As I have shown above the captain of the vessel went on to ...



HMS ROYAL OAK IN WW1WITH REFERENCE TOHMS ROYAL OAK IN 1939Fourteen months after Jutland units of the Grand Fleet were anchored in Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. It was July 1917 and a small party of mainly officers had left the battleship ‘Vanguard’ to visit the battleship ‘Royal Oak’, invited there to witness a concert/film show. Whilst there, their massive ship was rent asunder in a terrible accident. Amongst the "survivors of the Vanguard " attending Royal Oak’s concert was a young midshipman who went on to survive the Royal Oak sinking in 1939: he was the commander, Commander and Executive Officer Reginald Frederick NICHOLLS Royal Navy. In addition the Commanding Officer Captain William Gordon BENN Royal Navy survived the sinking. The survivors of the Vanguard accident could be counted on one hand. On the 9th July 1917 approximately half an hour short of midnight when the vast majority on board were fast asleep, Vanguard sank at its moorings after an almighty internal explosion. Only three of her on board crew were picked up with one dying two days later, three out of 845 men: only three was the same number of survivors from the Mighty Hood, sunk in May 1941 after a shoot-out with the Kriegsmarine battleship Bismarck. The losses could have been much worse had not approximately one hundred of her complement been granted home leave, these in addition to crew member visiting the Royal Oak, which later on in its life joined the Hood by having the word “Mighty” added to its name, ergo Mighty Hood and Mighty Oak. By comparison 834 were killed in Royal Oak at her torpedoing in 1939 at Scapa out of a total of 1200 men aboard so approximately 366 precious lives were saved by a Herculean effort mainly by local Orkney people with one man and his boat being hailed as a champion, a saviour. Both, unimaginably mega-tragedies, for literally thousands of people were affected, taking the large families of those days into account, with relatives, in-laws, neighbours, friends, former colleagues etc all in deep mourning. Royal Oak in Vanguards image, namely attacked at around midnight when most of them had turned-in wearing only underpants and vests or sweat shirts, ill prepared for a massive influx of near on ice cold water, snuggled down fearing nothing and enjoying a peaceful rest and sleep, far from the threat of the open seas wherein lurked UBoats inter alia! Who would have thought that a UBoat could sink a giant battleship inside a protected anchorage? Just like vulnerable street crossings for pedestrians wait until a few have been killed before the authorities act by laying-in a zebra crossing, then so too was the anchorage strengthened and fortified so such an attack was never again possible, ordered to be put in place immediately by Churchill, and were/are thereafter called the “Churchill Barriers”. Churchill was a man for getting things done, no more so that getting the fleet to seek out and dispose of the Bismarck in his famous edict “Sink the Bismarck” which was soon executed, literally! Royal Oak, built to a design drawn-up at the very beginning of WW1 was still a potent weapon twenty five years later in 1939 with a fearsome armament array, but her propulsion system was archaic and rendered the vessel at sea incompatible with modern warfare. As such she was used as a base [in Scapa Flow] as an anti-aircraft vessel whilst the other ships based in the Orkneys were free and away from their moorings at sea. By the time the German UBoat had skilfully used the tides to manoeuvre into and again out of the Flow proper, Royal Oak was its only target, and a sitting duck target at that! She was ready in all respects to fight off the Luftwaffe expected at any time, but a UBoat ? - the very last adversary envisaged! DETAIL from Captain Crawford MACLACHLAN RN full service record of note, and two mentions of the ships Executive Officer Commander George Knightley CHATWODE RN the two most senior officers in Royal Oak at the time of Jutland – the ship did not carry a flag belonging to the 3rd Division 4th Battle Squadron whose flag officer in HMS Superb was Rear Admiral Alexander Ludovic Duff. Commissions held and dates14-6-83 Midshipman – Age 1614-6-87 Acting SUB LIEUTENANT – Age 2031-12-90 LIEUTENANT – Age 2330-6-2003 COMMANDER. Note no Lt Cdr but a ‘Lt over 8 years seniority’ was paid a higher salary and come WW1 the Lt Cdr rank supplanted the Lt over 8 years title and pay – Age 4131-12-08 CAPTAIN – Age 4617-2-20 Rear Admiral – Age 531-7-25 Vice Admiral – Age 58 1-4-30 Admiral – Age 63Decorations and Awards Admiral Crawford Maclachlan was born on 11 July 1867. He died in 1952, unmarried. He