HMS VERNON

Content:

A Short History:

HMS VERNON Afloat

HMS VERNON After the Move Ashore

Original Buildings

Anti-Submarine Training at HMS VERNON

The Development of Wireless at HMS VERNON

HMS VERNON, the Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

Minesweeper Sailors Through the Ages

Links to:

More about HMS VERNON

A history of Gunwharf Quays

More about Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW)

The Royal Navy Reserve

Those who served in the Ton Class

Memories of the historic Ton Class

More about modern Minesweepers, Mine Hunters, Diving Teams and ongoing operations here.

A SHORT HISTORY

by Rob Hoole

HMS VERNON afloat

The last of four ships to bear the name HMS Vernon was a fourth rate 50-gun 'Symondite' frigate launched at Woolwich on May Day in 1832.  She saw active service in home waters, the Americas and the East Indies between 1832 and 1848.  She was then laid up in Chatham Dockyard until emerging in 1867 for use as a floating coaling jetty.

This ship was actually named after the Hon George Vernon (1803–1866), a friend of Capt William Symonds who had designed her, but her name became synonymous with one of his ancestors, Admiral Edward Vernon (1684-1757) nicknamed 'Old Grog'.  On 22 Nov 1739, he achieved fame by commanding a squadron of six ships which captured the Central American coastal fortress of Portobello from the Spanish, an event celebrated annually with a dinner in HMS VERNON’s wardroom (officers) mess.  Although he suffered a later defeat at Cartagena, he was elected to Parliament on the basis of his previous success.  He was known as ‘Old Grog,’ reputedly because of his penchant for wearing a cloak made of grogram (from the French ‘gros grain’), a coarse fabric of silk or mohair and wool.  In 1740, he had the sailors’ neat rum ration diluted with water to prevent hoarding. This mixture was known ever afterwards as ‘grog’.

Successive HMS VERNONs adopted the same motto as the town of Vernon-sur-Seine in France where the Vernon family had originated: "Vernon Semper Viret".  The literal translation of this is "Vernon Forever Green" but a more realistic translation would be "Vernon Will Always Flourish".

HMS VERNON, the floating Torpedo & Mining School, was first commissioned as an independent command in Fountain Lake, Portsmouth on 26 April 1876.  The collection of hulks, newly independent of HMS EXCELLENT (the Gunnery School), originally comprised the fourth rate 50-gun 'Symondite' frigate Vernon together with the former 26-gun screw frigate Ariadne (providing accommodation) and the lighter Florence Nightingale.  It was from the Torpedo & Mining School that the Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving branches eventually evolved.  From 1874 to 1923, Vesuvius, a gunboat of 250 tons, became Vernon's Whitehead Experimental Tender for the conduct of torpedo trials.  The hulk of the fourth rate frigate Actaeon was added in October 1879 and used as a workshop.  

In January 1886 the former two-deck ship-of-the-line Donegal arrived and assumed the original Vernon's role as a more spacious torpedo school ship.  Donegal was renamed Vernon (VERNON I).  The original Vernon was renamed Actaeon (VERNON IV) and replaced the original Actaeon as a practical workshop.  The original Actaeon was then scrapped. 

On 23 April 1895, the hulks of Vernon (formerly Donegal), Ariadne and Actaeon (the original Vernon) were moved from Fountain Lake to Portchester Creek in Portsmouth Harbour. 

In 1903, the accommodation hulk Ariadne was replaced as VERNON II by the hulk of the old 121-gun three-decker Marlborough.  Marlborough was connected by bridges to Actaeon (VERNON IV) and the old Donegal, now called Vernon (VERNON I).

In 1904 the pioneer ironclad Warrior (now the museum ship 'HMS Warrior 1860' in Portsmouth) arrived as a floating workshop, power plant and wireless telegraphy school and became VERNON III.  

For conformity, Actaeon (the original Vernon) became VERNON IV.  She was moored separately abreast Marlborough (VERNON II), on the other side of Portchester Creek, and was used as an instructional ship and floating workshop. 

