HMS Warrior

Sunday, 18 February 1996, continued. Yes, four articles in and it's still the same day!

If you have read the others you will know that we are in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard and have seen HMS Victory, the remains of HMS Mary Rose and have taken a boat trip around the dockyard to see several serving warships including the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible. We now come to HMS Warrior. Unlike HMS Victory the Warrior was open to exploring. Visitors were given a map of the decks and were free to wander around the ship at will.

Built 1859-1860, launched in 1860 and commissioned in 1861, she was the Royal Navy's first ironclad warship, a frigate with 40 guns and steam propulsion. Three masts allowed for additional sail power in ship rigging format for long distance cruising.

She carried guns ranging from 40 pound to 110 pound with mid range guns firing 68 pound. All of her guns could fire both solid round shot or explosive shells and the 68 pounders were also capable of firing shells filled with molten iron from a furnace.

On the deck I am accosted by a small chap with a broad American accent who thrusts a small Olympus camera at me and asks me to take his picture "...with plenty of rigging - I'm interested in rigging" So ok, I stood up and he legs it at top speed towards the other end of the ship with me having to trot reluctantly and somewhat bewildered behind him. "No stay over there, I don't mind if I'm just a dot - I want the rigging in..." Well if he was going to be just a dot, why not take the pic himself and claim any old short person was him???

I take a couple of pix and kneel down to take one so he could have the rigging with himself as a small dot right at the bottom of the pic. He seems to appreciate that. "Where are you from?" I ask on the long trek back to where Fran is standing, wondering why I have deserted her. "The U S of A!" comes the answer. My dry voice gets switched on... "Well, yes, I'd gathered that..." Anyway he is from Delaware which he isn't expecting me to have heard of. I feel it may not be the time to mention the Perry Como song...

I take this picture by available light which requires an exposure of six seconds. To keep the camera still I stand it on a cannon and use the self-timer. As it finishes, the third lunatic of the week taps my shoulder and says "How does that work?" A bit taken aback I say "It was on a timer". "No - the cannon..." "The cannon?!?" I ask, even more taken aback. "You know - the sight!" What? "You just look down it and generally it hits whatever you are looking at!" I explain. "Oh!" he says, disappointment in every shade of voice and demeanor.

"Sea battles were generally fought at very close quarters," I try to explain. "The idea was to batter the opposing ship whilst your own sailors jumped from your ship onto the other!" But, disillusioned, he has already moved on... Over each gun are the stowed hammocks of its crew - this was workplace, sleeping quarters and dining room.

Also overhead are racks of cutlasses - you know - for use in boarding or repelling enemy boarders... But my latest friend is busy searching for similarly-sized forks, no doubt convinced they were cutlery for mealtimes...

It's a crowded ceiling: also overhead are the gunners' equipment. From left to right, a wormer for getting bits of wadding out (paper, card, bits of anything designed to hold roundshot against the bag of gunpowder that shot it out), sponge to be dipped in water to cool out the guns and make sure no remaining burning remnants of wadding or powder bag remained to set off the next charge as soon as it was put into the barrel, and a ramrod to poke the charge bag down to where the fuse could set it alight and then to ram the shot against it and yet again to ram wadding to prevent a roundshot from rolling away from the powder charge.

Even the Captain's cabin was furnished with cannon. Bulkheads or windows were removeable so that it had a nice hole to shoot through when needed. It would still probably scorch a bit of paintwork... The cannon is roped to the wall at either side so as not to roll too far away from the wall with the recoil after firing. Crushed gun crews are seldom as effective as ones with the required number of legs and arms.

The gun does have to roll back far enough to be sponged out and reloaded though. It is heavy enough that the pulley system is needed for the sailors to be able to haul it forwards again once loaded. The brass rod at the back along with the more decorative one halfway down make up the sight that our friend above was so bewildered by. The rear one is calibrated and can be raised or lowered to account for distance if needs be.