survived the sinking of the battleship King Edward VII of which he was the CO sunk on hitting a mine just north of John o’ Groats in the Pentland Firth NE Scotland. He was awarded the Chevalier, Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur by France, the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan, the Order of St. Olaf of Norway. He held the office of Naval Aide-de-Camp to HM King George V between 1919 and 1920. He was Rear-Admiral of the Reserve Fleet between 1920 and 1921, and Senior Naval Officer of the Yangste [China] between 1921 and 1923.For services in action as the CO of HMS Royal Oak at Jutland he was m-i-d and gazetted in London 3-6-18Commander Chatwode - For services in action as the EO of HMS Royal Oak at Jutland a m-i-d gazetted in London 3-6-18For services in command of HMS Royal Oak [25th January 1916 [commissioned 1st May 1916] to 10th January 1919] Captain Maclachlan is appointed CB [Military] – also gazetted London 3-6-18. Investiture by HM The King on board HMS Queen Elizabeth 22-7-18In 1919 upon relinquishment of the command of the battleship Royal Oak after 3 years by routine and orderly replacement of the CO, there was a farewell event leading to much adulation and gratitude of a fine commanding officer. Despite his wonderful career he was never knighted and perhaps the reason might be found in Admiral Sir Percy Grants first sentence in his summing up of his personality and character at the bottom of the Obit.It is fitting here that as Maclachlan’s second in command the Executive of HMS Royal Oak, Commander Chatwode, also shared the near same adulation but left the ship upon promotion to captain RN. All in all Maclachlan served in twenty five ships and was highly praised in all of them. Outside of action in WW1, Royal Oak’s gunnery officer was Lieutenant Commander Lancelot Holland who joined the ship in May 1918 until 1920. During the war he served in the battleship HMS Industan joining in 1913 until April 1916, followed by a short command of a vessel before joining Royal Oak. His name is forever remembered as Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland Flag Office Battlecruisers who died in the sinking of HMS Hood in May 1941Captain Maclachlan R.N, inspecting the ship’s company of HMS Royal Oak during WW1 Times - Death Notice of Admiral Crawford MaclachlanThis is his Times Obituary:-For those of you unfamiliar with war/campaign medals, although today, in the latter part of the 20th century and the start of the 21st, one can’t miss that they seem to be dished out like lollipops, it is troubling almost as to how wars and hostilities are perceived and rewarded or recorded. It is almost unbelievable that the sea battles of WW1 were not acknowledged in medallic terms so if one is looking for a medal for the Battle of Jutland, the Battle of Dogger Bank and BOTH battles of Heligoland Bight [and they are four battles in the North Sea alone – with literally scores upon scores of other sea battles around the world – you will be bitterly disappointed. Yet all of those battles running into hundreds are recorded in the Admiralty until 1964 when it’s name changed to MOD [Navy] and fittingly each ship involved was given a medal known as a “Battle Honour” but none in their complement was given a personal medal. Truly it beggars belief, but it is the case. Additionally, one of the great battles the navy fought was in WW2 in the Mediterranean, particularly actions involving the Siege of Malta. The King gave the people of Malta a top notch medal called the George Cross, but what did our armed forces get who supplied and defended Malta. Rather embarrassingly a big fat zero, and these men had to accept the Africa Star as their medal, just as the army Desert Rats did, though they were at least in North Africa! I mention all this at this time in particular. In my time in the Royal Navy [1953-1984] I used to enjoy seeing the proverbial bronze oak leaves attached to a campaign medal denoting a MID = Mention in Despatches for special commendable service given during that campaign. Such an addition made that medal special so too the man wearing it and it has to be remembered that a MID is only just short of a DSC or a DSM. Above in para 2, I Have mentioned that both the CO and the EO of the Royal Oak received a MID, the CO’s on the recommendation of the admiral commanding the 3rd Division Admiral Duff, and the EO’s on the recommendation of the ships CO. Neither [repeated thousands of times in the 5 year war period [1914-1919] for millions of service personnel in the British forces, had a medal ribbon onto which an MID should have been attached, and had instead to attach their MID to the WW1 Victory Medal over two years