend routine which at last gave the crew the complete day of rest prescribed in the King's Regulations. He also saw to it that an off-duty watch was never roused elCcept in the event of an emergency. Many of these innovations were no more than the application of common sense to irksome naval tradition, of which his winter and foul-weather routines are typical elCamples: No good purpose is served by falling men in at 06.00 on a
161
wild and wet morning, and possibly also in the dark and cold, to scrub the decks, either at sea or in harbour. I... ]In the winter especially it becomes a farce--water is swilled over decks which are neither properly scrubbed nor properly dried ... , and the result is a muddy and sodden deck. [... 1 It is wiser to wait for daylight, when the elements are better faced by men who have already breakfasted"
The Forth Bridge seen from Hood's boat deck. Rosyth. 1934.
But when the men did turn out at the crack of dawn O'Conor was there among them. For him it was alCiomatic that the Commander's leadership was borne of elCample: He stands in a special and unique position in regard to his hands, and in his mind's eye there should always be a continuous and up-to-date picture of their work and of the routine. Ifhe is not up at the start of the day, he will never
.. Ibid., p. 87. .. Ibid., pp. S5--{;.
162
"Ibid., p. 47. ,) Ibid.. p. 9. .. Ibid., pp. 56-7. .. Ibid., pp. 157-8. .. Ibid., pp. H. yO Ibid., p. 9. .. Ibid., p. 6.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
have the same grasp as the Commander who makes it his duty to be there. And if he is not there at the beginning, how is he to appreciate the conditions for scrubbing decks on cold, dark and wet mornings or in rough weather? If on such occasions the Commander, in deciding to give a lie-in to the hands, is also giving one to himself, he is far less likely to overlook the occasions when such indulgence is justified and necessary, as it not infrequently is." O'Conor also took steps to miligate the constant disruption of work and leisure brought on by the need for men to stand aside and come to attention whenever an officer passed by. Henceforth, an officer carrying his cap needed no special attention otherthan being given room to pa s.lfthisapproach contributed to what he called 'the ideal state of every man knowing what is required of him' then it also had the effect of building a sense of community in the ship.OJ As he put it, If these rules are faithfully observed, a man has a chance to feel a sense of peace and security in his leisure time on board, and to think of his ship as his home ... rather than a place of duty only... , which is all for the good of those leading the abnormal and crowded life of a ship." That sense of community was assured once a man formed an attachment of pride for his ship. Indeed, a ship's community need not be confined to her crew:
Some of Hood's 'total family' dancing on the forecastle with their men, c.1935. Cdr O'Conor was the first officer to embrace
the wider community represented by the sailors' families and involve it in the life and morale of his ship. HMS Hood Auoc~rioNWjf/is CoIl«rion
There is no surer way to increase a man's pride in his ship than for those who are near and dear to him to feel proud of her too. It is impossible to show too much courtesy and consideration in welcoming friends and relations on board on every occasion when it is possible for them to be invited. [... J A strictly legal definition of the term 'Ship's Company' embraces every person borne on her books. But in practice, if it is possible by the warmth of the welcome they are given to make all families feel that they also belong, then the company of a big ship becomes multiplied from one thousand to several thousands. To have so great a
community bound together both by family affection and by pride of ship mu t influence her fortunes decisively." Evidence of O'Conor's interest in this wider community is provided in the census of the crew and their dependants which survives in his album of the commission (see Appendix III). It reveals, among other things, that the Hood's 'total family' of crewmen, wives and children numbered 2,562 souls. In his concern for such matters, in the role and impact of a warship in wider society and vice versa, Rory O'Conor was years ahead of his time. But pride was also bound up with the appearance of the ship and O'Conor laid a great, and indeed excessive, stress on smartne s, cleanliness and paintwork: It is sometimes lightly assumed that the ship's appearance is the concern only of a small hierarchy which includes the Commander, the hief Boatswain's Mate, the Captains of Ihe Tops and the Side, and perhaps a few others. 0 ship was ever kept clean except by the co-operation of all hands, and this needs hammering in, with emphasis on the ways in which every individual can help. [... J Everyone must be jealous of the ship's appearance and must make his contribution, and above all, he must avoid making unnecessary work for others who are striving to keep the ship as she should look." In this respect O'Conor was found to be the determined enemy not only of the man who skulked off leaving his companions to complete the most disagreeable chores but also of those who spoilt their hard work. First the skulker: All the world hates a skulker-it must hate him-why hould a man slide away and leave hi mates to finish off a job, perhaps an unpleasant one and in bad weather? The worst of skulking is that it can easily become infeetiousstop it at once. There is only one treatment for deliberate skulking, and that is' 14 days o. 11.'07 ext the despoiler: If a man is caught leaning on the paintwork, throwing fagends or any other rubbish on the deck, emptying slops out of a scuttle, leaning on the guardrails, or in fact doing anything that spoils the ship's appearance but, worse still, spoils some other man's good work, then put him as a sentry on the upper deck after hours, and leave him there until he catches someone else offending against the ship; that man then goes before the Officer of the Watch and takes over as a sentry.o, Visitors to the ship during avy Week in August 1935 were greeted on deck with placards like this: 'IT COSTS £135 TO PAINT THIS SHIP. VVE PAINT, YOU PAY. DON'T
POlL THE PAINTWDRK BY TOUCHING, LEANING, OR
STRIKING MATCHES ON IT.'
Another of O'Conor's pet peeves was the boathook, roughl)' wielded against the immaculate sides of his battlecruiser:
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
v"hy should it be necessary for a boat leaving the gangway to give the nicely painted side a good push with her boathooks every time, and so damage the paintwork right alongside the front doorstep? [... J The order to the engines to go ahead is sufficient to warn the crew to let go fore and aft, and away she goes without of any of this 'Shove off forrard' business. Devastating work on the side is done by those who forget that when their boats are lying in a tideway they need steering all the time." Clearly, some of this could be taken a bit far in a vessel which in the course of ordinary events was likely to receive harsher treatment than that dealt her by a boathook or matelot's shoulder. Boys Fred and Frank Coombs, twin brothers from Sheffield, were among those who fell foul of O'Conor's regulations: The number of dos and don'ts on the Upper Deck such as leaning on the Guard Rails or being incorrectly dressed and lounging about seemed to make the Upper Deck a good place to keep clear of if we wanted to keep out of trouble. 'do But tiresome as his men found it, under O'Conor's stewardship the Hood brought to a pinnacle the art of ship adornment nurtured by the avy since the age of elson. There was, however, a penalty for this zeal for gleaming paint and that lay in the many tons of it which had to be scraped off her from 1936 onwards. Many of these measures and devices were not of themselves new. The entry punishment, for instance, had been employed by 'Lou' Lake in the elSOIl. But never had they been brought to bear on the management of a ship's company in such a concentrated and energetic manner. nderpinning O'Conor's tyle was his notably human and liberal approach to discipline. As in any ship, the barometer of the Hood's morale and discipline lay at the requestmen and defaulter's table, and above all the equanimity with which the Commander dealt with the cases that passed before him. First requestmen: Every request should be given careful consideration, and request men mu t feel assured of a sympathetic hearing. If a request has to be refused, the reason should be explained and the man given the option of coming up again if he wants to, or if necessary of seeing the Captain.'·' Then defaulters, of whom around 3,000 came cap in hand to O'Conor's table in the Commander's lobby over the course of the 1933-6 commission: The majority of small offences are committed by thoughtlessness or mischance and not by intention, and after one solemn warning most men are careful not to reappear as defaulters. [... 1 Long-drawn-out punishments are seldom necessary or desirable; the Commander should see all the more serious offenders again on the conclusion of their punishment, when he may be able to give them wise counsel and to urge them to go and sin no more. 102
163
for doing his best, and when he sins, of sinning in ignorance or from forgetfulness. Then, if he still fails, those in authority can afford to act calmly, seeing that they are backed by the authority of the whole Service and the aval Discipline Act, with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and aJlthe Commons in support.'·' Against the yardstick of his 'Ten Commandments', O'Conor's style of discharging justice appears on the face of it to have yielded good results. Over the three years of his tenure transgressions against the Ship's Standing Orders apparently fell from a typical figure of 63 per week at the start of the commission to only seven later on.'''' As Admiral The Earl of Cork and Orrery later reported, despite the many and varied attractions ashore, only one man had gone adrift during the Hood's weeklong visit to Southend in May 1935, and he had been stuck in a traffic jam. But serious offences were also committed and to these O'Conor alludes only indirectly. The 1933-6 commission was plagued by the usual spates of petty theft while the months the Hood spent alongside at Gibraltar over the winter of 1935-6 evidently tested his authority to the limit. But by creating a regime in which it was easier to stay on the right side of the law O'Conor moulded a crew that, for a time at least, was more at peace with itself than it had been for many years. The effect of O'Conor's approach was not only improved morale and discipline but a far greater and wider degree of involvement in the life of the ship among both officers and men. This was reflected above all in the drive for sporting excellence which O'Conor pursued with unrelenting vigour, and for a few years the Hood dominated sporting competition in the Home Fleet. Her record in the fleet Pulling Regatta for the coveted Silver Coquerelle could not match the triumphs of the I920s when the Hood was Cock of the Fleet three years running between 1926-8, but the range of trophies won and competed for gives some idea of the enthusiasm O'Conor brought to the ship. Indeed, within fifteen months of recommissioning the ship had won virtually every trophy in the Home Fleet. The Hood recovered the Cock from e/soll in 1935, won the Arbuthnot Trophy for cross-country running between 1933-5 and the Palmer Trophy for bayonet fighting between 1934-6. These and many others O'Conor proudly displayed in his lobby on the forecastle deck. The embodiment of the Hood's competitive spirit was 'that fellow called George', a caricature in singlet and shorts bearing an oar or other sporting equipment as appropriate. The Chollgh, the ship's magazine, described him thus:
George is the spirit of the Hood. Everyone in the ship carries a little bit of him and therefore he is only able to go fl,lI steam ahead when all the Hoods are present in support. IOS Between 1933-6 'George' brought nearly a score of trophies to the Hood. But not everyone shared O'Conor's devotion for competitive sports. The Pulling Regatta required the active participation of a quarter of the ship's crew, including a good many reluctant volunteers. Two who, initially at least, had cause to regret the Commander's enthusiasm were the Coombs twins:
O'Conor's discipline, then, was one tempered by mercy: The dignity of a great Service like ours alone requires that every officer and man shall be given credit in the first place
... The ship's Commander, Rory O'Conor, was, like all who had ambitions for promotion, trying to make a name Iforl himself by howing that he ran an efficient warship. One
"Ibid., p. 97. '''IWM, 91/7/1, p. 40. 101 RBS. p. 79. '" Ibid.. pp. 79-80. IOl Ibid.. p. 84. '''Ibid., pp. 11-12. lOS TI,c ChOllgl., April 1936, p. 25.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
164
excellence, there were many material compensations for sailing under O'Conor. His innovations including the installation of a broadcasting system, introduction of regular film screenings and establishment of a subscription library and Mutual Aid Society are discussed elsewhere. lOS But it was by encouraging training and promotion that O'Conor made one of his most significant contributions. Specialisation was encouraged in all branches; men passed for Leading Seaman were given appropriate duties to help them develop the power of command; Stoker Jim Haskell, eager to transfer to the Submarine Service, was dissuaded until he had given it more thought and eventually dropped the idea after a sobering vi.sit to HMS/M Salllloll; thanks to O'Conor's initiative 00 Ron Paterson was able to enjoy the rare advantage of qualifying as a seaman gunner during his time aboard, a first step towards an officer's commission. Most of all did O'Conor encourage midshipmen, not only in preparing for their exams but in playing a significant role aboard as officers under training. O'Conor liked the man who 'went all out for his ship' and he found no more willing bodies than in the gun room:
I"
Once he realises that he will be treated with the full consideration due to his status as an officer, no one gives a readier response than a Midshipman, in keenness on his job and on his ship, both in her work and in her play.'l.
Another trophy: Cdr Rory O'Conor poses with the Silver Coquerelle and the crew of the
1st Signal and WfT Whaler after the victorious Regatta campaign
of 1935. HMS Hood~rion
way of doing it was to be 'Cock of the Fleet' in the Fleet Boat-Pulling Races to be held at Scapa Flow, which he intended to win. To help, as soon as we were clear of the land he had a mock-up of a boat's thwarts ibuilt]to hold two sat one behind the other. A heavy rope fastened to short lengths of oars ienabled] the two rowers to pull the rope i ... ]through two pulleys to a heavy weight and lift it from the deck protection mats. For some reason we went to look at this contraption and i ... ] ended up sat one either ide of the rope, our feet against a wooden stretcher, as in a boat, and lifting with others the heavy weights from the deck, up and down with steady pulls on the dummy oars. It was explained that it was all good exercise for leg, tummy, arm and back muscles but not that it made our skin, on toughened hands and on tender backsides, very sore as we found out after an hour or so when we were allowed to go for a bath and to wash the sweat away. Much to our dismay we found that, on looking at the mess notice board, we had volunteered for the Boys' Cutters crew and were to report for training each day at a set time in working hours, and for half an hour each evening for both boat pulling and physical training which were to be extended if they thought fit. That was when we found out what aching backs could feellike.'06
Ever the 'revolutionary constitutionalist', O'Conor gave his midshipmen an unprecedented role in the running of HMS Hood: A Midshipman is an officer, and he must be treated as such and given a task which he feels he can make his own, whether in charge of a boat or as Midshipman of the Watch, and only his Action Station must take precedence. i ... ] The Midshipmen are among the Commander's righthand men. They run the boats and they run his routine for him-it is only right that they should know what he wants and what is going on. If the Commander has a weekly meeting of the Midshipmen, it provides the opportunity to discuss all the week's happenings on the upper deck: in the boats, disciplinary matters, explaining where mistakes occurred and raising a host of miscellaneous points past, present and future, connected with them elves, the ship, the Fieet and the Service. i... 1Once the Snottie appreciates that the Commander wants and welcomes his suggestions for the improved running of the ship, and for the comfort of the men, he produces as good ideas as anyone l l l The gunroom of course loved him for it and O'Conor's commission album is full of photos and letters from midshipmen grateful for the unusually broad experience he had afforded them. The following passage from a letter by Mid. Peter Arbuthnot (1933-5?) says it all:
But O'Conor had no patience for whining: '" IWM, 911711, p. 43.
00' RBS, p. 141. '" See ch. 5, pp. 137, 139, 138-9, and ch. 2, pp. 36-7. 1M RBS. pp. 107-8. and Taverner, Hood', Legncy, pp. 138 & 94. 110 RBS. p. 27. III
Ibid., pp. 27 & 31.
Some people grumble about the Regatta; but it does no good to waste time grumbling; it is better to get down to it and go all out. If your luck is in, and even if you don't come out on top, but do well, you will hear no grumbling in your ship.I.' Despite his obsession with paintwork and zeal for sporting
As you know the Hood exceeded our wildest expectations. After serving for hort periods in other ships, I realized how unique was the spirit which prevailed throughout the commission. It was a seething spirit which on several unforgettable occasions bubbled to the surface. I remember so well the first occasion at Cromarty when the Captain spoke about the' lutiny' and we gave three cheers for him
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
165
on the quarterdeck. Then again at our sporting triumph at Rosyth and the King's Cup matches. It continued for the whole two years of the commission in spite of several setbacks and I am sure it will prevail to the end." 2 However, this was one of several points on which O'Conor parted company with his officers. Like all innovators, O'Conor was the subject of jealousy and rumour, that he consulted his midshipman 'doggies' as to the popularity or otherwise of the wardroom officers and that his preference for the best-looking young sailors and snolties said something about his personal inclinations. Be that as it may, there can be little doubt that many of O'Conor's administrative measures came as a rude shock to those used to the traditional way of doing things. O'Conor favoured a highly centralised role for the Commander and his men that many would have preferred he did not have and which often undermined the divisional system that lay at heart of the ship's organisation. Successful as it was, the open-door policy allowed the men to bypass their divisional officers, a cause of some aggravation in the wardroom. The perks granted to sportsmen also raised eyebrows, and not just among the officers. Mid. Edmund Poland, selected to represent the Home Fleet in shooting, found himself excused many of his duties so that he could practise his questionable marksmanship at the Tipnor ranges. "' Meanwhile, the drafting of key players would be delayed for an important fixture. aturally, this began to have its effect on discipline as the commission wore on. The temptation to take advantage of the Commander's easygoing ways proved irresistible and it was rumoured that captains of sports teams could and did get away with murder at the defaulters' table.11< Warrant Shipwright .c. Hill, who joined the Hood at Gibraltar in February 1936, was amazed to find himself attending not to her fabric but to the construction of special bathing facilities for the men and the erection of a cinema, stage and boxing ring in a disused coalshed on the South Mole. But despite his efforts to keep the men amused it became increasingly clear that not all were disposed to submit to discipline. Boy Fred Coombs recalls some shenanigans in the renovated coalshed: The seating was a bit crude being rough wooden forms knocked together by our Shipwrights. The officers were accommodated at the front on padded and easy chairs brought from the Wardroom by the Duty Watch and returned after the show by men under punishment, though this arrangement was tightened up after a number of easy chairs were found floating in the harbour and even in the Med. [... ) It was then realised where the Wardroom chair were going. l15 Matters weren't helped by Capt. ET.B. Tower's notorious infidelity at the Rock Hotel during the many months the Hood was kept at Gibraltar owing to fuel shortages and the international situation over the winter of 1935-6. Even so, O'Conor appears to have forgotten the critical half of Admiral James' dictum on discipline, that it was an officer's duty 'to help in every way possible the loyal, hard-working men, and come down like a ton of bricks on the lazy and disloyal'. I 16 It is a sign of how far discipline had slipped that Tower's successor would find the ship both filthy and restive when he took over in February 1936.
Above: Renown left in Hood's wake shortly after colliding with
her off Spain, 23 January 1935. HMS Hood AssociarionlWiflis (alleerion
Left: Damage to the Hood's
quarterdeck after her collision with Renown. Cdr G'eonor soon had the mess tidied up but permanent repairs required a spell in dry dock. HMS Hood AnociationIWif/is Colle_. Although the 1933-6 commission came to a climax with the Regatta victory and then the Jubilee Review in 1935, its final year was overshadowed by events of more lasting significance: the collision with the ReI/own in January 1935 and particularly the Abyssinian Crisis which came to a head that autumn. If the former broke the morale of the Battle Cruiser Squadron then the latter set the pattern for the rest of the Hood's peacetime career. The collision between the Hood and the Renollll/ on 23 January 1935 occurred following an inclination exercise carried out off the avy's winter anchorage at Arosa Bay in northwestern Spain. The circumstances which brought two of the Navy's greatest ships into collision in fine weather and broad daylight need only be summarised here from the considerable body of evidence and comment generated by it. l17 Essentially, the incident was caused by ill judgement on the part of Capt. H.R. Sawbridge of the Renown, inaction by Capt. Tower in the Hood as the ships closed, and above all by the ambiguity of Rear-Admiral Sidney Bailey's instructions as to the manner in which the pair would resume formation after the exercise. At 11.35 the signal for completion brought their 75,000 tons onto converging courses as planned. Sawbridge later maintained that he was expecting Hood to turn to port so that he could take station astern of her. For their pari, Bailey and Tower assumed
'" RNM, 1993/54. IWM/SA. no. 11951, reel 4. ll~ Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly,
IU
letter to the author, 13 ovembcr 2002. '" IWM, 91/711, p. 4B. 116 James. The Sky Was Always B/I/e, p.B!. '" PRO, ADM 156/107. See also Coles & Briggs, Flagship Hood, pp. 82-91, and Pridham, Memoirs, II, pp. 149-50. For the Renown's perspective, see Smith, Hit First, Hit Hard, pp. 59-64.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
166
that RelJOwl/ would simply manoeuvre herself into the flagship's wake, the Squadron then effecting the turn to port mentioned in the admiral's signal. But it was not to be, and by the time Sawbridge and Tower realised that neither was going to yield the opportunity for leisurely alterations of course had passed. Desperate efforts by both ships availed them not and by 12.20 it was obvious that Renown was going to strike Hood on the starboard side. ries began to go up in the Hood of 'Close all watertight doors' and 'All hands to clear starboard side'. Yeoman of Signals ed Johns recalls the scene: There was a jam on the boat-deck at the passageway by the funnels, caused by ratings who knew they shouldn't be there and the nosy few who wanted to see what was happening on the starboard side. The crowd cleared as soon as someone shouted 'Bugger off] The bloody Renown's coming inboard!"J8 Shortly after a sickening crash announced the arrival of Renown's bows on the Hood's quarterdeck. The fact that Tower had managed to swing his stem to starboard lessened the impact, but the Renown's bows scraped aft along the Hood's side and severely damaged her outer propeller.'19 There were no casualties in either ship, but men streamed up from the mes decks to contemplate the spectacle as Renowll extricated herself on engines thrown into emergency full speed astern. An examination of the Hood's quarterdeck showed an indentation about 18 inches deep at the point of collision, several yards of railing ripped away and a section of O'Conor's prized deck Hood docked at Portsmouth in February 1935 for repairs following her collision with the Renown. Her starboard outer propeller was severely damaged and distortion caused to plates and frames on the hull. The quarterdeck suffered an 18·inch indentation and repairs were needed for the inner propeller.
II' Cited in Coles & Briggs. Flagsllip 119
Hood,p.86. See orthcoll, HMS Hood. pp.
HO
4(}-1. I\VM/SA, no. 11951, reel 4.
III
Ibid.
planking reduced to matchwood. But that was all, and though a number of trakes and plates had to be replaced or repaired in dry dock along with the chipped propellers her structure emerged essentially intact. For her part, the Renowll suffered a holed stem which caused some flooding, a displaced ram bow and severe buckling and distortion to her plating. The two ships made their way independently to Gibraltar, the Hood arriving there on 25 January. By the time she did so O'Conor had covered the gash in her side with a strip of painted canvas and camouflaged the 10 t planking with a layer of yellow ochre, to the chagrin of waiting journalists.'''' His beautiful ship may have been damaged but the world at large was not to know the extent of it. Polite salutes were exchanged with Renown but nothing could disguise the ill-feeling that prevailed between the two crews. The ships had long enjo)'ed a fierce rivalry to which events were now to add a di agreeable dimension. Once running repairs had been effected the two returned to England where, following detailed stud)' of their reports, the Admiralty ordered Baile)', Tower and Sawbridge to be courtmartialJed. The proceedings were held with due ceremon), in the Great Cabin of elson's Victory in Portsmouth in the last da)'s of Februar)', 'an awe-inspiring spectacle' to which the midshipmen of both vessels were admitted.'" The closed sessions not onl)' revealed extensive collusion between Bailey and Tower on the one hand and Sawbridge and his officers on the other, but that Sawbridge had produced a spurious chart on which the movements of hi ship had been inaccurately plotted. By the time it was over Sawbridge had been found guilt)' and dismissed his ship while Bailey and Tower were acquitted. The verdicts
t ...
Disaster alld Recovery, 1931-1936
THE JUBILEE REVIEW,
167
1935 small ship contrived recently to be completely and most effectively flood-lit from her own resources. A big ship was able to achieve this partially. The existing masthead illuminating circuits for destroyers produce a crazy effect, reminiscent of the look of a country circus, and they conceal rather than reveal the ship they are designed to illuminate.'" Magnificent though O'Conor's lighting was, at least one of the Hood's resident bards couldn't help drawing some rather unmilitary comparisons: Modesty lacking, our size we proclaim, Mechanical monsters, the public remark, Lighting our chimneys to further our fame Quem Mary and Hood and Battersea Park. Should you see the Queel/ Mary with funnels ablaze Sail from a port with imperious hooting, As at her great smokestacks you wonderingly gaze just think of the Hood and the Gasworks at Tooting. But we noble warriors, our daytime we pass With polishing brightwork and fifteen-inch shooting; This puts us at once in a different class To the Normal/die, Rex and the Gasworks at Tooting. 125
Hood dressed overall at the Silver Jubilee Review, 16 July 1935. The ship is manned ready to salute the King as he passes in the royal yacht Victoria and Albert. O'Conor had seen to it that the bathroom ejectors spewing effluent from the ship's starboard side were shut off for the duration of the review.
In july 1935 the Silver jubilee of the 'Sailor King' George V occasioned the first major review of the fleet since 1914. On the 12th the Home and Mediterranean Fleets assembled at Spithead to be joined three days later by the Reserve Fleet, pecially commissioned for the occasion. By the time the Fleet had formed up into its nine columns more than 150 warships had gathered in addition to over 30 merchant and fishing vessels, present for the first time at the express invitation of the King and the Admiralty. In the centre lay the Hood, dressed from stem to stern with flags selected by the Chief Yeoman of Signals and triced up the masts at 08.00 on the great day, 16 july. At 11.00 the first of 500 officers' guests began to arrive on board to gape at the spectacle, not least of which was Hood herself, conjured by Cdr O'Conor into a vision of scrubbed wood, polished metal and gleaming paintwork. Three hours later the Royal Yacht Victoria mId Albert sailed from the South Railway jetty at Portsmouth for the King to receive the salute of the Fleet, a synchronised firing of21 guns by every capital ship and cruiser present. Once Victoria alld Alberl had secured ahead of the battleship Queen E1iznberh and the Board of Admiralty and Flag Officers had paid their compliments, the Royal Yacht began her stately progress through the lines. Each ship was manned, her crew drawn up along the railings to cheer lustily as the King passed. ext came an aerial salute from the Fleet Air Arm, with which the first part of the day's entertainment drew to a close and the protagonists retired to dinner. Later the spectacle resumed and of it Paymaster Lt-Cdr E.C. TalbotBooth has left this breathless account:
From 10 o'clock until midnight the whole fleet was illuminated and such a sight had never been witnessed before, not even in the days of the Crystal Palace fireworks. Ship after ship broke out into a glory of coloured lights and decorative schemes; there were Imperial Crowns, glittering in the true colours of the jewels and brilliants, there were representations of the crests of the ships, and, to crown all, sudden black-outs followed by thousands of rockets. m There was one final touch, recorded here by 00 Ron Paterson (1933-6): ... When we were already illuminated we were all given candles. At a signal, we had to light them and the effect, lasting for about ten minutes, was remarkable-an almost unending line of flickering lights along the guardrails, right along the ship.,n Typically, O'Conor went one better by floodlighting his ship, a subject upon which he held very strong views: 'Flood-lighting' is quickly supplanting 'outlining' for illumination of all kinds, but the Navy lags behind. Present-day illuminating circuits for ships are expensive and involve heavy labour in rigging and unrigging. In many ships outlining produces a caricature effect. With flood-lighting all of a ship's majesty and beauty can be revealed by light and shade effects, and the trouble involved in rigging is negligible. The cost is not great: one
At 11.59 the illuminations ended but the foUowing day there were fireworks of a different order as the Hood led ReI/OW", Va/iam and Barham in a concentration shoot off the Isle of Wight. The shoot against a battle practice target towed at 20 knots by the cruiser ClIrafoa was a success with six out of eight salvoes straddling over ranges of 13-13,500 yards. As the Victoria Q/ld A/bert led the battlefleet back to its anchorage the signal 'Splice the mainbrace' was hoisted, permitting every man who desired it to drink the King's health in an extra tot of rum that evening. For O'Conor it had been another gratifying episode. Not only had he attended the sumptuous dinner given at HMS Excel/erll for virtually every gunnery officer of note from jellicoe down, but he had managed to procure the return to Hood of his favourite 'team' of midshipmen from the cruiser Shropshire, anchored just a few cables away. It was one of the high points in the 1933-6 commission. 12• m Talbo'-Booth, All the World', Figllting Fleets, 3rd <do, p. 261. Cited in Taverner, Hood's Legacy, pp. 95-6.
IZJ
124 RBS. p. 134. ,n The Chough, April 1936, p. 17. 1%6 IWMlSA, no. 11951. red 4.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
168
Cited in Coles & Briggs. Flagship Hood. p. 89. ". ~IM. Chatfield/4/1-3. ff. 57r-60r, James to Chatfield, Churt, Surrey. undated hut 127
c. February 1936; fr.59\'-60r.