Whilst the French Navy tended to try to shoot at masts and sails, the Royal Navy generally thought that blasting holes at waterline was more effective at sinking the enemy... Which reminds me of a funny story told to me by someone else who had done the HMS Victory guided tour. A French visitor had looked at the pyramids of cannonballs on deck and asked if they were the ones used at the Battle of Trafalgar. The Naval Officer conducting the tour answered, "No, Sir, your own navy still has those..."

The Captain's table where the senior officers would dine. The floor covering includes a rug over canvas sailcloth which has a thoughtful design painted on it to look like linoleum - ooh, luxury!

Our visit to the Historic Dockyard has made for an interesting day. On a warmer day we may have been inclined to stay a bit longer but walking around the open areas of docks is chilly in February so we head into town in search of a cafe. Later, back at the hotel, we find with some relief that the deaf couple have left along with the rest of their coach party and it is a much quieter night!

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Portsmouth Dockyard Boat Ride

Sunday 18 February 1996. We are at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard. After the guided tour around HMS Victory we have a couple of things to see before embarking on a boat for a trip around the harbour on the water.

I wonder how many people just walked past this small boat with barely a glance. Reading the notice on the railings of the dockyard basin in which it floats however I find it is a full-sized replica of the launch of HMS Bounty. There is more to say about this event than I have space or knowledge to set down here. Indeed, both sides argued the toss at the time of the subsequent court martials in 1792 and the descendants of both sides have continued to insist on the other as being the one at fault ever since.

Suffice it to say that after the mutiny on 28 April 1789, Captain Bligh was forced into the ship's launch with those loyal to him, 19 men in total (although a further 4 loyal men were forced to remain on the Bounty as the launch would otherwise founder and they had skills needed by the mutineers led by Fletcher Christian. William Bligh, in an incredible feat of navigation, sailed the launch 3500 miles over open ocean to safety. Wikipedia has some detail on this page.

Likewise as regards this - the remains of Henry VIII's warship The Mary Rose. Launched in 1511, she was one of the first ships armed with heavy guns, capable of firing a broadside through what was at the time a new innovation - side opening gunports. She was rebuilt in 1536, with an added layer of decking supporting a further row of guns along each side. Her weight increased from 500 tons to 700 tons with this rebuild. She sank on 19 July 1545, for obscure reasons during battle with the French fleet. She was turning and heeled over, water rushing into her open gunports. Some French reports understandably claimed that it had been their firepower that sank her.

A salvage attempt was made shortly afterwards in August of 1536, another in 1547 and another in 1549, but the ship had fallen at an angle and had sunk into the soft silt and mud of the bottom of the Solent. Whilst some guns and other artifacts were raised the ship proved impossible to recover. Over the ensuing centuries chemicals and hungry sea creatures slowly obliterated the wooden material of the ship leaving only the buried portion - about 40 percent of the ship - intact.

The wreck was rediscovered in 1836 when some fishermen snagged it in their nets.By this date rubber diving suits had been invented and divers were able to recover some items including bronze and iron guns and some longbows. Fast track to 1966 and the wreck was once again subject of renewed searching. It was rediscovered in 1970 and a committee formed to save as much of the ship as possible, as there was no legal protection from treasure hunters at the time for sunken vessels. A new law in 1973 gave added protection but it was 1982 before the surviving structure could be lifted on 11 October.

The hull was put on display in 1984, but behind glass as it required a constant spraying of water and subsequently a polyethylene glycol (PEG) solution to arrest further deterioration. This would continue until 2013.

It's time for our boat trip around the dockyard. We catch a brief glimpse of the stern of HMS Warrior (we shall see it in greater detail in the next article) before heading into the harbour and passing more modern warships. In fact we can hardly believe the number of warships. Equally impressive is the value on show - in 1996 each destroyer costs £115,000,000 - 115 million pounds - to build.