later, again handed out to millions of people, armed forces plus civilians. Were I in a position of authority, I would change the rules for the award of a campaign medal to be that if a shot is fired in anger towards our forces from the ranks of the of the declared enemy, then a campaign medal should be struck, and any British serviceman in that theatre of hostility, should be eligible to wear it even after just one day in potential harms way, unlike the present rules of a qualifying period usually of 30 to 60 days and sometimes more. Under present rules, if one is killed during the first day of fighting, one is debarred from receiving that campaign medal even though his certificate will say “discharged dead as the result of enemy action.” Today, at least we are civilised, and just if not grateful for such a personal commitment, and such a name would be recorded on the NMA = National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. This entry is taken from the book Ribbons and Medals copyright George Philip and Sons Ltd SBN 0 540 07120 X first published 1916 When in 1939 this proud but vulnerable ship was destroyed in Scapa Flow her Battle Honours would have died with her. Perhaps one day the navy will bring on a new vessel and call it the Royal Oak, whereupon those battle honours will be reborn and proudly painted onto a new battle honour display board sited somewhere on or near the quarterdeck. What follows comes from the book of Royal Navy battle honours. HMS Royal Oak is stranded [4th July 1917] and the CO Captain Maclachlan is court martialled 20th July 1917. He is given a Board Reprimand and it certainly didn’t affect his career prospects: few if any are for such an offence! This occurred half way through Captain Maclachlan’s command of the ship. During WW1 [and at other times too] ships movements, defects which took ships out of operational service etc were denied to the enemy by not being published in naval documents and in the media. This annoyed the Government and the RN that they too were in the dark as to what was happening to its navy which caused this comment in the House of Commons:-HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1910s → 1917 → June 1917 → 11 June 1917 → Commons Sitting → ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. NAVAL COURTS-MARTIAL.HC Deb 11 June 1917 vol 94 c607 607 § 61. Commander BELLAIRS asked the Prime Minister whether he is aware of the departure from the custom and practice of the Navy to hold courts-martial to inquire into the losses of warships having been made in so many cases; whether he is aware that there have been about thirty such cases of courts-martial and, contrary to the invariable practice of the past, that these were held in secret, and the secrecy has deprived Parliament and the Navy of much guidance and knowledge; and whether the Government will set up a Royal Commission as soon as the War is over to inquire into the whole position and to suggest such a revision of the Navy Discipline Act as will be binding on the Admiralty, and will tend to maintain the high standards of the Navy while safeguarding Parliament's control through the publicity of proceedings of courts-martial? § Mr. BONAR LAW It is clearly impossible for me to say what view the Government which may be in existence immediately after the War will take with regard to the setting up of a Royal Commission. § Commander BELLAIRS Will my right hon. Friend in any case bear in mind that very intricate questions concerning relations with Dominion Navies arise in applying the Naval Discipline Act, and that their opinion generally coincides with his own opinion that the failure to hold courts-martial was a bad departure? § Mr. BONAR LAW That does not arise out of the question, which deals with what will be done by the Government after the War. To this day the position of the stranding has never been revealed to the general public. It was probably on the dangerous navigation route in the vicinity of Drake’s Island in Plymouth Sound enroute to and from Devonport dockyard.There was also an incident which by sheer chance involved the Royal Oak. From and ? FAAOA Site URL comes:-On the morning of 5 November 1918, HMS Campania was lying at anchor off Burnt Island in the Firth of Forth. A sudden Force 10 squall caused the ship to drag anchor. She collided first with the bow of the nearby battleship Royal Oak, and then scraped along the side of the battlecruiser Glorious. Campania's hull was breached by the initial collision with Royal Oak, flooding her engine room and shutting off all main electrical power. The ship then started to settle by the stern, and sank some five hours after breaking free. The ship's crew were all rescued by