A visit from the exiled Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia at
Gibraltar. 30 May 1936. The Hood had first played host to him and his entourage during his sad progress through Europe the previous autumn. Both visits aroused great sympathy and curiosity among the men. To the left of the Emperor is RearAdmiral Sidney Bailey; to the right is Capt. Francis Pridham. Behind them is the Emperors daughter, Princess Sehai. and,
presumably, Mrs Bailey. Hft/fS Hood AnocJ.rion!Crcm Coll«fK)(1
provoked much satisfaction in the Hood and corresponding disgust in the Rel/OIVII, but the issue was far from settled. Three weeks later Ihe Admiralty issued the following pronouncement: Their Lordships dissent from the finding of the courtmartial held for the trial of Rear-Admiral Bailey to the following ex1ent: 'Rear-Admiral Bailey adopted an unusual procedure in directing Hood and RellowlI 10 steer definite course to close. Since he had given that order, responsibility for the manoeuvre rested on him and it was incumbent on him at the proper moment to make a further signal to reform his squadron. His not doing so left in doubt his final intention. The signal for Hood and Rel/OIVII to form single line ahead was made too late. For these reasons Their Lordships are unable to absolve Rear-Admiral Bailey of all blame. Their Lordships agree in the findings of the courtmartial held for the trial of Captain Sawbridge but they have decided to reduce the entence to a severe reprimand. Captain Sawbridge will therefore resume command of ReIlOIVII. Their Lordships consider that Captain Tower should have taken avoiding action earlier and to that extent they are unable to acquit him of all blame.'" It was RellolVlI's turn to celebrate. There the matter might have ended but for the ill grace shown by Bailey toward the RellolvlI, an altitude that effectively destroyed the comradeship nurtured by James in the Baltle Cruiser Squadron after Invergordon. james, who went from the Hood to the Admiralty as Deputy Chief of aval Staff, wrote as much to Chatfield, the First Sea Lord:
I do feel Bailey failed from the outset to realize the importance of fostering, by every possible means, a 'squadron spirit'. He did not like Sawbridge [... J an unusual type, but a man who responded at once to any
lead. The collision accentuated this lack of good feeling between the ships and, as far as I know, no attempt has been made to improve matters. After Ihe courts-martial would have been just the moment for the Admiral to have gone on board RellolVll--{)r, beller still, after the Admirahy decision was received-and shown a big, generous spirit. If he had followed this up by a sustained effort to bring the officers and men of the two ships together, all would have been well. But bitterness over the collision ,vas allowed to exclude the e bigger and more generous thoughts.'" Bailey's reaction was echoed by O'Conor who took the collision as a personal affront and never boarded Rel/OIVII again. In no doubt as to where blame for the accident la)', O'Conor added a quotation from Disraeli to hi private album of the 1933-6 commission that says it all: The assaults of brutality you may combat, the cunning of duplicity you may contravene, the wiles of diplomacy you may defeat, but there is one force with which no human ingenuity can cope-the Unconscious Machinations of Stupidity. o wonder Rel101V1I was the only ship not to signal her congratulations to the Hood when she swept the board at the Home Fleet Regatta at Scapa two months later. Aside from these displays of petty jealousy, the collision provides evidence that the rigid command structure and imprecise signalling that had contributed to the German escapes at the Dogger Bank in 1915 and jutland the following year had yet to be banished from the Royal Nav),. By autumn a spell in dry dock at Portsmouth, the Regatta victory at Scapa and the jubilee Review had restored the Hood's fabric and fortunes, but the international situation for the first time brought the prospect of war onto her horizon. On 3 October 1935, after months of sabre-rattling, Italy invaded Abyssinia. Anticipating a pre-emptive strike on Malta, in August the Admiralty had taken the precaution of ordering the Mediterranean Fleet to Alexandria while elements of the Home Fleet, including Hood, were brought south to Gibraltar. The move incensed Mussolini who had massed troops in Libya and feared a blockade of Italian trade and supplies, especially oil, at either end of the Mediterranean. However, he need not have worried for neither Britain nor France had any intention of going to war over Abyssinia, to which the infamous HoareLaval Pact of December 1935 bore witness. For the Hood, which spent seven months at Gibraltar between September 1935 and june 1936, this translated into an agreeable though, for much of her crew, increasingly unsatisfactory period of enforced idleness. Things got off to a bad start when a disgruntled stoker, angry that the ship was being transferred from her home port, sabotaged one of the turbines with a number of razor blades. Then much of the crew was sickened by being fed a meal of corned beef which had been left out in the galley all night. Above all, it encompassed the departure of Capt. Tower and his replacement by Francis Pridham who e arrival in February 1936 brought a very different style of leadership to the Hood. Whereas Tower had been content to give O'Conor carte blal/clle to do more or less a he pleased, Pridham was a hands-on captain of the old school and one who immediately
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
found much to criticise in the ship and her Commander's style. For one thing she was far below the required standard of cleanliness. As Pridham recalled, It took me some time before I could believe my eyes, [butl between decks she was the dirtiest ship I had ever seen. I could find no signs that good 'ship husbandry' was within the knowledge or competence of her officers. I... ) The messdecks were disgusting and swarming with cockroaches. These dirty pests are easily eradicated-if you know how; the ommander did not. One of my first orders to him wa that I expected to find the Mess Decks free from cockroaches in six weeks' time; and I told him how to set about it. It was SO!'29
The evidence is that the Hood was still infested months later, as he could hardly fail to be in the Mediterranean, but Pridham's criticisms of the layers of paint with which O'Conor had coated and recoated every surface proved rather more pertinent: It was by no means difficult to point out to the Commander that under all the paint he had plastered on the Quarterdeck were layers of dirt. I had one spot chipped down to bare metal and found a quarter of an inch of layers of paint and dirt on top of rust, indicating two departures from first principles: don't try to cover rust by painting over it, and don't paint over dirt. I"
There and then Pridham instituted a paint-removal drive that had not been completed by the time the ship was sunk five years later. To his credit, O'Conor noted the gist of Pridham's 'first principles' in Rl/nning a Big Ship, but by then the Hood was loaded down with all too many tons of his paintwork. or was this all. The ship was deficient in basic seamanship; the Hood's seaboat drill was 'lacking in any vestige of smart work' and her paravane drill equally laggardly. Pridham set to with a will: The sailors soon realized that the 'new Broom' on the Fore Bridge was no silent ornament and quickly adopted a new and enthusiastic demeanour to Seaboat Drill. In any case it presented an opportunity for competition between the two sides of the ship, just that incentive which can be SO valuable when working bodies of men. 131 And there was more. The traditional evolution of putting to sea without the assistance of tugs apparently left the Hood's officers nonplussed: Ever since that shocking collision between the Hood and the Renown ... the Hood had never been hanclled boldly, was everywhere given a wide berth, and was never moved in harbour without six or eight tugs being in anendance. I... J While talking to the Commander about going to sea next morning I told him, to his evident surprise, that I would not be using tugs, since in any case I hated having wire hawsers hanging over the propellers, so I would use a 'spring' to cant the ship's stern away from the wall. [... 1 I had to give him another lecture in seamanship and some firm orders. I had noticed that the First Lieutenant on the Fo'castle and his men had no idea of using a wire hawser and putting weight
169
onto it. They had seemed scared stiff and stood well clear as soon as any strain came on, instead of the First Lieutenant himself keeping a fOOL on it to feel the strain and to judge when it came near to breaking point, an age-old metllOd I had learned as a midshipman.'" Moreover, the Hood, thought Pridham, was a ship in which too great a reliance had been placed on machinery at the expense of traditional skills: I had first to kill the idea that one must use machinery whenever possible in place of man-power. It was my view that since the days of the passing of'Coaling Ship', it had been essential to find opportunities for exercising, physically, any Ship's Company; especially is this so in a ship with a very large Seamen complement like the Hood's. This should be backed up by introducing competition whenever possible.'" The shortcomings found by Pridham no doubt had something to do with the many months she had spent tied up at Gibraltar, but there was one respect in which the Hood could definitely be found wanting and that was war readiness-'our sole purpose and great responsibility'.IJ4 By early 1936 developments in Germany, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Abyssinian Crisis had alerted the British political and military establishment to the likelihood of war on a global scale. As O'Conor's priorities indicate, this point had yet to impress itself on the Navy at large. William Harding, Warrant Engineer between 1936-7, recalls the situation: The Warrant Shipwright persuaded the Boatswain to convince the Commander to operate again the bower cable holder, which was not used because it spoilt the paintwork. It took two days and a fire around the spindle before the shipwrights freed it. The Torpedo Gunner was also given permission to work the above-water tubes. This entailed spoiling the side paintwork and it took almost a week to get the doors open.'" As Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, put it in a letter to the First Sea Lord at the close of Capl. Tower's tenure, Of Hood, herself, I am not quite sure. She has done very well in ome respects, but not in all, and Tower's line in gunnery matters was always to make excuses.'" No wonder Backhouse dispatched Pridham to the Hood with the following brief: I want you to get the Hood out of cotton wool. Take your time, but as soon as you think you have got the feel of your ship, I want you to bring the Hood in here after dark and in foul weather. My ships will most certainly have to do such things in time of war. 1J7
Ilt
fighting effectiveness of his ship. Whatever his accomplishment in building a happy and successful community, O'Conor's neglect of the Hood's fundamental raison d'etre is
Memoirs, II, pp. 146 &
147. IJI
Ibid., p. 147. Ibid.
UJ
Ibid.• pp. 149. 150.
1)0
m Ibid., p. 148. IJ-l
It was the Commander's principal responsibility to ensure the
Pridham,
IJ)
Pridham. 'Notes: p. 6. Cited in Coles & Briggs. Flagship
Hood,p.96. .,. 'MM, Chalfield/4/1-3, If. SSr-56". HMS FalllknoT, at sea, 1 February 1936; f. 56v. W Pridham, Memoirs. II, p. 149.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
170
The hospital ship RFA Maine enters the harbour at Gibraltar in
a photo taken from the Hoods bridge. c. , 936. Hood spent an increasingly restive few months berthed here in the final year of the 1933-6 commission. HMS
Hood ~tIONH'99'mon
Col1«tlOl'l
the one signal failure of his tenure, though here Tower must evidently shoulder much of the blame. It is not difficult to detect the instinctive clash of personality between the humane and easygoing O'Conor and an impatient martinet like Pridham. The dissonance between them reflects many of the debates that had exercised the avy's officer corps since the end of the Great War. The relative merits of seamanship against technical specialisation, of brawn against machinery; the value of stern discipline against a more tolerant environment; of fitness for war against prowess in sport; ultimately the means by which the Navy's great tradition might be nurtured and perpetuated against the trials that beset it. Though Pridham admitted deliberately'stirring up my Commander and my Ship's ompany', there was no doubt where he stood on these issues, or on O'Conor himself for that matter: The Commander was a first-class showman ... He was one of the most upright men I have ever met, and a charming personality. [... 1 He had been promoted to Commander very young and before he could have had that experience which can only be gleaned in the lower ranks. He knew very little seamanship and nothing about ship husbandry. He was obsessed with the idea of spoiling his Ship's Company by saving them trouble (i.e. work) and he rarely awarded any punishment. In consequence many of the officers and petty officers were unhappy and felt frustrated in their endeavours to obtain cleanliness and order. The ship was inefficient in her main purpose.'38
U' Ibid.• p. 146.
I'" Pridham, 'Notes: p. 4. An edition of Pridham's memoirs and papers br this writer is forthcoming.
O'Conor's opinion of Pridham is not on record and his premature death deprived him of the luxury of leaving it for pos-
terity. Suffice to add that his commission album contains a single picture of Pridham along ide dozens of his predecessor, including one in bathing trunks. Despite their differences, Pridham and O'Conor had more in common than perhaps either imagined. Both had made their names after the Great War and had had every opportunity to observe the rapid evolution of the avy and its men at close quarters. Both, too, had lived through the Invergordon Mutiny, O'Conor at HMS Excel/elll and Pridham in the Admiralty itself. Following his appointment to the Hood Pridham produced a memorandum, his' otes for ewly Joined Officers', by which he expected the ship to be governed. It was never published, but many of his remarks are in the same vein as Rlllmillg a Big Ship: Your men must acquire through your manner with them the knowledge that you are available to them and that you expect them to approach you for your advice or help towards their welfare and contentment. Your endeavour should be to inspire in them a feeling of respect for you and confidence in your sympathetic interest and understanding of their problems, as well as your professional ability. This is the basis of discipline and leadership.'" However, he took a much firmer line on discipline as something to be earnt by example rather than conjured by favour. Leadership came from the top; the 'popularity Jack' soon lost the respect of the hard cases: Men quickly form a very shrewd opinion of your ability and your capacity for just dealing. On this assessment their readiness to foUow your lead and work with a will under
Disaster and Recovery, 1931-1936
you will mostly depend. I... J The amount of strength a body of men will exert is in proportion to the grip of the person in charge and his ability to hearten them. 1... 1 To obtain the essential grip of your men be on the lookout for opportunities to nip slackness in the bud-these will not be rare. Use your voice on these occasions, but don't scream or use much sarcasm. A short sharp hard word is by no means excluded, but it must be justly deserved. I··· J Once you have discovered a bad character you must lay for him (by watchfulness not by guile).'''' But both, though in rather different ways, laid great emphasis on the divisional system:
17l
Hood earned him wift recognition and on 30 June 1936 he became, at 37, the youngest captain on the avy List. Barely pausing for breath, he set about publishing the fruits of his experience in Hood for the wider consumption of the Navy. Equally characteristically, Admiral Backhouse sent O'Conor the following admonition when news of it reached his ears: I see you have written a book and (I suppose) invented a new routine! Do not, however, be too quick in your reforms, as, once introduced-good, bad, or indifferentthey may be very hard to change! '" But O'Conor pressed on undeterred and the result, RWlIlillg a 011 'Tell COllllllalldlllell/S', remains one of the most influential naval treatises of the first half of the twentieth century. Although the war would change O'Conor's avy for ever, the ethos enshrined in RlIIlIlillg a Big Ship, that every man was entitled to the understanding and consideration of his officers, was to have a lasting impact on shipboard relations in the avy. That said, RlIIlIlillg a Big Ship was not beyond reproach. Though written with great verve and skill, its scope was limited by a tendency to over-regulation and by being confined almost exclusively to the Executive Branch. either does it contain a single line on war efficiency, a point Admiral Lord Cork was evidently at pains to qualify in his foreword:
Big hip
If you are an officer of a Division encourage your men to come and ask you for your opinion about some facility or privilege, whether for an individual or for the benefit of a mess or section. [... J Learn their names. You must make a sustained effort in this direction. Know their pay, allowances and opportunities for advancement fully. Learn their circumstances, qualities and ambitions. Learn what your men are interested in and their topics of conversation and discussion. I... J Having come across some circumstance in a man's private affairs and perhaps obtained some advice and assisted him, do not let the matter drop and be forgotten. Subsequent enquiry as to how things are going on will sometimes bring to light that fact that a man is still in need of help, but is averse to making a fuss by coming to you a second time.'" And where consideration for the men was concerned there was nothing to choose between them: It is within the competence of any officer to show consideration to his men. Uncertainty as to whether they will be required during non-working hours, a sudden alteration or curtailment of a meal hour, should rarely if ever be necessary. 'Pass the word' as long beforehand as you can. 1... 1 Early information about long-leave dates, weekends landl movements of the ship may often enable a man to make private arrangement conveniently. The same remark applies to drafting: a sudden change to another ship may be extremely inconvenient, if not worse.'" For all the success of his regime, O'Conor ultimately chose to focus his energies and those of his crew on competition with other ships rather than the fighting efficiency which tradition and circumstance increasingly urged upon him. It was for this failing and all that it implied that Pridham never forgave him. The end of the commission must in these circumstances have come as something of a relief for O'Conor. There was, however, one final junketing to be celebrated, the I,OOOth day of the commission, which O'Conor laid on during a week of'holiday routine' at Las Palmas in May 1936. Partly in compensation for their having missed Christmas with their families, O'Conor granted the crew several days' leave by watches. In June the ship returned to Portsmouth where O'Conor saw her payoff with all the pomp and ceremony he could mu ter. The Hood's greatest commission was over. Despite his differences with Pridham, O'Conor's record in
The ship's company that can make a collective effort in one direction can usually make it in others. There are, of course, those who affect to sneer at such successes, saying that the Navy does not exist solely for boat-racing or other competitive drills and recreations. That may be partly true. But the avy does exist to make great collective efforts under the most difficult conditions. The ship whose officers and men, of all departments alike, are accustomed to go all out for the honour of their ship, is likely to last out just that fraction of a minute longer than an opponent, which in battle makes all the difference between victory and defeat. Those who 'pull harder than the rest' are likely to 'fight harder' also.'44 But O'Conor's contribution to the wartime avy lay in places other than shipboard honour. The legacy of RUIlllillg a Big Ship rests in the framework it provided for fostering an environment in which a young and diverse crew could withstand the immense strain ofwar. In this respect it proved of incalculable value for the avy, and many was the officer who kept a copy by him in the terrible years ahead. Pridham's' otes for ewly Joined Officers', by contrast, would enjoy only a limited circulation, but they made the deepest impact on those who read them. In the final analysis, the ability of men of O'Conor and Pridham's stature to give practical expression to their convictions is a measure of how far the avy had come since Invergordon. But for those who study HMS Hood, RWlIlillg a Big Ship is above all a memoir of the halcyon years of the greatest warship in the world. It is also, as one of O'Conor's reviewers put it, 'a monument to a very pleasing and capable personality', the more poignant for the cruel fate that awaited him.'" Rory O'Conor died following the loss of the cruiser Neptulle in a minefield off Tripoli in December 1941, a disaster which left just one survivor from her 767 men.
"·Ibid., pp. 1,6 & 2. HI
Ibid., p. 3.
Ibid., p. 4. '" RNM, 1993/54. Daled HMS Nelsofl, 22 December 1936.
Ie
1+4 10
RBS. X. 'Orion' in Portsmouth Evenillg News. 25 February 1937.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
172
7 War Clouds, 193 6 - 1939 And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand and what dread feet?
1930S WORE ON the Royal Navy began to face the nightmare prospect of war on three fronts: with Italy and Germany in Europe, Africa and the Atlantic, and against japan in the Far East. Conscious of its weakness, particularly in cruisers and capital ships, the Admiralty was left with no option but to favour the same policy of appeasement and containment pursued by successive British governments over this period. As the ultimate symbol of British sea power it was natural that the Hood should feature prominently in this strategy, to which she gave the final years of her peacetime career. Capt. Francis Pridham, who commanded her between 1936-8:
A
I
Pridham. Memoirs. II, p. 167.
'IWM/SA, no. 12422, 'eel 2. J See Roskill, Naval Policy, II. pp.
372-82. and Cable, Tile Royal Navy alld rl.. Siege of8ilbilo, pp. 87-98. The Nationalist cruiser Almirante Cervera, challenged by Hood on the morning of 23 April 1937 in her attempt to bar the entry into Bilbao of a handful of British merchantmen. HMS Hood AssociItioniHlgglniOfl CoIl«t1Ofl
THE
During my two years in the Hood 'Up the Straits', as service in the Mediterranean used to be called, I was summoned by the Commander-in-Chief on three separate occasions to receive secret orders about an imminent move of my ship, for which I was to make only such preparations as would not attract attention, particularly of the Press. On the first occasion I was to be prepared to move at speed to the Far East via the Suez Canal. On the econd a few months later to the Far East via the Panama Canal. On the third to proceed to Scapa Flow to reinforce the Home Fleet, and I was to pas through the Straits of Gibraltar at night to avoid being sighted. It is true that whenever international relations became strained the question was asked 'Where is the Hood?') Hood's role as the sharp instrument of Britain's foreign policy if push came to shove was not lost on the lower deck, which christened her 'The Seven Bs': Britain's Biggest Bullshitting Bastard Built By Brown" Such is the stuff of legend. The Abyssinian Crisis of 1935-6 had already provided a first indication of the aggressive expansionism which came to characterise the Italian and German dictatorships. Having
renounced the military clause of the Treaty of Versailles, in March 1936 Hitler marched his troops into the demilitarised Rhineland. Four months later the start of the Spanish Civil War provided the backdrop against which the concerns and ambitions of every power in Europe would be played out in a terrible orgy of violence and destruction. The humanitarian effort performed by the Royal avy from july 1936 had required the transfer of a number of destroyers to French ports and the appointment of a Senior aval Officer orth Spain.' In September it also required red, white and blue stripes to be painted on Hood's 'B'turret to identify her participation in the Non-Intervention Patrol. However, the increasingly aggressive posture of General Franco toward merchantmen supplying Republican ports began to call for a more significant presence in the Bay of Biscay than that provided for by ships of the onIntervention Patrol. On 6 April 1937 the attempt by the armed trawler Galema and the 6in cruiser Almiran/e Cervera to deny ss TlJorpehall entry into Bilbao--foiled only by the intervention of three British destroyers-finally obliged the British government to take action in defence of its prestige and trading interests. The issue was a matter of some embarrassment in London where it was realised that despite Britain's stated policy of non-intervention much war materiel was reaching the Republican cause in ships flying the Red Ensign. However, the decision was made and on 10 April the Hood, flagship of Vice-Admiral Geoffrey Blake, was hurriedly dispatched from Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay to lift the supposed blockade of Bilbao. ot for the first time the Hood's ymmetry was to stir the emotions of all who laid eyes on her and the Basque population turned out in droves to watch whenever she came inshore. Information provided by Cdr Harry Pursey (late of the Hood and by then active in journalism and politics) together with his own ob ervations convinced Blake that the Nationalist blockade was hardly worthy of the name. Blake therefore decided to test the Insurgents' resolve by sending a convoy of three merchant ships into Bilbao protected by the Hood and the destroyers Firedrake and Foriline. After dark on 22 April the steamers MacGregor, Hams/erley and Stallbrook slipped out of the French port of St-jean-de-Luz and made their way westwards towards Bilbao at a leisurely 6 knots. Blake's plan was for the merchantmen to fall in with his warships off Bilbao at dawn on the 23rd and then proceed into harbour. Predictably enough, these six were not the only vessels in sight as the mist cleared from the Biscayan coast that morning. There on patrol were the Galerna and the Cervera. For three hours efforts by the ationalists to thwart the entry of the steamers to Bilbao were frustrated by a measured application of power as half-understood signals flashed between the two sides. At one stage Galema fired a shot acros MacGregor's bows but the moment of truth was only reached once Cervera trained her guns on the merchantmen as they
173
War Clouds, 1936-1939
Hood in the Bay of Biscay in 1937. Not until the outbreak of war would she know such relentless service.
approached the harbour entrance. When Blake brought the Hood's full broadside to bear on the Cervera it was obvious to Capitan de avio Manuel Moreu that the game was up, though, as Pridham remarked later, 'we... did feel that we had been "a big bully"'.' However, the sight of the Cervera hauling away with her guns trained fore and aft came as something of a relief in 'B' turret where the fuse-setting key for the shells had been inadvertently dropped into one of the loading wells' Four days later the Hood glided effortlessly into Portsmouth to attend the Coronation Review of King George VI. By the time the Hood returned south Republican resistance was coming to an end in the Basque country and with it the need to protect British shipping on the Biscayan coast. However, the position in the Mediterranean remained precarious thanks to the increasingly active involvement of Mussolini on the Nationalist side. At sea this took the form of an offensive against vessels bringing war supplies to the Republic from Soviet ports in the Black Sea. Once again the Royal avy found itself reluctantly drawn into the conflict. Already on 13 May the destroyer HUrlter had 10 t eight men after striking a Nationalist mine off Almeria and on 3\ August the Havock narrowly escaped a torpedo from the Italian submarine 1ride, which escaped after a prolonged hunt with Asdic. june therefore found the Hood 'up the traits' where she was once more assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet while Blake was appointed Senior Officer, Western Basin. Sir Geoffrey Blake, however, wa not to enjoy his appointment long. On 20 june he was admitted to Bighi Hospital in Valletta after suffering an embolism during his accustomed early-morning pull in
a skiff. Five days later he was obliged to strike his flag, a circumstance which brought that most famous of admirals to the Hood: Andrew Cunningham. By turns combative and charming, 'ABC' as he was known in the avy was to become the greatest British fighting officer since elson. His arrival in Hood on the morning of \ 5 july, barely an hour after the liner bearing him from England had berthed in the Grand Harbour at Malta, is a mark of the man. Louis Le BaiHy recalls the scene: Early one morning Sir Geoffrey's flag lieutenant [james Munn] took the barge to meet Cunningham's liner and ascertain the time of his formal arrival on board his new flagship. For some reason I was on the quarterdeck about 08.20 when the barge rounded our stern and came alongside the starboard ladder, up which ran a somewhat rotund figure followed by a clearly hysterical flag lieutenant and a sailor laden with several suitcases. My comment to the officer of the watch, who was writing up the deck log in the lobby, 'that in my day as a seaman it was usual for the officer of the watch, at least, to meet an admiral' was treated as a poor joke. But when I suggested that the small man in mufti must surely be Admiral Cunningham, a scene ensued to which only H.M. Bateman could have done justice. The captain was in his bath, the commander breakfasting in the wardroom, the admiral's secretary in his bunk with his morning cup of tea, while the admiral, delighted at outwitting his flagship, was changing into uniform and admiring his magnificent quarters·
.. Pridham, Memoirs. II, p. 162. 'IW1.1, 9t/7It, p. 53.
• le Bailly, The Man Arolltul the Engi"e p. 40. H.M. Bateman W'3S a cartoonist.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
174
THE CORONATION REVIEW, 1937 Two years after the Fleet had gathered to celebrate the Silver jubilee of IGng George V it did so once more to mark the coronation of George Vl. In the intervening period the prospect of war, still remote in the summer of 1935, had become very much more real. japanese militarism, the Abyssinian Crisis, the resurgence of Germany and now the Spanish Civil War pointed to a dark future. Britain, meanwhile, had begun her belated rearmament, the first signs of which were the newly completed 6in cruisers Newcastle and Southampton. Unlike the jubilee gathering, the Coronation Review was attended by no less than eighteen foreign warships, including several whose names were to become famous in the years ahead. There was the Admiral Graf Spee, scuttled in the River Plate in 1939, and the japanese cruiser Ashigara, scourge of the Allied navies in the java Sea. Mo t poignant of all from Hood's perspective was the battlecruiser Dunkerque, destined for a tragic end under her guns at Mers-el-Kebir in 1940. But that belonged to the future. For now, after the disaster of the Abdication, there was a new king to celebrate and old friendships to rekinclle. Representing the United States was Admiral Hugh Rodman, commander of the 6th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet during the Great War, together with his old flagship, the uss New York. The review, which took place at Spithead on 20 May, followed the pattern of earlier years, the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert sailing through the lines to the cheers of the Fleet. And like the jubilee Review, evening brought a great festival of light and sound. LS Len Williams (1936-41 l was among those entrusted with the Hood's illuminations:
Capt. Rory O'Conor, Hood's former Executive Officer and a vocal advocate of floodlighting in ships, no doubt looked on with some dismay. But the highlight from the Hood's point of view was the knighting of Vice-Admiral Blake in the Queen Elizabeth for distinguished service off Spain, though clearly it was an occa ion some found more enjoyable than others. ViceAdmiral Sir Louis Le Bailly was then a SubLieutenant (El:
During the Review, Hood, in common with the rest of the fleet, illuminated ship each night. As torpedomen, responsible for the
Before the royal yacht Victoria and Albert progressed round the fleet, cheered by each ship in turn, we donned our cocked hats,
Hood dressed overall at the Coronation Review of May
1937. This photo shows the alterations to the bridge structure carried out during
the refit at Portsmouth the previous year, including the removal of the Foremast searchlight platform and the installation of an Airdefence position over the compass platform. The light cruiser Curacoa lies off the starboard quarter; off the port quarter are Repulse, Glorious and Courageous. Not one would survive the
Second World War. HMS Hood ~tionIHiggimon Collection
electrical installation of the ship, this job was dropped into our lap. We outlined the silhouette of the ship with lamps, and a large Royal Cypher GVIR was constructed and suspended half way between the after funnel and the mainmast. We also created our Vice Admiral's flag in lights, and this was hoisted to the top of the mainmast. The whole effect was like something out of Fairyland. Hood cast her reflection on the water like jewels on rippled velvet. We also gave a searchlight, display in company with the whole fleet, and followed it up with a gigantic firework display'
frock coats, epaulettes, white gloves and swords and assembled on the lower signal bridge in strict Navy List order. This placed me at the end of the line of engineers, just ahead of the paymaster-commander. Both he and the commander (El, a few paces to my right, were finding their cocked hats tight. either's temper was improved during the long wait by the sound of popping corks as the admiral and his staff on the admiral's bridge above celebrated, with champagne, his new knighthood.' For the crew, meanwhile, it was a welcome opportunity to pend time with families they had not seen since October, nor in many cases were destined to see again before january 1939. The Coronation Review would also be memorable for the inebriated radio commentary of Lt-Cdr Tom Woodroffe, who on the night of the 20th informed BBC listeners that 'The Fleet's lit up! We're all lit up!' before the programme was taken off the air. The Coronation Review was the last great gathering of warships before the Second World War. By the time that conflict was over only 81 of the 145 British and empire vessels present that day were still afloat. The Hood in lights on the night of 20 May 1937. A big job for the Torpedomen entrusted with her lowpower electricity supply and installations. Vice-Admiral Sir
Geoffrey Blake's flag at the mainmast. HMS Hood AJSoc~rionlHiggimofl CoIl«tion
1
Williams, Gone A Long Journey, p. 121 .
• Le Bailly, TIle Mati Around the Engitle, p. 39. The Commander (E) was V.J.H.H. Sankey; the Paymaster Commander was C.K. Uord.
175
War Clouds, 1936-1939
As Pridham discovered during their first encounter, Cunningham liked nothing better than bearding his subordinates:
Among his first remarks to me was that he hated these great elephants of ships, which took so long to get moving. He then boasted to me that he had twenty-four years in destroyers, in which you did not have to wait minutes before the ship gathered way. He liked to feel himself moving at twenty knots a few seconds after giving the order Half peed Ahead. He claimed that ervice in destroyers was the only kind fit for a seaman!"