In 1904, Ariadne (ex-VERNON II) was sent to Sheerness where, confusingly, she was renamed Actaeon on 6 June 1905 or 1906 (depending on source) and became the nucleus of a new torpedo school.  She was eventually sold on 11 December 1922.  This is Actaeon, the former Ariadne (VERNON II), as painted by Eric Ravilious in 1942 (Cdr Harold West DSC* RN).

These images depict a mine and torpedo demonstration by HMS VERNON in 1911 courtesy of the Australian War Memorial museum.

In 1916, the second class cruiser Forte was moored alongside Warrior (VERNON III) for use as offices and extra living accommodation.  Between 1916 and 1923, various submarines and a barrage vessel were attached to the School to assist in providing electrical power.

During the First World War, work at HMS VERNON concentrated on torpedo trials and training and the research and development of anti-submarine devices and training in their use as well as mines and ships' electrics. 

HMS VERNON after the move ashore

On 1 October 1923, HMS VERNON (or ‘The Vernon’ as it came to be known) was established ashore at Portsmouth on the site of the old Gunwharf (now the development known as Gunwharf Quays) and Mining, Whitehead [Torpedo] and Electrical departments were formed.  The original 50-gun 'Symondite' frigate Vernon, since called Actaeon (VERNON IV), was sold and towed to Castle's shipbreaking Yard at Woolwich to be scrapped.  Similarly Marlborough (VERNON II) was sold for scrap in October 1924 but capsized off Osea Island in the Blackwater estuary on 28 November 1924 while being towed to the shipbreakers.  Donegal (VERNON I) was sold on 18 May 1925 to Pounds shipbreakers in Portsmouth.

The original names of the Vernon hulks were adopted for buildings in the shore base.

During the Second World War, HMS VERNON remained responsible for mine development, mining, mine disposal and mine countermeasures.  Her officers and scientific staff achieved several coups involving the capture of mines and the development of countermeasures.  The earliest of these was the rendering safe and recovery of the first German magnetic mine (Type GA) at Shoeburyness on 23 November 1939.  For this deed, Lt Cdr (later Cdr) John Ouvry was decorated with the DSO by King George VI at a ceremony on HMS VERNON's parade ground on 19 December 1939.  Others decorated at the same time for this, and other tasks where mines were rendered safe for recovery and examination, were Lt Cdr Roger Lewis (DSO), Lt J E M Glenny (DSC), CPO C E Baldwin (DSM) and AB A L Vearncombe (DSM).  Of particular note, these were the first Royal Navy decorations of the war.  Ouvry's feat enabled the boffins at HMS VERNON to develop effective mine sweeping and ship protection systems including degaussing, wiping and deperming.  Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty before his re-appointment as Prime Minister, visited HMS VERNON in September 1939 and again in January 1940.

In June 1940, the first attempt to render safe a ground mine by divers was made in Poole Harbour, Dorset.  A diving unit from HMS EXCELLENT, supported by divers trained in Rendering Mines Safe (RMS) techniques from HMS VERNON, successfully removed the fuze from a Type GC mine underwater although the mine exploded as it was towed inshore.  For his central role in this task, Able Seaman Diver R G Tawn was subsequently awarded the DSM.  On discovering the skill of HMS VERNON’s mine technicians, the Germans placed booby traps in some mines.  One was fitted with a small explosive charge that detonated when the mine was stripped in the mining shed at HMS VERNON on 6 August 1940 causing the deaths of Commissioned Gunner (T) Reginald A. Cook, PO Cecil H. Fletcher, AB William B. Croake, AB William J. Stearns and AB Alfred E. Stevens and serious injuries to other personnel.  Following this incident, mines were stripped and examined at a disused limestone quarry at Buriton near Petersfield that was nick-named 'HMS Mirtle' (short for Mine Investigation Range).

VERNON-trained naval bomb & mine disposal personnel included several highly decorated Royal Australian Naval Reserve officers and American volunteers. Their work took them across the country during the Blitz and far beyond the nation's shores.  Between them, they were awarded as many George Crosses, George Medals and other honours and decorations for their gallant achievements as the other two services combined.

