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Description: | British stoker served aboard HMS Irresistible, HMS Birmingham and HMS Kennett and HMS Cleopatra in GB coastal waters, 1913-1920
REEL 1 Background in Bognor Regis, 1896-1912: interest in joining army and reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy; work as newspaper messenger boy and grocer, 1908-1912; interest in joining army and reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy; parent's reaction to enlistment; family and social circumstances.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of enlistment at Recruitment Office, Portsmouth, 1912: social origins of naval recruits; background to recruitment underage and story illustrating subsequent difficulties in remembering 'official' date of birth on drawing bounty on leaving navy and joining London Fire Brigade, c1934; procedure and educational tests; medical; necessity for references. Recollections of period training as stoker at Portsmouth Barracks, 1912-1913: reception.
REEL 3 Continues: reaction to increased levels of discipline imposed as punishment for earlier mutiny in barracks; kitting out and method of laying out kit; nature of discipline; swimming test; comparison of discipline in army and navy; question of promotion prospects of seaman.
REEL 4 Continues: background to opting for career as stoker; basic training; training in engines and boilers based on stoker's manual; practice in firing boilers using stones; introduction to various forms of machinery; nature of oral examination; use of combined coal and oil engines and difficulty in cleaning out boiler; subsequent attachment to engine room artificers for practical training aboard ships.
REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of period as stoker aboard HMS Irresistible, HMS Birmingham, HMS Kennett and HMS Cleopatra, 1913-1920: role as 2nd class stoker trimmer filling skids in bunkers; torpedo nets; role as trimmer filling skids in bunkers; method of raking out clinker from furnace; fearnaught uniform to counter heat; opinion of Kilroy system of monitoring furnaces; watching pressure gauges to keep up steam pressure; layout of furnaces underneath boiler and importance of trimming to keep fire even; hand and automated methods of removing ashes.
REEL 6 Continues: hand and automated methods of removing ashes; monitoring dynamo generators and story of effect of all searchlights being switched on during review whilst aboard HMS Birmingham; monitoring evaporators, tests for water quality and use of zinc to purify water; method of cleaning boilers and rebowing tubes; story of stoker trapped whilst rebowing tubes aboard HMS Kennett.
REEL 7 Continues: story of stoker trapped whilst rebowing tubes aboard HMS Kennett painting ship's double bottom and water tanks; cleaning out oil tanks; problems cleaning furnace; role in bunker whilst coaling ship and story of being trapped in bunker by inexperienced man on shute.
REEL 8 Continues: story of being trapped in bunker by inexperienced man on shute; appointment to ship's motorboats; method of operating Thorneycroft and Wolseley motorboat engines; prior accident aboard presentation motorboat and repairs; difficulty of walking along boom to board motorboat.
REEL 9 Continues: duties as motorboat mechanic; motorboat canopy; story of near accident whilst taking Admiral Cowan in motorboat to meet French destroyer at Biorko Bay, Finland, c1919; uniform worn in engine room; cocoa; method of bathing on deck aboard destroyers; comparison of food carried aboard destroyers and large ships including salted pork.
REEL 10 Continues: victualling allowance and role of mess caterer in purchasing extra food from canteen, ashore or paymaster's store; mess swear box; relationships with ratings; story of man lost overboard and subsequent auction of his possessions to benefit his family; question of homosexuality; question of hobbies and recreations; question of gambling; sporting competition with seamen branch; story of cricket match.
REEL 11 Continues: story of cricket match; nature of relationship with engine room artificers and engineering officers including story illustrating welfare role of officers and story of light punishment for removing light bulb in effort to get to sleep; case of sailor attempting suicide through seasickness.
REEL 12 Continues: public caning; nature of punishments and discipline; bribery to obtain weekend passes aboard training ships; minimal service in barracks; changes in ship's routine on outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; story rough weather whilst carrying Archduke of Austria to Norway; effects of war on relationship with stokers; route marches ashore at Queensferry after patrols aboard HMS Birmingham 2nd Light Cruiser Sqdn in North Sea c1914-1916; relationship with civilians.
REEL 13 Continues: operations against Soviet Union in Baltic Sea, 1919, including signs of dissatisfaction amongst ratings awaiting demobilisation, awareness of situation, attempts to assist Finnish civilians, question of Soviet war crimes prior to arrival at Biorko Bay and lower deck reaction to Communist propaganda; background to securing early discharge due wife's nervous problems, 1920. Aspects of post-naval career: difficulty in acclimatising to civilian lifestyle; continued interest in navy; service with London Fire Brigade; question of relevance of Naval Reserve training. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Rose, Richard Frank | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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