-L
I
Another victim of Cunningham's sharp tongue was the Rev. Edgar Rea, the ship's chaplain, who took some time to accustom himself to the admiral's manner: He had a devastating way of expressing both his opinions and his criticisms but he did not always expect people to shrivel up and become speechless under his verbal onslaught. He so dearly loved an argument that if one did not develop naturally in the course of a conversation he could be relied upon sooner or later to introduce some bone of contention. Although he frequently reminded me that his religion was hurch of Scotland-'the only true religion~ he would say-he always came to my Church Services. Judging by what happened afterwards, I was sometimes tempted to think that he only came for the sake of the argument which invariably followed. He sat direaly behind me and whenever his chair creaked during the sermon, a disturbing thought Aashed through my mind: 'This is it at last-he is getting up to contradict me'. Fortunately he never did though it often became clear afterwards that he had been itching to do so. Whenever he saw me after a Church Service. he almost always violently disagreed with me about something which I had said and he seemed to welcome my willingness to take up the chalienge. l • Cunningham was full of surprises. One day in May 1938 he returned to the ship minus his trousers after an incident while fishing in Corsica. But no admiral took a more uncompromising attitude to excellence and the Hood soon found herself under the sternest of taskmasters as he and Pridham chamfered her to a pitch of fighting efficiency. Fred Coombs: Lucky for us,' ullS' Cunningham, who had clawed his way through a life of destroyer commands to Aag rank, ... was beginning to make his presence felt and bring a bit of reality into our training. [... J The heads of Departments normally ensured picking favourable conditions for our practice hoots in order to show their efficiency. ot Cutts. If the weather was safe enough for the tug to tow the target it was good enough for US'I Coombs also recalls the grim satisfaction with which the lower deck watched their fire-breathing admiral set about the shortcomings of his officers: At a carefully chosen moment, he gave orders from his sea cabin for the Marine who always stood sentry on the Man Overboard Floats to release one and cause panic by shouting
'Man Overboard!'. By some crafty means [hel managed to have an inexperienced officer on his own, on the bridge perhaps, to test their reactions in an emergency. Many a suspect young officer carne a cropper by doing the wrong thing such as not swinging the stern away from whatever was overboard and in danger from our propellers. ... As seaboat's crew we got more than our fair share of the dangers of manning the life boat [... J so naturally were good at it but the Officer of the Watch was not and we had many sticky moments to face when we were either slipped too high or in the trough of the wave instead of the crest. Cutts soon sorted a few out who. through belonging to the right family, had wriggled their way to the top without experience. Even the higher ranking officers were not 'excused boots' ... 12
Hood alongside the South Mole at Gibraltar with the Japanese heavy cruiser Ashigara astern, June 1937. Ashigara was in European waters to attend the Coronation Review at Spithead. HMS Hood Assoc~tlonIH;gg'nson Collection
As Pridham ruefully put it, He was an extremely wise and very well educated little man, and though not always 'easy' in peace time I found that serving him as his Flag Captain was very pleasant and interesting. [... 1 With an occasional mild tussle we got on very well." At least one of these 'mild tussles' centred on the accident while berthing at Gibraltar in October 1936 when the parting of a hawser killed two members of the after capstan party and injured another." Pridham's refusal to use tugs no doubt had something to do with it, but a board of enquiry found a lieutenant-commander guilty of negligence. Months later, examination of the evidence led Cunningham to conclude that the fault in fact lay with those on the bridge and the verdict was overturned. Despite this, unningham, who prized seamanship above all else and had no opinion of gunnery officers or their trade. evidently made an exception with Pridham, of whom he tartly noted in his memoirs that 'specialisation in gunnery had not impaired hi ability in ship handling'.15 Although his abrasive style ofleadership ruffled many feathers, the legacy of Cunningham's sojourn in command of the Battle Cruiser Squadron rested in its transformation into a truly effective fighting force. As the Rev. Rea recalled, Cunningham seemed 'hardly ever to have a thought to which he did not
'Pridham. Memoirs, II, pp. 159-60. 10 Rea, A Curate's Egg, pp. 137-8.
" IWM, 911711, pp. 45 & 66. Syntax rearranged for clarity. " Ibid., p. 66. U
Pridham, Memoirs, II, p. 160.
Pack. CWUli"g',am lite eommat,der, p. 4; see also ch. 4. p. lOt. lS Cunningham, A Sailor's Odyssey, p.182.
14
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
176
.i Rea, A Curate's Egg, pp. 137-8. ., Cited in Pack. Clmtlingllam the
Commander, p. 71. "II"M, 911711, p. 66.
.9 ~
Pridham, Memoirs, II, pp. 167-8. Cunningham, A Sailor's Odyss£)'. p.186.
immediately give vigorous expression' and this impatience translated into those techniques of bold ship handling and firing at night and in all weathers that would be unleashed onto the Mediterranean theatre a few years later.'· As Lt-Cdr Dymock Watson, the Squadron Torpedo Officer, recalled, I particularly remember the exceptional way he handled the battlecruisers during neet exercises ... We were always in the right place at the right time and if only the Italian neet had come to sea we should have had another Trafalgar." However, this degree of efficiency came only after many months of arduous practice. Fred Coombs remembers the start of the campaign:
Below: Officers and men of the Yugoslav Army beside Starboard No.2 5.5in gun during the Hoods visit to Split in September
1937. The ladder on the left leads from the boat deck to the
flag deck, where the edge of one of the flag lockers can be seen. Behind the ladder is the head of the ammunition hoist serving the gun. The large tubular structure beneath the carley float is part
of the bridge tripod support; to the left of it is the entrance to the recreation space. HMS Hood A.s:sochttonlHigginiOn CoI1«rron
The first 5.5-inch shoot that we did, under roughish conditions with a half gale whipping the spray inboard, would have been postponed by the Gunnery Officer if he had had his way. The Marines, who manned the gun forward on the boat deck and were not protected by the casemate roof as were the others, found that the linoleumcovered deck round their gun was like a skating rink to their leather boots when wet. The loaders running around and clutching an [851-pound shell soon found it impossible to heave the shell into the breach and still maintain their feet. The loading drill from that one gun suffered and was soon halted-another lesson learned under Cutts. Some special shaped fibre mats and securing eyelets fa tened to the decks to hold them in position were later found by the sail maker hidden away in his store but nobody could remember them ever being used. They were easily rigged for every shoot from then on." However, the first night-firing exercise in battle conditions proved a sobering experience: The first occasion of carrying out a full-calibre night firing produced something of a surprise. The secondary armament of 5.5-inch gun was manned mo tly by young
Right: A cup of tea under 'Y' turret for refugees of the Spanish Civil War in the summer of 1938. Much of that year was taken up in humanitarian work of this sort. HMS Hood AllOCt.tlonJ~'(lvalColIKtlon
seamen, quite inexperienced, who on first being subjected to the blinding flash and blast of the turret guns, were so scared that a few ought shelter well in the rear of their guns, thus slowing down the rate of loading. The only way of dealing with this was for me first to speak some rough words to the assembled guns' crews. I told them that they were not fit for me to take into action against even an Eyetie ship! I then took the ship out the following night to do a repeat shoot. Of course, all went well then, but I had been shown the importance of frequent full-calibre firings." In all her career the Hood was probably never more battleworthy than in 1937-8 and though for various reasons this would not last much beyond unningham's tenure it could scarcely have come at a more opportune moment. In September 1937 the undeclared war against neutral merchantmen and warships by submarines and aircraft of the Italian Navy led to the convening by Britain and France of a conference in the Swiss town of yon. The conference was boycotted by the Germans and Italians, both of whom had withdrawn from the naval patrol of the international NonIntervention Committee in June after losing men to Republican air attacks off the Balearics. Undeterred, the British and French agreed not only to the introduction of declared routes for merchant shipping, but also that these should be patrolled by hips and aircraft with orders to meet force with force. These developments brought Cunningham and the Hood into the western basin of the Mediterranean where she was to serve two stints on patrol duty based mostly on Palma de Mallorca between October 1937 and February 1938. As he recorded in his memoirs, We made Palma our headquarters, with periodical visits to Valencia and Barcelona to visit the British consuls and the British minister, and to allay the fears of the latter. Almost every day we spent at Palma squadrons of S.79's roared overhead to bomb Valencia or Barcelona, though when we layoff these ports the bombers never came, so the inhabitants were glad of our arrival.'"
War Clouds, 1936-1939
At Caldetas north of Barcelona one of the ship's steam pinnaces would tow a culler loaded with provisions onto the sands where a group of supply ratings under the protection of a Marine landing party would see them onto trucks bound for the British Consulate." or did the boats return empty. A devalued peseta allowed Paymaster Lt A.R. Jackson to buy three fur coats for his wife while Cunningham di covered that half a crown would clear a flower stall on the Ramblas of much of its contents." The Nyon Patrol was not without incident. More than once the Hood was buzzed by the Regia Aeronautica, Cunningham ordering her guns to be manned and trained against the offending aircraft if they did not keep at the requisite altitude H In the event, the transfer of four Italian submarines to the Insurgent navy meant that the yon patrols enjoyed only partial succes and much of Cunningham's time was spent issuing futile protests to his ationalist counterpart at Palma. This while the Hood's Intelligence and wrr offices monitored signals between the armoured cruiser Quarto and Italian submarines in the Mediterranean. By the time the Hood returned for her third stint on I April after exercises and a month in dry dock at Malta, the steady advance of Nationalist arms northwards along the Valencian coast had made the evacuation of refugees and British nationals an urgent priority for the Royal avy. Large parties of civilians were embarked for Marseilles at Valencia and Barcelona and in all her career the Hood was never busier than in April and August 1938. On one of these trips the Hood, loaded with over 100 refugees from Barcelona, was called upon to rescue the crew of the ss Lake LugallO after she had been bombed in the Catalan port of Palam6s. These exertions called for the occasional rest-cure, the first of which was taken at Golfe-Juan on the Cote d'Azur at the end ofApril. The unique charms of the Riviera were not lost on the Hood's libertymen, many of whom were still carousing in bars and cafes on the morning of 2 May when their ship should have sailed. When Pridham finally did get them on board it was to sail to Corsica for a day of punitive drill while Cunningham and his staff went fishing in the mountains above St-Florent. But the Spanish patrol went on and it was therefore a cause of some relief to the Admiralty when the victory of one party promised an easing of the burden on its ships and men. In ovember 1938 the Republican defeat at the Battle of the Ebro made it quite certain which party that would be. Already in April 1938, a month after the German Anschluss with Austria, the British had signed their extraordinary rapprochement with Mussolini, the Anglo-Italian Agreement. As part of this tentative accord it was decided in London that a large squadron of Italian ships should be invited to Malta to renew the traditional friendship between the two navies. 0 quarterdeck in the avy lent itself better to such occasions than the Hood's and hers was among those selected to host the entertainments. This was accepted grudgingly by the wardroom and with decided ill grace by Cunningham: Most of us in the Mediterranean were sceptical about the results achieved by these same conversations. [... J As our merchant ships were being bombed almost daily by Italian bombers in and outside the Spanish ports it was not easy to work up cordiality. [... ) However, orders were orders, and the fleet set out to give the visitors a good time which,
177
in Latin countries, can be interpreted as one official entertainment after another without respite. Sir Dudley Pound, wishing to be particularly cordial, asked the Italian Commander-in-Chief to bring his wife and two daughters. We were to put up one of the two daughters, a tall order in a flat about the size of a large dog kennel." However, these complications were as nothing alongside those experienced on the Hood's quarterdeck on the eve of the Italian arrival. Louis Le Bailly: On the day before the arrival of the Italian Squadron Hood's Gunnery Officer had arranged that Y 15" turret, which had been under repair, should be trained under power from its foremost bearing to starboard to its foremost bearing to port. All went well until the pair of guns were pointing directly at the harbour entrance, through which the Italian ships would enter next morning. And at that point the turret well and truly jammed. Whilst this obviously hostile gesture was privately approved of by the admiral, it was felt that diplomatic niceties required the turret to be in its normal fore and aft position. Indeed, if it was not so trained, then it would remain impossible either for the main canvas awning or the ceremonial red and white awning to spread for the vast cocktail party to be given the following evening in honour of the Italians. Commander (El Berthon, as the ship's technical expert, though not himself responsible for the turret machinery, was called in to advise the poor Warrant Ordnance Officer who operated under the authority of the Gunnery Officer. After a detailed examination of the roller path, Berthon gave it as his view that the correct method of curing the situation would be to remove, individually, the grossly corroded rollers from the equally corroded roller path, clean off both and then replace the rollers. Such an operation would probably occupy at least a week. But of course hours were available. Thus the only remedy seemed to be the old naval one of'BF and BI' or Brute Force and Bloody Ignorance-although in this case the word 'ignorance' could be omitted. It was a remarkable feat. With the help of two hydraulic engines coupled to the hydraulic ring main, a block and tackle with luff upon luff led from the after capstan to the muzzle end of one 15" gun and a similar arrangement from the other muzzle, to the ship's tug-of-war team, the turret was finally brought to the fore and aft position. But the price was quite heavy. The after capstan was pulled out of line and the quarterdeck slightly buckled." After all this the entertainment passed off as well as could be expected. unningham:
" tWM/SA, AB Joseph Rockey, no. 12422, reel 2. U
I gave a large dinner-party for forty-five in the Hood preparatory to a dance in the Commander-in-Chiefs flagship, the Warspite. Decked out with palms, gladioli and carnations, the quarterdeck looked very fine, and the dinner was a great success. On the whole we liked Admiral Riccardi and the senior officers, who were most courteous and pleasant. The younger officers, however, were illmannered and boorish'·
HMS Hood Association archives. Cdr Keith Evans memoir,
193~9;
and Cunningham, A Sai/or's Od)'ssey, p. t89. lJ IWMlSA. no. 12422, reel 2. 14 Cunningham, A Sailor's Odyssey, p.19O. " CAC, LEBY 1/2, MS of Tile Mil" Around tlte Engine, ch. 12, pp. 2-3. The Gunnery Officer was It- dr J.D.Shaw·Hamihon. :'6 Cunningham. A Sailor's Odyssey. pp. 190-1.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
178
Williams, Gone A Long JOLlmey. p.126. 1I Rea, A Curate's Egg, p. 139. "Ibid., p. 140. 17
Despite the hostility between the two navies and a history of poor relations ashore, fears of unrest proved unfounded. AB Len Williams: However, sailors the world over have a knack of conveniently sweeping under the carpet any political rumpus, as having nothing to do with them; and so it was with us. There was time to worry when a war actually started! With their piano accordions and mandolins the Italians spent quite a few happy evenings in the bars of Malta. I know, for I was in their company with a lot more of our men, singing away with them, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. On this occasion Hitler and Mussolini were consigned to the dustbin! The visit was a huge success and in due course they left, leaving us with very pleasant memories, international situation or no international situation." For Cunningham the end of his time in the Hood was drawing near. In February he was appointed Deputy Chief of Naval Staff at the Admiralty and struck his flag on 22 August 1938. The news no doubt provoked a sigh of relief in the wardroom since no admiral drove his officers harder. The speech made by Lt James Munn, Cunningham's Flag Lieutenant, at the farewell dinner hosted by wardroom, provides a flavour of his leadership:
The battleship Conte di Cavour enters the Grand Harbour,
Valletta, at the head of a large Italian squadron in May 1938. They came as part of a shortlived entente between Britain
and Italy. To the left is the forecastle of Warspite, flagship of Admiral Sir Dudley Pound. HMS Hood Association/Higginson Cofl«tion
'Mr. President and gentlemen, you have no idea how lucky I feel to have survived the present regime (prolonged applause). You will understand what I mean by this statement when I tell you that in one of his ships the Admiral had no fewer than seventeen First Lieutenants.' Before the applause had died, the Admiral jumped to his feet and hanging his head as if thoroughly ashamed of himself sadly remarked: 'I'm afraid, gentlemen, it is quite true; and sat down again to even greater applause." The ship gave him a fine send offby sweeping the board at the Mediterranean Fleet sailing regatta at Navarin in July, though duties in the western basin kept her from reproducing the feat
for the Cock at Alexandria that autumn. But for Cunningham there would be one lasting memento of the Hood and that came in the form of his coxswain LS Percy Watts, who was to accompany him through all his subsequent battles, campaigns and appointments. The Hood's yon Patrol continued under Vice-Admiral Geoffrey Layton as the international situation spiralled gradually towards war. Though the damage was slight, the grounding of the ship while leaving Gibraltar on 20 September came at an awk-ward juncture. Already on the 12th Hitler had delivered a speech at Nuremberg attacking the stance of the Czech government over the Sudetenland, the German-speaking territory claimed by the Reich. This brought to a climax the increasingly fraught diplomacy that had engaged the chancelleries of Europe since February. Despite the craven policy of the Chamberlain and Daladier governments, there seemed every possibility that war might ensue if Czechoslovakia could not be persuaded to accede to her own dismemberment. On 28 September, at the very height of the crisis, the Royal Navy mobilised for war and the Hood slipped out of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic. The Rev. Edgar Rea describes the atmosphere aboard: When our men were feverishly fusing shells in preparation for battle, and things were at their critical worst, [Layton I handed me an unsealed envelope with the remark: 'You may find these useful one of these days'. Inside, I found the famous prayers composed respectively by Nelson and Drake before engaging the enemy. Soon afterwards, we started to raise steam. All leave was stopped and men already ashore were recalled by siren blasts. Towards evening we sailed and ordinary mortals like myself were left to guess both our destination and the nature of our mission. In view of all the circumstances most of us were convinced that a formal declaration of war was not far off." In fact, the Hood had sailed to meet the liner Aquitnnia, requisitioned as a troopship, and escort her through the Straits of Gibraltar against the possibility that the German pocket battleship Deutschland, then at Tangier, might attempt an interception on the high seas. In the event, the Munich Agreement by which Czechoslovakia was thrown to the wolves brought the Hood back to Gibraltar on 1 October where she was joined by the Deutschlmld herself the following day. This was by no means the first encounter between the Hood and warships of the Axis powers. Apart from the Coronation Review of 1937 and the Malta junketings already mentioned, the Spanish Civil War had frequently brought ships of the patrolling navies into the same harbour. In December 1936 she visited Tangier where were berthed the German cruisers Konigsberg and Niimberg and the torpedo boat I1tis along with the French destroyer Milan and two elderly units of the Italian navy, the armoured cruiser Quarto and the destroyer Aquila. Despite the differences between their governments, the Hood's men got on famously with their German counterparts, though on this occasion rather less well with those of the French and Italian navies. Boy Fred Coombs: The crew chose to chum up with the German pocket battleships when in Tangier, the Non-Intervention porr, where the Germans and the British had some battles royal
War Clouds, 1936-1939
with the French and Italian crew when in port together till it was decided that only one nationality would be allowed ashore at anyone time." AB Len Williams and his friends put this affinity down to the preference of British and German sailors for beer whereas the others favoured wine. Certainly, the beer, which was brewed aboard German ships and then consumed out of glass boot on the messdecks, accounted for part of the allraction, but for others it went deeper. AB Fred White (1937-8): We were all very fond of the Germans. [... J A very proud race, and they were clean, smart and a credit to their country." As AB Joseph Rockey put it, the Germans were 'very efficient, clean, smart, well drilled, well disciplined ... theirs was a harsh discipline, and we were disciplined ... ~J2 In any case, the political complexities of the situation were lost on much of the lower deck: 'Who was fighting who we had not much idea ... ~" Relations with the Italians, whom White considered 'slovenly', were to improve at Malta in April 1938, while those with the French remained somewhat distant: the matelots 'weren't bad ... but they weren't interested in us'." But it was a different matter with the Germans and the two navies were never closer than when the Delltschlfl/ld put in at Gibraltar after being bombed by Republican aircraft off Ibiza on 26 May 1937. The attack left 23 dead and over 75 wounded of whom eight would not survive. Many of the injured were hospitalised at Gibraltar where each man received a cap tally from the Hood and a total of £5 was voted the ship from canteen funds as a gesture ofsympathy; as Fred White recalled, 'That's how much we thought about them~ A German memoir of the visit survives from Matrose Hans Schmid, a young rating of the Del/tschland." The Delltschland had moored alongside the Hood, a complicated manoeuvre that the British observed with a professional eye. '0 sooner had she secured than Vice-Admiral Blake was received aboard by Kapitan zur See Paul Wennecker, apparently the first British Aag officer to set foot in a commissioned hip of the German avysince 1912.Aftera tour and refreshments of tea and cakes, Blake was paid the compliment of being rowed back to the Hood in a ten-oared cutter manned by German officers. The following day Wennecker received an invitation for the entire offduty watch of the Delitschiand to dine in the Hood. Matrose Schmid was among them: The ship's company was very excited by the prospect. [... J When the German seamen went aboard Hood they found her gaily dressed overall. Even the weather gods had joined in the spirit of this unifying festivity. A bright moonlit night and a silver panorama of stars glittering over Gibraltar made a perfect setting. The party in the 'model ship', as the British Admiralty rather conceitedly referred to her, surpassed all expectations. On the long wooden mess tables sat an array of sumptuous dishes which had been visually devoured by the German seamen long before they got a chance to tuck into them. But wine and beer were not served by the English messmen; instead one had to make do with exalted tap water from the springs of Gibraltar. Once the extravagant and princely meal was over the 'Sailors' took us on a journey through this monster of a battleship."
179
Despite the curse of Babel, the evening seems to have been a conspicuous success: After a 'digestive tour' around this outsized gargantuan of the seas, we assembled at the stern of the ship for a little conversation with our English hosts. Unfortunately, complete mutual understanding was only possible in the rarest of cases, as very few of the British understood German, and the Germans understood almost no English. However, using our hands and feet it was possible to convey all sorts of things in a comprehensible fashion. Both impres ed by what we had seen and by now rather tired, my shipmates and I took leave of the British battleship in the early hours in order to snatch a few hours sleep before the night was over." Though Schmid appears not to have noticed it, the absence of a full armoured deck in the Hood's design doubtless made an impression on more than one visitor that night, just as it did an officer of the Admiral GraJ Spee who came aboard at Tangier three months later." Much as the Hood's crew regarded her as 'good for anybody', and the Delltschland in particular, not even the bitterness over Germany's actions in Austria and the Sudeten land could dampen relations between the two ships when the laller edged into Gibraltar just two days after Munich on 2 October 1938. The Delltschland was there only to disinter and repatriate her dead from the previous year, but the opportunity was taken to renew acquaintances and drink more beer. The ships' football teams played each other and Capt. Harold Walker invited Wennecker to dinner in the Hood where they joined in watching the wardroom film. But circumstances prevented any lavish entertainment. Walker had lost an arm at Zeebrugge in 1918 but Rear-Admiral Layton, a submarine hero of the Great War, had spent the final months of that conAict as a prisoner of the Germans, whom he despised. Fraternisation was grudgingly approved but there was to be no official entertaining. Besides, a sour note had been introduced by the time the Delltschland weighed anchor. The story was still circulating in the Hood when Mid. Latham Jenson joined her in December 1940:
,. JI
IW~I, 91/711, p. 53. IWl\11 A. no. 13240. reel I.
n IWM/SA, no. 12422, reel 2. "IW~I, 91/711, p. 54. .. IWM/SA. no. 13240. reel J. H Schmid, Stellermaml dUTch Krieg WId Friede", p. 80. " Ibid., p. 8 I. Schmid uses the English word 'Sailors: " Ibid., p. 82. )I
Williams. Gone A Long fOllmey. p.125.
Football between Hood (left) and Deutschland at Gibraltar in
October 1938, just days after the Munich Conference. The exact score is uncertain but the tradition is that Hood emerged
victorious. HMS
Hood Auoc~tkxllH'99ifJSCKI CoIl«rlOfl
Tile Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
180
After a football game with German officers, Hood's officers were entertained aboard the cruiser. When it was time to go, the senior Hood officer thanked everyone, and said, 'Come on chaps; and one by one they dived off the quarterdeck to swim back to their ship. The last officer to go overheard a German scornfully say to another, 'These British officers are just overgrown schoolboys.''' So ended fraternisation in the Mediterranean. But had matters turned out differently the Hood might not have been in European waters at all. On 3 January 1938 Chatfield, the First Sea Lord, met with Rear-Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, head of the .S. avy's delegation in London, to discuss the size and composition of the force the British would send east in the event of hostilities with japan.'· The meeting came three weeks after the bombing of the river gunboat ss PallaY by Japanese aircraft in the Yangtse had brought the United States to the brink of war. Among the large fleet subsequently promi ed by the Admiralty was the Hood, though how she would have fared against japanese naval aviation is a matter for conjecture. The fate of British and American units in the Pacific theatre in 1941-2 suggests that the apology and reparation offered by the japanese government that same month may have been a providential deliverance fur both navies.
.....~>--
In May 1938 Capl. Pridham ended two successful years in command of the Hood. Although not free of the showmanship and favouritism he derided in his first executive officer, Cdr Rory O'Conor, Pridham had accomplished a marked improvement in discipline, seamanship and fighting efficiency. Together with Cdr David Orr-Ewing he had clamped down on the laxity that characterised the last phase of O'Conor's tenure and cultivated a healthier atmosphere on the lower deck. Pridham's own assessment is not inaccurate: A long uphill task started for me and Orr-Ewing, but under the favourable conditions of the Mediterranean the ship and her company advanced steadily towards the objective to which we aspired. The ship's company seemed keen and not discontented when we drove them hard, as we had to for the first few months. Eventually they became a very happy lot and proud of their ship."
Jenson. Tin Hats, Oilskins & Scabools. p. 90. ..0 MurreH, Fool-Proof Relat;otlS, pp.l3o-ll. ~I Pridham. Memoirs, II. p. 152. e Ibid., p. 174. U Rea, A Curate's Egg, p. 154. Rea's
.tt
figure of an 80 per cent turnover
must refer to the seaman complement since the Engineering
Department $3\\' relatively little change before the ship was lost. "Ibid., pp. 15H. U For the composition of the wardroom, see ch. 5. pp. 135·6.
Pridham's 'Captain's Memorandum on Discipline', a copy of which was handed to every officer on arrival, left no one in any doubt where they stood on the matter. Where 0' onor had determined to excel in every sporting competition, Pridham focussed on sailing as the essence of good seamanship, and his zeal was rewarded in 1938 with victory in all five Mediterranean Fleet sailing cups, including the Combined Fleet Sailing Regatta. In this Pridham led by example, and his handling of the Hood at Malta and Gibraltar is remembered as one of the great naval spectacles of the late 1930s. But it was in fighting efficiency that Pridham, urged on by Cunningham, made his most significant contribution. On 20 May 1938, the day he turned over command to Capt. Harold Walker, Pridham looked back wistfully at the achievements of his tenure: I told Orr-Ewing about Sir Roger Backhouse's demand
when I first joined the ship--to get the Hood out of cotton wool-and remarked that together we had succeeded in doing so and a bit more, for we could each be proud of our service in the Hood for the rest of our lives. We had made of her not only a ship of faultless appearance but also of her ship's company a truly efficient fighting machine--our main purpose." Unfortunately, the reality of naval drafting, refit and recommissioning meant that this degree of efficiency could not be maintained and as war clouds gathered the departure of key personnel and constant disruption to training routines began to take effect. Three times between ovember 1937 and December 1938 the Hood pent a month docked at Malta for refitting and improvements to her anti-aircraft armament while drafts of men came and went every week. Add to this the undeniable fact that the 1936-9 commission was more eventful than any which had preceded it. The Spanish Civil War, the Abdication of Edward VIII and Accession of George VI-the proclamation of which was read by Pridham to an assembly of British and foreign consular officials on the quarterdeck at Tangier in December 1936-the Coronation Review of 1937 and the Munich Crisis of 1938 were played out against the backdrop of continuous service, training and protocol under the mounting threat of war. This disruption clearly had a marked impact on the atmosphere aboard as the commission wore on. The Rev. Edgar Rea: The Hood never really had an opportunity to settle down. ot only were some eighty per cent of the ship's company relieved in the course of the commission, but the civil war in Spain ... never allowed us to pursue a normal Mediterranean routine. [... J All this, especially the relieving of so many men, had an unsettling effect upon the ship and prevented that harmony of interests and singleness of purpose which are essential to a happy ship." Even so, perhaps Rea listened too closely to the veterans of the previous commission when he claimed that
... Hood undoubtedly left much to be desired. There was something lacking in fellowship; in clannishness; in continuity of interest; and in concerted endeavour. Hood seemed to be too big; too scattered and divided to have a single soul; a united will; and a common purpose.... When competing with other ships, either on the field of sport or on board at some service evolution, one never felt that behind the small competing party was concentrated the goodwill and the sympathy of the entire ship." Perhaps the limited success of his pastoral mission coloured Rea's assessment of the atmosphere aboard, though it is true that the Hood was of necessity much less a sporting ship than she had been under O'Conor. However, Pridham's mission lay in transforming the Hood from a ship of peace into a true man o'war and in this re pect there were several marked successes beyond the improvement of her fabric and fighting capacity. The wardroom was certainly far happier than it had been and a lasting improvement in shipboard relations was accomplished by encouraging comrade hip between boy seamen and the increasing number of young stokers joining the ship'S Banyan
War CLouds, 1936-1939
181
parties ashore at Malta and Greece cooking sausages over open fires and wa hing them down with bottles of beer and ouzo added greatly to the atmosphere aboard. Evening classes for stokers and artificers gave members of the Engineering Department an opportunity to relate their work to the operation of the ship. Permission was subsequently given for stokers to be stationed on the bridge structure when the Hood left or entered harbour where they could study the finer points of ship handling which governed the orders sent to the engine spaces. As one of the divisional officers involved recalls, these developments had a marked effect both on morale and effectiveness: Productivity and efficiency in boiler operation and cleaning increased dramatically. There were even requests, some granted, from boy seamen and young Royal Marines to change over to stoker!" The 1936-9 commission also gave birth to the Hood's Harmony Boys, the harmonica and accordion band which played to appreciative audiences throughout the Mediterranean and on into the war years. Certainly, neither Pridham nor Orr-Ewing had the charisma of an O'Conor, nor was their tenure crowned with the acclaim enjoyed by the preceding regime. But there are many criteria for measuring the success of a commission and theirs was of a similar magnitude. Pridham's successor was H.T.C. Walker, known as 'Hooky' for the brass gaff he wore on the stump of his left arm. Though it encompas ed the Munich Crisis, Walker's was no more than a stop-gap appointment while the ship completed her Mediterranean commission and he did not have time to leave a deep impression on the ship. Instead it was for the brass gaff announcing his presence on the ship's ladders and companionways and brandished vigorously at the defaulters' table that he would be remembered. On ew Year's Day 1939 the ship's company po ed on the forecastle under the ramparts of 5t Angelo for the traditional valedictory photo. ine days later the Hood sailed from Malta for the last time. The band of the Royal Marines struck up Rol/i/lg HOllie and her paying-off pendant caught the sirocco as she passed 5t Elmo point and into the Mediterranean. But the final act remained: the ship's company dance, organised by Lt (E) Louis Le Bailly: From la few days before Christmas] until we left Malta I spent my time in continuous session with the ship's dance committee or ashore in the Cable and Wireless office. The Lord Mayor of Portsmouth was massively helpful and the lovely old Guildhall was booked for what was one of its last functions before Hitler destroyed it. The equation between what number of tickets would be sold at what cost, how much we could afford to pay the band and the scale of eating and drinking, an integral part of any ship's dance, was not easy to solve. There was an increasingly hysterical series of telegrams to Brickwood's, the famous Port mouth brewery who were to do the catering. The last one before we sailed for England summed it all up: 'Cancel savoury brioche, substitute strawberry ice cream. Cannot exceed two shillings and sixpence per head for guaranteed 2000."