Various sections of HMS VERNON were dispersed to sites throughout the country following heavy air raids on Portsmouth, one of which demolished Dido Building and killed 100 people in a single night.  On 3 May 1941, the main part of HMS VERNON was evacuated to Roedean Girls’ School at Brighton (VERNON(R) - see here for an excellent illustrated account) where bell pushes on the dormitory bulkhead were purportedly labelled ‘Ring for Mistress”. Other sites included Havant, Purbrook, West Leigh (VERNON(M)), Stokes Bay, Hove, Dartmouth/Brixham, Helensburgh, Edinburgh and Port Edgar. 

Although many naval divers were trained at HMS VERNON in Rendering Mines Safe (RMS) procedures as members of the Mine Recovery Section during the Second World War, it was not until 1 October 1944 that responsibility for naval diving passed from the Gunnery Branch, still based at HMS EXCELLENT, to the Torpedo Branch based at HMS VERNON.  This brought Mine Warfare (both mining and mine countermeasures) and Diving under the same organisation for the first time. 

Owing to the wartime evacuation measures, a new diving school and experimental station known as VERNON(D) was set up at Brixham in Devon on 27 Oct 1944.  The (D) referred to Dartmouth where administrative support was stationed.  The Royal Navy's Superintendent of Diving, responsible since 1942 for the Admiralty Experimental Diving Unit (AEDU) based at Siebe Gorman and Co, Tolworth, Surrey and for the coordination of diving training in addition to research and development, moved to Brixham together with HMS Tedworth, the RN Deep Diving Tender.  Almost immediately, VERNON(D) became overwhelmingly occupied with the training and support of ‘P’ (Port Clearance) Parties (Naval Parties 1571-1575 and 3006) until 1 October 1945 when the organisation moved back to HMS VERNON proper at Portsmouth.

On 10 October 1946, the Torpedo Branch divested its Electrical responsibilities to the recently formed Electrical Branch and merged with the Anti-Submarine Branch (formerly based at HMS OSPREY at Portland) to form the Torpedo and Anti-Submarine (TAS) Branch.  Hence, the TAS Branch assumed responsibility for naval diving and HMS VERNON adopted a new badge to reflect the change. . 

As the Royal Navy’s alma mater of mine warfare and diving, HMS VERNON was responsible for the Admiralty Experimental Diving Unit (AEDU) and saw the development of clearance diving which had originated with the ‘P’ Parties clearing European ports and their approaches of German ordnance and booby traps after D-Day in World War II.  Until circa 2000, there were two types of diver in the RN.  A Ship’s Diver (formerly the Shallow Water Diver) could be of any rank or specialisation and was trained to use self-contained open-circuit compressed air diving apparatus to search the ship’s bottom for explosive devices or perform simple underwater engineering tasks.  The more advanced Clearance Diver (CD) was a specialist trained in the use of all types of service diving equipment including surface demand and closed-circuit mixture breathing apparatus to perform deeper diving, EOR (Explosive Ordnance Reconnaissance), EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal otherwise known as bomb & mine disposal), IEDD (Improvised Explosive Device Disposal), salvage operations and complex underwater engineering tasks.  Today, only the Clearance Diver remains. 

The former German torpedo trials ship and seaplane carrier Walter Holtzapfel, a war-prize, was first commissioned into the Royal Navy as the deep diving tender HMS DEEPWATER.  However, she was hopelessly inadequate for the demanding role expected of her because she was fitted with elderly diving equipment from her wartime predecessor HMS TEDWORTH, a converted WW I coal-burning Hunt class minesweeper known as a ‘Smokey Joe’.   Deepwater was subsequently berthed on Maintenance Jetty at HMS VERNON and used as a floating diving school.  VERNON-based divers in HMS RECLAIM, another of TEDWORTH's successors, established world records for deep diving during the 1950s and 1960s.  Much of the initial diving training was conducted in Horsea Lake on Horsea Island, just to the north of Portsmouth.  The 8 metre-deep lake was originally constructed as a torpedo range and had been extended in length from 600 metres to 1 km.  Royal Navy and Army diving training is still conducted on Horsea Island at the Defence Diving School (DDS).

