Michael D.Heath-Caldwell M.Arch.

Naval Diary 1949 6

Sunday 3^rd April 1949

H.M.S. Illustrious – Cable Party was closed up at 1530 to prepare for coming to a buoy. We passed the breakwater and entered Plymouth Sound at 1600 with a 25-40 knot gale behind us. We started to turn to starboard as soon as we were past the breakwater to come up to the buoy, but by the time we were level with the signal tower on the breakwater we had only turned through 90º. Previously it had been decided to drop the port anchor and to let the ship swing round towards the buoy. This was done when we were just clear of the 6 fathom line. The anchor was veered to 3 shackles and as much strain was put on the cable as was safe, the cable being out a long stay at times, growing round the bow to 60º.

Once round into the wind the ship was brought safely up to the buoy and the picking up rope was put on, through with some initial delay because the buoy was pitching and tossing quite considerably in the water, which was by no means calm. When the boat’s painter was secured to the buoy the rope got caught up in the buoy ring so that the end could not be brought inboard into the boat. This came off suddenly , before the jumpers had finished, stranding them for a few minutes. The boat was kept under the starboard side of the fac’s’le for some considerable time, which was very trying for the Midshipmen of the Boat, with the pitching up rope in it, before being sent to the buoy. In this condition the boat was very difficult to steer.

[C.O.  – signed Lieut-Cmdr P.J. Morgon RN – 6.4.49]

Daily Orders for Wednesday 13^th April 1949

DLC Lt.                       Cdr. Schonfelt.

AIR COD                    Mr Stephens

OOD                           Lt Keep

OOW 1.                      Lt. Lea

OOW 2.                      Lt. Brounger

DBO.                          Mr Bordiss

ELECT. OOD.            S/Lt. Grimmond

ENG. OOD.                Lt. (E) Bruce Walker

SUPPLY OFFICER    Lt. (S) Pachon

SPIRIT OFFICER      Mr.Hocking

P.O. OF DAY             P.O. Pidgen

SMN. & DISC            P.O. Searles

DUTY G.IS.               LS Brice & Stitt

DUTY AIR P.O.         P.O. Tullett

DUTY R.P.O.            L/PAT Vaux.

DUTY STORES RTG. S.A. Scott

DUTY E.A.                E.A.Wilkinson

DUTY ELECT.          EL. Hutchison

DUTY L/HAND.         L.S. Igoe

DUTY ISL. RTG.       A.B. Nicholson

Duty & Part. 2^nd. Star.

Dress. No. 8’s Dutymen No.3’s

Leave. To the 1^st. Star. From 1630 to 0715 C. & P.Os. 0745

Men under age 2330. Junior N.A.Ts. 2230

Sunrise 0629. Sunset 2006. HW 0645 & 1904. LW. 0047 & 1303

Saily Dockyard Routine

0755. Victualling Store Party. N.S. Party. Wardroom Painting Party

0800. (Approx) Victualling Lighter expected.

(1030 Wardroom Store Party fall in)

Special Parties.

Victualling Store Party: 1 P.O. plus L/Sea Armstrong plus 14 N.A.T.S.

Extra Victualling Party 5 Seamen plus 5 F.D.D. ( to fall in when piped)

N.S, Party. P.O. Tracey plus 9 N.A.T.S.

Wardroom Painting Party. As for yesterday.

Wardroom Store Party. (to be detailed at 0755.)

Transport.

1330. Car alongside to take C.B.’s to Port Library and return.

0931. Light transport to take Surgical Chest to R.N.H.

Notes

MAIL ARRANGEMENTS. For Easter Weekend:-

COLLECTION ON BOARD at 0700 at Saturday 16^th, and 0700 on Monday 18^th ONLY DELIVERIES ON BOARD on Saturday forenoon and Monday forenoon ONLY.       The Mail office will be closed from 1200 on Saturday until 0630 on Monday.

2- GRAND DANCE.

