Naval history brought to life

AFASCINATING archive of life in the Royal Navy during the First World War has come to light at Eldreds Auctioneers & Valuers in the form of a small, mainly handwritten, book compiled by RNR officer L B Watts.

Clearly a bit of a character, Lt Watts starts with a quote from Napoleon, “Never underestimate your enemy”, followed with “This book is weighted with lead and if thrown overboard will burst into flames.”

There then follow detailed lists of officers and men, armaments and technical details of HMS City of London. Diagrams, maps, timetables and gunnery routines are interspersed with newspaper cuttings, cartoons, pithy comments (some unprintable) and anything else Lt Watts found interesting or amusing.

A double page has a map of the British Isles and shows the sinkings of mercantile ships by U boats between 1916 and 1917. The map is annotated by Lt Watts with many comments, not to mention the word ‘girls’ at most of the ports, with rather less salubrious entries for the French ports! Many annotations are redacted, particularly in Ireland leading one to wonder what possibly salacious comment needed to be crossed out.

The sea areas are littered with the words ‘Mines’, ‘Tin Fish’ and ‘Dead Bodies’ and show hundreds of sinkings, particularly in the English Channel. The book finishes with a poem about Orkney, dated April 1941.

To say he was unimpressed with Orkney is an understatement, the word ‘bloody’ is used a total of 50 times.

HMS City of London was originally a commercial liner, built in 1907. She was commandeered by the Admiralty on January 8, 1916, converted to an armed mercantile cruiser, class B4, commissioned on March 27, 1916, and left the Royal Albert Docks, London for the West African coast on April 3, 1916.

Of her ships company of 349 most of the officers and men were drawn from the Royal Navy Reserve and mercantile ranks or ratings. Most of the junior officers had had precious little training for hostilities, having completed two- or three-week courses in Devonport or Chatham prior to joining the convoys.

This small book offers a compelling insight into the life on a mercantile ship during World War I and will come up for sale at Eldreds Auctioneers & Valuers on April 27.

For more information call on 01752 721199 or visit eldreds.net.

> Book compiled by RNR officer L B Watts