Warfare Branch ratings and warrant officers of the Royal Navy’s CD Sub-Branch (formed in 1952) complement those of the Mine Warfare (MW) Sub-Branch (formed in 1975) while their officers, also members of the RN Warfare Branch, are usually trained in both disciplines as MCDOs (Mine Warfare & Clearance Diving Officers), whose sub-branch was formed in 1966, able to turn their hand to minefield planning, minelaying, mine countermeasures (mine hunting using sonar as well as mine sweeping), diving, demolitions and EOD/IEDD.  HMS VERNON remained the home of the TAS Branch at Portsmouth until the Summer of 1974 when it was devolved to HMS DRYAD at nearby Southwick prior to the formation of the Operations Branch in early 1975.

HMS VERNON was also where mines and mine disposal techniques and equipment were developed and minesweepers, mine hunters, minelayers and clearance diving teams were based.  Post-war operations saw their involvement in Konfrontasi (the Indonesian Confrontation) in the 1960s, the clearance of the Suez Canal in 1956 and again in 1974, the Red Sea in 1975, the Falklands in 1982, the Iran/Iraq Tanker War in 1986 and the first and second Gulf wars in 1991 and 2003.  MCMVs and Clearance Diving teams are still kept busy on and around UK shores and mine hunters are permanently stationed in the Persian Gulf as well as serving with NATO forces in northern Europe and the Mediterranean.  The Vernon Monument celebrates all those involved in training, manning and supporting these ships and units - past, present and future.

Training in Diving, Demolitions and Minewarfare, along with Naval Control of Shipping and, for a time, Seamanship, continued on the site of HMS VERNON at Portsmouth even after it ceased to be an independent command on 31 March 1986 and was renamed HMS NELSON (Vernon Site).  In 1987, the establishment was renamed HMS NELSON (Gunwharf) and briefly became Headquarters for the Commandant General Royal Marines before his move to permanent accommodation at HMS EXCELLENT on Whale Island.  In November 1995, Minewarfare training was shifted to the School of Maritime Operations (SMOPS) HMS DRYAD at nearby Southwick and subsequently to the Minewarfare Operational Training Centre at the Maritime Warfare School in HMS COLLINGWOOD across the harbour from Portsmouth.  Diving training, including the Army’s Royal Engineers Diving School which had been temporarily accommodated on the site following its move from Marchwood, together with the Superintendent of Diving, the Fleet Diving Headquarters, the Fleet Clearance Diving Team and the Portsmouth Area Clearance Diving Team moved into new accommodation on Horsea Island in Portsmouth Harbour and the old VERNON establishment closed its gates for the last time on 1 April 1996.

ORIGINAL BUILDINGS

Surviving HMS VERNON structures in Gunwharf Quays comprise the Main Gate and Guardroom, the Administration Building containing the Captain’s Offices (now the Old Customs House pub), the Old Infirmary (now apartments), Vulcan Building (now apartments) which had its blitzed north wing and clock tower restored by Land Securities, the Old Guardhouse aka Lock-keeper’s Cottage (now the Solent Forts offices) and the waterfront crane. Scattered artefacts include a Mk 8 torpedo, a Mk 17 moored mine and the figureheads of Vernon and Marlborough.

More about HMS VERNON on Facebook.

For a history of Gunwharf Quays click here.

Find out more about modern Minesweepers, Mine Hunters, Diving Teams and ongoing operations here.

More historic VERNON pictures here.

ANTI-SUBMARINE TRAINING AT HMS VERNON

by Commodore Peter Melson CVO CBE Royal Navy

 In 1876 the dominant, indeed almost the only specialist branch in the Royal Navy was gunnery, developed and trained at HMS EXCELLENT on Whale Island in Portsmouth Harbour. The rapid development of the torpedo, however, with its new technology required a completely separate approach and the Torpedo Branch broke away from the Gunnery Branch and was allocated some old hulks in Portchester Creek which collectively were known as HMS VERNON.

Early in the 20th Century it became clear that submarines were going to form a part of the Order of Battle of most major navies and VERNON was tasked with developing counter-measures to this new threat. Initial attempts included rowing up to the periscope of an attacking submarine and knocking the lens out with a hammer! Fortunately early submarines were essentially submersible surface ships and didn’t become a serious threat until the First World War when unrestricted German U Boat warfare almost brought Britain to her knees.

