How Sailors Fight

For a little holiday reading I am reading 'How Sailors Fight' by John Blake. I was quite pleased that it described the 12-pounder as "perhaps for it's size the finest gun of the Navy" since I am planning a project with one this year, more of which later. One thing that is surprising me from a modern perspective was that there has been absolutely no mention of the growing power of Imperial Germany. The book was published in 1901 so only 13 years later Germany would become the British Empire's enemy in the largest war up until that point. All comparisons against potential threats are against France, which was to be on our side during that war. It was not until after 'The Riddle of the Sands' was published in 1903 that the power, and possible danger, of Germany would enter popular consciousness. The author event went so far as to imagine fictional engagements against various enemies to illustrate the points that he was trying to make; such as pitting the newly launched HMS Drake against the French armoured cruisers Montcalm and Admiral Gueydon in order to help with his argument that larger armoured cruisers were better fighting ship's than smaller ones. However no such fictional engagements were created against German ships, the ones the Royal Navy was next going to fight in reality.

Salcombe

Having sailed back across the English Channel yesterday we decided to take the shortest route, which lands in the beautiful little port of Salcombe. As a port it is fairly under developed being completely without any Marina facilities, though as a high priced toured destination I suspect that the golden sands and private coves have had just about as much money wrung out of them as is possible. There is not much in the way of historical interest in this particular port; just a small, ruined, Tudor block house that used to guard the mouth of the estuary. Not that the estuary needs much guarding, the reputation of the sand bar across it is generally enough to do it. This bar lies only a meter or two beneath the surface at low water, and during rough seas can have a meter of swell running over it. This means that if you get things wrong the sea will simply pick your boat up, then slam it down again breaking the vessel's back. This is exactly what happened to the collier Ensign on January 30th 1915 when they decided to try navigating over the bar without a local pilot and got it wrong. The ship sank instantly leaving just it's rigging above water. The reputation of the bar is also the reason for Salcombe Life Boat, operated by the RNLI. Over the century that it has been operating they have saved many lives in the most dangerous sea conditions, but not without tragedy for themselves.

On October 27 1916, the Salcombe lifeboat, William and Emma, was launched to go to the aid of a stricken Plymouth schooner Western Lass that was aground at Lannacombe Bay.

Fifteen men took her out in the teeth of a furious southwesterly gale. When they got to the ship the cox'n, Samuel Distin, could see the rocket line hanging off the schooner and in the pale light of dawn realised that there was no one left to save as they had already been rescued by the Prawle Rocket Company.

There was nothing left but to get safely back, though that was easier said than done with all the lifeboats crew were by now soaked right through and freezing cold. As they approached the Bar with its huge turbulent breakers they streamed a sea anchor from the stern and took in most of the sail, exactly as they had been trained to do. Just as these preparations were complete a massive wave hit the stern of the boat throwing it broadside to the waves. All the crew were thrown in a great heap to the other side of the boat so when the next wave hit, it just turned the boat over and threw all the men into the sea. Several of the men managed to hang on to the upturned hull of the boat for a while, but in the end all but two were swept away. 'Eddie' Distin and William Johnson were the only two to still be alive when the wreckage of the lifeboat was washed up under Rickham.

Not that this stopped the brave volunteers of the RNLI. Within months a new lifeboat was found and with it a new crew. The Cox'n was one of the survivors, 'Eddie' Distin.

There is not much military history in Salcombe, through it was used as one of the muster points for the US Army before D-Day. The only bit of Royal Navy history here is a rather more embarrassing story that happened just a few years ago. Britannia Royal Naval College has amongst it's stock of boats a number of Contessa yachts. These are mainly used for teaching the cadets about handling small craft and getting them used to the sea. However the cadets are also allowed to take them out during their free time for some leisure sailing. A group of cadets in several yachts decided one weekend to go to Salcombe. They navigated the bar and spent a pleasant evening in some of Salcombe's other bars before retiring to their boats for the evening. The next morning they must have decided to give the boats a bit of a scrub down using the hose pipes on the town quay before heading for home. The town quay has a channel beside it that is well dredged, and well marked: however just beyond the markers it goes very shallow very quickly. The young gentleman navigating one of the boats must not have known this and tried to cut the corner. His boat shuddered to a halt as it dug it's keel into the sand. They tried to used the engine to wiggle it free, but they were stuck fast so they had to wait, stuck in the sand, in front of the entire town for the next six hours for the tide to recluse them. The boat was undamaged, and there was no harm to any of the cadets; except perhaps a bit of bruised pride.