neighbouring vessels. This picture comes from the web site of flickr and they own the copyright. It shows to the left HMS Revenge, sinking in the middle HMS Campania, in the far distant background HMS Royal Oak and HMS Resolution close in on the right. If the Firth of Forth was so choppy [I would guess at Force 2 deteriorating to 3], what of the North Sea to seaward of this picture?Captain Crawford Maclachlan in command of the vessel HMS Royal Oak for three years January 1916 to January 1919, lived in more exciting times, commanding this magnificent ship when brand new [state of the art] in an active and war-like manner than the hapless ship did in WW2 and betwixt wars ever did, simply by virtue of an out of date propulsion technology which come the mid 1930’s, saw her as the slow-coach or “slug” of the battle fleet. A ship, from build to scrap, is an integral unit this despite the number of commissions the ‘old lady’ had endured. Just like a family, those who have lived in the ship, note NOT ON the ship, anymore than we don’t live on a house, are family members, in this case from first commissioning on the 1st May 1916 with no lives lost in action, to her loss on the 14th October 1939 with a dreadful death toll! We are one and the same vessel and living experience. God rest the souls of the dead and reward the endeavours of those crew members who survived the ravages of WW1 and went on to prepare for the defences of the realm in WW2, but through circumstances beyond their control were denied that privilege, oft times the survivors of the 1939 sinking dying in other vessels trying to achieve that aim.As I have shown above the captain of the vessel went on to achieve high office in the navy and so too did his executive officer Commander George Knightley Chetwood. Lieutenant in December, 1899. 1907 awarded the Royal Humane Society's Bronze Medal for saving life from drowning. Commander 31 December, 1912. Royal Oak 30 January, 1916, to be her executive officer upon commissioning. He remained in her through until July, 1917, having then been promoted to the rank of Captain on 30 June 1917. At that time he was through-appointed to the 1st class cruiser HMS Blenheim as additional officer complement, to serve as Captain (D) of the Fifth Destroyer Flotilla on 15 August, 1917 to the Armistice. June 1919 Chetwode was appointed to the British Naval Mission to Greece with the rank of Rear Admiral in the Royal Hellenic Navy, reverting back to the RN 26 January 1922. From there he took command of the battleship Queen Elizabeth in May 1925 and in March 1926 he took command of the battleship Warspite. Promoted rear admiral 13-6-28, vice admiral 1-1-33 and admiral on 22-7-1936 and was immediately placed on the retired list at his own request, a common gracious gesture by senior officers to allow those younger officers making their way up the ladder, room for high office avoiding the proverbial ‘dead mans shoes’ syndrome.He was fined 40 pounds and 51/- in costs at Magistrate's Court in Portsmouth for an offence against the Rationing (General Provisions) Order 1942 for obtaining rationed food for household consumption otherwise than in accordance with the order. The First Sea Lord approved this notation in Chetwode's record. In total he had eleven sea commands and his final appointment was Admiral Commanding Reserves. After this pocket history of the Royal Oak which really belongs to any published detail of the ship having had a medium to long life and was destroyed when twenty three and a half years of age from first commissioning in May 1916. Any anecdote connected with the ship at any time, especially if it has associated artefact therefore provenance, should be made noteworthy. That brings me onto the subject of “Rabbits”, but not bunny rabbits. There are two types of rabbits in the navy. The first and most important is on first going ashore in a foreign port one goes on a shopping trips buy presents for the folks back home especially for the kids. These are called “rabbits” and on some, custom charges will be levied by HM Customs and Excise before they can be landed in the UK and taken ashore when going on first home coming leave. What money is left over after completing the ‘Rabbit Run’ is pocket money and spent in bars, restaurants etc. It is never left to chance to do it the other way around, otherwise the kids might go without? Then they are “rabbits” which go towards making life on board more comfortable, for the dockyard fitting-out scale and themes are usually to a pre ordained Admiralty plan and are often sparse in scope and quality. Asking the right questions of key personnel and having the money to pay for an addition or modification often falls on willing ears, and