Also in the dockyard is Her Majesty's Yacht, Britannia. It's fate is already decided and it is awaiting its final royal duty. The gold stripe... really is!

These two tugs are waiting for no one. Our tour boat has to power on and try its hardest to avoid these two from steaming down on us!

Both of Britain's aircraft carriers, HMS Ark Royal and HMS Invincible are in the harbour. Invincible is shown - Ark Royal is in a dry dock and although the superstructure can be seen, it is not possible to get a decent photograph. Seeing the Invincible brought back memories of watching the Falklands Task Force sailing in 1982.

We come back round the stern of HMS Warrior as we prepare to disembark. Just as I am finding my sea legs... (they were under my sea bum...)

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Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Sunday 18 February 1996. We have strolled (increasingly slowly as our legs ice up...) from Southsea Promenade to the gates of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

As we approach we can see the grand sight of HMS Warrior. Dating from 1861, she was the first iron-clad warship. We'll have a look around her in due course but just to whet your appetites I can tell you that we met up with the second and third people of the week totally devoid of any common sense whilst we were onboard her...

The Portsmouth Semaphore was the last in a line of tall buildings with wavy masts stretching from London to Portsmouth, allowing messages to be sent from the Admiralty to the Naval base considerably faster than a speeding horseman. The semaphore had been in the centre of Portsmouth, but was moved here in 1833 when the Admiralty residence moved into the dockyard. To either side were the Rigging House and Sail Loft of 1778 and to hold the semaphore tower, both buildings were joined by an archway. Only 14 years later, in 1847, the wonders of electricity brought the telegraph into the dockyard, rendering the semaphore obsolete. The tower burned down in 1913 and was rebuilt as a replica, opening again in 1930. The buildings to either side are not perfect replicas - the one on the right is not joined to the tower any more and they were originally symmetrical in design and number of storeys.

The star attraction has to be HMS Victory. She is, in fact, the sixth ship of the Royal Navy to be named Victory, the first having been launched in 1569 and which served in the battle against the Spanish Armada.

It's a wonder that she still exists. Starved of funds for maintenance after the Battle of Trafalgar, she was saved only because of public outcry every time the Admiralty announced she would be broken up. They saved her, but did little to arrest rot and damage. In fact it would be 2005 before she was returned to the condition she had enjoyed at the start of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Gingerbread. That's the term for the decorative woodwork of the sterns of most ships of the line. Victory originally had open balconies, but these were removed during reconstruction work started in 1800 during which so many defects were discovered that the cost of repairs rocketed from an original estimate of £23,500 to £70,933 (pounds sterling). During this work the number of guns she carried was increased from 100 to 104.

Also she was repainted in the colours we now see and take for granted. She had been red. After Trafalgar many warships adopted these same colours, dark yellow and black stripes but with black gunports - a chequered effect which came to be known as Nelson's Chequer.

The series of steps up to the doorway in the side of the ship is known as the tumblehome. Probably because after climbing it, particularly in a lively sea, that's exactly what you would do with some relief! You can visit Victory in a guided tour, but not with freedom to wander about on your own. We did the tour, visiting the placque on the deck where Nelson fell, shot through the shoulder by a French sniper in the rigging of the ship alongside. The bullet passed through a lung and broke his spine, where it lodged. He died three hours later in the Orlop of the ship, now the nearest thing to a shrine that any Navy ship possesses.

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A Morning in the Science Museum

14 January 2012. We were in London with friends David and Jeannie and it had been decided that the ladies would go shopping, whilst David and I would have a culturally stimulating morning.

The ladies vetoed Soho however, so we got on a bus and headed for the Science Museum. We waved to them from the top deck of our bus as we went past them at Oxford Circus!

Here are just a few of the many wonderful exhibits we saw, starting with the steam locomotive Puffing Billy which was built in 1814 and pulled carts of coal from Wylam Colliery to the docks on the River Tyne.