Cornet Castle

Just spent a very enjoyable day at Castle Cornet just across the harbour at St. Peter Port in Guernsey. It is a good place to look around anyway with hundreds of years of history layered on top of each other, but for the Easter weekend they were also staging a living history event. This was not like a living history event on the mainland as it was by a troupe of professional actors performing a series of plays to highlight some stories from the islands history. It certainly worked an really helped to engage with the audience. It might be good if the groups that I belong to could get together more regularly so as to be able to rehearse, but since we are entirely volunteers and from all across the UK that is much more difficult.

Privateering in the Channel Islands

In Guernsey at the moment and it is noticeable that there was a sudden influx of money at the start of the nineteenth century. The main evidence for this are the number of stone cottages with dates from around this period. The reason for this sudden wealth was the wars against Napoleon. The wars might have cut off the trade with France and destroyed the traditional trade routes, but it did bring with it a whole new way of making a living: privateering. Privateering is basically legalised piracy. A privateer carries a letter from the government allowing them to attack any and all shipping belonging to the enemy. The profit come if they capture anything because it gets taken as a prize so any cargo can be resold, as can the ship itself, which would raise a lot of money. Many privateers ran out of the Channel Islands harassing the French coastal shipping, and they brought back a lot of money. So much money that for a brief period these tiny islands became one of the worlds major maritime powers.

RAF Airmen in Torquay

It might seem a little odd for a hilly port without even the possibility of every having an airport built there but during the Second World War 55000 airmen were trained in Torquay. Many billeted in the Rosetor Hotel during their stay, and like the US Coastguard officers at Greenway House, they left their mark in this case by signing one of the shutters. When the Rosetor was demolished to make way for the Riviera Centre this shutter was saved by Ian Sampson. On his death in 2009 the shutter was to be donated to the Imperial War Museum to be displayed, but when it was found that the museum planned to simply lock it away in a drawer his friends rallied around to make sure that the spirit of his gift was honoured, and so it on the 22nd of April it was put on public display in the Rivera Centre itself close to where it was originally signed by those men 70 years ago.

Grand Opening at the Brixham Battery

While I will not be able to be there because I am sailing, the Brixton Battery Heritage Centre is having an event this Easter Sunday to celebrate the restoration of more parts of the battery. Dave will be opening the harbour defence pill box, or shelter rooms and tunnel, and restored 1940s cottage room. Volunteers in period uniform will be giving guided tours from 11 AM.

Off Sailing

I am in now off already few days to do some proper sailing, so hosting will be light. The idea is to use the long bank holiday break and go across the English channel, plus probably up to the Isle of White. We shall start on crossing bricks, where William of orange landed the last successful invasion of the British mainland, and strike out for the Channel Islands, the sight of the last successful invasion of the British Isles when they were occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940.

Observations at a vintage car rally

Last weekend I attended a vintage car rally in aid of the St John's ambulance. The stars of the show had this event were a 1928 Bentley and a 1936 MG that was built while across the Atlantic America was still in the throes of the great depression. It is strange to think that a beautiful sports car could have been built and sold during this period of economic turmoil. However the reason for this was that on the side of the Atlantic the great depression was not so great. In great question the great depression was not much more than an particularly bad recession, a fact that can be indirectly attributed to the Royal Navy.

While in America Herbert Hoover and then later Roosevelt spent huge quantities of money in an attempt to kick start their economy, in Great Britain in more orthodox approach was taken. The orthodoxy at this time was when the government did not have any money it have two cut back, and that a sound currency backed by gold was a vital part of running a sound economy. Terrified by the financial Armageddon that was enveloping them the government cut back hard, and it started with the Royal Navy.

The way that the government decided to cut the Navy was as simple as it was brutal. They decided that they would simply take one shilling from everybody's pay. It was decided to announce this cart while the home fleet was on manoeuvres off Invergordon in Scotland. It must have been hoped that occupying them with a set of fleet manoeuvres might help give them time for the news to sink in with the minimum of discomfort. However that is not what happened, what happened was one of the largest mutinies in the history of the Royal Navy.

Terrified that the most powerful fleet of war ships in the world at that point was suddenly going to become a fleet of putemkins And potentially trigger a revolution that could sweep away the old order the government back down. By biking down on the cuts they were forced to junk not one but both of their economic orthodoxies and leave the gold standard and allow the British pound to float freely on the markets. Had they not done so terrified investors could easily have drained the bank of England's gold reserves as they attempted to move their money to safer climes.

