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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 1b - H.M.S. Hood

I had at this time about eighteen months in the Navy and had a very good start to the promotion list.

This part having covered my training days I have to go back to my early days on the Hood to recount some of the incidents that are always in my memory. Things may not be in chronological order, as we were forbidden to keep diaries.

One early incident involved a theft of money from a ditty box, a wooden box supplied for ones personal effects such as pen, paper, photographs and intimate objects. A sum of money was missing and it was reported to the regulating office who did an investigation but got nowhere. A few days later my friend McGinley saw a stoker go to a ditty box and noticed that it was a different box to one this stoker had previously gone to, on checking up the first box was the stoker’s but the other box was identified as the one where the money was lost from; it was identified by an ink stain on it. On the facts being presented to the stoker he admitted the theft and after doing a prison sentence was discharged from the Navy, he was only caught because of an ink stain.

In April 1937 the Hood paid a visit to Gulf Juan on the French Riviera and it was arranged through ‘Thomas Cook’ that there would be a tour up to Nice then to the casino in Monte Carlo with a run up through the hills to Grasse and back down to Antibes to Gulf Juan. Us under 20s, if we went, were allowed all night leave which we took advantage of, this trip was not very expensive and thoroughly enjoyable, there was also a lunch provided. At Grasse we visited a scent factory and the girls delighted themselves by spraying us with neat perfume and as we were still in our serge suits the scent hung around for many months.

The Spanish Civil War had started in 1936 and the Spanish warships were interfering with Merchant ships of all nations. The League of Nations decided that warships of various nations should patrol Spanish waters on non-intervention patrols to protect shipping.

The Hood on her patrols would call at Palma in the Balearic Isles and operate from there. Majorca being under Franco’s insurgents. We would run between Gib, Majorca and Malta; this run was carried out many times.

Once when at anchor our Admiral who, when ever possible took the dingy away for rowing his keep fit exercise, collapsed in the dingy and had to be recovered by the watch on deck. It was very unfortunate for the Admiral as he through his illness was put on the retired list, though when the war started he was brought back to the Admiralty, he served through out the war, his expertise in gunnery being very valuable.

In 1937 the Hood with the Med Fleet sailed into the Atlantic to do war exercises with the Home Fleet. During these exercises we ran into very rough seas and severe storms, up until then I had never encountered such heavy weather. Nearly every ship in the two fleets was damaged and nearly every ship lost its sea boat.

To describe a seaboat; every ship has one boat ready for lowering into the water. This boat, which on a large ship would be a cutter and on a smaller ship a whaler, if the pipe was away seaboats crew then the watch on deck would man the boat, but if the pipe was away lifeboat, any man near the boat would be used as a matter of urgency. I was involved in one such incident on one of my later ships.

After the fleet exercises the Hood was called back to England for the Coronation of King George VI. This was a welcomed break as we were in England for a few months.

We arrived in the Solent and came in through the Needles. I believe it was the only time the Hood ever did this. The crew enjoyed a bit of home leave and after the inspection by the King of the multi national ships there was dispersal to all parts of the world.

The Hood had some repairs done and it was decided that she would do a full power run before returning to the Med. This was done away from land as the wash caused by her wake would do a lot of damage if to near the coast. We had worked up to top speed when we went over a sand bank and our circulating pumps pulled the sand into the steam condensers and split the inner tubes. This allowed salt water to enter the boiler water system and laid the ship up for several weeks for cleansing and repairs. This was a bonus to us as it kept us in England a bit longer.

The Hood eventually left and called at La Rochelle on the way to the Med. Leave was given and several of us went ashore and had a good look around the town and then went to get a meal before returning to the ship. This was awkward because of the language problem; we did manage to get a meal by going into the café’s kitchen and pointing to what we wanted. The only thing wrong was that the meal was cooked with heavy garlic, far beyond an accepted taste.

The Hood returned to Gib to resume patrol duties, war exercises and showing the flag, this being visits to foreign countries.
On one such visit we went to Split in Jugoslavia for the young King Peter’s birthday where leave was given, and many sailors went ashore for recreation and swimming. It was whilst swimming that one of the lads dived into what looked like deep water and he struck his head on a rock which became a broken neck. After first aid he was returned to the ship for medical attention as we had a very capable medical team and equipment on board. The Hood shortly afterwards returned to Malta and our injured man, Jock, was sent to Bighi Hospital.

His damaged neck was slowly beginning to mend and we were given to understand that his neck would fully recover. In the meantime Hood had resumed her normal pattern of work and on one occasion of returning to Malta I was detailed with three other stokers to stretcher a sick stoker to the hospital. We were crossing between the wards when one of the stokers noticed Jock walking around which was a good sign. The stoker called out to Jock who on hearing a familiar voice turned his head sharply and on doing so broke his neck again. Later we were told that he had been returned to England for more specialist care, I never knew what happened after that.
When returning to Malta from one patrol one of our signal men was taken ill with appendicitis and our surgeons had to do an emergency operation, which unfortunately was not successful, the surgeons were unable to save the signal man.

Alec's story continues in Chapter 1c

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