A Tucker Sno-Cat used during the 1955-58 Trans-Antarctic Expedition led by explorer Dr (later Sir) Vivian Fuchs. A label carried a quote from one of the team describing how it felt to be inside it as the nose reared up and then it slid back into a hole in the ice. Not for stay-at-home types! Judging from the barriers around it, the museum half expect it to fall over again...

David was chuffed to find a model of the class of ship he served on whilst in the Royal Navy as a young man. I had helpfully shown him a model of HMS Victory but he maintains it was a later ship he was on... I've heard some of his naval stories and, believe me, they would sit well with the days of sailing ships and cutlasses!

We were due to meet the ladies for lunch so we didn't have enough time to do the museum full justice. However, as we retraced our steps back towards the entrance, the massive mill engine was working, with puffs of steam shooting out here and there and looking suitably impressive.

It did away with the need for the treadmill, which must have been a relief to all those who previously had spent their long working day doing the equivalent of climbing a ladder.

Large versions of the photos: Puffing Billy, Sno-Cat, David and ship, mill engine

Memories of the Press Gangs

Just over the river, north of Lancaster is a road to a couple of small villages. Middleton and Overton are reached by a tidal road, that floods at high tide to an extent that makes them impassable.

Along this risky stretch of road is an old inn called The Golden Ball. In the days when ships used to dock at Sunderland Point with goods from the cotton fields of southern America, the regulars learned to get out quick and disperse over the fields otherwise they would be caught by gangs of men sent to find crew members for the ships. Impressment was a long standing tradition. Sanctioned too, as the Royal Navy used the Press to take protesting men forcibly away from families for years at a time. Today we would call it kidnapping. To the Navy it was simply a method of conscription. They visited so often that the pub earned the nickname of Snatchems!

The Good Old Days are a bit of a myth really...! Incidentally, if you visit: once you have parked your car, have a look at the high tide mark painted onto the car park wall. It will be above the roof of your car! Time your visit carefully!

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HMS Victory and Sketches

My God, it's like buses! No blog entries for ages and now three at once! So, I'm just in the mood I guess.

If I've not been writing the blog what have I been doing?

Well those of you who keep an eye on the Flickr account will have seen a few
sketches appear recently. That was prompted by a posting on the Billy Fury website.

Also on that site, it's my month to be included in the Hall of Fame. You'll find my musical biography there linked from the main index linked above. My entry in the Hall of Fame also includes two songs, both from Creeping Bentgrass albums, although one (Great Balls of Fire) is one of my solo pieces and the other one (Up Around The Bend) features David and Bob also.

Our entry in the Billy Fury Sounds Special feature this month is a live recording of Johnny B Goode and a few of the residents and holiday makers at Larbreck Hall Caravan Park may recognise their whoops and hollers and general joining in of the chorus!

I've also gone back to scanning the still massive pile of negatives from pre-digital days that still need to be scanned. This example was taken (despite the blue sky and sunshine) in February(!) 1996 and shows the famous warship, HMS Victory.

Not Nelson's ship, as Captain Hardy should have that honour, but it was on this ship that Nelson received a musket ball in his shoulder that passed down through his lung and broke his spine. He was taken below where he knew full well that he must die from his injuries.

"Not the side, Hardy," he said, forbidding Captain Hardy to perform the traditional ceremony of burial at sea. With the problem of how to keep the body from rotting and smelling, the ship's surgeon had the body placed in a large barrel which was then filled with port wine.

The spot where he died, in the ship's orlop below the waterline is as close to a shrine as the Royal Navy has. A ceremony is held there every year on the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar at which Nelson was killed.

Oh yes... and the Sally Geeson photo has gone on to new levels of fascination for the Internet public as it has now reached a viewing count of 1473, racing for the 2000 target and achieving daily viewings that peaked with an amazing 66 views on the 3rd of May. All of this without a single comment on it!