大象传媒

This article, presented here in 8 chapters plus an introduction, is the naval autobiography of Alec Kellaway. Alec served in the Royal Navy from January 1936 to November 1947. His story shows what life was like training for the Navy immediately before the war as well as service in a wide variety of ships during the conflict. The book was written by Alec himself and has previously been published on the HMS Hood Association web site (www.hmshood.com) and in the HMS Cossack Association newsletters.

I was There! Where? Chapter 2a - HMS Hood

I joined her in September 1936 and left in November 1939.

Shortly after this I was drafted to HMS Hood, my first ship. The Hood was in Portsmouth Dockyard after having been given a minor overhaul and would be going to the Med. as flagship to the Battle Cruiser Squadron consisting of HMS Hood and HMS Repulse

The Royal Navy had at this time three battle cruisers the Hood, Repulse and Renown of these Hood was of a class of her own, the other two were sister ships At the start of W W 11 Hood and Repulse were but for a few modifications no different to their original construction, they were built as fast gun ships and this meant that there was a lack of armour decking, This may have been the cause of Hood鈥檚 sudden sinking while in action against the German battle cruiser Bismarck. Bismarck at that time was the most modern battle cruiser in the world she was on her first sortie against our convoys having just left the ship yard were she was built

Bismarck left the area after the battle and for several days avoided the Royal Navy finally being found, brought into action and sunk, her first and only sortie lasting about seven days

The Renown had before the start of hostilities been given a complete overhaul, this had taken over two years to complete. The overhaul meant that except for the 15鈥漡uns, every thing else was stripped from the hull and the ship fitted with new boilers, engines, modern guns, extra armour protection and modern superstructure. When Renown rejoined the fleet she looked nothing like her sister ship Repulse but proved her self through out the war.

Before joining the Hood we had to be given medical examinations, not very severe, and injections for various known infections, we were also issued with pith helmets which we never wore.

Then came the day, 8th September 1936, all our kitbags and hammocks were loaded onto lorries to be sent to the ship, then around six to seven hundred sailors of all types were marched from barracks to the dockyard headed by the band, we were on our way.

On the quayside waiting the drafts were the regulating and supply staff that gave out the messing arrangements and I was allocated a mess that would be my home for over three years.

The next day we had to fall in at the Engineers regulating office which was responsible for the activities of all Chief, PO, Leading and 1st and 2nd Class Stokers and the allocation of duties to us 2nd Class Stokers emphasised how undermanned the navy was.
In normal commissioning of ships all 2nd Class Stokers would be allocated for various boiler room duties which in itself covered most of the heavy dirty work, boiler cleaning, cleaning uptakes that takes the furnace fumes up to the funnel and boiler room watch keeping duties. Other work consisted of cleaning fuel tanks and double bottom tanks which gave extra buoyancy to a ship.

When my name was called I was told that I would work in the centre engine room, this was because there was an abundance of us new stokers and not many experienced stokers. During my time on the Hood I never once worked in the boiler rooms.

Starting our duties in the engine room began with cleaning up after the minor refit, the brass work was all tarnished, the handrails of steel were all rusty and the plates of the walking platforms very dirty. We worked hard getting the engine room up to a presentable state. Also as the ship was on a new commission the ship had to be stored not only with food but many spares that were required to maintain the ships鈥� many mechanical appliances. Later the ship had to be fully ammunitioned, quite a task with the armament of 15鈥� and 6鈥� guns, many anti air defence guns plus torpedoes. It was quite a work up before we went out for engine trials. When at sea us engine room staff would be in three watches for duties so that there was always someone tending the engines and recording all telegraph movements. Two of us would be in the well tending the various steam auxiliaries, one of the stokers on the starting platform would man the phone and keep the log while another stoker would be responsible for taking all man bearing temperatures and the torque of the two outer shafts passing through the engine room, these shafts being driven by the two turbine engines in the forward engine room.

I never did a watch in the forward engine room though I often had a watch in the after engine room which was the turbine for the starboard inner shaft, the centre turbine was the port inner shaft. In the after engine room was the steam engine for the steering gear, this engine did a lot of work because as the wheel in the wheelhouse was turned the engine had to give instant reaction to the rudders.

After some weeks of preparation and trials it came the time for us to proceed to the Med, this journey taking three days for the nine hundred mile trip in which time we were always doing some exercise to get the ship company into a fighting unit. It was the same every trip always doing war exercises whenever ships of the navy were on passage. Action stations would be sounded and all personnel would make haste to their allotted action station; mine at this early stage was centre engine room on watch, after damage control off watch and 6鈥� ammunition supply longest off watch. By doing this in a watch system the running of the ship was not interfered with.

Before reaching Gibraltar, our first port of call, I was taken sick and confined to the sickbay with Quinsy, an abscess in the tonsils. The Surgeon Commander had me taken off ships food and I was provided with a diet cooked by the Captain鈥檚 chef, I went back to the ship鈥檚 cooking after about three days, worst luck and a few days later returned to normal duties. My first views of Gibraltar were through the sickbay portholes.

It was decided that all the ships companies鈥� oilskin coats would be stowed in a compartment below the foreward mess鈥檚 as these would not be required in the Med, this was convenient for us as we did not have to use our locker for storage. But alas on our return for the Coronation the oilskins on being brought out were one sticky mass, the heat in the compartment had melted the oil base and the oilskins had stuck together. Every one of the crew had to be supplied with a new oilskin.