Top: Hood in the Admiralty Floating Dock at Parlatorio, Grand Harbour, Malta, in the autumn of 1937. HMS Hood Associ.tionlCl.rk ColiKtion
Left: The port battery being plated over to permit the addition of a 4in Mk V highangle gun at Malta in November 1937. The starboard battery received similar treatment. HMS Hood Auoc;"tlOf'llHigginson CoIl«tion
Left: In the autumn of 1937 a refit at Malta saw the removal of the after torpedo control tower and its replacement with a bandstand for a Mk VI pam-pam mounting. The position of the
bandstand was offset to starboard to permit the operation of a handling crane for the seaplane it was intended to install on 'X' turret. Neither of the latter measures were
adopted. HMS Hood Associ.tionlHigginson Cofl«rion
Bottom: A crane swings out one of the two 5.5;n boat-deck mountings removed at Malta in
Mayor June 1938. They were replaced by a pair of elderly 4in
Mk V high-angle guns as a stopgap until the modern 4in Mk XIX twin mountings could be installed the following year. Repulse lies beyond. HMS Hood AssocJ.tionIHigginson ColI«tion
46
he would never celebrate another.
~
Bailly, The Mati Around the Engine, p. 45.
., Ibid.• p. 48.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
182
8 To War What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
Hood, Tire Times published a letter by Admiral Lord Chatfield which remains the most cogent statement ever made on the subject. His closing words were these: OUR DAYS AFTER THE LOSS OF THE
P
The Hood was destroyed because she had to fight a ship 22 years more modern than herself. This was not the fault of the British seamen. It was the direct responsibility of those who opposed the rebuilding of the British Battle Fleet until 1937, two years before the second great war started. It is fair to her gallant crew that this should be written.'
I
The Times, 28 May 1941.
: Pridham, Memoirs, II, p. 166.
If anyone was in a position to know it was Chatfield, who had occupied the office of First Sea Lord between 1933-8 and served at the heart of naval planning and administration for virtually all of the Hood's career. Delayed first by financial restrictions, disagreement over the future of the capital ship and then by international power politics, as the 1930s wore on circumstances made it impossible to immobilise the world's most prestigious warship for a lengthy reconstruction. When the long overdue proposals were finally tabled in 1936, diplomatic considerations, the spectre of war and the urgency of refitting older and weaker vessels meant that neither they nor their successors could ever be put into effect.' By the time the Hood returned from the Mediterranean in January 1939 the opportunity to make her a truly battleworthy unit had thus long since passed and the Admiralty could only offer another refit before she turned her bows towards the enemy. However, as war grew imminent, even the year-long 'reconditioning' envisioned in 1936 had to be reduced to a six-month effort pending a complete reconstruction beginning in 1942.' Of the original measures, which included the addition of 4 inches of plating over the magazines, only the installation of two twin 4in mountings and a magazine on the platform deck could be effected.' Though this went some way towards rectifying the Hood's woeful anti-aircraft defence, in adding more topweight the 1939 refit placed further strain on an already overloaded hull and aggravated a series of existing problems.' Lt (E) Louis Le Bailly:
) For details of the reconstruction, outlined in 1938 and planned for
1942-5, see Northeon, HMS Hood, pp. 55-7. • CAC, LEBY 112, MS of Tile Man ArolUld tl,,! £"gille, ch. 12, p. 4.
) For details of the refit, see Roberts. rile Battlecruiser Hood, p. 21.
, Le Bailly, The Man Arowld tile Engine, p. 49. , AC, LEBY 112, MS of n,e Man Around the Engine, ch. 12. p. 3. • Jenson. Ti" Hats, Oilskins 0Soohoors, p. 90. 'CAC,LEBY 112,MSofn,eMm, Around the Engine, ch. 12, p. 3. Le Bailly. Tile Mati Arowrd the Engine, pp. 49-50.
I.
Due to extra anti-aircraft armament, ammunition and crew to man it plus the tons of paint applied during Hood's 20 years howing the Aag, the ship was a foot further down in the water than her designed draught. In anything but a Aat calm, waves now broke over the quarterdeck and salt water penetrated, corroded and immobilised the roller path of'y' 15in turret thus reducing the main firepower by 25%.A Le Bailly added elsewhere, there were simply 'not enough skilled maintainers to meet the needs of an aged ship'.' By March 1940 the contamination of the argolene oil and
hydraulic systems was affecting both 'A' and 'Y' turrets, requiring the use of deck tackle for them to be trained. And with salt water came rust, the mortal enemy of all steel construction. Mid. Latham Jen on R.C. . who joined the Hood in December 1940 gives a vivid impression of a ship that had never been allowed to complete the transition from peace to war: I don't think there was a great effort to make watertight the various bulkheads at every level, which since 1920 had been penetrated for new electrical leads and so on and were full of holes. In fact, the whole ship was full of little faults that compromised safety and which had accumulated over many years. There were rust holes and patches of endless coats of paint, as well as great lengths of lead-covered electric cable, much of which was redundant and extremely heavy.' So it was that countless layers of paint both above and below decks, amounting in places to several pounds per square foot, not only added to the ship's inAated tonnage but constituted a serious fire hazard in action.' To remedy this a major paintremoval drive instituted in 1939 resumed Capt. Pridham's assault on the work of a generation of painters and enamellers. or was this all. The Hood's boilers and condensers, the basis of her propulsion, were in a desperate condition. They were Lt (E) Louis Le Bailly's particular headache in 1939 and remained an acute problem for the rest of her career: The other nightmare affecting the ship's mobility was the feed water's worsening impurity which corroded our boilers. The tubes in the ship's main condensers under the great turbines were aged and rotting. Salt sea water drawn by vacuum into the condensing steam contaminated the water on its way back to the boiler, a constant problem in ships during World War One known as 'condenseritis'. In addition the reserve boiler feed water tanks in the double bottoms were leaking at their seams, causing more contamination. And these two problems fed on each other. When the boiler water became contaminated it was necessary to ditch it and replenish supplies from the evaporators which were sometimes of insufficient capacity to cope with the amount needing replacement. Then water, probably contaminated, had to be pumped from the reserve tanks'· o wonder Le Bailly spent the last summer of peace immured in the Hood's engine spaces trying to make good the neglect of years: Machinery spares, boiler bricks, oaken shores, jointing by the mile, extra hoses ... day and night merged as we strove to make up for a decade's neglect. Disparity widened between what had to be done and the blazing irrelevancies
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183
the Admiralty poured on us. Endless hours were spent cajoling officials torn between instincts and orders. '1 Relentless work left little time for leisure: Sometimes, after the chipping was stilled for the night, we would e cape to the lovely Meon Valley and watch the mayfly rise and perhaps land a trout or two and drink good beer. Sometimes, if work was to go on all night, we would take an hour or so off and walk to Monk's oyster bar in Old Portsmouth or to the aval Club for a quick meal. Although spirits were high that summer I think, in our hearts, we began to realize that we faced an ordeal of a most terrifying nature. [... 1 Almost imperceptibly the pace quickened. Visits to town were abandoned and weekend trips to my home in Gloucestershire were rare. Longer leave was never considered." But time had almost run out. Thwarted by the Admiralty in his efforts to have the worst condensers attended to and regarding the ship as neither seaworthy nor battleworthy, the Chief Engineer Cdr (E) Peter !3erthon, 'prone on occasion to whitehot shaking rages', refused to pronounce the Engineering Department 'in all respects ready for war' on being relieved in May 1939." This integrity both delayed his promotion and cost him the post of Squadron Engineer Officer, though it was to prove a providential deliverance. Capt. (E) S.j. Herbert who assumed the post in his stead perished with the ship in J 941. When the Hood finally recommissioned on 2 june Lt Le Bailly found himself the only officer remaining from the previous regime as the ship entered the final stages of her preparation for war: Happily, the executive Commander, William Davis, later an admiral of great renown, had joined us some time before. The re-ammunitioning, re-fuelling, speed and gun trials all went far better than might be expected despite the sudden tragic death of the First Lieutenant. Problems there were of course by the hundred. But Davis, [Cdr (E) Terence] Grogan and our new Captain, Irvine Glennie, seemed to brush them off with remarkable phlegm and good humour. And the new wardroom too were full of fun." But despite the confidence and the effort expended it was still a rather dilapidated ship that left for Scapa Flow on 13 August 1939. Although those who lined the shore of Portsmouth and Southsea could not know it, the Mighty Hood was sailing never to return.
•.......tr-.. In view of the international situation it had been decided to retain most of the key ratings, including much of the Engineering Department, and only 500 were drafted to the naval barracks at Portsmouth when the Hood docked in January 1939. She recommissioned in june but the mobilisation which followed began to dilute her complement with re ervists and eventually Hostilities-Only ratings. By the time the Hood sailed after completing engine and compass trials off the Isle of Wight her crew had risen to over J ,400, approximately 15 per cent above peacetime levels. With war imminent
The Hood in dry dock at Portsmouth in the summer of 1939. Under the scrubbed de -The great attraction of a lengthy refit was of course the opportunity it afforded for a good spell ofleave after many months on active service. To a man the prospect was almost too marvellous to bear thinking about. OD Algernon Foster of Hastings: The fellows aboard are all talking about leave, but it is not the custom to believe anything until you are in the train bound for home, but we all hope that it will soon be our turn-perhaps I should of said 'their' turn .. 62 However, even when free of the ship, leave was as subject to the
~9
Le Bailley, Ti,e Mall Around the E"gine, p. 54. ,. td, 'Rum, Bum & the Lash', p. 56. 51 I am grateful to one of those drafted, Mr Roy Pownall of Hamilton, Ontario, for assistance on this matter. The Hood's crewmen rejoined her at Greenock in mid December. s21 ago, Letters ($capa Flow, 10 l\'1arch 1940). The torpedo officer was probably Lt-Cdr Anthony Pares, lost in May 1941. )J
Author's collection, taped memoir
of Boy Jim Taylor (1939-40), reel 2. Sol Williams, Gone A LOlIg jOllmey, pp.150-1. )) ChurchiJI, The econd World War, I, pp. 752-3. "Ibid., pp. 753-4. )7 Williams, Gone A Loug fOllmey, p.143. sa On this episode see PRO, ADM 202/422, [Cdr I.W,V. Brownel, 'A Low Tech Naval Landing Party' in Naval Review, 77 (1989), pp. 263--Q, Geary, H.M.S. Hood, p. 26, and Hoyt, The Life and Dearh of HMS Hood, pp. 50-63. The assistance of Cdr I.W.V. Browne (1939-41) and All George Walker (1939-40) is gratefully acknowledged. J9 [Brownel, 'A Low Tech Naval Landing Party', p. 263. Awdry and LumJey were lost with Hood in May 1941. 60 Ibid. ltI \-Villiams. Gone A Long foumey, p.143. "R M, 1999119, no. 25, $capa Flow, 9 March 1940.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
194
vagaries of war as everything else. In November 1939 Len Williams learnt of the curtailment of his in a cinema: I was in a Portsmouth cinema when the telegram was received by my mother, who arranged with the manager to have my name and address projected onto the screen. The slide was superimposed on the film being shown, and to my surprise, I saw it appear on the side of a flying boat, which on the film was being launched down a slope. Leaving the cinema, I met my mother at the Box Office and she handed me the recall telegram. I hastily packed my few things and, taking a packet of sandwiches with me, I kissed mother goodbye and took a bus to the station, where I found about two hundred others from Hood and a special train laid on to return us to Plymouth·' Boy Bill Crawford: the cost of war at sea. Cd, J~ff,ey William CtawfOf'd
For many the return from leave, from the comforts of home and the love of family, represented the nadir of misery. Boy Bill Crawford of Edinburgh wrote as much to his mother in March 1941: It sure was lousy coming away yesterday, Mother, although it seems years ago. It seems funny that I was walking along Prince's St with you and Nunky just over 24 hours ago. 1 haven't eaten anything except for a few biscuits since that cup of tea we all had around the fire at to o'clock yesterday. I... 11 sure wish I hadn't come back yesterday, Mum, and I very nearly changed my mind and came back home again when I reached South Queensferry. I just missed a ferry across the river and had to literally force myself to wait for the next. Even when I got to Rosyth I walked from there to the dockl'ard arguing with myself whether I should go back or not. Still, I went on and was charged with being adrift and the ship under sailing orders. I haven't seen the Commander yet, but the Officer of the Watch said it was a pretty serious offence. I am telling you all this just so you won't worry and be worrying how I got on, Mum." His anguish was not confined to what he had left behind, but to the reality of what awaited his return to the ship:
6' Williams, Gone A L01lg fOllmey. p. 139. "IWM, 92127/1, at sea, 19 March J941. The ship's Executive Officer, Cdr W.K.R. Cross, was lost with Hood in May 1941. 's Ibid., at sea, 20 March 1941. 66 Ibid .• at sea, 19 March 1941. 61 l..e Bailly. Tile Mall Aroulld the Engine, p. 54. 68 Owen, HMS Hood (unpublished
memoir), p. I.
NWC. Wellings, Reminiscences, pp. 74 & 90. ro I\oVM/SA, Telegraphist James
69
Brock Webster, no. 13205, reel 3.
Conversation with the author, 5 January 2004. 7lIWM/SA, no. 16741, reel I. n Pertwee, Moon Boot's and Di"ner Suits, p. 159. Statistic in lago. Letters (al sea, 9 October 1939).
il
I thought it would be O.K. coming back after that long spell in harbour but boy oh boy I sure have found different. Mother, 1just feel suffocated, everything here seems to remind me of home, but does not make one feel so comfortable or anywhere near so happy. The wireless, day-old newspapers, and everybody seems to wait until I appear and then they start singing songs which you sung when I was home. I always feel like crying, mum, and there is a permanent lump in my throat."' Beyond the enervating atmosphere was the tyranny of routine and repetition, of a life deprived of physical comfort or mental rest: I don't know what's wrong with me, but I feel sick, tired and in every way fed up. I had about five hours' sleep last night as I had a watch to keep from 12 a.m. to 4 p.m. The thought of eating this food again-pooey!-the same things day in, day out. 66
Certainly, the ship to which Bill Crawford returned was at times barely habitable. Louis Le Bailly remembers conditions aboard off Norway in October 1939: In October, in the worst weather yet, we were off the Lofoten Islands escorting a precious convoy of iron ore from arvik. The messdecks grew colder, and the ship's steam heating (never before used) leaked so badly that it had to be shut off as the evaporators could not make up the water lost. Continuous rolling and pitching caused the deck joints between the great armoured conning tower and the upper deck to leak so badly that running water on the messdecks added to the miseries of overcrowding and cold·7 Things were little better in the gunroom. Mid. Robin Owen spent the winter of 1940-1 in Hood while the cruiser Fiji was under repair: As we joined her on a dark cold October evening she looked vast, like a great blacked out city anchored in the Flow but despite her size and reputation we were. not at all happy at this change. The Gunroom was overcrowded with 28 midshipmen, most of whom were older and senior to us and, in time-honoured manner did their utmost to treat us like dogs' bodies, and temporary ones at that. Most had formed themselves into small groups, rarely mixing with others, and coming from Fiji's closely knit Gunroom of only six we found this intimidating. The gunroom itself was dilapidated and uncomfortable, we had to take our meals in shifts and the catering was poor. Our hammock slinging space was cramped, cluttered with extra sea chests and noisy fans and with overhead ventilation ducts which leaked water in heavy weather. The bathroom and washplace were damp and smelly and being on a deck below the waterline, often inaccessible due to closure of the watertight hatch above." But the lower deck had it worst. Among the most hated chores was the 'Energy Party', the detail of men assigned to mop the rivers of water coursing through messdecks and passages at all hours of the day or night, while the shipwrights spent their time punching oakum into leaking hatches. Under such circumstances it proved impossible to maintain anything approaching peacetime standards of cleanliness at sea, but nonetheless the failure to do so in comparison with other ships points to a decline in morale and energy as the war dragged on.·' Visiting her to take an exam shortly before she sailed against the Bismarck, Telegraphist james Webster of the new battleship Prillce of Wales found the Hood generally 'shabby' and the torpedo tubes covered in rust.'· The admiral's barge was so unkempt that Boy james Gordon, also of Prince of Wales, got into trouble for ignoring it 71 Officer morale remained high, Cdr Brian Scott-Garrett, a Sub-Lieutenant (E) in 1940-1, recalling that 'There was always a feeling of superiority about the Hood, that she was a magnificent great ship, that nothing would ever go wrong with her'." But the perspective of the lower deck was rather different. For 00 jon Pertwee, also a veteran of 1940-1, the Hood, whose crew had an average age of not more than 23, was 'never a very happy ship'." The grind of sleep deprivation and cold food, of hours
To War
without a cigarette in sodden clothing and filthy weather, of seasickness and boredom; peace a distant memory, leave a cherished hope; and ultimately the frustration of an elusive and unwilling enemy. All took their toll as the war entered its second year and men reached a state of profound physical and mental exhaustion. The Hood remained a great ship to the end but it is clear that by 1941 life aboard her had become almost intolerable. On May Day another Hostilities-Only rating, aD Philip X, unburdened himself to a friend: I'm afraid I can give you absolutely no news. This ship is still regarded as the crack ship of the Fleet and any suggestion that might lead anyone to think that she is even afloat is immediately snipped out by the censor's scissors. 0 doubt to you and others who know her from the outside she is magnificent-the Queen of the Seas, one of eptune's nipples. I sometimes even think that myself when I see her off shore from the background of an open pub, but living inside her and doing her dirty chores day and night I have come to regard her as the biggest, bloodiest and most wanton and unsatiated bitch I have ever known. The work I do could be done far better by an illiterate factory handthough he would not have to work nearly so hard-and the life is plain hell. I have never been out of my clothes except to wash since I saw you, and sleep only occasionally touches me. If only the enemy would be induced to make less furtive and more frequent appearances in the open it might be almost worth while. The only thing that continually astonishes me is the docile patience with which my Lower Deck mates take everything that comes to them-an attitude of mind that can only come from lack of imagination and one that I find impossible to acquire. I... J It's a very strange life-utterly remote from anything you ever knew about the sea even in your trawler ventures. In fact, even in the heaviest weather, it's strangely remote from the sea, so much so that when I am thoroughly exhausted and embittered by all this ceaseless discipline I only need to look down at the sea to find the most perfect possible refuge. But it's a clean life, and we are fed well. One can't complain of any material defects. I only wonder sometimes if I will ever paint again, or think clearly." In these conditions it is no wonder men began cracking under the strain. Jon Pertwee: From what I have written in the last few pages it would seem as if wartime at sea was one endless sky-lark, but this was far from the truth. The combination of lack of privacy, living conditions and the weather with its freezing cold were enough to break the spirit of far stronger men than me." One whose spirit was broken was Bill Crawford, evidently on the verge of a mental breakdown by the spring of 1941: But the first chance I get, mum, I am leaving for good as I honestly feel that yesterday something died inside of me and now I don't care much about anything. When the news comes on here I feel a big lump rising in my throat when I know there is no soft chair to sit in and no fire to sit by. obodyelse seems to be as bad as me, mum, but most of them are English
195
and the longer we spent in harbour the more money they spent in going ashore ... even Ian Roy is not upset at all. I guess it is just my nature and the reason I'm telling you this, mum, is so that you won't be too ashamed if I do anything rash in the future. Please believe in me, mum, whatever happens, as I feel I'll go nuts if this carries on much longer. If only I could get off this ship it would not be SO bad and there is so many good jobs ashore if one could only get into them." I wonder if it would do any good, mum, if you wrote to the Admiralty and asked them if there is no chance of me getting in at Donnybristle (if that is how you spell it) or a shore job at Rosyth. You know, lay it on thick, tell them you have two sons away, etc., be sure and tell them my age. I don't suppose it would do any good but it might. 71 For Bill, as for Philip X, there was not much longer to wait. On 24 May his torture became his nemesis. Despite Philip X's remarks on the forbearance of the lower deck, tempers did occasionally reach boiling point. When it was learnt in early December 1940 that the ship would be spending her second Christmas without leave the mood of the Hood's stokers apparently bordered on mutiny. The incident, which allegedly required the intervention of Capt. Irvine Glennie, is related in Bill Crawford's diary: Tuesday 10th December. There sure is unrest as regards leave. The Captain spoke to us about it today, he said nothing could be done. Wedllesday 11th December. There is open talk about mutiny, especially among the stokers, who have already had one bit of trouble. Thursday 12th December. Things came to a head today. The stokers practically mutinied, locking up officers and saying they wouldn't work. The captain asked them all to come up into the battery, he told them he could do nothing about leave and asked all the ship's company to stand by him. Friday 13th December. Things have kind of eased off today. The Captain told us yesterday that he was doing all he could but he did not think we would get leave till next year. He said all he could, also saying he knew some things but he was only a captain and if he was to tell us it might cause unnecessary trouble."
o corroborating evidence has yet been found for this episode nor did it reach the ears of Lt-Cdr Wellings U.S.N., then aboard. It may be that Boy Crawford's entries do the stokers living on the adjoining messdecks a grave injustice. But if conditions in the Hood's engine spaces were as they had been a year earlier it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the stokers, traditionally less inclined to discipline than their seamen colleagues, could have collectively reached the end of their tether. However, for a majority of the crew, increasingly made up of Ho tilities-Only officers and ratings, the drudgery was stoically borne. Capt. Sir David Tibbits has captured it perfectly:
"IWM.74/134-135/1. 7! Pertwee, Moon Boors and Di,mer S"iu, p. 159. "IWM, 92/27/1, al sea. 19 March 1941. 80)' Ian Roy perished on 24 May 1941. n Ibid., al sea. 18 March 1941. HM5 CochratJe 11, Donibristle. was a naval barracks near Rosyth. " Ibid., diary for 1940. pp. 124-5.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
196
brown liquid so essential to the operation of our sweat glands, had to be increased, as occasional visitors, wonderingly, and at first rather timorously, accepted invitations into our hot and steamy depths." For all their remoteness and isolation, the Hood's men found themselves as subject to the ebb and flow of life on the Home Front as any of their comrades in arms. Before they died on 24 May 1941 Lt john lago and Paymaster Sub- Lt Robert Browne had respectively announced to Iheir families Ihe affiancing of one relationship and the dissolution of another." 'or could they be spared the harsher realities of the Home Front. john lago:
Comrades: the crew of Starboard No.3 4in gun in the Mediterranean in June or July 1940. The trials of war bred a kinship among men hard for civilians to understand and impossible to reproduce in peace. The top of the starboard aft a.Sin machine·gun mounting
The men who took it all in their stride, never complained, and did whatever they had to do satisfactorily and well, were the quiet men, probably married WiUl children, who had worked in a factory, on a farm, or had a milk round. They had always gonen on with their jobs whatever happened, and they just went on doing them, whatever they might be."
I expect you have been having some air raid warnings by now. Portsmouth seems to be having a bad time and the majority of the men on board come from around there. The other day one man was punished severely for interfering with some gear that he shouldn't have touched; he lost a good conduct badge which means sixpence a day off his pay for life. However, a message came through that in an air raid a bomb had dropped on his house, killing his wife, mother-in-law and two children. The poor chap's punishment was forgotten." Where family was concerned, Bill for many when he wrote:
rawford no doubt spoke
can be seen just above the gun. Visible to the left are a group of ready-use lockers and one of the night lifebuoys rests against the rail on the right. HMS Hood AuociationlWhitewood Collection
Cited in Haines. Cruiser at \Var, p. 36. Capt. Tibbits did not serve in the Hood. 80 Pertwee, Moon Boots and Dinner 79
SI/;ts, pp. 153-4. Lt Horace Davies
R.M. and CPO Geoff Pope were both lost on 24 May 1941.
" CAC, LEBY 1/2, MS. of Tile Mall Around the Engine, ch. 13. p. 3. .l Jaga. Letters (Hvalfjord, 27 April 1941) and RNM, 1981/369 (letter of February 1940), respectively. u lago, Letters (Scapa Flow, 27 August 1940). Sol IWM, 92/27/1, al sea, 20 March 1941. IU lago. Letters (Gibraltar, 12 July 1940). A6 RNM, 1999/19. at sea, 13 April 1941.AB Fosler was lost wilh the ship. 111 Beardmore, The \Vnters of U"certaillt)', p. 24.