Morice Town Regatta & Gala Grand Dance 1930-2300 TONIGHT, WEDNESDAY, at the Embassy Ballroom, Milehouse, Plymouth. Tickets, at door 2/-.

3- ALL RATINGS in messes 1 – 40 who are proceeding on 2^nd Leave are to hand in their paybooks to the Police Office by 0930 TODAY, WEDNESDAY.

Signed D.J. Dampier(?) Lt. RN

H.M.S. Loch Tralaig At Londonderry.

Having left H.M.S. Illustrious at Devonport after passing my seamanship board I then went to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich for two terms, Summer and Autumn Terms of 1949.

Sub Lieutenants used to learn how to Navigate, and used to brush up on their general education at Greenwich, and at the end of the course those examinations used to be held. Life for the Sub-Lieutenants used to be more gay, I should imagine, because, comparatively, they pay used to go further than ours doe today. However in the past the authorities who organise the course at the college did have definite ideas on what the course was to teach.

At the present time nobody really knows what a Sub-Lieutenant is meant to get out of the course. The Scientists on the staff wanted to teach us all about atomic physics, how the insides of atoms are thought to work and so on, which they said would be very useful to us later on. To start with all these things were high above our heads because we had not done enough advanced physics, calculus or electricity – the great majority of us that is – so we could not understand it. Our argument was that the facts we wanted to learn were the capabilities of the weapons developed by the physicists, not how they worked. We maintained that the day would never arrive when we should be in charge of men assembling bombs on the deck, as we have to fuze shells and bombs today.

The department which was responsible for teaching us about explosives and fuels etc was not quite so foolish as the Physics department. We were told a great deal about the manufacture of explosives, the manufacture of steel, of rubber, of explosives and so on. The lectures were not very interesting because we did not do experiments ourselves, and we never visited any works while we were at Greenwich to make us more interested in the subjects taught.

The instruction given to us by the mechanics instructors was not too bad, and I thought it might be useful, nevertheless, I did not learn a great deal because the course was so rushed. There wasn’t a big gap between what we learned at Greenwich and what we learned at Dartmouth. Unfortunately the men who taught us were more inclined to shove formulae over to us than to get us to learn about things from first principles. I must admit that I payed as little attention as was possible to this subject because I found it very difficult to concentrate. There were other attractions and distractions in London besides mechanics, physics and mathematics.

While our terms were at Greenwich the Humanities departments held the upper hand. We had plenty of time to learn about any subjects under the sun in which we were interested. The lectures we were given were in general most interesting, especially those by outside lecturers who gave us their views about foreign affairs etc quite candidly. In one or two lectures about other countries and other people’s points of view it was very refreshing to hear somebody speak the truth. This applied particularly to an old man, who for many years was one of our diplomatic representatives in China, who gave us the Chinese view without any regard for what is usually said. In I fact I begin to realise now that what Midshipman Mizra, Indian Navy, use to say, was probably exactly what he thought, and was no exaggeration, and indeed he was never complimentary when re referred to us or our administration in India. Doubtless Mizra was biased and he probably had an inferiority complex , though he outdid us all in his knowledge on paper and theoretical, of seamanship, regulations, the writing of English etc. He was also a B.Sce.

Besides history, and set subjects we had time to pursue what we wanted to pursue (not women during duty hours). I tried to learn something about Economics and read a great many books on the subject, nevertheless I don’t know whether I have a much better idea of the problems or their solutions even after reading what I did. Possibly I saw many more problems, but certainly the solutions looked more complicated at the end than at the beginning. Besides economics I tried to learn a little about China (porcelain) during the second term at Greenwich, with a view to learning something about Grandma’s china and ours at home before it all has to be sold to pay family debts or death duties.

The last part of our course which was the Junior Officers War Course was extremely well put over. We all learned a great deal about correspondence, what paper work war entail etc, but still I’m not looking forward to having to run an office myself one day.