VERNON retained responsibility for torpedo development and training with its concomitant responsibility for electrical training until the formation of the Electrical Branch in 1946 but on moving ashore in 1923 Anti-Submarine and Torpedo training were combined in the new Torpedo and Anti-Submarine (TAS) Branch based in HMS VERNON, the wardroom of which was designed to resemble the great cabin of a ship of the line. Much development work was carried out in VERNON and during the inter-war period ASDIC, which had appeared towards the end of the First World War, was incorporated into a weapons system linking the detection of a submarine by ASDIC with its destruction by depth charges. This led inevitably to two separate sub-branches of ASDIC operators and weapon handlers.

The Second World War was VERNON’s finest hour. Huge numbers of officers and ratings were trained in the specialisations of anti-submarine warfare, mine warfare, clearance diving, electrical skills, torpedo warfare and other sub-specialisations which became necessary to defeat Germany at sea. And by the end of the war it was without doubt the UK’s most important training establishment, even though it had move to Roedean College in Brighton for the duration! There is no doubt that VERNON’s anti-submarine warfare work, before and during the war, contributed vastly to victory in the Battle of the Atlantic, the losing of which would have meant losing the war.

The post war VERNON, once it had moved back to Gunwharf, remained at the centre of undersea warfare and the distributed training modules were sited on the parade ground. The Anti-Submarine Tactical Trainer (ASTT) also returned to VERNON and generations of TAS Officers and Ratings were trained there, and in Mobile Anti-Submarine Training Units (MASTUs) and Anti-Submarine Universal Attack Trainers (ASUATs). Maritime warfare was moving on apace, though, and Second World War methods and systems were, by the early 1960s, no longer capable of dealing with the speed of nuclear submarines, supersonic air and ship launched missiles and acoustic homing torpedoes. The old TAS and Gunnery branches were therefore merged into a single Operations Branch and officer training became general to deal with the multi-facetted nature of warfare at sea.

Increasingly the co-ordinated necessary to deal with the new threats became centred on HMS DRYAD on the far side of Portsdown Hill and by the early 1980s virtually all officer training was undertaken there, although the training of Operations Branch ratings in anti-submarine warfare continued in VERNON unto 1986 when it too moved to DRYAD and VERNON closed as in independent command, ending over 100 years of underwater warfare development and training in HMS VERNON.

The closure of VERNON was not without incident, however. On the day it closed the wardroom was laid up for a mess dinner, with all the mess silver on the tables and the old quarterdeck and wheel of HMS COLLINGWOOD looking its best. The idea was to photograph it for posterity and move everything to DRYAD the next day. Unfortunately that night Portsmouth City Council slapped a preservation order on the wardroom and thereafter nothing could be touched. The mess dinner remained laid up, gathering dust, for two years until finally common sense prevailed and to DRYAD it all went.

Find out more about Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) here.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS AT HMS VERNON

by Peter Garland MA MIET

University of Portsmouth HMS Vernon Postgraduate Research Group

The historical record of HMS Vernon is quite rightly predominantly associated with the development of the Mine and Torpedo and this was certainly its main function. However, perhaps lesser known was that it played a very important role in the early development of Wireless Telegraphy. The development of wireless has for many reasons remained under-represented within the history of the Royal Navy. One major reason for this was that, wireless innovators within the Royal Navy were prevented from applying for patent protection or revealing details of their work, by the application of the official secrets act. Up until the conclusion of the fifty-year embargo most historical writing of wireless in the Royal Navy concentrated on the use of wireless and the Navy’s function as a customer for commercial entities such as the Marconi Company.

