Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Charles Lewis
Royal Navy [1891-1905]
More Training 1897-1900
Written in 1944
“The
UNDAUNTED returning to China, we, in the EDGAR had orders to proceed to England
to pay off.
HMS
Edgar
At that time ships arriving
from Foreign Stations to pay off flew a “paying off pendant” which was a long
pendant some hundreds of feet in length, at the end of which was a long gilt
bladder representing the Ship’s Company Pay Day. On arriving at Devonport we
had a disappointment – instead of paying off, we had to proceed to Spithead and
take part in the Diamond Jubilee Review. Queen Victoria proposed to review Her
Fleet of 165 Ships of all classes from Torpedo Boat to a Battleship. I was on HMS EDGAR flying the
flag of Admiral Rice of Portsmouth Dockyard. the poor old Queen thought it
would be too much for her, so the late King Edward VII deputized for the Queen.
It was at that Review that we
saw the first Turbine driven Torpedo Boat, we saw it going up and down the
lines, what looked to be a huge wave.
After the Review we returned
to Devonport and paid off in June 1897.
After six weeks leave, I
returned to Devonport and went through HMS CAMBRIDGE (Gunnery School) and
qualified for seaman Gunner, whilst at drill in the Gunnery School Field, I had
the misfortune to break my thigh, which put me in the Naval Hospital Stonehouse
for four months.
After coming out of the
hospital, I went through Torpedo School HMS DEFIANCE; and then went on as
Seaman Gunner and Torpedo Man to Royal Naval Barracks Keyham where I fell in
with Mr Price, then on to HMS BRITANNIA at Dartmouth.
[
he adds the note :
“Mr
Price later made a model of HMS IMPREGNABLE,
he
lived later in Liverpool]
He continues …
“I forgot to mention that on
our way home from Trincomalee, we were amusing ourselves one morning by
throwing overboard any old garbage; then watching the sharks make a grab for
the various things such as boots, tins and bits of meat; soon afterwards I had
the misfortune to fall overboard, how I managed to get to the gangway and
inboard, I do not know; It was far from being pleasant hearing your shipmates
yelling “Shark! Shark!” at the top of their voices. Had anyone timed me, I
believe I should have broken all records for swimming!
All our boys and girls serving
in the Services today (1944) are “tough guys”. They are certainly letting old
ones know that they are quite as good as we used to think ourselves at one time
in the distant past. I think our Navy turns out as many “tough guys” as ever
the Americans do.
On HMS BRITANNIA at Dartmouth
we had a visit from his late Majesty King George V and Queen Mary; George V did
his training in the old “Britt”.
After leaving the BRITANNIA, I
went back to RN Barrack Keyham, where I commissioned HMS BLANCHE for South
Africa in 1900.
Raymond Forward