by experience the “money” is not always GBP. As often as not as a quid pro quo it is usually in the form of some more desirable and difficult to come by payment, like for example navy rum and duty free cigarettes. The choice of who to ask for a rabbit request really depends on the size of the ask, bearing in mind that it is highly likely that what is being asked for might be illegal and could impede the fighting ability of a vessel or its watertight integrity, in which case no person in their right mind would even contemplate proposing or asking for. It can be directed to a dockyard section civilian manager or to the ships artisans/artificers depending. So what might you ask for? Well, an extra personal locker or the movement of such to a different position to maximise crew space; a bunk lamp fitting to be moved to enhance a reading position; a dividing curtain and curtain rail; an extra punkalouvre ventilation port in a living or sleeping space; coat hangers; supplied pictures to be placed in suggested sites and spaces, requiring hanging points to be installed, a mirror to be supplied and fitted etc. The wardroom mess president often asks for enhancement to wardroom fittings whether fixed or portable, usually to do with ceremonial, and HMS Royal Oak was no exception with the wardroom president Commander George Knightley Chetwode R.N. wanting something special. He wanted a dinner gong or a contraption to be rung or struck at certain times which could be used in the wardroom, in the wardroom flat and on the quarterdeck, the officers recreation area of the ship and also the central ceremonial muster point for events like “clear lower deck muster on the quarterdeck” and the ceremony of morning and evening colours at which time the White Ensign is raised and lowered respectively when in harbour. What he wanted was a gonging device where the device was struck by a tool to make a sound which would be audible and recognised by officers of the ships complement. It had to be functional but ornate and it had to be unique to the Royal Oak ergo it could not be legally used in and by any other ship. Moreover it had to cost next to nothing using bits and pieces of wood, brass and copper pieces and some clever metal fretwork to cut the necessary pattern out a solid sheet of thick plate brass, all found in various lay apart stores in the ship or dockyard, and capable of being machined on the ships basic lathes, turning devices and taps and dies [threading systems]. Like all capital ships, it carried plumbers, joiners, shipwrights, welders, foundry workers and turners, all messing, with artificers under the heading of artisans. Look here at this URL for Artisans branch badge and what skills were included and scroll down to CPO Artisan badge. This picture shows the final result of the ships staff creation:-This magnificent plumbing job sits on the hall carpet outside my dining room door, and has been lovingly cared for by my wife for more years than she cares to remember. Note the top down and the brilliant craftsmanship. First note the top bar and the second bar both carved out of a solid slab of thick sheet brass. The top bar shows two oak leaves either side of an oak apple and the second, a white ensign left juxtaposed with a union jack right and in the middle an anchor. The 4” shell of 1903 manufactured pivots [swings] on the second horizontal bar, the bottom of shell casing in its stationary position rests 1” above the broad sure-footed polished hardwood base. The device gets its strength and stability from the two tall vertical uprights anchored to the base plate and connected integrated with the cross member horizonal bars. The device is in perfect original condition and remains as first made with a possible exception, namely the striking tool[s]. Near to the top of the shell casing on both upright an open hook has been added on which hangs the striking tool one per side. All joints are brazed and not soldered for strength purposes. By the date the device came into my care there was only one striker shown here on the left, which is made from a split cane secured at the top with a substantial long screw metal eye, and at the bottom with a rigid non-malleable ball of material wrapped in a piece of shammy leather which is secured to the cane by a waxed cod line sealing the bag and closing the end of the split cane. The dinner gong has gobbled up a factory of bluebell metal polish cans by many hands including wardroom stewards and Royal Marine sentries used to maintain the high shine you see in the photograph. It was made using a 4” shell casing manufactured in 1903, a good thirteen to fourteen years before the gong was assembled/manufactured. Shell casings were collected