The end of the war was no more than a dream, but men were sustained by comradeship, love of family, romantic attachments ashore and hope for the future. But above all comradeship. jon Pertwee: Lucky count three was my friendship with the Second in Command of the Royal Marines on board, Lieutenant Davies. This was a somewhat dangerous situation for him, as having a lower deck rating as a friend was unheard of, and could've been suspecl. But this delightful man found ways of getting me into his cabin that defied any criticism. Running errands, discussing ship's concerts, tuning his guitar, and translating (very roughly) passages of French poetry. Once in, I was made very much at home and over endless cups of tea, laced with some of Geoff's 'neaters', we talked and talked. He was quite besoned by the theatre and the arts, and despairing of finding a kindred spiril among the Officers on board turned to me. Thank God he did! I... ] It was my friendship with Lieutenant Davies and Geoff Pope that kept me going through some of the most wretched and despairing periods of my young life'o The crucible of war also cemented an unlikely comradeship between younger seamen and stokers. Louis Le Bailly: The passageways above the machinery spaces were part of the ammunition supply routes for the 5.5" secondary armament and, as such, were the action and defence stations for young sailors. Many of them as Boy Seamen had mixed with my young stokers when we were all together in the Mediterranean. So the number of engine room and boiler room 'teaboats', those cauldrons of hot
That last leave was the happiesl I have ever spent, just because I was in the house more. Sitting round the fire talking, with a good dinner beneath my beIt---... For a month after the Mer -e1-Kebir affair the Hood continued in the van of Force H as Somerville took the battle to the Italians in the western Mediterranean. On 8 july Force H sailed from Gibraltar to mount a diversionary attack on the airfield at Cagliari, Sardinia to cover the passage of two convoys between Malta and Alexandria. just before 16.00 on the 9th the squadron began coming under unexpectedly heavy air attack from Italian S.M.79 bombers. There were no hits but sticks of bombs came uncomfortably close, one of which flung Boy Signalman Ted Briggs into a heap under the flag-deck ladder. Len Williams describes the experience of aerial bombardment at sea: One gets a tingling sensation down one's spine when being deliberately bombed, which is not relieved until you see the splash of the missile striking water; then one heaves a sigh of relief, relaxes one's taut nerves and hopes that there won't be any more like that. It is one thing to be bombed in a city, where you are not the prime target, but in a ship,
205
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particularly a much sought after ship like Hood, it is not so funny, especially when you know it is your vessel they are after. We were glad when darkness descended and we were left in peace.'" Indeed, no sooner had dusk fallen than Somerville decided that the risk of damage was hardly worth the objective and promptly cancelled the operation, ordering his force to return to Gibraltar. Recent events evidently convinced Somerville that his crews were raw and the Hood's anti-aircraft defence still inadequate. However, Force H was now able to spend three weeks at Gibraltar being welded into a cohesive force under the admiral's genial personality, the major units taking their turn as Anti-Aircraft Guard Ship against the daily incursions of Italian aircraft. There were constant exercises, of searchlights against aircraft and motor-boat attack, against the possibility of torpedo hits or gas bombs. In many of these the Hood's crew was found wanting in drill and organisation, focussing too many beams on one target or proving laggardly in taking basic precautions. Practice shoots with the main armament were characterised by ineffectual drill, control failures and poor accuracy, though by early August it was obvious that the inner lining of the port gun of 'A' turret was in need of replacement.'" Even so, efficiency in this area remained poor for some time. Matters were not helped by the anti-flash garb of asbestos hood and gauntlets that all gun crews and exposed personnel were required to wear, though, as OA Bert Pitman admitted, 'if we were doing anything we used to take it off'.'" Worse still was the burden of ineffectual equipment. The UP launchers installed in the spring refit misfired during the attacks off Cagliari and again at Gibraltar on 27 July when the forward mounting discharged an impromptu barrage over the harbour leaving three ratings severely burnt.'" The launchers, of which five were installed, were designed to fire a salvo of20 rockets or 'unrotated projectiles' at attacking aircraft. Once aloft the rockets would release an explosive charge dangling from a small parachute by a series of wires which, it was confidently expected, would be snagged with dire consequences for the aircraft in question. Not only did this improbable scenario fail to eventuate, but the charges had an alarming tendency to drift boomerang-like back towards the firing vessel and ultimately proved of considerably greater danger to the ship than to the enemy. On the other hand, it is clear that the Hood was quietly absorbing the lessons of war, though it required the absurdities of peacetime naval structure to be overcome for a truly effective organisation to emerge. Damage control was a case in point. Louis Le Bailly: Damage control, a new phrase to us, spawned a more comprehensive organisation than the old 'Fire and repair parties' ever did. Essentially technical, it should have been under the direction of an engineer or shipwright officer, but in those days no (E) officer could give orders to shipwrights or sailors and no artificer, mechanician or stoker would take them from a chippie. So the first lieutenant whose knowledge of pumping, flooding, shoring, the cross connecting of damaged fire and hydraulic mains and the running of emergency electrical
Above: The Mk III High-Angle Control System on the starboard signal platform, seen with its crew in the autumn of 1940. The Hood's three HACS directors supplied fuse settings for the 4in shells along with elevation and training pointers to the guns. The guns could then be fired remotely under director control.
Left: Professor lindemann's abortion: an Unrotated Projectile
(UP) launcher of the type filted in the Hood.
1..0
Williams, Gone A Long Jotlmey.
p. t48.
'4' R M, 1998/42, Journal of Mid. •4l
'4J
P.I. BuckclI, at sea, 7 August 1940. IWM/SA, no. 22147, reel 4. RNM, 1998/42, Journal of Mid.
P.). Buekell. Gibrahar. 27 )uly t940.
206
n,e Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
leads could have been written on a postage stamp, had perforce to become the damage control supremo, all orders being issued over his name.'" Len Williams gives a flavour of some of the work undertaken as time passed and experience accumulated: As one would expect, the first few months of the war revealed loopholes in our fighting efficiency. Reports were received by the Admiralty from various ships who had received damage in action. This information was thoroughly gone into by experts and various remedies were produced, which were put out in fleet orders. For instance, it was found that a 'close by' underwater explosion caused messdeck steel ladders to jolt out of their housings, thereby crashing to the deck and preventing escape to the upper deck. To overcome this, we fitted all such ladders with wire strops, shackled to the ship's structure, so that if the ladder lifted out of its housing, the strop prevented it falling to the deck. Other ships had reported that 'near miss' e"lJlosions caused the dynamo supply switches to be automatically thrown off due to shock, thereby plunging the entire ship into darkness, and bringing all ventilation and auxiliary machinery to a standstill. This meant that should it become necessary for the crew to abandon the ship, they would have extreme difficulty in finding the ladders and escape routes, apart from the additional hazards of falling kit lockers, loose equipment, and the possible acute angle of the listing ship. We adopted two cures for this trouble. First we drilled the covers of all the dynamo switches and fitted a bolt into the hole, which penetrated the insulated part of the switch arm, thereby locking the switch in the 'On' position. This, of course, upset the overload safety arrangement, but the risk had to be accepted. Secondly, we fitted automatic electric batten lanterns, which, when the mains failed, the battery took over and automatically lit the lamp. These were placed in strategic positions throughout the ship, such as near ladders, hatchways and corridors.'" But it wasn't all work. Between whiles the Hood's crew was able to savour the pleasures of the Mediterranean at the very moment that Hitler was turning his attention to the metropolis. For officers there were regular visits to the beach at Sandy Bay on the opposite side of the Rock. John lago wrote home of idyllic days in the sun: We wondered last week what sort of a war you would be imagining us to be fighting, as we spent the afternoon bathing on a beach! The sun was hot and my shoulders were badly sunburned. This particular beach is very fine and is reserved for Officers and nurses. There are heaps of fish in the water and they sometimes catch small octopuses and basking sharks-not dangerous ones! ,._. The first indication of disaster in the Denmark Strait came in a terse signal from Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker to the Admiralty and Tovey, then at sea in Killg George V: 'Hood blown up in position 63 0 20' ., 31 0 50' W.' This signal, made at 06.15 and classified as' ecret' by Wake-Walker, took some time to reach its intended recipients. However, the' Hood sunk' signal made by Prince of Wales shortly after was intercepted across the Atlantic and beyond. Capt. Philip Vian was commanding the escort of convoy WS8B west of Ireland when the news reached him in the destroyer Cossack: 'I believe I felt no stronger emotion at any time in the war than at the moment when I read this signal.''' So it was throughout the avy. In the cruiser HalVkills lying at Durban Paymaster Lt Keith Evans (1938--9) was one of many veterans unable to control his emotions;
HMS Hood Association archives. Coles & Briggs, Flagship Hood, p. 221. The amount of time the survivors spent in the water seems to ha\'e been nearer two hours. 86 Von MUllenheim-Rechberg, Battleship Bismarck, 2nd edn,
&t
U
p.144. James Gordon. conversation with the author. 5 January 2004. 8lI Vian, Action IIIi5 Day, p. 56. •1
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
226
On that fateful day, after visiting Capetown and the Seychelles, we were coming alongside Mayden Wharf in Durban when on the tannoy of another ship (I think Dorsetshire) we heard the announcement 'We regret to announce that in action with the German Battleship Bismarck in the Denmark Strait off Greenland, H.M.S. Hood has been sunk, it is feared with considerable loss of life'. All hands on deck seemed to stop what they were doing for about a minute (in fact more likely several seconds). As a former shipmate I just could not comprehend that the Mighty Hood had gone and am not a bit ashamed to say that I began to cry." For others, grief for lost friends was tinged with a desire for revenge. Lt-Cdr George Blundell, a midshipman in the Hood between 1922 and 1924, was First Lieutenant of the Nelson off Freetown: ...The captain came on to the bridge and said 'The Hood's been sunk by the Bismarck.' I thought for a moment he was fooling. [... 1J felt terrible thinking ofTony (Lieut. Commander Anthony Pares ... )... I can hardly believe that lovely ship is gone nor that one IS-inch shell can do such a horror. [... J AlII hope and pray for is that we gel the Bis,narck in revenge. It would be terrible for her to get away. Those poor fellows in Hood-Tony, Tiny Gregson, dear old Grogan, Tubby Crosse [sicl. r... llt is a ronen war. What is the point of it?9" At the same moment the Navy was suffering terrible losses in the withdrawal from Crete. Lt-Cdr (E) Louis Le Bailly was Senior Engineer of the cruiser Naiad: ... When I went aft ... the commander broke the near unbelievable news that Hood had blown up. That there was another world outside the conflict in which we were engaged was difficult enough to comprehend, that the navy should be fighting two such great sea battles, so many thousand miles apart, was almost beyond understanding; but that the ship in which I had been weaned and had come to love should have disappeared in seconds was a kick in the stomach." In the Rodney, escorting the troopship Britannic westwards across the Atlantic, news of the death of her 'chummy ship' came as a numbing blow. Her chaplain, the Rev. Kenneth Thompson, describes the atmosphere in a ship which, days hence, would exact the Navy's revenge: 89 90
91
92
HMS Hood Association archives. IWM, 90/38/1. diary entries for 24 & 25 May 1941,vol.lI,p. 63. Cdr W.K.R. Cross was the Hood's Executive Officer. Le Bailly, TheMa1l Around the Etlgine. p. 83.
Thompson, H.M.S. Rodney at lVar, pp. 40-1.
'J I am grateful to Mr Peter Cambridge for drawing this circumstance to my attention. 9~ Miss E.G. Wilkin,lNter to the author, 6 December 2003. "CA ,ROSK, file 4/7 'Note by Admiral Sir William Davis', pp.5-6.
We have taken some hard knocks this war, and there were others still to come, and many, for all we know, still in store. But it is doubtful if anything could equal the Captain's tragic broadcast that the Hood had been sunk with very few survivors, and that the Prince of Wales had been hit and forced to break off the engagement. It is difficult adequately to describe the gloom that existed; food went untouched in most messes, and many men, especially those who had served in the Hood, went about their work in a daze. For a time one of the chiefs cheered his mess with the suggestion that perhaps the signal had been misread, but that consolation was very quickly
removed. The Hood had indeed been lost, together with most of her ship's company." Others knew of the action before they learnt its outcome. Two hundred and fifty miles to the south-east stokers in the steamer Zouave, sailing in convoy SC31, picked up the reverberations of a distant battle. On the bridge Capt. William Cambridge was losing his son John in one of Hood's boiler rooms." In Berlin Goebbels crowed triumphantly at the news. At the Admiralty, meanwhile, it was received with a mixture of shock and stoicism. Civil Service Telegraphist Gladys Wilkin was on duty in the Admiralty Signals Department on what had been a heavy night of bombing: The Signals Department was situated beneath Admiralty Arch; roughly beneath the left hand pillar looking down the Mall. [... J On the night of 24th May 1941 there was a particularly bad air raid on London and a direct hit struck the above mentioned pillar, killing a dispatch rider standing beside his motor-cycle at that spot and damaging a portion of the Signals Department below. ow, it just so happened that at that particular time several members of the Signals staff were either at rest, supper, off sick or just not on duty. There was not terribly much 'traffic' that night and I was working two positions. On one position I received the signal that H.M.S. Hood had been sunk; this was marked 'MOST SECRET and needed to be handed immediately to the Officer in Charge. I was shocked, stunned and unhappy. For another reason also. One of the telegraphists with whom I was particularly friendly at this time was a girl we all called 'Len' because her surname was Leonard. [... J Her fiance was a member of the crew of the Hood and when she came back from supper I was unable to tell her of the signal because of its classification. Naturally, she learned eventually when lists of the casualties began coming in .... Though no less of a shock, for any aware of the Hood's design the news came as no particular surprise. Capt. William Davis, a Deputy Director of Operations at the Admiralty, had been Hood's Executive Officer until September 1940: The loss of the Hood was a tremendous shock to all of us, and especially to me as her last Commander, but I certainly knew of her extreme vulnerability to 15 inch fire with only 3 inches of mild steel armour protection over her magazines. [... J The Hood's destruction was unlud,l', but to me not unexpected for she was not fit to take on modern 15 inch gunfire. os Luck was one of the themes of the communique released by the Admiralty later that day. At nine p.m. on the 24th the country at large was made aware of the disaster in a BBC radio broadcast: British naval forces intercepted early this morning, off the coast of Greenland, German naval forces, including the battleship Bismarck. The enemy were attacked, and during the ensuing action H.M.S. Hood (Captain R. Kerr, C.B.E., R. .), wearing the flag of Vice-Admiral L.E. Holland, C.B., received an unlucky hit in a magazine and blew up. The
The End oj Glory
Bismarck has received damage, and the pursuit of the enemy continues. It is feared there will be few survivors from H.M . . Hood. The news was received with utter disbelief. 00 James Edwards ( 1933-4): I was in a pub and had just ordered a pint of beer when the news came over the radio and the pub went totally quiet. I looked at my pint and could no longer face it, so I walked out, leaving it untouched on the bar. I had lost friends and companions but above all I had lost the beautiful ship which gave me my first real sea-going experience and I felt shattered."
00 Howard Spence, part of the last draft to leave the ship before she sailed against the Bismarck, got home just as the news was breaking: I arrived home at Portsmouth by 24th May 1941 and heard a radio announcement that HMS somethingorother had been sunk-we could not catch a name, but I had a presentiment that it was the Hood, and this was confirmed the next day. A telegram arrived for my parents and I took it from the telegraph boy: 'Regret your son missing, presumed killed.' A further telegram arrived dated 29th May 1941: 'Your son not on board, regret anxiety caused.''' But most relatives had no such reprieve and for them life would never be the same again. Some, indeed, suffered a double tragedy. At least four pairs of brothers were 10 t in the Hood, including George and Arthur Brewer of Newfoundland. For Portsmouth, heavily blitzed since 1940, the loss of its greatest ship together with virtually her entire crew was almost beyond endurance. Sheila Harris, just five at the time, recalls the atmosphere: H.M.S. Hood and its loss became the topic of conversation that permeated everything. I can only describe the atmosphere now when I look back as that of a pall of shock and misery descending on the city and its environs. Every conversation wherever people gathered was constantly punctuated by the word' Hood'."
or was Portsmouth the only city to grieve. In their undemonstrative way the people of Glasgow also mourned the loss of 'oor ship'. On 30 May, Sir Stephen Pigott, Managing Director of John Brown & Co., submitted the following in his report to the Board of Directors: The loss of this great Clydebank-built ship has caused genuine depression and regrets with all at Clydebank, and through the medium of the shop stewards we are endeavouring to exhort the workers to give expression to their feeling by increased effort on the work in progress... A letter expressing sympathy and regret at the loss of HMS Hood has been sent to the Controller of the avy." Before the 24th was over one of the ladies entrusted with the task of maintaining the Admiralty's warship index made a final entry on the Hood's card: 'At 06.35 today blew up and
227
sank in action in the Denmark Strait."oo That evening Churchill descended to the parlour at 10 Downing Street in a sombre mood. The Hood had been destroyed and the Bismarck was at large in the Atlantic: [Vic Oliver, his son-in-law] wrote of an evening in 1941 when Churchill came down from his study 'looking inexpressibly grim'. Scenting there had been a disaster but knowing he would not reveal it, Mrs Churchill quietly poured him a glass of port. Oliver went to the piano and, on reflection, began Beethoven's Appassiollata sonata. Churchill rose to his feet and thundered: 'Stop! Don't play that!' 'What's the mat1er?' asked Oliver. 'Don't you like it?' , obody plays the Dead Marcil [sic] in my house,' said Churchill. Knowing that Churchill was notoriously unmusical, the company laughed. Oliver turned back to the piano. 'But surely, sir, you can tell the difference between this '-and he struck a few chords of Appassiollata'and ' Before he could finish hurchill thundered again: 'Stop it! Stop it! I want no dead march, I tell you."·'
Ted Briggs as a Yeoman of Signals in the headquarters ship
Hilary. c. , 944. He is the last surviving member of Hood's final company. Ted Briggs
The outlook, indeed, could hardly have been grimmer. As Churchill recalled, The House of Commons... might be in no good temper when we met on Tuesday. [... 1 How would they like to be told ... that the Hood was unavenged, that several of our convoys had been cut up or even massacred, and that the Bismarck had got home to Germany or to a Frenchoccupied port, that Crete was lost, and evacuation without heavy casualties doubtful?'·2 On the morning of the 27th Churchill was able to announce the sinking of the Bismarck to Parliament but nothing could efface the destruction of the Hood on, of all days, Empire Day-24 May. From a material standpoint Germany's loss had been much the greater. Her only commissioned battleship had been sunk with huge loss of life including that of the Kriegsmarine's most distinguished seagoing commander. But the Hood had a symbolic power out of all proportion to her value as a fighting unit and her annihilation had an effect on morale exceeded only by the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Both events raised in the minds of ordinary Britons the spectre of total defeat. And both in their different ways had farreaching consequences for the prestige of the British Empire. But that lay in the future. For now the gleaming sword of the avy had been unmade, never to be reforged. So to the aftermath. In Yorkshire Applegarth School transferred its affiliation to Killg George V, the battleship that had led the final at1ack on the Bismarck. From Bubulu, Uganda, a young Jeremy Woods sent Churchill his accumulated savings of two shillings towards the construction of a replacement. LtCdr Wellings had a letter to his friend Warrand returned to the U.S. embassy in London as hundreds must have found their way back to families and friend truggling to cope with their loss. In March of 1942 Canon Thomas Browne of ewmarket received from the avy the sum of £ 18 7s. 2d., the balance of his son Robert's pay. The final reckoning came to 1,415 men including four Polish midshipmen and four Free French ratings; representing the Empire were men from the Australian
t6
Cited in Ta,"erner. Hood's L~gacy. p. \\9.
HMS Hood Association archi\·~ . .. Letter to the author. 2 December W
2003.
.. Cited in Johnston, Ships for a Natiotl, p. 224. 100 The actual time was of course 06.00.
W.F. Deedes in nll'Daily Telegraph, January 2001. 101 Churchill, Tile Second World War, 101
III, p. 312.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
228
WAR ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH RED CROSS SociETY AND
ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM
Wounded. Missing and Relatives Department 7, Belgrave Square, London S.W.1 181h July, 1941
(four), Canadian (three), Indian and New Zealand navies (one each), and several ratings from Newfoundland. The loss of the Hood was very much present as the conAict drew to a close. There are many descriptions of Sunset, the ceremony which closed the naval day, but none more moving than Louis Le Bailly's memory of evening on 2 September 1945, the day the Second World War ended. The ship was Duke of York and the place Tokyo Bay: When Admiral Fraser arrived the Quartermaster reported 'Sunset, sir'. The 'Still' sounded. The Royal Marine Guard presented arms and the band played The day ThOll gavest Lord is ended, interspersed with the Sunset call as only Royal Marine buglers know how. For the first time in six bitter years the White Ensign came down. Many, perhaps most, had never before savoured the magic of this moment when the busy life of a warship is hushed and the evening comes. Others of us, standing at the salute, were in tears as we remembered those who would never again see 'Colours' in the morning or hear the bugles sound 'Sunset' at dusk. I thought of all those friends in Hood who had come to see me off and the many many others ... As the White Ensign came into the hands of our Chief Yeoman and the 'Carry on' sounded, we realised that on board all the great US ships around us every activity had stopped, their sailors facing towards the British Aagship and saluting US. 103
Dear Mrs. Foster. We have received yOUf letter asking (or news of your husband:· Algernon Thomas Foster, A.B., PIJX. I 72627. H.M.S. Hood. J am sorry that we have no news that we can send you of your husband, and in view of the sad fact thai he has been officially posted as 'missing. presumed killed', I am afraid we must not encourage you 10 hope too much that we shall be successful in obtaining any further information about him. We would like to assure you, however, that should any news of him be received at any lime. you will be informed immediaTely. May we send you the deep sympathy of this department in your sorrow.
Yours sincerely, Margaret Ampthill (Chairman) [RNM. 1999119. unnumbered.)
WAR ORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH RED CROSS SociETY AND ORDER OF ST. JOt-IN OF JERUSAL£l,'!
\A.'ounded. Missing and Relatives Department 7, Belgrave Square. London 17th December.
In the years that followed Band Corporal Wally Rees R.M., he of the effervescent trumpet, could never speak of his companions in the Transmitting Station without tears welling in his eyes. In the United Slates Rear-Admiral Ernest M. Eller would remember how 'Her loss hurt me deeply'W4 For his compatriot Rear-Admiral Joseph H. Wellings, who learnt the news in the Rodney, shock and sadness were accompanied by a sense that things had changed for ever:
S.W.1
I was shocked because the Hood had been the symbol of British naval supremacy for over 20 years, and saddened because of the loss of so many friends. lOS
1941
Dear Mrs. Foster, We have received your letter of December 15th with reference to your husband: Algernon Thomas Gloster Foster, P/IX.I72627. H.M.S. Hood.
And so the Hood passed into history. Her epitaph? Leonard Williams: It was a very long time before I got over the shock of Hood's loss. As a ship's company we had been together a very long time. We had shared the joys and excitement of peace. In war we had welded ourselves into true comradeship that had weathered the Arctic gales and outshone the Mediterranean sun. As long as sea history is written, Hood and her gallant band of men will be remembered, and theirs will be a golden page in the book of time. I"
We deeply regret that we have no further news to send you of him and in view of the fact that only three survivors, whose names haw: been published in the press. have been heard of, we dare not encourage you to hope that we shall ever succeed in obtaining further news of him. Had your husband been picked up by a German U-boat, he would be a prisoner of war and his name would have been sent to us long before this by the International Red Cross Committee at Geneva whose delegates visit all prison camps and who send us the name of every prisoner as soon as he has been given his registered number and the address of his prison camp is known. We are so sorry to write )'ou such a discouraging letter and would like to tell you how much we feel for you in your great sorrow at the loss of your husband who gave his life gallantly for his country. Yours sincerely, Margaret Ampthill (Chairman) [RNM, 1999/19, unnumbered.)
10)
Le Bailly, The MatI Aroulld the Engine, pp. 125-6.
Eller, Reminiscences, II, p. 429. NWC, \·Vellings. Remi/lisce1lces. p. 167. lOt> Williams, Gone A LOllg jounle)', p. 154. IQ.4
10)
229
Conclusion HERE IS A SPECIAL QUALITY about the battlecruiser Hood which resists any single definition. It has to do with her beauty and her destructive power, with her gilded years of peace and then her annihilation in war, of sinuous strength and desperate fragility. Most of aLi, perhaps, it has to do with the association between these elements and what she represented. The Hood came to symbolise two things above all: the perpetuation of the British Empire and all that the Royal avy wished for itself. Once she had gone nothing could or would ever be quite the same again and the passage of time has only sharpened that impression. In the fifteen months that separate the destruction of the Hood in May 1941 and Operation 'Pedestal' in August 1942 the Royal Navy lost many of her most famous ships: the Barham off North Africa and Ark Royal off Gibraltar; Repulse and Pri/lce ofWales off Malaya; Hermes in the Indian Ocean and Eagle in the western Mediterranean; and of course Hood herself at the beginning of this period together with dozens of cruisers, destroyers, submarines and escorts. Though these disasters did not alter the outcome of the war they encapsulate a loss of power and prestige from which there would be no recovery. And of these blows none fell heavier than that of Hood, lost with virtually her entire company in a tragedy which has come to stand for the calvary of the Royal Navy as a whole during the Second World War. Nor is this all. For many the passing of the Hood represents not only the closing phase in the Royal Navy's age of greatness but also a vanished era in British industrial power. One needs to look back to the age of the great cathedrals and monasteries to find a parallel for the enormous technical and financial endeavour represented by the 'Great Naval Race' of the early twentieth century. As in the High Middle Ages, the construction of the Hood united the zeal, skills and energy of entire communities, and as then the scale of the enterprise reflects the confidence and vaulting ambition of her creators, to build bigger and better to an end and for a purpose greater than themselves. Despite her flaws, this circumstance makes the Hood as much a triumph of the shipbuilder's art and organisation as she was of naval power and administration and it must be a source of profound sadness that not one of the great British warships of the first half of the twentieth century has survived to mark this achievement for posterity. There is another tragedy, too, and this is that Hood went illprepared to her moment of reckoning in the Denmark Strait. This circumstance had not only to do with unsatisfactory protection, a motley assemblage of secondary armament and the inscrutable turns of Fortuna's wheel. It was also the product of economic decline and financial parsimony, diplomatic incompetence and political upheaval; of the strategic and military failure that placed her under Bismarck's guns when she might otherwise have been quietly scrapped or in the throes of reconstruction. Then there is the Battle of the Denmark Strait
T
The bridge seen at nightfall on
20 May 1937. HMS Hood AnociationlHigg;nSOll Collection
I
Williams,
p.141.
Gone A Long IOllmey,
itself, a particularly stark example of the dichotomy between strength and power in capital-ship design. Here, after a brief engagement between two ships of comparable armament, the Hood blew up with virtually her entire crew and before she could land a single hit on the enemy. Over the next three days the Bismarck was hunted down and finally battered to destruction without inflicting any significant damage on her tormentors. There are lessons to be drawn from the experience of both vessels: that what makes a ship in peace is assuredly not what makes her in war; that the power of a capital ship equates to the strength which permits her to suffer a measure of the punishment she would mete out to others; and that there is a further distinction to be drawn between what keeps a ship fighting and what keeps her from sinking. For Bismarck that distinction was very great; for Hood it was barely perceptible. Two great ships, each vulnerable in her own way. To have witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center on II September 200 I is to appreciate how a great entity many years in the making can be destroyed in the passage of a few seconds. But the tragedy is not one of structure so much as of humanity. With Hood as with Bismarck, Arizona and Yamalo, it was less a ship than a community that was destroyed, the community evoked here by LS Leonard Williams (1936-41); Here we lived together as a giant family. We knew each other's failings and weaknesses, and liked each other in spite of them. We slept in close proximity, in swaying hammocks. We even bathed together in the communal bathrooms. In fact we lived candidly with one another, accepting the rough with the smooth. This sharing and living together forged a comradeship which one can never find in civilian life. or was the ship herself left out of our lives, for everything we did was for her. On our smartness, the way we dressed, in fact everything we did depended our ship's efficiency rating in the fleet. She was our constant task mistress. While we could, and often did, call her all the rough names under the sun when things went wrong, heaven help those, not of our company, who tried to do the same. This is the team spirit we miss when we leave the service, for it is something very fine. Something which, through countless ages, has scaled the highest mountains, fought and won hopeless battles... ' It was her men who breathed life into her, made her rich in history, character and memory from the splendours of Rio to the stygian waters of the North Atlantic. In Hood the notion of the warship as a tool of peaceful diplomacy reached its zenith, not only in her graceful form, speed and armament but also in the qualities of her people. The Hood was undeniably an engine of war, but as with the greatest weapons her career was as much about preserving life as about taking it. Of her many legacies this shall perhaps prove the most enduring.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
230
Appendix I Admirals, Captains, Commanders and Chaplains by Commission Commission
Flag Officer, BCS
Commanding Officer
Commander
Chaplain
I. 29 March 1920
Rear-Admiral Sir Roger B. Keyes 18 May 1920
Capl. Wilfred Tomkinson I january 1920
Cdr Lachlan 0.1. MacKinnon May 1919
Rev. William R.F. Ryan March 1920
Rear-Admiral Sir Walter H. Cowan 31 March 1921
Capt. Geoffrey Mackworth 31 March 1921
Cdr Richard H.O. Lane-Poole 31 March 1921
Rev. Arthur D. Gilbertson 19 April 1922
Rear-Admiral ir Frederick L Field 15 May 1923
Capt. john K. 1m Thurn 15 May 1923
Cdr Francis H.W. Goolden 15 May 1923
Rev. Harold Q. Uoyd 6 June 1923
Rear-Admiral Cyril T.M. Fuller 30 April 1925
Capt. Harold O. Reinold 30 April 1925
Cdr Arthur
3. 7 January 1926
27 July 1925
Rev.G. , L Hyde Gosselin 20 july 1925
4. 28 August 1928
Rear-Admiral Frederic e. Dreyer 21 May 1927
Capt. Wilfred F. French 21 May 1927
Cdr Douglas A. Budgen 15 July 1927
Rev. Gerald P.O. Hill I September 1926
2.15 May 1923
Under dockyard co""ol at Portsmouth 17 May 1929-10 March 1931 5.12 May 1931
6. 30 August 1933
7.8 September 1936
J. Power
Lt-Cdr (T) W.M. Phipps-Hornby 29 April 1929 Lt-Cdr (T) j.F.w. Mudford 8 December 1930
Rear-Admiral Wilfred Tomkinson 12 July 1931
Capt. Julian F.e. Pallerson 27 April 1931
Rear-Admiral William M. James 15 August 1932
Capt. Thomas H. Binney 15 August 1932
_ _--,_--,_--,_ _--, Rear-Admiral Sidney R. Bailey 14 August 1934
Capt. F. Thomas B. Tower 30 August 1933
Cdr Rory e. O'Conor 30 August 1933
Vice-Admiral Geoffrey Blake 22 July 1936
Capt. A. Francis Pridham I February 1936
Cdr David Orr-Ewing 15 July 1936
Cdr e.R. McCrum 9 March 1931
Rev. James c. Waters 5 January 1932
Vice-Admiral Andrew B. Cunningham.,,-_--,_--,::-::-,---, 15 July 1937 Capt. Harold T.e. Walker _ _-,-_.,...-_::~20 May 1938 Vice-Admiral Geoffrey Layton 22 August 1938 [Cdr William W. Davis] 30 January 1939 (acting)
23 January-12 Augus, 1939 8. 2 June 1939
Rear-Admiral William J. Whitworth I June 1939
Rev. David V. Edwards 11 August 1934
Rev. W. Edgar Rea Sep'ember 1936
[Capt. A. Francis Pridham] 25 June 1937 (acting)
Refitti"g at Portsmouth
Rev. Archer Turner
25 April 1931
_ Rev. Thomas H. HO.rsfield 9 ovember 1938
Cdr William W. Davis 30 January 1939
Capl. Irvine G. Glennie 3 May 1939
Rev. Harold Beardmore
16 June 1939
Vice-Admiral Sir James Somerville 30 June 1940 Vice-Admiral William J. Whitworth 10 August 1940 _ _-,-_...,..Vice-Admiral Lancelot E. Holland 12-24 May 1941
.,,-_--,-,-,Capl. Ralph Kerr 15 February-24 May 1941
Cdr William K.R. Cross 8 September 1940-24 May 1941 Rev. R.J. Patrick Stewart 27 February-24 May 194 I
ote: Dates given are mainly those of arrival in the ship as against date of appointment. Dates of departure are often earlier than those of a successor's arrival.