Only recently has it been recognised that wireless developments within the Navy progressed in parallel and in some cases ahead of developments in the civilian area and that the Royal Navy’s early work on wireless telegraphy very much predates Guglielmo Marconi’s arrival in Britain in 1896. Wireless work at HMS Vernon assumed greater importance by the invention of the torpedo and its deployment on small inexpensive torpedo boats, then being built in large numbers by both the French and Russian Navies. This created a concern that Britain’s sea power, then based on the deployment of large expensive Battleships, could be undermined by a foreign power deploying low cost torpedo boats that might overwhelm the British fleet. The development of very fast torpedo boat destroyers and the fitting of secondary armaments on capital ships did not solve the problem, as there was the fundamental issue of being able to distinguish between friend and foe, particularly when the target was moving at fast speed at night or in poor visibility. Developments on wireless at Vernon indicated that it could be used to enable friendly torpedo boats to identify themselves to the fleet particularly at night or in poor visibility.

The rapid growth of wireless telegraphy work at Vernon resulted in the necessity in 1904 to add further working and accommodation capacity to the establishment. A third hulk, being the first iron clad HMS Warrior, was linked to the two existing hulks and remained in place until the establishment moved on shore in 1924. It is an irony that HMS Warrior, now restored to her original fighting trim, takes pride of place close to where she lay for twenty years, stripped of her fighting abilities, serving as a wireless telegraphy instruction ship and floating workshop.

Beyond the achievements of the many naval and civilian contributors to the work at HMS Vernon over the years, no historic record of the development of wireless telegraphy within the Royal Navy would be complete without particular mention of the contribution of one officer. Henry Bradwardine Jackson entered HMS Britannia, only a few days after his fourteenth birthday in 1869 as a cadet. He was appointed as midshipman only fifteen months later and was promoted to sub-lieutenant at the age of eighteen. Always excelling in science and mathematics he was eventually appointed to HMS Vernon as a staff officer in 1883.

Jackson claimed that his interest in wireless, utilizing Hertzian Waves, had been triggered by early papers written by other researchers such as Lodge and Bose, and an excellent opportunity to prove his theories on wireless propagation presented itself when in 1895 Jackson, promoted to Captain, was appointed to command the torpedo training ship HMS Defiance stationed in Devonport. Here Jackson succeeded in creating a two-way wireless transmission over three miles between HMS Defiance and a moving gunboat.

Perhaps the most significant meeting for the advancement of marine wireless took place on 31st August 1896 at the war office when Captain Jackson met Guglielmo Marconi for the first time.  The meeting was set up as an opportunity for Marconi to present the results of his recent experiments to a number of government departments and Jackson was there to represent the Admiralty. Jackson soon realised that Marconi was following a path very close to his own, but that the Marconi equipment would need to be adapted for the rigours of reliable operation on a warship and Jackson went on to provide Marconi with guidance in that area.

Unfortunately, Jackson’s work on wireless was brought to a temporary end in November 1897 when he was appointed as Naval Attaché in Paris. He was to return in July 1899 and was reappointed to HMS Vernon in charge of trials of wireless telegraph equipment. During this second spell at Vernon, Jackson was instrumental in promoting not only the use of Marconi equipment in the Royal Navy but also the development of the Navy’s own equipment. An indication of his influence and success was that by December 1901 a total of eighty-seven wireless sets were deployed on Royal Navy ships and shore establishments of which exactly two thirds were provided by HMS Vernon, the rest being provided by the Marconi Company. [1]

Henry Jackson’s career proved to be a fine example of the opportunities presented by Admiral “Jackie” Fisher’s reforms in Navy officer training.  A man of clear scientific abilities, admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1901, Jackson eventually rose to flag officer status and into the position of First Sea Lord in May 1915. Admiral Jackson retired from the Navy in 1919, but his influence on wireless development continued. In 1920 he a was appointed as the first Chairman of the Radio Research Board, an organisation set up to consolidate all Radio Research being conducted in Britain. At the Radio Research Board, he served on many committees with such leading figures as Edward Appleton and Robert Watson Watt and closely involved himself in the scientific work of the board. Admiral Jackson died at his home in Hayling Island on 14th December 1929.

The wireless work at HMS Vernon continued throughout the inter-war period. As the demand for trained signalling staff increased, other establishments were then created to train Navy wireless operators, including Wrens for shore establishments. HMS Vernon remained active in the adaption of wireless for the rigours of naval operations. In particular, HMS Vernon led the way for trialing new applications of wireless equipment, including wireless Direction Finding (DF), ship to air communications, naval radar, and submarine communications. Many of those developments would play an important role during the Second World War and beyond.