after use and returned to munition factories for refilling and reuse at a later period and to this day still are, and several were used up to six times before being discarded meaning that the shell casing was still in full use as a cordite container ready to blast a shell projectile integral to its casing towards a target, certainly up to 1910 or thereabouts [added information by telecon with Jo Lawler subsequent to this letter below] given the largely Royal Navy Pax Britannica of those time without any substantial wars. This use of shell casing’s was not uncommon but be aware shells of a much larger size were fired not by a shell casing having its own cordite charge but by a massive cordite charge placed immediately behind the heavy shell, usually 12” and above to 15” shells ! Years after the shell casing sell by date had expired, it remained of interest as an ornament and was much used at either full height or cut down to make things like ash trays or Jardinières. We don’t know which ship last fired this four inch shell but that is of no lasting importance: Royal Oak was not fitted with 4” guns until her 1924 refit replacing her 3” guns. I asked for advice from the navy’s oracle, namely the Explosives Museum out on the Gosport/Fareham side of the Fareham Creek for advice, sending all the many details markings punched into the base of the shell and what follows is that communication answering my request. . When asked [again in a telecom] whether it was feasible that this shell casing was available for use to add it to this dinner gong built at any time between 1914 and the Spring of 1916, the answer was perfectly feasible. Many of these discarded shell casing after up to six fillings, discarded by the navy and not be munition engineering company’s viz [and see above in the letter from the Explosion Museum] the mention of the King’s Norton Metal Company who manufactured shell casings] were given to places like Whale Island for instructional purposes and for cutting down and with their firing points removed and replaced by portable firing points used in field guns for various calibres for saluting purposes. They were ubiquitous throughout the naval shore establishments as highly prized highly polished artefact both in the UK and also around the world in our many foreign bases. A big capital ship like the Royal Oak in the final stages of fitting out, of makers trials at Devonport in the Spring would have had its choice of shell casings at the Devonport Gunnery School of 1916 at that time a part of Devonport Barracks called HMS Vivid. I own such a device so I am able to show you how such a system worked. I am going to use a naval 1956 12 Pounder brass shell case. A 12 pounder is the direct equivalent to a 3” shell and either can be fired from a 3” mounting. It denotes the weight of the shell which is 12 pounds and that’s quite heavy – you wouldn’t want that to come hurtling towards you. For most people men and women a soccer type football is easy to understand. One sees footballers kick a ball from one touch line over to the other with the greatest of ease. We couldn’t do it just like that because we are generally not in shape. But how would footballers cope if the football was replaced with a ball weighting 12 pounds. The answer is THEY WOULDN’T because 12 pounds is 13 TIMES repeat 13 Times heavier than a FIFA Approved football weight. 12 pounder N =Naval British = arrowLot 56 Made by E C C in 1956Reduced in height leaving enough of a sound chamber so that when the .303 cordite cartridge is fired it makes a loud bang which travels down the field gun barrel sounding as though a 12 pounder shell had been fired. Note as well as the shell casing being much reduced in height its central firing mechanism has neen bored out and a threaded access has been created.This is an adaptor which is small enough in its central core to take a standard .303 cordite cartridge. It has a thread which will marry into the thread made in the 12 pounder shell casing. The adapter is screwed into the orifice in the shell casing for an air tight fit. The wording around the rim reads “Adapter! 