Hood anchored in Cawsand Bay, c.1922. Author's CoI/«von
Appendices
231
Appendix II Scheme of Complement of HMS Hood, 12 December 1919 Tire Flag Officer alld I,is Staff I Rear-Admiral. Battle Cruiser Squadron
I Flag Lieutenant I Secretary I Chief S,aff Officer (may be Flag Captain in peace)
I War S'aff Officer (additional W.S.o. be appointed during
'0
manoeuvres)
I Squadron Gunnery Officer I Squadron Torpedo Officer I Squadron Signal Officer Officer I Squadron
wrr
Executi,'e Departme"t I Captain
I Commander 10 Lieutenants I Lieutenant for (G) duties I Lieutenant for (T) du,ies I Lieutenant for ( ) duties I Sub-Lieutenant or Mate 1 (nstrudor Commander, Lieutenant-Commander or Lieutenant 3 \\'arrant Officers for Quarterdeck duties (2 may be Chief Pelly Officers) 12 Midshipmen
1 Engine Room Artificer for duty
with Squadron Engineer Officer 1Second ''''riter for duty with Squadron Engineer Officer I Secretary to Chief Staff Officer I Coxswain (Chief Petty Officer) 2 Secretary's Clerks 2 Chief or First \Vriters
1 Second '\Triter Staff Retiuue for Rear-Admiral 2 Chief Officers' Stewards or Cooks 1Officers' Steward or Cook 1st Class 2 Officers' S'ewards or Cooks 2nd Class I Officers' Steward 2nd Class for Squadron Engineer Officer I Officers' Steward 2nd Class for Flag Lieutenant
I Officers' Steward 2nd Class for Secretary I Ro}'al Marine Officer (Officer of Flagship) I Private R.M.L.I. 2 Royal Marines as Printers
Art'isam a1ld Artificers
1Commissioned or \\'arrant Shipwright I Chief hipwrigh, 12 hipwrights 3 Joiners 3 Blacksmiths 3 Plumbers 3 Painters I Cooper ) ail maker I Chief Armourer [Chief Ordnance Artificer! 2 Armourers [Ordnance Artificersl 2 Armourer's Mates IOrdnance Artificers) 7 Armourer's Crew [Ordnance Artificers) 1 Warrant Electrician 1Chief Electrical Artificer 13 Electrica] Artificers
For \\'arra"t Officers I Officers' Steward 2nd Class I Officers' Cook 2nd Class 3 Officers' Stewards 3rd Class
For Gu"room I Officers' Steward Ist Class I Officers' Cook Ist Class 3 Officers' Stewards 3rd Class I Officers' Cook 2nd Class may be borne in lieu of 1 Officers' Cook 3rd Class, in which case I Officers' Steward 3rd Class is to be borne in lieu of 1 Officers' Steward 2nd Class Medical Departme"t
I"eluded i" tile above: I Yeoman of Stores I Engineer's Writer
I"eluded in tile above: 2 Gunner's Mates, Gun La}'ers 1st lass 2 Gunner's Mates, Other 4 Gun La}'ers 1st Class; see also under Ro}'al Marines 4 Gun La}'ers 2nd Class; see also under Royal Marines 14 Rangetakers 3 Turret Director Layers 2 Secondary Director La}'ers 176 Seaman Gunners 4 Torpedo Gunner's Mates 23 Leading Torpedomen 56 Seamen Torpedomen 3 Buglers 8 Searchlight Opera'ors 24 Searchligh, Manipulators 1 Lieutenant (G)'s '''riter
Bos'n I Chief Yeoman of Signals 3 Yeomen of Signals 6 Leading Signalmen 10 ignalmen 10 Ordinary Signalmen or Boy Signalmen I \Varrant Telegraphist 1 Chief Pelly Officer Telegraphist
I Officers' Cook Ist Class 2 Officers' tewards 2nd Class 3 Officers' Stewards 3rd Class I Officers' Cook 3rd Class
1 Engineer Commander or Commander (E) 1 Engineer LieutenantCommander or LieutenantCommander (E) 8 Engineer Lieutenants or Lieutenants (E); Engineer SubLieutenant or Mate (E); Commissioned Engineer or '",'arrant Engineer 6 Chief Engine Room Artificers 27 Engine Room Artificers 6 Mechanicians II Chief Stokers 34 Stoker Petty Officers 39 Leading Stokers 170 S,okers
6 Chief Gunners or Gunners 2 Chief Gunners or Gunners for (T) duties 1Chief Boatswain or Bos'n 4 Chief Pelly Officers 66 Petty Officers 70 Leading Seamen 474 Able or Ordinar}' Seamen 88 Bol" 1st Class
Commll1licatiolrs Departme1lt I Chief Signal Bos'n or ignal
4 Gun Larers 2nd Class 48 unners R.~t.A. 1st Class, or Q.~t. R.M.L.t.
£1Igi"eering Department
1 Squadron Engineer Officer
I Squadron Navigation Officer (Officer of Flagship) I Squadron Medical Officer (Officer of Flagship) J Squadron Accountant Officer (Officer of Flagship) 1 Squadron Physical and Recreational Training Officer (Officer of Flagship) 1Senior Master (Officer of Flagship)
For \Vardroom 1 Officers' Steward 1st Class
2 Petty Officer Telegraphists 3 Leading Telegraphists 14 Telegraphis,s, Ordinary Telegraphists or Boy Telegraphists
1 Surgeon Commander or
4 Ading Leading Stokers 5 Engine Room Artificers trained in hydraulics 2 Stoker Petry Officers for Hydraulics party 3 Stokers for H}'draulics party
Lieutenant-Commander 2 Surgeon Lieutenants I Chief Sick Berth Steward 1 Sick Berth Steward I Second Sick Berth Steward I Sick Berth Attendan' (plus 2 Sick Berth ratings in war) Royal Marines I Major
Supply Departme"t
1 Paymaster Commander or Lieutenant-Commander 3 Paymaster Lieutenant, SubLieutenant or Commissioned or '''arrant '''riter 4 Third \Vriters 1'\'arrant Victualling Officer I Victua.lling Chief Petty Officer J Victualling Petty Officer 1 Leading Vidualling Assistant or Victualling Assistant 2 Victualling Assistants or Boys 2 Chief Petry Officer Cooks (I may be Pett), Officer Cook) I Petry Officer Cook
ForCaptai" 1 Officers'Steward 1st Class I Officers' Cook Ist Class I Officers' teward 2nd Class 1 Officers' Cook 3rd Class
2 Lieutenants I Chief R.M. Gunner or R.M. Gunner 8 Colour Sergeants and Sergeants (4 R.M.L.t.,4 R.M.A.) 6 Corporals (3 R.M.L.t., 3 R.M.A.) 2 Buglers (I R.M.L.t., I R.M.A.) 79 Priva,es (R.M.L.I.) 80 Gunners (R.M.A.) ) Bandmaster 1st Class I Band Corporal 15 Musicians 2 Privates as Butchers 2 Privates as Lamptrimmers 1 Private as Servant to Commander; one in addilion if Commander ( ) is borne
Miscella"eous 1Chaplain I Master-at-Arms 5 Regula'ing Petry Officers
I Physical and Recreational Training Instrudor 1st Class 6 Divers (to include Artificer Diver) 2 Schoolmasters 2 Acting Schoolmasters
3 Seamen or Stokers as \"arrant Officers' Sen'lUlts Total Complement: 1,433
Tote: Ordinary peacetime complement fluctuated between c.I,ISOand 1,3SOmen.War complement exceeded 1,400. [Derived from PRO,ADM 136/131
Included in the abolle: 1Gunnery Instructor 2 Gun Layers Ist Class
Appendix III Composition and Family Attachments of HMS Hood, c.1934 Branch/Department
Total no. ofmco
Men under 20 16 (19.8%)
Men in second eriod of service
Men taking ro
Tolal married 41 (50.6%)
Married under 25 0
o.of fathers 34 (42%)
0 ccrs 81 I"clfldes Commissioned ami \"'"rraut (6.1%) Officers alld Midshipme'l Executive Branches 791 330 205 117 261 204 8 (59.7%) (41.7%) (25.9%) (14.8%) (33%) (1%) (25.8%) I"el"des Marilles, CO""lJImications a"d Suppl)! rarings aud Boys Miscellaneous 146 I 68 43 92 2 78 (11%) I"eludes OAs, EAs, Artisans, Cooks. (0.7%) (46.6%) (29.5%) (63%) (1.4%) (53.4%) SBAs etc. 307 En~ineering Branch 68 124 124 5 91 37 (22.1%) (23.2%) (40.4%) (40.4%) ( 1.6%) Inc "des ERAs 02.1%) (29.6%) 1,325 341 284 15 Total 384 407 518 (29%) (100%) (25.7%) (21.4%) (39.1%) (1.1%) (30.7%) Source: RNM, 1993/54. Note: Percentages in bold type express proportions of the total number of men in the ship (1,325); those in light face express proportions of the tOla] number of men Department listed in the left-hand column.
No. of sons 26
No. of dau hters 23
178
190
7S
72
80
75
359
360
in each Branch or
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
232
Appendix IV Daily Routines in Peace and War Note: Peacetime routines based on RBS, pp. 229-34; war routines on Beardmore, The \Vaters of Uncertainty. pp. 46-51.
IIARBOCR ROUTINE DAILY-PEACETIME 05.05 05.15 05.25 05.30 05.35 05.45 05.50 05.55 06.00
06.15 06.25 06.30 06.45 06.50
Call Ratings under Punishment and Boy Cooks. Call the Boys, Duty Divi iona! POs, Bugler and Emergency Party. Boys fall in with hammocks on Messdeck. CaU the hands. Lash up and stow. Emergency Party fall in. Cooks to the GaUey for cocoa. Hands to cocoa and wash. Duty Boys of the Morning Watch fall in. Boys fall in for Physical Training. Out Pipes. Hand fall in. Clean Ship. Lower and dean out Duty Boats. Power Boals to oil and water. Up Guard and Steerage hammocks. Steerage Hammock Boys fall in. Dry down the Upper Deck. Off Boat-ropes and Stern fasts. Open 'B' doors.
Guard and band call. (08.45 in winter.) Out Pipes. Duty Boys of the Forenoon Watch fall in for inspection. Quarters Clean Guns. Special parties excused Clean Guns fall in. FORENOON WATCH. Colours. (09.00 in winter.)
08.20 Commander's Requestmen and Defaulters. 08.25 Return rags. 08.30 Both Watches fall in. Clean Messdecks and Flats. Finish off the Upper Deck and clean
brightwork. 08.45 Boat for Commander. 08.50 Watch-keepers OUI Pipes. 09.00 Buglers' call. Cooks fall in when there are no Divisions.
09.05 10.30 10.40 11.15 11.30 11.40
Divisions. Prayers. Physical Drill, etc. Then: Both Watches. Stand Easy. Out Pipes. Hands carry on with work. Up Spirits. Afternoon Watchmen and relief boats' crews to dinner. Clear up decks.
11.50 Secure. Cooks. Grog. 12.00 At,'ER 00 WATCH. Dinner. Pipe leave. 12.20 Duty Boys of Afternoon '''atch fall in for inspection. 13.10 13.15 14.20 14.30 15.30 15.45 15.50 15.55 16.00 16.45 17.00 17.50 18.00
OS.IS Call Ratings under Punishment.
05.30 Call Duty Divisional POs. Ratings under Puni hment fall in with hammocks. 05.45 Call the hands.
06.10 Clear off Messdecks. Emergency Party fall in. 06.15 Hands fall in. Wash down Upper Deck. 06.30 Up Guard and Steerage hammocks.
ooks. Uncover Guns. Respread awnings.
07.00 Hands to breakfast and clean. Pipe rig of the day. 07.45 07.50 07.55 08.00
DAILY-WAR
Out Pipes. Both Watches faU in. Stand easy. Hands carryon with work. First Dog "Vatchmen to tea. Secure. Take off overaUs. Both Watches fall in. Clear up decks. Duty Boys of the First Dog Watch faU in for inspection. Buglers' caU. FIRST DOG WATCH. Evening Quarters. Then: Cooks. Tea. Hands shift into night clothing. Libcrtymen to clean. Libertymen fall in. Engineering Department to Evening Quarters. Duty hands fall in. Up fresh provisions. Duty Boys of the Last Dog Watch fall in for inspection. LAST DOG WATCH. Libertymen fall in.
19.00 Supper. DUly Boats' crews shift into night clothing. 19.45 Officers' Dress Call. Boys stand by hammocks. 20.00 FIRST WATCH. Officers' Dinner Call. Stand by hammocks. 20.30 Cooks and Sweepers clear up Messdecks and Flats. Remainder of the Duty Part of Watch of Hands raU in. Stand fast Torpedo Party. Sweep down Upper Deck. Place Scrub Deck Gear. Close 'B and 'C' doors. Slope awnings. 20.45 First Post. Boys turn in. 20.50 Emergency Party fall in with oilskins. 21.00 Rounds. Last Post.
07.00 Cooks. Uncover Guns. 07.10 Hands to breakfast and clean. Pipe rig of the day.
08.00 FORENOO WATCH. Clear off Messdecks. 08.05 BOlh Watches for Exercise. Clean Messdecks.
08.40 Mess cleaners and sweepers fall in. 09.00 09.05 10.30 10.40 11.00 11.30 11.40 11.45 11.50 12.00 12.25 12.30 13.10 13.15 14.25 14.40 15.30 15.40
Clear off Messdecks. Both ""atches for Exercise. Prayers. Stand Easy. Out Pipes. Hands carryon with work. Up Spirits. Afternoon ""atchmen to dinner. Classes under instruction fall in. Clear up decks. Secure. Cooks. Grog. AFTERNOO WATCH. Dinner. Duty Boy of the Afternoon Watch fall in for inspection. Ratings under Punishment faU in. Clear off Messdecks. Both 'Vatches for Exercise. Stand Easy. Out Pipes. Hands carryon with work. Classes under instruction fall in. First Dog 'Vatchmen to tea. Cover guns. Both Watches for Exercise. Clear the decks.
15.55 Clear off Messdecks. Duty Boys of the First Dog Watch fall in for inspection. 16.00 FIRST DOG WATCH. Evening Quarters. Then: Cooks. Tea. Hands shift into night clothing.
17.00 Engineering Department to Evening Quarters. Ratings under Punishment fall in. 17.55 Duty Boys of the Last Dog Watch fall in for inspection. 18.00 LAST DOG WATCH. 18.50 Cooks. 19.00 upper. 20.00 FIRST WATCH. Ratings under Punishment fall in. Duty Men and Duty BoalS' crews shift into night clothing. 20.15 Duty Part of the Watch of Hands fall in. Clear up Messdecks and Flats. 20.40 Ratings under Punishment fall in. 20.45 Rounds. 21.30 Boysturn in.
22.00 Pipe Down. 22.30 Chief and Petty Officers Pipe Down.
22.20 Spitkid Party muster in the Sick Bay flat-Sweep oul Smoking Room and Recreation pace. 22.30 Pipe Down. 22.50 Spitkid Party sweep out POs' Smoking Room. 23.00 Chief and Petty Officers Pipe Down.
Appendices
233
00.00 MIDDLE WATCH. 04.00 MORNI G WATCH.
00.00 MIDDLE WATCH. 04.00 MORNI G WATCH.
SATURDAY-PEACETIME
SATURDAY-WAR
As for daily harbour rouri"e except: Upper Deck not 10 be dried down before breakfast. No Guard and Band. 07.55 Both Watches of Hands fall in. Clean Messdecks and Flats. Finish off Upper Deck. Uncover Guns after the Hands have been detailed. 08.00 FORENOON WATCH.
As for daily l",rboLlr rOll tine then: 07.10 Hands 10 breakfasl and clean. Scrub dilly boxes.
10.00 10.10 10.15 10.20
08.00 FORENOON WATCH. 08.10 Clear off Messdecks. 08.15 Both \Vatches for Exercise. Clean Messdecks.
Up all deck cloths on Messdecks and Flats. Stand Easy. Band Call. Out Pipes. Quarter Clean Guns. Captain's Rounds of Messdecks and Flats. 10.30 Stand Eas)'. 10.40 OUI Pipes. Quarters Clean Guns.
10.45 10.50 11.00 11.1 0 11.20 11.25
Return rags. Up Spirits. Both Walches fall in. Clear up decks for Divisions. p all Upper Deck deck cloths. Hands to clean into No.I's. Band Call and buglers. Officers' Call. Divisions. Fall in as for Sunday Divisions. Captain's Inspedion of Di\'isions, Upper Deck, Boat Deck and Bridges.
11.30 Afternoon 'Watchmen to Dinner.
11.55 Disperse. Cooks. Grog. 12.00 AFTERNOON WATCH.
Dinner. Pipe leave. Hands to Make-and-Mend clothes. Then as for daily harbour routine.
11.00 Up Spirits.
11.25 Disperse. Both \\'atches for Exercise. Clear up decks. 11.30 Afternoon 'Vatchmen to Dinner. 11.50 Cooks. Grog. 12.00 AFTERNOON WATCH. Dinner. Off ovemUs. Hands to Make-and-Mend clothes. 12.25 Duty Boys of the Afternoon Walch fall in for inspection. 13.00 Ratings under Punishment faU in. 15.30 Fir t Dog "Vatchmen to tea. 15.45 Both Walches for Exercise. Clear Ihe decks. 16.00 FIRST DOG WATCH. Evening Quarters. The" as for daily harbour routi"e.
SUNDAY-PEACETIME
SUNDAY-WAR
06.00 06.15 06.50 07.00 07.40 07.45 08.00 08.05 08.10
As for daily lrarbour routi"e the,,:
Reveille. Up Guard and Steerage hammocks. Cooks. Breakfast. OUI Pipes. Quarters Clean Guns. FORENOO WATCH. Relurn rags. BOlh Watches fall in. Clean Messdecks and Flats.
08.00 FORENOON WATCH.
Remainder clear up decks and clean brightwork. 09.10 Hands to clean. 09.30 Clear off Messdecks and Flats. Hands carryon smoking. 09.40 Pipe Down. 09.45 Church. 11.15 P Spirits. 11.30 Afternoon \Vatchmen to dinner. 11.50 Cooks. Grog. 12.00 AFTERNOON WATCH. Dinner. Pipe leave. 15.35 Out Pipes. 15.40 Both Watches fall in. Clear up decks. Cooks and Sweepers clear up Messdecks. 15.55 Buglers' call. The" as for dail)' harbour rowine.
08.25 09.05 09.20 09.25
Church Rigging Party fall in. Hands to clean. Officers' Call. Divisions. After Disperse, Stand Easy.
10.15 Church. After Church, Pipe Down. 11.00 Up Spirits.
11.30 Afternoon 'Vatchmen to dinner. The" as for Saturday Ilarbour routi"e.
SEA ROUTINE DAILY-PEACETIME
DAILY/SATURDAY/SUNDAY-WAR
As for dail)'IJarbollr routi"e except: 03.45 Call the Morning Watch. 03.55 Morning ""atch to muster.
'Vartime conditions prevented any fixed routine being adhered 10 at sea and certainly none appears to have survi\'ed for posterity. The walch system was preserved but the life of the ship was entirely subverted to the need to defend her against anack and search out the enemy, a remit which kept many at their posts for upwards of sixteen hours a day. The whole ship went to action stations for an hour at dawn and dusk each day.
04.00 MORNI.NG WATCH. 05.15 Morning Watch 10 muster. (Place Wash Deck Gear and sweep down the Upper Deck.) Call RPO and Bugler. 05.40 Morning \"atch men fall out. Hands to cocoa and wash. 07.00 Seaboat's Crew of Morning \"atch to muster. 07.55 Seaboat's Crews of Morning and Forenoon \"'atches to muster and relieve. Morning \"'atch Crew to breakfast. 08.00 FORENOO WATCH. 09.00 Morning Watch Seaboat's Crew fall in. 11.30 Seaboat's rew and First Trick of Afternoon 'Natchmen to dinner.
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
234
DAILY-PEACETIME (continued)
Chronology, 1915-1941
12.00 AFTERNOO WATCH. 12.25 Seaboat's Crew of Afternoon \Valch to muster. 13.15 Middle \>Vatchmen, Seaboat's Crew of Forenoon '''alch and Last Tricks of Forenoon
Watch stand fast from Both Walches of Hands fall in. BOlh Watches of Hands fall in. 13.45 Seaboat's Crew and Last Trick of Forenoon \Valch fall in. 15.30 Seaboat's Crew and First Trick of Dog \Vatchmen to tea. At Evening Quarters: First Dog Watchmen and Seaboat's Crews of Afternoon and First Dog '''3Ich to fall in and relieve after disperse. 16.00 FIRST DOG WATCH. 17.00 Duty hands fall in. 17.55 Last Dog ""atchmen and Seaboat's Crew to muster. 18.00 LAST DOG WATCH. 19.45 tand by hammocks. 19.55 First Watchmen and Seaboat's Crew to muster. Clear up Messdecks and Flats for Rounds. 20.00 FIRST WATCH. 20.30 ight Rounds. 21.25 Out Pipes. 21.30 Pipe Down. First "'"atch to muster. 23.45 Call Ihe Middle Watch. 23.55 Middle ''''atch to muster. 00.00 MIDDLE WATCH. 04.00 MORN I G WATCH. SUNDAY-PEACETIME Call Ihe Morning Watch. Morning Watch to muster. MORNING WATCH. ReveilJe. Up Guard and Steerage hammocks. ooks. Breakfast. Seaboat's Crew of Forenoon Watch to dean into rig of the day. OUI Pipes. Quarters Clean Guns. Seaboat's Crews of Morning and Forenoon \"'atches to muster and relieve. FORENOO WATCH. Return rags. Bolh Watches fall in. Clean Messdecks and Flats. Remainder clear up decks and clean brightwork. 09.10 HandSlo clean. 09.30 Clear off Messdecks and Flats. Hands carryon smoking. 09.40 Pipe Down. 09.45 Church. 11.15 Up Spirit . 11.30 Afternoon \Vatchmen to dinner. 11.50 Cooks. Grog. 12.00 AFfERNOO WATCH. Dinner. Pipe lea\'e. 15.35 Out Pipes. 15.40 Both Watches fall in. Clear up decks. Cooks and weepers clear up Messdecks. 15.55 Buglers' call. The" as for daily sea routine.
;if (
HMS Hood AnocJ.rJO(l/H'99'nson CoJl«tlon
1915 ?October The Admiralty orders Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, Director of laval Construction, to e\'oh'e battleship designs of reduced draught and using the latest ideas in underwater protection. 29 ovember D'Eyncourl produces the firsl of five designs based on the Queen Elizabeth class.
1916
03.45 03.55 04.00 06.00 06.15 06.50 07.00 07.40 07.45 07.55 08.00 08.05 08.10
Refit, rearmament and repair. The Hood spent a good proportion of her career in dockyard hands. Here the raised Mk III mounting of the starboard aft O.Sin machine gun can be seen in the process of assembly at Malta in the autumn of 1937.
The following chronology is based chiefly on the 'Pink Lists' of ship's mO\'ements in the 'aval Historical Branch supplemented by Ihe card index to the AdmirallY War Diary for 1939-41, and of course the ship s deck logs in the Public Record Office, ex~ant from 29 March 1920 10 30 April 1941 inclusi\'e. Considerations of space ha\'e required the entries to be simplified and generally no mention is made of the lengthy and circuitous exercises which often took place on passage between ports. lor, as a rule. do they record brief sorties during otherwise prolonged stays in harbour. Nonetheless, this chronology represents a significant addition and correction to existing data and is offered with some confidence as to its accurac)'- Details of the work carried out during the Hood's frequent refits can be found in Roberts, The Battlecruiser Hood, pp. 20-1 supplemented b)' Northcott, HMS Hood,passim.
?January D'Eyncourt's five designs submitted to Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Col11mander-in-ChiefGrand Fleet, who responds with a detailed memorandum setting Ollt requirements for a class of large battlecruisers. ?January In light of Jellicoe's memorandum the Admiralry orders d'Eyncourt to evolve six battJecruiser designs of not less than 30 knots and eight ISin guns. 1-17 February Admiralty presented with six designs produced under the supervision of E.l. Attwood. 27 March Two modified versions of one of Attwood's designs presented to the Admirally Board. 7 April Design 'B' of above approved by Admiralty Board. 19 April Admiralt)' Board places orders for three 'Admiral' class banlecruisers at John Brown, C1ydebank; Cammell laird, Birkenhead; and Fairfield, Govan. 31 May-Ilune Battle of Jutland. 13 June Order placed for fourth 'Admiral' class bardecruiser at Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle upon Tyne. 51uly Two versions of design 'B' ('N & 'B') presented 10 Admiralty in lighl of Battle of Jutland. 141uly Admiralt)' informs John Brown thaI ship is to be named Hood; others: Howe (Cammelllaird), Rodney (Fairfield) and Amo" (Armstrong \Vhitworth). 20 luly Further three designs ('B' 10 'D') presented to Admiralty based on 'A' of 5 July. 261uly Designs ('A' 10 'D') presenled 10 Controller of the Navy. 4 August Admiralty approves Design 'A' from 5 July. I September Keel of Ship No. 460 laid at John Brown, Clydebank. 13 September Improvements made to deck and turret protection of approved design. 2 October Further improvements made to deck and turret protection. 7 November Recommendations as to deck and magazine proteoion made by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. ? November AdditionaJ recommendations made by Admiral Sir David Beatt)', Commander-in-Chief Battlecruiser Force, Grand Fleet.
1917 9 March Admiralty suspends construction of Howe, Rodney and Anson, declaring them a secondary priority. ?June Further recommendations as to
protection made by Admiral Sir David Bealty. 30 August Final design approved b)' Admiralty Board.
1918 ?January Test firings against armour reveal vulnerability of design 10 plunging fire from heavy shells. 22 August launched by lady Hood al 13.05. ?August Further increase in protection over magazines authorised by Admiralty. 12 September First barbene armour added. 28 Octobcr First turbines installed.
1919 27 Fcbruary Admiralty cancels rest of 'Admira)' class battlecruisers. ? May Further increase in deck protection in vicinity of magazines authorised by Admiralty. 2 May Mainmast shipped. 19 May Explosion in watertight compartment beneath the Shipwrights' working space forward kiUs two dockyard workers and injures a third. ?July Further modifications as to protection over magazines made (never implemented). 7 August First ISin gun instaUed. 12 September Hauled OUI into the Clyde for shipping barbette plales. 16 September DillO. 9-10 December Basin trials. II? December Visited by H.R.H. Prince Albert (Ialer King George VI). 20 December Steam trials.
1920 I January Caplain Wilfred Tomkinson assumes command. 9 January Departs John Brown under own power for first time; proceeds to Greenock. 9-12 January At Greenock for initial builder's trials off Isle of Arran. 10 January Preliminary trial. I2lanuary Departed Greenock for Ros)'th. 12-13 January Ell route to Rosyth. 13lanuary-5 March AI Ros)'th. 20 January-c.22 February Taken in hand for docking. 21 February Inclined. 23 February-3 March Torpedo trials. 5 March Further increase in deck protection in vicinity of magazines aUlhorised b)' Admiralt)'. 5 March Departed Ros)'th for Greenock. 5-c.6 March En rotlte to Greenock. c.6-23 March At Greenock. 8 March Official trials commence off Isle of Arran. 18 March Full-power trials. 19 March Circle-turning and steering trials. 22-23 March Deep-load trials. 23 March Departed Greenock for Ros)'th. 23-24 1arch En route to Rosyth. 24 March-IS May At ROS)1h. 26-27 March ISin and S.5in gunnery trials.
ell r0l101ogy
29 March Commissions with De\'onport crew from Hr..1S Lion.
15April-15 May Taken in hand for docking. 14 Mar Inspected b)' Royal Navy; ba in trialo main engines. 15 May Accepted from builders and fully commissioned into Royal Nav),. 15 May Departed Rosyth for Cawsand Bay. 1S-17 May En route to Cawsand Ba),. 17-19 May In Cawsand Bay. 18 May Flag of Sir Roger Keyes, RearAdmiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoisted. 19 May ~lO\·ed to Plymouth. 19-25 May Al Plymoulh. 25 May Moved to Cawsand Bay. 25-29 May In Cawsand Bay. 26-27 May Torpedo trials off Pol perro. 29 May Departed Cawsand Bay for Portland. SCANDINAVIAN CRUISE
(Battle Cruiser Squadron) 29 May-3 July 1920 29 May Departed Portland with HMS Tiger, HMS Spellser and eight olher deslroyers (including Vega, Veetis, Westm;llsterand \-vi,lChelsea) for K0ge Bugt. 29 May-I June ell rOil Ie to K0ge BUg!. 1-4 June Anchored in K0ge Bugt. 4 June Departed K0ge BUg! for Kalmar, Sweden. 4-7 June At Kalmar. 7 June Departed Kalmar for N)'nashamn (for Stockholm). 7-13 June At I yniishallln. 10 June Visited by King Gustavus V and Prince Eugen of Sweden. J 3 June Departed ynashamn for exercises and henri, Denmark.