As it was allowing the currency to leave the gold standard was the best thing that the government could have done. The economy started to recover very shortly afterwards, in fact there is a strong correlation between when countries left the gold standard and when their economies started to recover. So had the sailors of the home fleet had not mutinied then the government would not have been forced to leave the gold standard, which would have meant that the economy would not have recovered as quickly as it did and the economic conditions might have meant that the beautiful 1936 MG that I was admiring this weekend might not have been built.

Open Water

Today was out of the Dart and around to Torbay to put the boat away in Torquay Marina. Like many estuaries of this kind the mouth of the Dart has two castles, one on either side, that have guarded the port since mediaeval times. One is now a holiday cottage, the other is owned by English Heritage. While small this castle is an interesting visit as you can see the way it has been rebuilt over the centuries to keep up with the changing technology of war. The oldest part is the high mediaeval wall on the landward side, and the most modern an observation post from the Second World War.

The observation post would have been used in conjuncture with an antiaircraft battery nestled on the hills above Kingswear. This battery was initially manned by cadets from the college after they had just passed out and were still waiting to find were they would be posted. According to one biography this actually considered quite a good duty to be given, especially during the summer, as it was a way of getting away from the strict discipline of the college. There was also very little chance of seeing anything right up until the fall of France. The former cadets would be able to go up there with their rations of sandwiches away from eagle eyes of there instructors and be able to have a very relaxed time until they were posted.

After that the Napoleonic period became the one with most importance. During that time Torbay had been a vital staging post for the Royal Navy as it was one of the largest, and deepest, bays in the area and one that was almost always offered safe and sheltered anchorage.

Before we entered Torbay itself we sailed past St. Mary's Bay where the Emperor Napoleon was held on board HMS Bellerophon while the British government decided what to do with him. There were those that said he should have been executed, though this might have transformed him into a Martyr, and one local man wanted to put him into the freak show he owned. In the end it was decided that he should be exiled to Saint Helena where he died in 1821. It was not the last time Bellerophon was to be used as a prison ship at Sheerness, though to less exulted prisoners, before eventually being broken up in 1836.

Looking down at St. Mary's Bay is the great Napoleonic fort at Berry Head. High up on the hill and guns placed there would have been able to rain fired fown on anybody attacking the harbour at Brixham, and without them deing able to elevate their guns enough to fire back. Much like the castles guarding Dartmouth it had been used and re-used over time with the last military outpost being a Royal Observer Corps observation post during World War Two with the main gun emplacements themselves moving down the coast to Battery Gardens on the other side of Brixham harbour.

Down the Dart

Sailing down the dart yesterday it is amazing how much history has taken place on a very short stretch of this waterway. Starting in Totness, home to one of the best preserved Motte and Bailey castles in the country, the boat was lifted in at Baltic Wharf where it had been stored over the winter. This was originally built for shipping timber out to the Baltic though now it is primarily a shipyard with the large sheds, built by the Americans during World War Two, home to a variety of craft in various stages of restoration.

Going down the Dart past Sharpham estate you eventually get to Galmpton Creek where you might just be able to see the hulk of a Fairmile motor gun boat. The one that lives hear is one of two owned by the Greenway Ferry company and is used as parts to keep the other operational so that it can take visitors from Torquay and Brixham to Agatha Christy's former home at Greenway.

The famous writer was not the only one to make their mark on that house as during the Second World War it was taken over by the US Coastguard, and still contains murals painted by one of the Coastguard officers.

She was not the only one that was forced to move by the war. Even the Brittania Royal Naval College was forced to change locations during World War Two to give up the college buildings to be used as the headquarters of the Free French.

The college was built in 1903 to replace the ageing hulks Brittania and Hindustan. Not that Dartmouth was their first mooring either. Originally Brittania had been based in Southampton, but the temptations of this busy port were considered bad for the cadets so it was moved: first to Weymouth, and then to Dartmouth, a small port that did not even have any routes in over land until into the twentieth century.

Royal Navy Reenacting

There are many groups that portray various formations of the Army and Airforce, you will see there members at various events across the country. However it is always rare to find anybody attempting to portray the man of the Royal Navy, and especially the ordinary sailors. This might be because the uniforms are difficult to get hold of, or that it is much easier to get your hands on a truck or jeep than it is a ship or boat, but that does not change the fact that Britain was an island nation presiding over a maritime trading empire and so the navy is as important as, or even more important than, the Army or RAF. The blog is hopefully going to record my small efforts to help maintain the memory of how much we owe to the men of the Royal Navy.