12 PDR Field Gun for .303 BLANK NL!The box containing 2 rows of .303 cordite cartridges each with 10 rounds which are also used for line throwing: a big bang but with no projectile made in May of 1955. Line throwing is a regularly used method of exchanging rope and hawser between warships when coming alongside each other at sea to effect a transfer. The cartridge is placed as normal into a line throwing rifle. A light weight metal rod is placed down the rifle barrel attached to a thin and light nylon cord. When the rifle is fired the cordite blast ejects the metal rod taking the light weight cord to the ship now laying alongside but at a small distance. To the firing ship end of the nylon cord is attached a heavier rope and if necessary to the end of it, is attached a more substantial rope. The crew in the receiving ship haul in each section accordingly. The transfer – fuelling pipes, stores, personnel, food, beer, mail, ammunition etc can now be transferred . The last substantial rope over is used on a running pulley and each crew pulls and hauls accordingly. We call these light jackstay and heavy jackstay transfers. This is a picture of me being light jackstayed from the flagship the cruiser HMS Tiger [Rear Admiral Martin La Touche Wemyss] to an escorting destroyer HMS Cleopatra [Captain Webster R.N.] off Singapore. I was boarding Cleo as she was affectionately called, for last minute checks on her operational communications organisation [Chief Radio Supervisor {Radio Communication Instructor] Peter McKenna, before she turned to port to visit Japanese ports and we turned to starboard heading for Australia, Brisbane, Newcastle spending Christmas 1977 alongside in Sydney. This shows the cartridge box open showing the bottom layer of 10 .303 cordites [or blanks]. Note the extreme left bullet has been fired in the conventional way of striking the centre red coloured explosives cap. The next bullet along leaning outside of its rack had not yet been used and you can see that its centre red coloured cap it taught and has not been punctured. The .303 cordites are pressed into the adapter central aparture which is then offered up to the cut down shell casing screwed into its central hole. The firing mechanism is struck by the firing pin of the field gun piece just like the trigger of rifle strikes the centre of a loaded bullet.Because of the regular and normal reuse of shell casing of up to six times before being discarded, it is now firmly believed that the dinner gong could not possibly have been manufactured for use in the previous HMS Royal Oak of 1892 which was decommissioned in 1911 and scrapped in 1914. It is strongly believed [and regularly practiced] that the Royal Oak’s wardroom mess president, Commander George Knightley CHETWODE, would have sought and subsequently designed and commissioned the piece as a wardroom dinner gong, a very smart [resplendent even] wardroom “rabbit” for the navy’s [and his] brand new battleship which was commissioned on May 1st 1916 and thirty short days later found itself in the thick of it at Jutland. Those in the know, appreciate that many trials were yet to be conducted and certified as a ‘pass’, and for a battleship, the mother of all work-up’s to come after the commissioning except for an aircraft carrier! Her gunnery alone HAT’s and SAT’s [Harbour acceptance trials and Sea acceptance trials] would have been a grueling and irksome task for the vast amount of gunnery officers and ratings embarked, requiring many tweaks and calibrations. and I’ll wager that many were incomplete before she arrived in Scapa before the battle commenced on May 31st 1916. It must have been a bloody big worrying time in the same way as the WW2 incident when the battleship HMS Prince of Wales was sent into action against the Bismarck without completing her basic work up. She didn’t perform well, in fact badly, and it was only after she retired from the shooting match to seek fuel, now shot up and with many casualties which might not have occurred had she been fully operational and ready for action that the ‘defect’ showed itself! It was later made known that one of the shots she managed to get away towards the Bismarck had actually hit her and holed one of her fuel tanks, leaving Bismarck with a shortage of fuel oil trying to make good her land fall at Brest France. The minute she left Plymouth Sound enroute for the Orkney’s she started her self-testing work up and from that moment heading west into the western approaches, then north into St George’s Channel, the Irish Sea and around finally into Scapa Flow she would have had very few, if any occasions to sound the dinner gong.As the wardroom mess president and sponsor and no doubt the payer for the Royal Oak ‘gong’ it was his own personal rabbit used for the good of his mess members, and there were many! It would have been his right to claim the dinner gong on leaving the ship at the end of the commission but he chose not to because his appointment was cut short, he being promoted to the rank of captain in 1917 and most in the vessel stayed on until the end of the commission in January 1919. At that time he could have claimed rightful ownership and well he might have done so, but that isn’t known. What is known is somebody did and the dinner gong left the ship in 1919 after the party to say