[1} Pocock & G.R.M. Garratt, “Appendix 2 – Wireless Telegraphy Appendix,”. The Origins of Maritime Radio (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1972) NMM 612.394: 621.371 (42). 

Bibliography

For further reading on the wireless telegraphy work within HMS Vernon and the Royal Navy:

Burton, Elizabeth M., “Britannia rules the wireless waves: the Admiralty and wireless, 1896-1903,” in Beyond Marconi: the roles of the Admiralty, the Post Office, and the Institution of Electrical Engineers in the invention and development of wireless communication up to 1908, 126-165. PhD diss., University of Leeds, 2012.

Kent, Barrie. Signal: A History of Signalling in the Royal Navy. Clanfield, Hampshire: Hyden House, 1993.

Pocock, Roland F. The Early British Radio Industry. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1988

The Horsea Island Naval Wireless Station 1899-1960

from “History in Portsmouth - Horsea Island” by Tim Backhouse

http://historyinportsmouth.co.uk/places/horsea-island.htm

 In 1899 the Navy adopted the Marconi system of Wireless Telegraphy (W/T) and set up a school to develop it's use which it based at HMS Vernon. The early systems were rather low powered the equipment for which was set up on HMS Warrior (renamed Vernon III). In 1902 the station was upgraded to medium power enabling clear signals to be transmitted up to 300 miles at sea. This was extended to 1000 miles by 1906 by which time high powered transmitters were becoming available and the Navy decided to set up three new stations at Gibraltar, Cleethorpes and Horsea Island. 
 
The new station at Horsea consisted of 4 wooden aerial masts of overall height 150 feet with 8 'spreader' masts of 60 feet surrounding them. Power was delivered to the site via an underwater cable from the dockyard. For the first time security at Horsea became a serious issue and fences were erected around the masts and an extended guardroom manned 24 hours a day. Developments in W/T were being made with such speed that this first station was out of date within 6 years and plans were made for a truly impressive array of 4 masts of an overall height of 446 feet, which when erected were said to have been the tallest in Europe. The first went up in 1913 to be followed by two more in 1914, the last though not finally being erected until 1921.The masts, which dominated the Portsmouth skyline, were constructed as a triangular wooden lattice about 7 feet each side. They had no taper and were instead supported by galvanised steel cables attached to mighty anchor sheaves.

The first three had hardly begun their work before one of them was involved in a bizarre accident when Flight Commander E.A. de L. Ville flew his Sopwith Baby seaplane from Calshot into a mist over Portsmouth and struck one of the masts at a height of 360 feet.

Hearing the crash Able Seaman Rath, Able Seaman Knoulton and Deckhand G. Abbott began climbing up the outside of the mast until they reached the plane where the found the pilot hanging over the front of a wing, unconscious. Somehow, they managed to manoeuvre the pilot into a bosun's chair and lower him to the ground where he made a full recovery. The three men who climbed the mast were awarded medals for extreme bravery; the mast, despite repair retained a permanent kink at it's highest level. 
 
By the end of the Great War the improvements in torpedo technology had almost rendered the Horsea range redundant as it's 1,100 yds was no longer sufficient for full scale testing. This work was largely transferred to the Stokes Bay Torpedo Experimental Station but Horsea was not neglected, instead it received a full modernisation of it's equipment such that it could play a major role in the development of motor torpedo boats and submarines. The W/T station also received an upgrade which enabled it to take part in various experimental technologies such as remote control of a ship by wireless.
 
By 1933 wireless technology no longer depended on the wooden masts and they were replaced by steel towers of 180 and 100 feet in height. The demolition of the wooden masts was considered to be such a momentous occasion that it was witnessed at close range by the Commander in Chief, Portsmouth, Sir A.K. Waistell. The steel towers themselves became redundant after the second world war though the W/T station remained operational until about 1960. Horsea's role in later years became diversified, from providing facilities for swimming lessons, the training of divers and fire fighters and amphibious tank trials.