My overall criticism of the course was that the staff are trying to instil too much information into us regardless of whether we were prepared to take it or not. Generally we were not prepared to take it so it was a waste of time from both the staff’s and our point of view. If they want us to learn more about the sciences to help us in our courses, they will have to tell us somehow what sort of things we shall have to know for our courses, because as it was a lot of stuff didn’t seem applicable at all. If we are to learn about the sciences oat a college near London city where there are great distractions, they will have to give Sub-Lieutenants incentives, in the way of competitive exams or something like that, though nobody likes the idea.

H.M.S.Lock Tralaig. At Londonderry.

Data

Turning – Frigates turn much more quickly than destroyers. 12 ½º of wheel = 15º of wheel in Crispin during equal speed manoeuvres. Turning circle of 7 cables (28/10/48 during full power trials) with 5º of helm for half turn and 10º for remainder.

Dimensions –

Length Overall                                                   307ft 4 ¼ “

Between Perpendiculars                                   286ft

Breadth Extreme                                               38ft 7 ½

Height of Mast from Datum to top of H/F D/F Aerial 97ft

Height of Yard Arm from Datum                       65ft

Height of Funnel from Datum                           39 ½ ft

Height of Pelorus from Datum                          38 ft

Distance Compass Platform to Bullring         108ft

Distance Compass Platform to Stern              200 ft

Draught (Mar)

Forward                                                            9ft 9”

Aft                                                                   14ft 3”

Masthead Light to Stern Light                         57ft

Aids to Navigation

Loran

Radar. Type 277 P

Armament.

Single 4” – no director – fighting range 4,000. Max range about 12,000

Pom-Pom – 4 barrels. (aft) (sof?) destroying range  3,000, max range 9,000. r.p.m. 90

Oelikors(?)- 2 (wings of bridge) open fire 1,500, max off range 1,000

(N.B. Twin 4”, bofors & S.T.D. to be fitted A+A)

Squid: Effective for slow submarines, in good ops conditions. Rounds carried 150 – enough for 25 attacks.

D.C. 15. Enough for 3 patts of 5 – for counter attacks.

Equipment Fitted for Finding Sumbarines.

1. Communication with aircraft on A/S air patrol wave.
2. H/F D/F for D/Fing subs, making enemy reports.
3. Radar, for picking up periscopes, snorts ( 2 & 4 miles in good conditions)
4. Radar for tracking aircraft indicating position of subs.
5. I.F.F. –for obtaining bearing of aircraft.
6. Adics – 147b & Q  & 144 (Main Oscillator, Frequency C, & Q osc & Sword for depth)

Ranges up to 4000x in good conditions using stop watch for range – mex. Transmission interval 2,800 yds.

Card

Programme

Piece                            Name                                       Composer

March                          Through Night to Light          Laukien

Selection                     Show Boat                              Kern

Waltz                           Tesoro Mio                              Becucci

Suite                            Three Irish Pictures                 Ansell

Miscellaneous              El Relicario                             Padilla

Selection                     Bless the Bridge                      Ellis

Extra:- Annie               Get Your Gun                         Berlin

5/10/50                        Bandmaster A.J.Miller

On reverse –

After the mess dinner we decided we should do something to rouse the Island. Wells was discovered on top of Fisher Hall, by the O.O.D. while he was prospecting for a way to climb up onto the weather cock. Luckily he had not subdued(?) in any way. Unfortunately there after the O.O.D. patrolled the Island in his car with a searchlight on his roof, shining it on all the roof of the different parts of the island as he went by.

Later on Wells and I lay in the middle of the playing fields waiting for an opportunity, which did not materialise, for breaking through the sentry cordon on Fisher Hall for an attempt to scale the weather cock and plant a shell dropping forth out of the weather cock’s gun coms. We annoyed people by careening round the island on our own transport in the wake of the O.O.D.

Lt Charles Edmund Leighton marries Jean Shirley McLeod, 17th November 1951