13-15 June ell rollte 10 Abem". 13 June Exercises in the Ballic. 15-I7/une Al benr.l. 17 June Departed Abenr.l for Copenhagen. 17-18 June En roUle to Copenhagen. 18-23 June Al Copenhagen. 19 June Hood visited by King Christian X of Deomark. 20 June Again visited by King Christian, with Queen Alexandrine. 23 June Departed Copenhagen for Christiania (now Oslo). 23-24 June En rollle to Christiania. 24 Jun.,...1 July At Chrisliania. 26 June Visited by King Haakon VII of Nonvay. 27 June Again visiled by King Haakon VII, with Queen ro.'laud and Crown Prince Olaf. 1 July Departed hristiania for Scapa Flow. 1-3 July En route to Scapa Flow. END OF ScANDINAVIAN CRUISE
3-16 July At Scapa Flow. 16 July Departed Scapa Flow for Invergordon. 16 July-3 August Al Invergordon. 3 August Departed Invergordon for Dunbar. 3-4 August Etl route to Dunbar. 4 August Departed Dunbar for Rosyth. 4 August Hood provides search parties and armed guards to board three surrendering German ships: SMS Helgoland, \o\'estphalet' and Riigetl. 4-5 August En route to Rosyth. 5-10 August At Rosyt.h. 9 August ircJe turning trials. 10 August Deparled Rosyt.h for Lamlash, Isle of Arran. 10-11 August Etl route to Lamlash. 11-26 August At Lamlash. ? August Hood wins Battle Cruiser Regatta. 26 August Departed Lamlash for Penzance. 26-28 August En route to Penzanee. 28 August Anchored off Isles of Scilly.
235
28 August-6 September Anchored in t>.lounts Bay off Penzance. 6 September Departed Mounts Bay for De\·onport. 6 September En rollle to De\·onport. 6 September-8 October At De\'onporl. 8 Odober Departed De\"Onport for Portland. 8 October Ell route to Portland. 8 October-3 December Al Portland. II ovember Hood supplies Marines to form guard of honour for interment of the Unknown 'Vanior at 'Vestminster Abbey. 3 December Departed Portland for Devon port. 3-4 December Ell route to Devonport. 4 December-7 January 1921 At Devonport. 6 December-6 January 1921 Taken in hand for refit.
1921 7 January Moved to Cawsand Bay. 7-11 January In Cawsand Bay. II January Deparled Cawsand Bay for POrlland. 11-12 January E" route to Portland. 12-I7)anuary At Portland. 17 January Departed Portland for Arosa Bay, Spain. 17 January Ell route to Arosa Bay. 17-19 January At Falmouth to ride out storm. 19 January Departed Falmouth for Arosa Ba)'. 19-22 January E" route to Arosa Ba)'. 22-26 January At Arosa Bay. 23 January Visited by King Alfonso XIII of Spain. 26 January Departed Arosa Bay for Vigo. 26 January-7 February At Vigo. 7 February Departed Vigo for Gibraltar. 7-9 February E" route to Gibraltar. 9-23 February At Gibraltar. 23 February Departed Gibraltar for Arosa Bay. 23-25 February Ell route to Arosa Bay. 25 February-18 March Al Arosa Bay. 18 March Departed Arosa Bay for Devonport. 18-21 March Etl route to Devonport. 20 March In company with Banle Cruiser Squadron, holds memorial service over position of loss of HMS/m K50n 21 January, 120 miles SW of Isles of SciUy. 21-28 March At Devonport. 28 March Departed Devonport for Rosyth. 28-30 March ell rollle to RoS)'th. 30 March-21 May Al Rosyth. 31 March Flag of Sir Walter Cowan, RearAdmiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoistedi Captain Geoffrey Mackworth assumes command. I April-12 May Taken in hand for docking. 5-21 April Three ballalions deployed to Cowdenbeath and Dunfermline to render assistance during rail, bus and coal strikes. 21 May Departed Rosyth for Portland. 21-23 May E" route to Portland. 23 May-I 0 June At Portland. 10 June Departed Portland for Devonport. 10-12 June Anchored in Cawsand Bay. 12 June Moved to Devonport. 12 Jun.,...13 July Al Devonport. 13 July Departed Devonport for exercises with Atlantic Fleet, thence to 'Weymouth. 13-15 July On exercises. 15-22 July Al Weymoulh. 22 July Moved to Portland. 22-27 July Al Portland. 27 July Departed Portland for De\"Onport. 27-28 July Anchored in Cawsand Bay. 28 July Moved to Devonport. 28 July-2 September At De'·onport.
2 September Departed De\'onport for Invergordon. 24 September Ell route to Invergordon. 4-14 Scplcmber At Im'ergordon. 14 September Departed Invergordon for Scapa Flow. 14-24 Seplember Al Scapa Flow. 24 September Departed Scapa Flow for Invergordon. 24 September-5 Odober At Im·ergordon. 5 October Departed Im'ergordon for Scapa Flow. 5-7 October At Scapa Flow. 7 Odober Deparled Scapa Flow for Invcrgordon. 7-10 October At Invergordon. 10 October Departed Invergordon for handwick Bay, Moray Firth. 10-11 October Al Shandwick Bay. II October Departed Shandwick Bay for Invergordon. 11-12 October At Invergordon. 12 October Departed Invergordon for Tarbal Ness. 12-13 October At Tarbat t ess. 13 October Departed Tarbat Ness for Invergordon. 13-17 October At Invergordon. 17 October Departed !m'ergordon for Scapa Flow. 17-29 October Al Scapa Flow. 18-27 October Combined Fleet Regalla. 18 October Hood retains Queenstown Cup. 19 October Hood loses Battle Cruiser 'Cock' to Replllse. 24 Odober Hood wins Battenberg Cup. 25 October Hood wins Hornby Cup. 29 OClober Departed Scapa Flow for South utor, Cromarty Firth. 29 Od.ober-2 November Al South Sutor. 2 ovember Deparled South Sutor for Pt Knocks, Cromarty Firth. 2-3 ovember At PI Knocks. 3 ovember Deparled Pt Knocks for 111\·ergordon. 3-9 ovember At ll1\'ergordon. 9 'ovembe,r Departed Invergordon for South Sutor. 9-11 November Al South SUlor. II ovember Departed South Sutor for Invergordon. 11-13 November At Invergordon. 13 ovember Departed Invergordon for Portland. 13-15 November £11 route to Portland. 15 November-3 December At Portland. 24-26 November Concert parties given by 'The Frolics~ 3 December Departed Portland for Devonport. 3-5 December In Plymouth Sound. S December Moved to Devonport. 5 December-9 January 1922 At Devonport.
1922 9 January Departed Devonport for Falmouth Bay. 9-17 January In Falmouth Bay. 17 January Departed Falmouth Bay for Arosa Bay. 17-20 January Ell rowe to Arosa Bay. 2(}-25 January At Arosa Bay. 25 January Departed Arosa Bay for Gibraltar. 25-27 January Etl route to Gibraltar. 27 January-6 February At Gibraltar. 6 February Departed Gibraltar for Combined Fleet exercises and Pollen,a Bay. 6-9 February En route to Pollenc;a Bay. 9-20 February Al Pollen", Bay. 20 February Departed Pollen,a Bay for Toulon. 20-21 February Ell route to Toulon. 21 February-I March At Toulon.
I March Departed Toulon for VaJencia. 1-2 March Ell roWe to Valencia. 2-6 March Al Valencia. 6 March Departed Valencia for Malaga. 6-8 March £11 rowe to ro.l3Jaga. 8-14 March At ~laJaga. 14 March Departed Malaga for Gibraltar. 14-22 March At Gibraltar. 22 March Departed Gibraltar for Vigo with HMS Replllse. 22-25 March £" rowe to Vigo. 25 March-8 April At Vigo. 8 April Departed Vigo for Plymouth. 8-10 April ell route to Plymouth. I(}-II April Anchored in Cawsand Bay. II April Mo ed to Plymouth. 11-14 April At Plymouth. 14 April Departed Plymoulh for Rosyth. 14-17 April ell rOllte 10 Rosyth. 17 April-8 May At Rosyth. 19 April-8 May Taken in hand for docking. 8 May Departed Rosyth for Devonport. ~IOMay E" route to Devonport. 10 May-22 June At Devonport. 22 June Deparled Devonport for Weymouth. 22-26 June At Weymoulh. 26 June Departed Weymouth for Swanage Bay. 26-27 June At Swanage Bay. 27 June Departed Swanage Bay for Devonport. 27 June At Devonport. 27 June Departed Devonport for Swanage Bay. 27-28 June At Swanage Bay. 28 June Deparled Swanage Bay for Portland. 2~29 June En route to Portland. 29-30 June At Portland. 30 June Departed Portland for Weymoulh. 30 Jun.,...1 July At Weymouth. I July Departed Weymouth for Torbay. 1-2 July E" rOllte to Torbay. 2-6 July At Torbay. 5 July Visited by King George V. 6 July Departed Torba)' for Weymouth. 6-7 July At Weymouth. 7 July Departed Weymouth for Devonport. 7-8 July Ell route to Devon port. 7 July Sinks ex-German light cruiser SMS iimberg as a targel. 8 July-14 Augusl At Devonporl. 14 August Departed Devonport for Gibraltar. 1~17 August E" rOllte to Gibraltar. 17-20 August At Gibraltar. BRAZILIAN AND WEST INDIES CRUISE
(Battle Cruiser Squaclro,,) 20 August-4 ovember 1922 20 August Departed Gibrallar with HMS Replllse for sao Vicente, Cape Verde. 20-24 August E1I route to Sao Vicente. 24-26 August At Sao Vicenle. 26 August Departed Sao Vicente for Rio de Janeiro to take part in centennial celebrations of Brazilian independence. 26 August-3 September EI1 route to Rio de Janeiro. 29 August Crossing the Line ceremonies at the Equator. 3-14 September At Rio de Janeiro. 7 September Centenary of Brazilian independence; Hood's aval Brigade marches through Rio; illuminates ship. 8 September Hood 'At Home~ 9-13 September Hood participates in international sports competition. 10 September Hood wins Midshipmen's cuttcr but second in Seamen's cutter. 12 September Hood hosts grand ball altended by Presidenl of Brazil. 13 September Participates in illuminated water pageant in Botafogo Bay.
236
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
14 September Departed Rio de Janeiro for SanlOS (for Sao Paulo).
SCANDINAVIAN CRUISE (BATTLE CRUISER SQUADRON)
14-15 September Etl route t.o Santos.
26 June-18 July 1923 26 June Deparled Bournemouth with HMS Repulse and S,wpdrago" (destroyer) for Christiania (Oslo). 26-29 June E" route to Christiania. 29 June-7 July At Christiania. 2 July Visited by King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Nonvay. 7 July Departed Christiania for A1borg Bugt, Denmark. 7-16 July At A1borg Bugt. 16 July Deparled Alborg Bugt for Portland. 16-18 July £/1 rOllte to Portland.
15-20 September At Santos. 18 September olour trooped through
Santos. 20 September Departed Santos for Trinidad. 2~30 September
En route to Trinidad.
30 September-IO October At Trinidad. 10 October Departed Trinidad for Barbados.
10-11 October En route to Barbados. 11-16 October At Barbados. 16 October Departed Barbados for SI Lucia.
16-17 October En roWe to 5t Lucia. 17-20 October Al St Lucia. 20 October Departed St Lucia for Las Palmas. Canary Islands. 20-30 October En roWe to Las Palmas. 21 October Anchored off Roseau, Dominica. 30 October-2 November Al Las Palmas. 2 November Departed Las Palmas for GibraJtar. 2-4 November En route to Gibraltar. END OF BRAZILIAN AND
WEST INDIES CRUISE
4-30 November Al Gibrallar. 15-17 November Participates in Bartle Cruiser Squadron Regatta.
30 November Departed Gibraltar for Devonport.
30 Novcmbcr-3 December £11 Devonport.
roWe
to
3 December--jj January 1923 Al Devonport.
1923 6 January Departed Devonport for Portland. 6-10 January At Porliand. 10 January Departed PorLland for Gibraltar. I(~IS January En route to Gibraltar. 15 January-I February Al Gibrallar. 1 February Departed Gibraltar for Malaga. l--jj February At Malaga. 5 February Squadron 'At I-lome' to residents of Malaga. 6 February Departed Malaga for Cartagena. 6-7 February E" route to Cartagena. 7-8 February At Cartagena. 8 February Departed Cartagena for VaJencia. 8-16 February At Valencia. 14 February Squadron 'At Home'lo residents ofVaJencia. 16 February Departed Valencia for Gibraltar. 16-17 February Ell route to Gibraltar. 17 February-24 March At Gibraltar. 24 March Departed Gibraltar for Arosa Bay. 24-26 March En route to Arosa Bay. 26-31 March At Arosa Bay. 31 March Departed Arosa Bay for Devonport. 31 March-3 April En route to Devonport. 3-21 April Al Devonport. 21 April Departed Devonport for Ros)~h. 21-23 April £/1 rOll" to Rosyth. 23 April-I 2 May At Rosyth. 23 April-II May Taken in hand for docking. 12 May Departed Rosyth for Devonport. 12-14 May En route to Devonport. 14 May-21 June At Devonport. 15 May-20 June Taken in hand for refit. 15 May Paid off and recommissioned for further service a Flagship, BanJe Cruiser Squadron, Atlantic Fleet; flag of Sir Frederick Field, Rear-Admiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoisted; Captain John K. 1m Thurn assumes command. 21 June Departed Devonport for Portland. 21-25 June Al Porliand. 25 June Departed Portland for Bournemouth. 25-26 June AI Bournemouth.
END OF SCANDINAVIAN CRUISE
18-19 July At Portland. 19 July Deparled Portland for Torbay. 19-20 July £/1 rollle to Torbay. 2~27 July At Torbay. 27 July Deparled Torbay for Devonport. 27 July-3 September At Devonport. 31 July-31 August Taken in hand for refit. 3 September Departed Devonport for Portland. 3-28 September At Portland. 28 September Departed Portland for Invergordon. 28--30 September En route 10 Invergordon. 30 September-IS October At Invergordon. 15 October Departed Invergordon for Rosyth. 15-16 October En route to Rosyth. 16-31 October At Rosyth. 17-30 October Taken in hand for docking. 31 October Departed Rosyth for Portsmouth. 31 October-2 November E" route to Portsmouth. 2-3 November At Portsmouth. 3 November Departed Portsmouth for Devonport. 3-4 November En route to Devonport. 4-27 November At Devonport. 5 November Sir Frederick Field assumes command of the Special Service Squadron as acting Vice-Admiral. 5-26 November Taken in hand in preparation for World Cruise. WORLD CRUISE OF SPECIAL SERVICE SQUA.DRON (Banle Cn,iser Sqlwdro1J
6-
1st UgI,t Cruiser Sq"adrmJ) 27 November 1923-28 September 1924 27 November Departed Devonport with HMS Repulse, Delhi and Dauntless for Freetown, Sierra Leone. 27 ovember-8 December En roWe to Freetown. 28 November Squadron joined by HMS Danae, Dragon and DUIJedi". 3 December Off Tenerife, Canary Islands. 7 December Special Service Squadron adopts tropical rig. 8--13 December At Freetown. 13 December Departed Freetown for Cape Town. 13-22 December E" route to Cape Town. 14-15 December Crossing the Line ceremonies at the Equator. 22 December-2 January 1924 At Cape Town. 24 December Naval Brigade of 900 sailors and 300 Marines marches through Cape Town. 27 December Tanker SS British Lantem damaged while refuelling Hood at Cape Town.
1924 2 January Departed Cape Town for Mossel Bay. 2-3 January En route to Mossel Bay.
3 January Departed Mosse! Bay for Port Elizabelh. 3-4 January En route 10 Port Elizabeth. 4 January Off PorI Elizabelh; sailed for East London. 4-5 January Ell route to East London. 5 January Off East London; sailed for Durban. 5--6 January Ell route to Durban. 6 January Off Durban; sailed for Zanzibar. 6-12 January E" route to Zanzibar. 12-17 January Al Zanzibar. 16 January Visited by Khalifa bin Harud, Sultan of Zanzibar. 17 January Departed Zanzibar for Trincomalee, Ceylon. 17-26 January En route to Trincomalee. 26-31 January At Trincomalee. 30 January Squadron 'At Home~ 31 January Departed TrincomaJee for Port Swettenham, Malaya. 31 January-4 February En route to Port Swettenham. 4-9 February At Port Swenenham. 7 February Squadron 'At Home~ 9 February Departed Port Swenenham for Singapore. 9-10 February En route to Singapore. I ~ 17 February At Singapore. 15 February Naval Brigade marches through Singapore. 17 February Departed Singapore for Fremantle. 17-27 February E" route to Fremantle. 20 February Off Christmas Island. 27 February-I March At Fremantle. 28 February Naval Brigade marches through Fremantle and then Perth. I March Departed Fremanlle for Albany. 1-2 March En route to Albany. 2--jj March At Albany. 2 March Special Service Squadron resumes regular rig. 6 March Departed Albany for Adelaide. 6-10 March En route to Adelaide. 1~15 March Al Adelaide. 15 March Departed Adelaide for Melbourne. 15-17 March En route to Melbourne. 17-25 March At Melbourne. 18 March Naval Brigade marches through Melbourne. 25 March Departed Melbourne for Hobart. 25-27 March £11 rOllte to Hobart. 27 March-3 April At Hobar!. 3 April Departed Hobart for Jervis Bay, New South Wales. 3-5 April En roWe to Jervis Bay. 4 April At Twofold Bay, New South Wales. 5-8 April At Jervis Bay. 8 April Departed jervis Bay for Sydney. 8--9 April En route to Sydney. 9-20 April At Sydney. 9 April Naval Brigade marches through Sydney. 10 April Hood 'At Home: 14 April Musical revue of'The Cheer Oh Girls' in Hood. 20 April Departed Sydney for Wellinglon; HMAS Adelaide joins Special Service Squadron. 20-24 April E" route to ,"Vellington. 24 April-8 May At Wellington. 8 May Departed Wellington for Napier with Admiral the Earl Jellicoe, Governor-General of New Zealand, aboard. 8--9 May E" route to Napier. 9 May Departed Napier for Auckland. 9-10 May E" route 10 Auckland. 1~18 May At Auckland. 12 May Squadron 'At Home' in Hood. 13 May aval Brigade marches through Auckland; Hood'At Home~ 16 May Squadron 'At Home' in Hood. 18 May Departed Auckland for Suva, Fiji. J 8--21 May En route to Suva. 21-27 May Al Suva.
27 May Departed Suva for Honolulu. 27-29 May En route to Western Samoa. 27 May Squadron crosses International Dateline. adding a calendar day to the journey. 29 May Departed Western Samoa for HonoluJu. 29 May~ June En rollle to Honolulu. 6-12 June At Honolulu. 12 June Departed Honolulu for Victoria, British Columbia. 12-21 June E" route to Viaoria. 21-25 June AI Victoria. 25 June Departed Victoria for Vancouver,
B.C. 25 June-5 July At Vancouver. 4 July Hood 'At Home: 5 July Departed Vancouver for San Francisco. 5-7 July En route to San Francisco. 7-11 July At San Francisco. 8 July 'At Home' for British CommuniI}' of San Francisco and Bay Cities. II July Departed San Francisco for Panama Canal Zone. 12 July 1st Light Cruiser Squadron parts company with Battle Cruiser Squadron for last time until reuniting on 28 September. 11-23 July En route to BaJboa, Panama. 23-24 July Traversed Panama Canal. 23-24 July Anchored at Pedro Miguel. 24 July Departed Col6n, Panama for Kingston, Jamaica. 24-26 July E" route to Kingston. 26-30 July At Kingston. 28 July Naval Brigade marches Ihrough Kingston. 30 July Departed Jamaica for Halifax, Nova Scotia. 30 July-S August E" route to HaJifax. 5-15 August At Halifax. 15 August Departed Halifax for Quebec. 15-19 August En route to Quebec. 18--19 August Anchored awaiting tide al Murray Bay (R. St Laurence). 19 August-2 September At Quebec. 2 September Departed Quebec for Topsail Bay, Newfoundland. 2-3 September Anchored awaiting tide off lie d'Odeans (R. SI Laurence). 2~ September En route to Topsail Bay. 6-21 September At Topsail Bay. 21 September Departed Topsail Bay for Devonport. 21-28 September E" route to Devonport. 28 September 1st Light Cruiser Squadron rejoins Battle Cruiser Squadron off Lizard Point. END OF WORLD CRUISE
28 September-5 November At Devonport. 1 October-5 November Taken in hand for refit; not completed. 5 November Departed Devonport for Rosyth. 5-7 November En route to Rosyth. 7-23 November At Rosyth. 7-22 ovember Taken in hand for docking. 23 November Departed Rosyth for Devonport. 23-25 November E" route to Devonport. 25 November-14 January 1925 Al Devonport. 25 November-IO January 1925 Taken in hand for completion of refit.
1925 14 January Departed Devonport for Portland. 14-19 January Al Portland. 19 January Departed Portland with Battle Cruiser Squadron to participate in Vasco da Gama celebrations in Lisbon. 23-30 January At Lisbon.
ChronoLogy
30 January Departed Lisbon for Gibraltar. 30-31 January E" route to Gibraltar. 31 January-23 February Al Gibraltar. 23 February Departed Gibraltar for Palma,
Majorca. 23-24 February Ell rOllte to Palma. 24 February-2 March Al Palma. 2 March Departed Palma for Almeria. 2-3 March En route to Almeria. 3-5 March At Almeria. 5 March Departed Almeria for Gibrallar. 5-6 March En roule to Gibraltar. 6-11 March At Gibraltar. II March Departed Gibraltar for Palma. 11-14 March Ell route to Palma. 14-17 March Al Palma.
17 March Departed Palma on exercises. 17-18 March On e.'tcrci.ses. 18-21 March Al Palma. 21 March Departed Palma for Gibraltar. 21-22 March E" route to Gibraltar. 22-29 March Al Gibraltar. 29 March Departed Gibraltar for
Devonport. 29 March-I April En route to Devonport. I April~ May At Devonport. 3 April-7 May Taken in hand for
alterations while available. 30 April Flag of Cyril T.M. FuUer, Rear-
Admiral ommanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoisted; Captain H.G. Reinold assumes command. 8 May Departed Devonport for Invergordon. 8-11 May En roule to Invergordon.
11-31 May At Invergordon. 31 May Departed Invergordon for Rosyth. 31 May-l June Ell route to Rosyth. 1-22 June At Rosyth. 22 June Departed Rosyth for Portree, Isle of Skye. 22-23 June £11 rollte to Portree. 23 June-I July At Portree. I July Deparled Portree for Port rush, Co. Antrim. I~ July At Portrush. 6 July Deparled Portrush for Greenock. 6-10 July At Greenock. 10 July Departed Greenock for Lamlash. 10-17 July Al Lamlash. 15 July Participates in Baltle Cruiser Squadron Regalia. 17 July Departed Lamlash for Portland. 17-19 July Ell rollte 10 Portland. 19-28 July Al Portland. 28 July Departed Portland for Devonport. 28 July-I September At Devonport.
4-3 I August Taken in hand for repairs. I September Departed Devonport for Portland. 1-14 September At Portland. 14 September Departed Portland for Invergordon. 14-17 September E" roWe to Invergordon. 17 September-19 October At Invergordon. 190etober Departed Invergordon for
237
12 January Departed Dc\'onport for Arosa Bay. 12-IS January £11 route to Arosa Bay. I S-21 January At Arosa Bay. 21 January Departed Arosa Bay for
Gibraltar. 21-23 January Ell rollte 10 Gibraltar. 23 January-24 February At Gibraltar. 24 February Departed Gibraltar for Palmas Bay, Sardinia. 24-27 February Ell route to Palmas Bay. 27 February-3 March At Palmas Bay. 3 March Departed Palmas Bay for Palma. 3-S March £11 route to Palma. S-9 March At Palma. 9 March Departed Palma for Gibrahar. 9-11 March £n route to Gibraltar. 11-18 March At Gibraltar. 18 March Departed Gibraltar for Arosa Bay. 18-20 March En route to Arosa Bay. 20-27 March At Amsa Bay. 27 March Departed Arosa Bay for
Devonport. 27-29 March Etl route to Devonport. 29 March-3 May At Devonport. 28 April-3 May Taken in hand for
alterations and additions. 3 May Departed Devonport for Greenock to assist during General Strike. 3-4 May Etl rollle to Greenock. 4-31 May At Greenock. 31 May Departed Greenock for Irials 01T
Arran. 31 May--4 June Trials. 4-24 June At Greenock. 24 June Departed Greenock for Rosyth. 24-26 June £11 route to Rosyrh. 26 June-2 July At Rosyth. 2 July Departed Rosyth for Shoeburyness. 2--4 July E/I route to Shoeburyness. 4-7 July At Shoeburyness. 7 July Departed Shoeburyness for Torbay. 7~ July E/I route to Torbay. 8-15 July At Torbay. 15 July Departed Torbay for Portsmouth. 15 July-2 September Al Portsmouth. 24 July-30 August Taken in hand for docking. 30 August Proceeds to Spithead. 2 September Departed Portsmouth for Scarborough. 2~ September E1I rOllte to Scarborough. 4-7 September Al Scarborough. 7 September Departed Scarborough for
Invergordon. 7-9 September E1I route to Invergordon. 9 Septcmber-24 October Atlnvergordon. 24 Odober Departed Invergordon for
Portland. 24-28 October E" route to Portland. 280dober-17 ovemberAt Portland.
30 October Participates in tactical exercises staged by the Atlantic Fleet off Portland for delegates of the Imperial
Conference.
Rosyth.
17 November Departed Portland for
19-20 October Err roure to Rosyth.
Devonport.
20 Odober-21 November At Rosyth.
17 November-7 January 1927 Al
4-16 November Taken in hand for docking and repairs. 17-20 November Taken in hand for
repairs. 21 November Departed Rosyth for
Devonport. 21-23 November EtJ roUle to Devonport. 23 November-12 January 1926At
Devonport. 26 November~ January 1926 Taken in hand for refit.
1926 6 January Paid off at Devonport.
7 January Recommissioned for further seNice as Flagship, Battle Cruiser
Squadron, Atlantic Fleet.
Devonport. 22 November-24 December Taken in hand for refit.
1927 7 January Departed Devonport for Portland. 7-17 January At Portland. 17 January Deparled Portland for Arosa Bay. 17-20 January En route to Arosa Bay. 20-25 January At Arosa Bay. 25 January Departed Arosa Bay for Gibrallar. 25-26 January Ell route to Gibraltar. 26 January-2 March At Gibraltar. 2 March Deparled Gibraltar for Lagos. Portugal. 2~ March £11 route to Lagos.
_
March At Lagos.
8 March Departed Lagos for exercises and Gibraltar.
8-10 March On exercises. 10-17 March At Gibraltar. 17 March Departed Gibraltar for Arosa Bay. 17-19 March En route 10 Arosa Bay. 19-26 March At Arosa Bay. 26 March Deparled Arosa Bay for
3 April Departed Portland for Devonport. 3--4 April En roule to Devonport. 4-30 April At De\'onporl.
9-28 April Taken in hand for repairs while available. 30 April Departed De\'onport for
Invergordon. 30 April~ May En route to Invergordon. 4 May-4 June At Invergordon.
Devonport. 26-28 March En route to Devonport.
4 June Departed In\'ergordon for Scapa
28 March-2 May At DC\·onport.
_ June Al Scapa Flow. 8 June Departed Scapa Flow for South
5-30 April Taken in hand for repairs while available. 2 May Departed Devonport for Invergordon. 2~ May En route to Im·ergordon.