HMS VERNON AND THE ROYAL NAVAL RESERVE AND ROYAL NAVAL VOLUNTEER RESERVE

by Digby Wall RD, BSc Econ, MA, FCCA

University of Portsmouth HMS Vernon Postgraduate Research Group

In addition to involvement in trials of and training for wireless radio, torpedo and mine warfare for the Royal Navy, in later years HMS VERNON also played an important part in training the naval reserves (the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) and, until merger with the RNR in 1958, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR).  Reserves training was carried out both during the Second World War and throughout the Cold War.

RNR/RNVR officers and ratings were trained in minewarfare, both hunting and sweeping, Naval Control of Shipping (NCS) and, from 1987, Defence of Ports and Anchorages (DefPA).  In the case of NCS, the ratings were provided by the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service (RNXS), formerly the Royal Naval Minewatching Service.

Naval Control of Shipping was a role vital to the survival of the United Kingdom in a time of war.  Personnel of the branch were responsible for controlling the movements of merchant vessels in and out of UK ports and for allocating vessels to coastal or ocean-going convoys.  The branch was described by one Commander RN as being “. . . absolutely vital but little known.”[1]  The DefPA role was responsible for defending the ports and anchorages in which NCS operated, and so its personnel worked closely with NCS staff.

Whilst training for the mine warfare roles was conducted for both the RN and the Reserves, NCS and DefPA were Reserves-only roles for which there was no equivalent in the RN.  This training was the responsibility of the Maritime Trade Faculty (MTF) housed in Creasey Block (the tower block at HMS Vernon).  The main professional courses were run in Creasey Block but some weekend training was conducted in the various RNR Divisions around the UK.  This was intended to prepare reservists for their participation in NATO exercises.

As well as training RNR officers and RNXS ratings, MTF also conducted acquaint courses for RN officers, NATO NCS officers, Convoy Commodores and Merchant Navy Masters.  Many of the latter group were also officers in the RNR.  Officers from other countries attended these courses, not only from NATO countries such as Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal and the USA, but also from non-NATO Commonwealth nations such as Australia and New Zealand.  (See photograph below.)

This training continued in Creasey Block for some years after VERNON closed as a separate naval establishment on 31st March, 1986, then becoming known officially as “HMS NELSON (VERNON site)”.

Royal Navy and US Navy Reserve officer attendees on a NCS Course, HMS

[1] Commander Julian Malec, Royal Navy, Head of the Maritime Trade Faculty, NCS Newsletter No. 7, 1985.

More about the Royal Navy Reserve here.

Minesweeper Sailors Through the Ages

from the Ton Class Association.

The Ton Class Association seeks to maintain the close bonds of comradeship among those who served in TON Class minesweepers and mine hunters, plus their support ships and bases. With over 1200 members in 24 countries and ranks ranging from Admiral to National Service Stoker, TCA is one of the largest RN ship associations.

Baltic 1855. The first RN encounter with submerged mines. HMS Merlin damaged off Kronstadt during Crimean War. Initial MCM effort was limited to “fishing” for mine mooring cables from ships’ boats – No Health and Safety and no MCM Doctrine.

First World War. Working dress was No.3 blue suits without “tiddly” collars, although former fishermen in Trawler Minesweepers of the Patrol Service soon reverted to Guernsey sweaters and long sea boots.

Second World War. The ubiquitous duffel coat was soon also seen ashore with RN Bomb and Mine Disposal parties, especially during clearance of ports and estuaries in Europe during the bitter winter of 1944/45. Often supplemented by any warm garments that could be scrounged; fur-lined leather Army Despatch Riders’ gilets were prized.

Mediterranean & Far East 1955-1967. Banyan (ie anything) rig was usual on the sweepdeck, with No 8A’s in harbour. SOPs later declared that when sweeping we should wear protective headgear but none was supplied, so crash helmets and steel helmets from the gun mountings had to suffice. We were also advised to move around with knees bent (like monkeys) to avoid whiplash injuries. You can imagine how Jack responded. 

Present day. Comfortable and weather-proof  Action Working Dress, supplemented by hard hat and steel toe-capped boots, with reliable lifejacket. 

To meet those who served in the Ton Class check out the Ton Class Association.

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