Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Charles Lewis
Royal Navy [1891-1905]
and
Coastguard [1906-1945]
Charles
Lewis
This
is the story of a man from North Devon.
It
has been transcribed from his own notes and diaries,
a
great deal of which was written on board the ship HMS BLANCHE,
and
there are a number of documents, as
well as his own biographical notes and letters to friends, which describe the
times,
his
work and life.
It
must be emphasised here that these were written in a time
before
present social codes and sensitivities.
It
was also a very different world.
A
world where words were used without malice.
A
man of honour and respect.
An
intelligent, humble and sensitive man.
Royal
Naval Service Record - Ships
China Station
Service 1894-1897
West Africa Station Service
1900-1904
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Coastguard Service from 1905
Photographs,
Certificate and Telegrams
Charles
Lewis had written, in his Journal.
Ideals of Friendship
“Oh
the comfort, the inexpressible comfort
of
feeling safe with a person;
having
neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but,
pour
them all right out as they are, chaff and grain together,
knowing
that a faithful hand will take and sift them,
keep
what is worth keeping and
with
the breath of kindness blow the rest away”
From
Mrs Craik’s “Life for a Life”
“For
the first time I carried on a conversation;
for
the first time was the inmost sense of my words returned to me
more
rich, more full, more comprehensive from another mouth.
What
I had been groping for was returned clear to me.
What
I had been thinking I have been taught to see”
Goethe
“We
were mixed up as meeting streams,
both
to ourselves were lost,
We
were one mass.
We
could not give or take but for the same,
for
he was I, I he.”
Dryden
Raymond Forward