The Hood stayed in Gib for quite a few weeks before sailing for Malta our main base. One of the first tasks that was always done on Navy ships on arrival in port was to refuel. At Gib the Hood always berthed on the mole an extra long breakwater that made Gib an excellent harbour. Fuelling was done by way of gravity fuel tanks inside the Rock; this was a very slow process as the Hood would require some three thousand tons of fuel and the operation would take many hours. If fuelling was required urgently then a fleet tanker would be used.

I did have a few days looking around Gib when off duty, the swimming at the back of the Rock was excellent and we always returned to the mainstreet for shopping and the few bars before returning to the ship.

Before proceeding to Malta we went over to Tangiers in North Africa, an International port, for several days. I did manage to go ashore for a few hours, the first time I had been on foreign soil, other than British territory. Us new sailors were given the advice by older hands, that on arrival at the jetty to stay in groups at all times and pick one of the locals who for a fee would show us around. This was good advice as it was found by some individuals that to be on your own there was always the chance of getting molested.

On leaving Tangiers we then went on to Malta carrying out exercises at all times. The trip to Malta was very pleasant and with a calm sea all of us ex Drake class were looking forward to the place that was to be our main base for three years.

We entered Bigha Bay and were between two buoys facing towards the sea opposite Valetta Customs House and in front of Bigha Hospital, except for a short spell later in the floating dock we were always moored in Bigha Bay. On this our first view of Malta we were astounded at the vast number of churches, many of them with their bells ringing as one old hand remarked, 鈥榯he land of hells, bells and terrible smells鈥�.

During our many visits to Malta we who wanted to took tours to the many bays and enjoyed the sights and the superb swimming.
The nightlife in Malta was very varied from cinemas to numerous bars and some nightclubs, though in my early days I was restricted to evening leave only.

It may be best at this stage to stay with my early training on the Hood.
The normal routine would be for a second-class stoker to be uprated to first class after one year; thus all of us from Drake were rated accordingly. We spent some evenings at night school preparing for our Education Certificate which was required towards promotion. My time was spent on engine room duties and main watchkeeping at sea. In harbour we had our round of duties to do in the evenings, these would be any one of numerous tasks. We would be given duties such as fire party, engineer鈥檚 office messengers, assisting in the various chiefs and PO鈥檚 messes, helping the messman, perhaps having to keep the bathrooms clean along with the passageways for evening inspection by the officer of the watch, these were the normal ones. Sometimes there was a need for stretcher and store parties. Later on we would if required do shore patrols; I never did this during my time on the Hood.

After I was rated first class, which brought with it an increase of pay, seven shillings per week, the Stoker PO in charge of the centre engine room gave me the job of being Chief Engine Artificers mate and this proved to be very helpful to me. Chief Herring was an exceptional person, his main duties being to ensure that the engine room was always in a state of readiness for sea, he was responsible for all the machinery and during my time with him my education was greatly advanced. Chief Herring would explain every thing he was doing and what the action of any piece of machinery was. When I did my POs course the Chief鈥檚 words were a great help.

Chief Herring had been called up during World War 1 and had decided to stay in the Navy afterwards. He told me how in the first months at sea he was still in civilian clothes. His wife had come out from England and was living in Malta and every evening when possible he would go ashore and I always remember that he always brought me back a raw fig, which I looked forward to.

It was Chief Herring that gave me the taste for rum. The Navy had finally realised that the Chief should not be at sea because of his age and it was decided to put him ashore and return him and his wife to England. On the day he was leaving I was working with another chief when Chief Herring called me up from the engine room to say goodbye. He then took me to his mess and duly poured out his tot of rum for me saying 鈥榯hat鈥檚 yours nipper, you are a good lad, drink it down,鈥� we shook hands and said goodbye and that was that,

I then went to my mess as it was dinner time, midday, I had my meal and suddenly felt very weary, I slid off the stool under the table and went to sleep, waking up several hours later with a liking for rum!

Prior to my time with Chief Herring I had requested to do the auxiliary watchkeeping course and shortly after the Chief left I started the course. The course consisted of extensive working with the auxiliary machinery and passing on examination on each machine.
This type of machinery was always in use and was vital for the running of the ship in harbour or at sea.

There were three types of dynamo engines; steam turbine, steam reciprocating and diesels, twelve in all, there were the horizontally opposed steam engines that supplied hydraulic power to the main gun turrets, also there were the evaporators that supplied fresh water to the ship.

The evaporators were not very efficient as they took seawater by pump into a batch of coils inside the casing. Steam ran through these coils heating the seawater surrounding them, the steam from the seawater was condensed into pure water and pumped into the ships water system, pure water being required for the ships main boilers. There were two ways of testing for pure water, one being that as the fresh water was being pumped away through our electrical circuit if the water was not pure a light would come on, electricity will not pass through pure distilled water, the other test was quite simple a phial of water was taken to which was added two drops of silver nitrate, if the water was not pure a cloud would appear in the phial.

There were also the refrigeration plants that came under this training; two types being in use, Calcium Chloride and Ammonia.

The last of this course was the many motorboats aboard the Hood; Admiral鈥檚 Barge, Captain鈥檚 Motor Boat, Squadron Engineers Captain鈥檚 Motor Boat and two motor launches each with a capacity for 50 persons.

When one had completed training on this course a certificate was issued and the person鈥檚 records sent to RNB for entry on the POs list for further training.

Alec's story continues in Chapter 2b

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