goodbye to her long standing captain [Jan 16 to Jan 19], Captain MACLACHLAN was concluded, a party he, now Captain CHETWODE [by this time a famous destroyer tactician and Captain ‘D’] attended. Nobody to my knowledge knows what happened to the dinner gong after that time, until some time in the mid first decade of the 21st century when somebody, not au fait with the royal navy [for the badging of the dinner gong is explicit with just a cursory glance at the top sections of the device, and from that they might have put two and two together to come up with the name Royal Oak, which was named after the hiding place [an oak tree] of the future King Charles II leading to the restoration of our monarchy in 1660 after the beheading of his father King Charles I in 1649 on the authority of Oliver Cromwell and others. In 2009, now eleven years ago I approached the Royal Oak Association asking them if they were interested in owning the ships dinner gong. Although polite and friendly, they were not interested because as they told me, their Association had a dedicated task namely to cover the 1939 sinking and dreadful loss of lives, and to commemorate them. The WW1 history of the ship was in the distant past when it took part in Britain’s largest sea battle since Trafalgar namely Jutland. They were not aware that the captain and commander of the newly commissioned ship [just 30 days old] had been honoured with an MID each and that the Royal Oak had damaged at least two large heavy German ships. My point in 2009 was the 1939 ship was the same as the 1916 ship even though, desperately saddening as it was, Royal Oak didn’t get the chance to take part in WW2 although U47 and Gunther Prien did and we all know the consequences! I am in my 82 year now and I will soon be reducing my holding of many naval quality pieces. Despite the assistance and positive encouragement of the Explosion Museum and several other naval bodies, I am at a loss of not understanding an organisation’s belief in my story, nay quite often disbelief, but that’s life in a blue suit so they [sailors] say!!In 2006 my wife and I were out shopping in our local town of Petersfield in Hampshire. We had made it a practice of my wife shopping for items other than food which we did together, as much as anything because of the weight sometime involved, on our re-meet an hour or so later, and I would go off to the junk shops and antique shops to see what was new and worth considering. Petersfield and its environs had many retired naval people living in and near by, and I myself bought a house in Hill Brow [a tiny enclave on the outskirts of the town] called Lee Croft, the one time former home of Vice Admiral Sir Stephen Ferrier Berthon KCB. On this particular Saturday morning I called in to the Folly a group of tiny shops each owned by separate people but each looking out for one another when enthusiastic browser called in and the owner was absent. I immediately set my heart on this Royal Oak piece, not showing too much enthusiasm for the lady owner was quite unaware of what adorned this shop/outlet that morning, newly in two Saturdays before, and I didn’t want to be charged an ‘historical dividend’ on the shop price ticket. Mind you neither did I barter which would have been unkind I thought!That’s my story. Since September 2007 we have lived in the lovely quaint Georgian market town of Bury St Edmunds, with an enormous parish church [thought to be one of the largest in the land] playing host to the body, in her fine but faded coffin of Mary Tudor and we have a splendid cathedral even though we are but a medium sized market town [Suffolk has no city’s or motorways] and the Bishop lives and works 35 miles away in another town called Ipswich which is Suffolk’s County Town. We have also plaques on town buildings to commemorate where such people as the King of France once lived and Charles Dickens wrote Pickwick Papers here in town. What excites me is we have a small finite number of ICBM Trident submarines [I was a submariner] and we are graced by being the adopter of one of them called HMS Vengeance the youngest of the four boats. I deem that a great privilege for our town. Ooops, I forgot to mention that Mary Tudor buried here is the sister of Henry VIII, daughter of Henry VII, Queen of France by marriage, who sadly died when just 37 years of age. Incidentally our house is built in the grounds of a house called Fornham House [now divided of course], which was once owned by a very famous naval family the last naval incumbent being Vice Admiral James Rivett-Carnac the beach master at Sword Beach during the Normandy Landings of 6th June 1944. Yours aye ................
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