6 May-7 June At Invergordon. 21 May Flag of Frederic C. Dreyer, Rear-
Admiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoisted; Captain Wilfred F. French assumes command. 7 June Departed Invergordon for Gareloch. 7-8 June En route to Gareloch. 8-15 June Al GarcJoch. 15 June Deparled GarcJoch for Hclensburgh. 15-16 June Etl route to Helensburgh. 16-24 June At HcJensburgh. 24 June Deparled Helensburgh for
Flow. Queensferry. 8-9 June E" route to South Queensferry. 9-11 June At South Queensferry. 11 June Departed South Queensferry for
Invergordon. 11-12 Ju.ne Ell route to Invergordon. 12 June Departed Invergordon for Loch Kishorn. 12-13 June Ell rOflte to Loch Kishorn. 13-18JuneAI Loch Kishorn. 18 June Departed Loch Kishorn for Ballachulish. 18-19 June Ell rOllte to Ballachulish. 19-25 June Al Ballachulish. 25 June Departed Ballachulish for
Newcastle, Co. Down. 24-29 June At Newcastle. 29 June Departed Newcastle for Portland. 29 June-I July E/I rO/lte to Portland.
Portsmouth. 25-27 June Ell roWe to Portsmouth.
1-7 July Al Portland. 7 July Departed Portland for Portsmouth. 7-8 July £11 route to Portsmouth. 8 July-30 August At Portsmouth. 13-19 July Taken in hand for docking.
2 August Departed Portsmouth for Devonport. 2-3 August En route to Devonport.
30 August Departed Portsmouth for Invergordon. 30 Augusl-2 Seplember Ell rOllte to Im'ergordon. 2 September-26 October Atlnvergordon. 26 Odober Departed Invergordon for South Queensferry. 26-27 October En rollte to South Queensferry. 270dober-2 ovember Al South Queensferry. 2 ovember Departed South Queensferry for Portland. 2~ November En route to Portland. 4-7 November At Portland.
7 November Departed Portland for De\'onport. 7 ovember~ January 1928 At Devonport. 10 November-29 December Taken in hand for refit.
1928 4 January Departed Devonport for Portland. 4-10 January At Portland. 10 January Departed Portland for Vigo. 10-13 January E" route to Vigo. 13-23 January At Vigo. 23 January Departed Vigo for Gibrallar. 23-25 January Etl route to Gibraltar. 25 January-7 March At Gibraltar. 7 March Departed Gibraltar for Malaga. 7-10 March At Malaga.
9 March Visited by Queen Ena, Prince Jaime and Infantas of Spain. 10 March Departed Malaga for Gibraltar. 10-13 March Al Gibraltar. 13 March Departed Gibraltar for Malaga. 13-14 March E" roUleto Malaga. 14 March Departed Malaga for exercises and Gibraltar.
14-16 March On exercises. 16-22 March Al Gibraltar. 22 March Depart.ed Gibraltar for Portland. 22-28 March £11 route to Portland. 28 March-3 April At Portland.
27 June-2 August Al Portsmouth. 3-31 July Taken in hand for refit.
3 AuguSI-5 Seplember Al Devonport.
7-31 August Taken in hand for alterations. 27 Augusl Paid 01T. 28 August Recommissioned for further service as Flagship, Battle Cruiser Squadron, Atlantic Fleet. 5 September Departed Devonport for
Invergordon. 5-8 September En route to lnvergordon. 8 September-23 Odober At Invergordon. 29 Seplember--4? Odober Admiral the Earl Jellicoe aboard for autumn gunnery cruise. 23 Odobe.r Departed Invergordon for South Queensferry. 23-24 October Ell rollte to South Queensferry. 24-31 October Al Soulh Queensferry. 31 Odober Departed South Queensferry for Portland. 31 October-2 November Ell rOllte to Portland. 2-14 November At Portland. 14 November Departed Portland for Devonport. 14-15 November E" route to Devonport. 15 November-9 January 1929 At Devonport. 16 ovember-l January 1929 Taken in hand for repairs.
1929 9 January Departed Devonport for Portland. 9-12 January At Portland.
12 January Departed Portland for exercises and Falmouth. 12-15 January Al Falmouth.
IS January Departed Falmouth for Arosa Bay.
15-18 January Ell route to Arosa Bay. 18-22 January At Arosa Bay. 22 January Departed Arosa Bay for Gibraltar. 22-25 January Ell route to Gibraltar. 25 January-26 February At Gibrallar. 26 February Departed Gibraltar for
Barcelona. 26-28 February En route to Barcelona. February~
3 April Participates in tactical exercises
28
staged by the Atlantic Fleet 01T Portland in honour of King Amanullah of Afghanistan.
6 March Departed Barcelona for Palma. 6-7 March Ell route to Palma.
March Al Barcelona.
238
7-13 March At Palma. 13 March Departed Palma for Pollen,a Bay. 13-23 March At Pollen,a Bay. 23 March Departed Pollen,a Bay for Gibraltar.
23-26 March En route to Gibraltar. 26 March-2 April At Gibraltar. 2 April Departed Gibraltar for Portsmouth.
2-6 April En route to Portsmouth. 6 April FlagofSir Frederic Dreyer, ViceAdmiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, transferred to HMS Repllise.
6 April Departed Portsmouth for Devonport. 6-7 April Ell route to Devonport. 7 April-I May At Devonport. 10-27 ApriJ Taken in hand for repairs. t May Departed Devonport for Portsmouth. I May-16June 1931 At Portsmouth. 17 May Paid off into dod.-. yard control; crew commissions HMS Tiger for service in Battle Cruiser Squadron. 3 )une-IO March 1931 Taken in hand for major refit. ? Participates at Portsmouth avy Week.
1930 REFITTING AT PORTSMOUTH
The Battlecruiser HMS HOOD
1932 CARIBBEAN CRUISE
(Battle Cruiser Squadron) 6 January-4 March 1932 6 January Departed Portsmouth with HMS Replllse, Norfolk, Dorsetslrire and Delili for Spring Cruise in Caribbean. 6-12 January E" route to Faial,Azores. 12-13 January At Faial. 13 January Departed Faial for Barbados. 13-21 January Ell rollleto Barbados. 21 January-s February At Carlisle Bay, Barbados, 5 February Departed Barbados for St Vincent. 5--12 February At St Vincent. 12 February Departed St Vincent for Grenada. 12-15 February At Grenada. 15 February Departed Grenada for Trinidad. 15--16 February Ell rOllte to Trinidad. 16-25 February At Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. 25 February Departed Trinidad for Faial. 25 February~ March En rollle to Faial. 4-7 March At Faial. 7 March Departed Faial for Portsmouth. 7-13 March E" rollle to Portsmouth. END OF CARIBBEAN CRUISE
UNTIL MARCH 1931
1931 10 March Commissioned for trials at Portsmouth as tender to HMS Victory. 27 April Captain J.E . Patterson assumes command. 12 May Completed with a full crew of Portsmouth ratings for service as nagship of the Battle Cruiser Squadron, Atlantic Fleet. 16 June Departed Portsmouth for Portland. 16-17 June E" rollle to Portland. 17 June-IO July At Portland. 26 June Loses Fairey IIIF plane on take-off at ~'eymouth. 10 July Departed Portland for Torbay. 10-17 July At Torbay. 12 July Flag of Wilfred Tomkinson, RearAdmiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, transferred from HMS RellOwn. 17 July Departed Torbay for Swanage. 17-21 July At Swanage. 21 July Departed Swanage for Portsmouth. 21 )uly-il September At Portsmouth. 27 July-7 September Taken in hand for repairs whiJe available. 1-8 August Participates at Portsmouth Navy Week. 8 September Departed Portsmouth for Invergordon. 8-11 September Ell rOllle to Invergordon. 11-16 September At Invergordon. 15--16 September Invergordon mutiny. 16 September Departed Invergordon for Portsmouth. 16-19 September Ell route to Portsmouth. 19 September-il October At Portsmouth. 8 October Departed Portsmouth for Rosyth. 8-11 October Ell rollle to Rosyth. 11-19 October At Rosyth. 19 October Departed Rosyth for Invergordon. 19-20 October E" rollle to Invergordon. 20-27 October At Invergordon. 27 October Departed Invergordon for Rosyth. 27-28 October E1I route to Rosyth. 28 October-I 7 November At Rosyth. 17 November Departed Rosyth for Portsmouth. 17-19 November Ell route to Portsmouth. 19 November-6 January 1932 At Portsmouth. 27 November-S January 1932 Taken in hand for repairs while available.
13 March-14 May At Portsmouth. 31 March-I 0 May Taken in hand for repairs. 14 May Departed Portsmouth for Invergordon. 14-16 May En rOllte to Invergordon. 16-28 May At Invergordon. 28 May Departed Invergordon for Scapa Flow. 28 May-4 June At Scapa Flow. 4 June Departed Scapa Flow for Rothesay. 4-5 June En route to Rothesay. 5-13 June At Rothesay. 13 June Departed Rothesay for Bangor, Co. Down. 13-25 June At Bangor. 25 June Departed Bangor for Guernsey. 25-26 June Ell roWe to Guernsey. 26 June-7 July At Guernsey. 7 July Departed Guernsey for Wel'mouth. 7- I4 July At Weymouth. ? July Participates in tactical exercises staged by the Atlantic Fleet for Dominion premiers; visited by King George V. 14 JuJy Departed '·Veymouth for exercises and Portland. 14-15 July At Portland. 15 July Departed Portland for Sandown Bay. 15-2 I July At Sandown Bay. 18 July Southsea photographic firm of Wright & Logan takes numerous photos aboard. 21 July Departed Sandown Bay for Portsmouth. 21 July-30 August At Portsmouth. 25 July-? Taken in hand for repairs while available. 30 July-6 August Participates at Portsmouth avy ''''eek. 15 August Flag of ''''illiam M. James, RearAdmiral Comlnanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoisted; Captain Thomas H. Binney assumes command. 30 August Recommissioned for further service as Flagship, Battle Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet. 30 August Departed Portsmouth for Southend. 30-31 August Ell roWe to Southend. 3 I August-7 September At Southend. 7 September Departed Southend for Hartlepool. 7-8 September E" roWe to Hartlepool. 8-14 September At Hartlepool. 14 September Departed Hartlepool for Rosyth.
14-15 September E" route 10 Rosyth. 15 September-IO October At Rosyth. 10 October Departed Rosyth for Invergordon. 10-20 October At Invergordon. 20 October Departed Invergordon for Rosyth. 20-21 October Ell roWe to Rosyth. 21 October-IS November At Rosyth. 15 November Departed Rosyth for Portsmouth. 15--17 November Ell route to Portsmouth. 17 November-II January 1933 At Portsmouth. 7 December-9 January 1933 Taken in hand for repairs.
1933 II January Departed Portsmouth for MOsa Bay. 11-13 January En rOllte to Arosa Bay. 13-21 January At Arosa Bay. 21 January Departed Arosa Bay for Gibraltar. 21-23 January E" roWe to Gibraltar. 23-26 January At Gibraltar. 26 January Departed Gibraltar for Algiers. 26-28 January Ell roWe to Algiers. 28 January-7 February At AJgiers. 7 February Departed AJgiers for Gibraltar. 7-9 February En route to Gibraltar. 9 February-9 March At Gibraltar. 9 March Departed Gibraltar for Tangier. 9-14 March At Tangier. 14 March Departed Tangier for Gibraltar. 14-21 March At Gibraltar. 21 March Departed Gibraltar for Arosa Bay. 21-23 March En rowe to Arosa Bay. 23-25 March At Arosa Bay. 25 March Departed Arosa Bay for Portsmouth. 25--28 March En rOll Ie to Portsmouth. 28 March-9 May At Portsmouth. 9 May Departed Portsmouth for Invergordon. 9-12 May Ell route 10 Invergordon. 12 May-3 June At Invergordon. 3 June Departed Invergordon for Scapa Flow. 3-10 June At Scapa Flow. 10 June Departed Scapa Flow for Oban. 10-11 June En roufe to Oban. 11-14 June At Oban. 14 June Departed Oban for Portsmouth. 14-16 June Ell rowe to Portsmouth. 16 June-6 September At Portsmouth. 20 June-4 September Taken in hand for refit. 30 August Paid off and recommissioned for further service as Flagship, Battle Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet; Captain F.T.B. Tower assumes command. 6 September Departed Portsmouth for Rosyth. 6-8 September En roWe to Rosyth. 8-24 September At Rosyth. 10-26 September Flag of William M. James, Rear·Admiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, temporarily transferred to HMS RellOw". 24 September Departed Rosyth for IIl\·ergordon. 24-25 September Ell roWe to Invergordon. 25 September-II October At Invergordon. 11 October Departed Invergordon for Banff. 11-13 October E" roWe to Banff. 13-16 October At Banff. 16 October Departed Banff for North Berwick. 16-24 October At North Berwick. 24 October Departed North Berwick for Rosyth. 24 October Departed Rosyth on exercises. 24-26 October On exercises. 26 October-7 November At Rosyth.
7 November Departed Rosyth for Portsmouth. 7-13 November E" route to Portsmouth. 13 ovember-12 January 1934 At Portsmouth. I December-6 January 1934 Taken in hand for repairs while available.
1934 12 January Departed Portsmouth for Arosa Bay. 12-16 January En rOllte to Arosa Bay. 1~20 January At Arosa Bay. 20 January Departed Arosa Bay for Madeira. 20-22 January En rOllte to Madeira. 22-29 January Al Madeira. 29 January Departed Madeira for Gibraltar. 29-31 January Ell roWe to Gibraltar. 31 January-6 March At Gibraltar. 6 March Departed Gibraltar for exercises and Lagos Bal'. 6-7 March On exercises. 7-9 March At Lagos Bay. 9 March Departed Lagos Bay for exercises and Gibraltar. 9-16 March On exercises. 16-23 March At Gibraltar. 23 March Departed Gibraltar for Portsmouth. 23-27 March En route to Portsmouth. 27 March-II May At Portsmouth. 12 April-4 May Taken in hand for docking and repairs. II May Departed Portsmouth for Portland. I I May-I June At Portland. I June Departed Portland for Plymouth. 1-4 June At Plymouth. 4 June Departed Plymouth for Scapa Flow. 4-7 June En route to Scapa Flow. 7-16 June At Scapa Flow. 16 June Departed Scapa Flow for Loch Eriboll. 16-25 June At Loch Eriboll. ? 'Hood' stones laid overlooking loch. 25 June Departed Loch Eriboll for Rosyth. 25--26 June Ell roWe to Rosyth. 26 June-IS July At Rosyth. 15 July Departed Rosyth for lorbay. 15--17 July Ell route to Torbay. 17-24 July At Torbay. 24 July Departed Torbay for Portsmouth. 24 July-7 September At Portsmouth. I August-s September Taken in hand for refit and repairs. ? August Participates at Portsmouth Navy ~'eek.
14 August Flag of Sidney R. Bailey, RearAdmiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron. hoisted. 7 September Departed Portsmouth for Hull. 7-8 September En rOlife to Hull. 8-13 September At Hull. 13 September Departed Hull for ROS)1h. 13-15 September En roltte to Rosyth. 15-21 September At Rosyth. 21 September Departed Rosyth for Invergordon. 21-22 September Ell route to Invergordon. 22 September~ October At Invergordon. 4 October Departed Invergordon for Rosyth. 4-5 October Ell rOllte to Rosyth. 5-15 October At Rosyth. 15 October Departed Ros)1h for Invergordon. 15--16 October E" roWe to Invergordon. 16-25 October At Invergordon. 25 October Departed Invergordon for Rosyth. 25-26 October Ell rollte to Rosyth. 26-30 October At Rosyth. 30 October Departed Ros)1h for Portland. 300ctober-3 ovember E" rOllte to Portland. 3-14 ovember At Portland.
Ch rOlJology
14 ovember Departed Portland for
239
1936
Portsmouth.
14 November-I 5 lanuary 1935 At Portsmouth. 19 November-l 4 January 1935 Taken in
hand for docking while available.
1935 15 January Departed Portsmouth for Arosa Bay. 15-18 January Ell roWe to Arosa Bay.
18--23 lanuary Al Arosa Bar 23 lanuary Departed Arosa Ba)' on
exercises, thence to Gibraltar. 23-25 January On exercises and etl route to
Gibraltar. 23 January In collision with HMS ReflowtJ off Arosa Bay in position 42° 06~N, ()90 23W. 25-30 lanuary At Gibrallar. 30 lanuary-22 February Flag of Sidney R.
Bailey, Rear-Admiral Commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron, temporarily transferred to HM Retlowli. 30 lanuary Departed Gibraltar for
Portsmouth.
30 January-4 February Ell route to Portsmouth. 4 February-5 March At Portsmouth.
8 February-4 March Taken in hand for docking and collision repairs. 5 March Departed Portsmouth for exercises
and Gibraltar. 5 March Observed air crash off St Catherine's Point; recovered body of officer and returned to Spithead. 5-16 March On exercises. 1&-21 March At Gibraltar. 21 March Departed Gibraltar for Portsmouth. 21-25 March En route to Portsmouth. 25 March-I 3 May At Portsmouth. I April-13 May Taken in hand for repair of defects. 13 May Departed Portsmouth for Portland. 13-14 May Ell route to Portland. 14-15 May Al Portland. 15 May Departed Portland for Southend. 15-22 May Al Southend 22 May Departed Soulhend for Scapa Flow. 22-24 May Ell route to $capa Flow. 24 May-7 lune Al Seapa Flow. 7 June Departed $capa Flow for Portland. 7-10 June En route to Portland. 10 lune-II Iuly At Portland. II luly Departed Portland for Sandown Bay. 11-12 luly At Sandown Ba)'. 12 luly Departed Sandown Bay for Spilhead. 12-17 luly At Spithead. 16 luly Participates in Silver lubilee Review of King George V. 17 Iuly Departed Spithead for Portsmoulh. 17 July-30 August At Portsmouth. 3-10 August Participates at Portsmouth avy ,",reek. 12-28 August Taken in hand for repairs while available. 30 August Departed Portsmouth for Portland. 30 August-I 4 September At Portland. 31 August On exercises. 14 September Departed Portland for Gibraltar. 14-17 September En route to Gibraltar. 17 September-5 December At Gibraltar. ! Visited b)' the Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. 5 December Departed Gibraltar for Madeira. 5-7 December En route t'O Madeira. 7-12 December At Madeira 12 December Departed Madeira for Gibraltar. 12-14 December Ell route to Gibraltar. 14 December-13 lanuary 1936 At Gibraltar.
13 January Departed GibraJtar for Portsmouth. 13-16 January Ell route to Portsmouth. 16 January-21 February At Portsmouth. 21 lanuary-20 February Taken in hand for docking. I February Captain A. Francis Pridham assumes command. 21 February Departed Portsmouth for Portland. 21-22 February At Portland. 22 February Departed Portland for Arosa Bay. 22-24 February En route to Arosa Bay. 24 February-2 March At Amsa Bay. 2 March Departed Arosa Ba)' for Vigo. 2-5 March Al Vigo. 5 March Departed Vigo for Gibraltar. 5-7 March En route to GibraJtar. 7 March-4 May At Gibraltar. 4 May Departed Gibraltar for Las Palm... Canary Islands. 4-7 May Ell rotlte to Las Palmas. 7-15 May Al Las Palmas. 15 May Departed Las Palmas for Gibraltar. 15-18 May E" ratite to Gibraltar. 18 May-20 lune At Gibraltar. 30 May Again visited by Emperor HaUe Selassie. c.6--16,229
'showing the flag', 70, 79, 156 as symbol of British sea power, 60-1,68.75,156,172, 180.182, 192,208,227,228,229 as imperial symbol, 7, 20, 70, 71, 75, 227,229
as greatest ship in the avy, 54, 60, 67,68,79, 159, 171, 195.208.227. 229
as instrument of peace, 7. 21, 60, 229
admired by foreigners, 20. 74
praised by civilians. 97 favoured,67.198 chummy ships, 67. 226 rivalries, 67-8 pridein,20,21-2,6I,67,162,180 love of ship. 9. 22. 141-2,226 first impressions of, 21-2, 114,156 as community, 8-9, 85, 114, 118, 162,180.229 morale and spirit, 8-9, 85. 105. 114, 127,128-9,131,135,136,142-3, 156-7,163,164-5,168,170,171, 180,183,190,194,194-6,198. 198-9,200.208,210 drudgery and dissatisfaction. 83, 114.117-18,121,124-6,126-7, 129,194.195 mutiny, 42. 146-7,149-55,195,208 alcohol, 46, 72, 73, 74, 104, 118, 130-1,134,135.136,189,191, 209; drunkenness, 102, 104-5. 128.135.144,207 sex, 102-4, 118. 120-1; prostitutes, 75, 102-3. 104; venercal disease, 102-3.104,125; homosexuality, 120-1,122 discipline, 105-6. 126,163. 165, 170. 170-1.180; King's Regulations
and Admiralty Instructions. 101-2. lOS, 128, 159, 161; Naval Discipline Act. 105. 106, 153, 163;
Commander's Defaulters and Requestmen, 22. 82.106,163, 165, 194; Captain's ditto, 29. 85. I06,181;courtsmartial, 106. 147; punishments. 33.105.106.109. 126,131,147,163,196; ceUs, 33,
128; Master-at-Arms, 82, 86, 105-6.106.121,144,147, lSI, 160, 200; regulating petty officers, 42,82.86.105.105-6,159; Regulating Office, 93
crime, 1Os-6, 121; violence. 105; theft. 105, 121, 131, 163; sabotage, 168; gambling, lOS, 139, 1.60; leave-breaking, 105,106, 129; desertion. 71, 105,212; rape, 120;
suicide, 121, 183 religion. 142, 196-7; Chaplain, 30, 31,33,102,127-8,135,142, 142-5,203; services, 73, 79, 83, 85,138,142,149,175;chapel,32, 141.142 comradeship, 118. 118-20. 196, 198-9,200,209 on leaving, 141-2
long service in, 8, 42, 85 and memory, 8-9, 85, 114, 198,208 Ship's Company general, 9. 30, 114
complement, 9,19,60, liD, 160, 183, 231 divisional system, 61. 80. 81. 84.128. 155.157.159.165,171; 'Divisions', 81. 85-6,99, 100.106. 196-7 Admiral. 35. 37. 54, 81. 91; role of, 80; quarters. 22-3. 22. 23. 28. 30. 35,37,38; sea c,1bin, 37; staff, 29, 37,85,93; barge, 107, 109, 110. 194.197 Captain. 29. 35, 54, 81, 82, 88, 100,
143; role of, 80-1; quarters, 29-30,37; sea cabin, 37; staff, 30. 85 Commander, 22. 28. 32, 54, 64. 75, 82,88, 121, 127, 143, 144; role of, 81,126.159-60,160,161-2,164. 165,169-70 officers,62,102.107,120-I,124, 129-30,132, 13H, 143, 152,158, 159,175,178,183,194.197.198, 200, 203; branches and pecialisation.54, 130; cabins, 32, 36,37,92.95,125,132,133-4.
The Battlecrlliser HMS HOOD
254
184.188: wardroom. 38.64. 70. 77,87,127,131,133.134-5,135. 136, 165,200,209: leadership, 66, 126-7, 156,159.17(}...I:on men, 122, 127-8; relations with men, 8, 108,120,126-7, 127-JO, 143, 152, 154,156,159, 16(}...2, 17(}...I, I8(}'" I, 200, 207; dislike of, 29, 62, 126-7,129-30,2oo;pranks against, 129, 147;servants,122.
IJO, 133, 134-5.217: Marines', 122;dhobeying,23,86,123,188, 195; laundry, 29. 72. 133 food,28-9,30,J(}...I,85,115-17, 120.188,194,2oo;cooks.8I,85, 86, 116, 117, 144; galle)', 28-9, 3(}...1. 41. 83, 85.116; bakery, 28-9,29; scullery. 31; messing, JO. 85,116; gunroom, 13(}...1;
13~
bathing facilities, 123; officers, 28, 30,32, 133; warrant officers, 32,
midshipmen, 60, 64, 87, 102,104, 106,107,108,109,126-7,127, IJ(}...3, 143, 194,200,204,209; cadets.102,127,IJO;sublieutenanlS,32,106.109.114,13I, 164-5; relations with men, 102. 124, 126-7, 127, 132; stud)'. 32, 132; Sub-Lieutenants' exam. 101, 132-3.211.212;journals, 132: gunroom.29,64,124,1J(}...I,133. 136, 194,200,203.209: chest flat, 32,131; Stud)', 132 warrant officers, 86,102,124,143, 209: cabins, 32, 124; mess, 124. 200 chief and petty officers, 81, 86, 124, 124,127,149,157.191,197,209; messes,31,31-2,87,124 long-service Ans, 86,123, 127, 128, 149, 157 Roral Marines. 23. 61, 71, 82, 83, 86, 88,122,129,150,153,158; Band, 33,49,60,64,72,83,86,88,97, 99,106,122,122.135,137,149, 181, 199, 200: officers, 122, 135; Gunner, 127; sergeanlS, JO. 122, 200,209; barracks (messdeck), JO. 37,122,158; and gunnery, 56, 81, 122,176;landingpa rrr,96,122, 146,177; attendants, 23,122,134. 198,200; butchers, 29, 122; postmen, JO, 122, 198; printers, 122; sentries, 29, 32, 33, 86, 121, 122. 175; servants, 122, 1334; sports, 65, 122 artificers, 46,61,81, 158 artisans. 61. 81,86, 158; Blacksmith, 35,36,88,100, 125; Cooper, 86, 127; Coppersmith, 35, 36; joiners, 158; painters, 69; plumbers, 158;
sailmaker, 176; shipwrights. 29, 31,31-2,85,109,114,165,194, 205 boys,82,87,I04,I06,107,120, 124---6, 159,223 Queell Mary', RMS (1930), I I, 167, 191 Raeder, Grossadmiral Erich, 214
Ramsay. Admiral Sir Bertram, 7 Ransome-Wallis, Surg. Lt-Cdr R., 212 Rawalpindi (c. 1923), 79,192
Rawlings. Admiral Sir Bernard, 135 Rea, Rev. W. Edgar, 30, 32, 50-1, 92, 114,136,175,17:>-6,178,180 Redcar,21 Rees, Band Corp. Wally, 199,228 Reinold, Capt. Harold, 29, 62, 65 RetlOwlI (1915), 19,20,57,68,70, 75,76,167,207,208; in collision with H.,5I,68, 16S--il,165, 169 Reflown class banle'Cruisers (1914),
12,18
Repulse (1915), I I, 20, 48, 51, 52, 64, 68,70,71,74,76,95,96,97,99, 155,174,181,208,229 Resolutioll (1913), 38,159,202 Reykjavic, 51, 225 RJ,einiibrmg. 214, 225 Ridgeon, Mechanician, 42 Rigauld de Gellouill)' (c. 193 1),202 Rio de Janeiro, 68, 69, 229 Roberts, John, 8, 24, 5 I Robertson, Sub-L. R.G., 2 I 1,212 Robinson, Temp. Lt Albert, 110 Robinson, Lt-Cdr L.G.E., ISO Rockey, Cdr Joseph E, 105, 179,203 Rodger, Lt Cdr R.H.S., 152 Rodman, Admiral Hugh,68, 174 Rodman Cup, 63, 66, 67, 68,122, 145 Rodlle)' (1922), 23, 67--il, 68,142, 149, ISO, 151, 152,153, 187, 190, 208,225,226,228 Roskill, Capt. Stephen, 53, 54, 58 Rosyth,59,6O,90,I46,I61,I65, 194, 195,200,204; HM Dockyard, 15, 18, 19,77,145,192, 209-10,210 Roy, Boy Ian A., 195 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 6 I Royal a"y,7,9,38,68,98, 127, 136, 170,171,197,216;asshieJdof empire, 20, 70; efficiency of, 66, 77,83,95,98; tradition and technical advance, 87, 93, 98, 100, 113,130,136,158,169,170; mentality of, 8, 143, 157, 168, 170; moralein,8,95,1S6-7, 157, 159; recruitment into, 7,42,120,147,
158; lower-deck representation in, 147,148,157,158-9; officer-sailor relations in, 129, 159,160,163,170,171,200; imponance of spon in, 61, 156,
170; debate over validity of capital hip, 19,54; air-naval debate, is; strengths of, 54, 98, 109, 132, 135, 158 Roral Oak (1914), I I 1,187,189, 190,210 RO)'tlI So''ereign class battleships (1888),15 Ruck-Keene, Lt-Cdr j.H., 156 t-Jean-de-Luz, 172 St Lucia, 103 SI Vi"wlt (Gosport), 35,106,124, 126 Salter, Sub-Lt D.C, 193 Sampson, Mid. T.S.,129 San Francisco, 21, 70, 72-4, 74 Sankey, Cdr (E) V.j.H.H., 7,174 Santos, 61 Sawbridge, Capt. H.R., 16S--il Scandinavian Cruise (1920), 6Q- I, I I I; (1923),102 Scapa Flmv, 55, 57, 61,64, 68, 79, 104, I I I, 124, 134, 135, 138, 145, 153,168,183,184,185,188,189, 189,190,/90,191,199,200,207, 208,210,212,213,214 Schamhorsl (1934),59,210,212,214 Schmid, Matrose Hans, 179 ScOll, Admiral Sir Percy, 48,155 Scott-Garrett, Sub-Lt (E) Brian, 39, 194,210 Scddon, Mid. K.A., 136 Selborne- Fisher Scheme, 46 Shaw, Sig. Geoff, 9 I Shaw-Hamilton, L.-Cdr J.D., 177
hejJield(l935),I34 Sheppard, PO I.. E, 207
SI,ikari (1918),52,53 Sho