大象传媒

大象传媒 Wales news presenter, Jamie Owen, finds out more about his family history and in particular the work his paternal grandfather played as a submarine engineer during WW1.

Jamie never met his Dad's father - as both my paternal grandparents died before he was born. And now that his father is no longer alive, Jamie is dependent on paperwork and archives.

Thomas Edward Owen - "Pop" or Tommy - as everyone called him was born in 1883 and worked in the Royal Dockyard in Pembroke Dock as an engine fitter.

Dad told us he worked on submarines and warships. All of which sounds a rather tall tale until you begin to examine the extraordinary role the dockyard played before and after the Great War.

Tommy was paid as an artificer - he made things with his hands - and seems to have specialized in marine mechanical propulsion, which at this time would have been diesel and electric motors.

Pembroke Dockyard was always acknowledged as a busy factory turning out royal yachts and warships - and submarines too.

For the people of Pembrokeshire, who waved off their sons to fight, seeing the men of the dockyard go to work in comparative safety was the source of some considerable tension in the community.

"We have grown up to believe that the WW1 united Britain in some patriotic swell of unity. But that was not true in Pembrokeshire. The local newspaper reports on the tensions of the cushy life that some of the dockyard workers led, how some private companies profited from the conflict and how the contrast with families who had waved off their men folk to war was keenly felt." said Jamie.

But the men who worked on the submarines were not beyond danger. The same newspapers report that the sea trials of the submarine L10 nearly claimed the lives of the engineers and crew putting the vessel through its paces.

The sub was piloted from the dockyard out into open water where it began a submerge test. It dropped to the ocean floor but couldn't be refloated. Back at the dockyard women and children gathered at the entrance gates to await news of their missing loved ones. The hours passed. The sub didn't appear. It doesn't take much imagination to imagine the horror of being stuck in a submarine. Somehow the L10 miraculously resurfaced and made its way back to the dockyard.

Location: Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire SA47

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