Little Ship, Big Story

Rodney Pell

Description

Emerging like a butterfly from its chrysalis, a remarkable little ship, the Sheemaun, springs from her designer's drawing-board to sail through eight decades of history, gathering in her wake a unique collection of admirers, including former owners, former crews, and those who served courageously on her during WW2. Their stories are revealed here; tales of bravery and daring, accounts of bombs, mines, depth-charging and death; stories of espionage and smuggling; and memorable chronicles of Royal occasions, cruising, maritime festivals and much else.This fascinating, deeply engrossing true story takes the reader into the heart and soul of the Sheemaun and of all those who have loved her.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir

Informations

• Publié par: The Conrad Press
• Date de parution: 05 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912924622
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

Little Ship, Big Story


Nominated for the 2019 Mountbatten Literary Award
Little Ship, Big Story
the adventures of HMY Sheemaun and the amazing stories of those who have sailed in her
Rodney Pell


Little Ship, Big Story
Published by The Conrad Press in the United Kingdom 2019
Tel: [phone] www.theconradpress.com [e-mail]
ISBN 978-1-912924-62-2
Copyright © Rodney Pell, 2019
The moral right of Rodney Pell to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved.
Typesetting and Cover Design by: Charlotte Mouncey, www.bookstyle.co.uk with appreciative acknowledgement to Tim Hunt who took the photograph of Sheemaun .
The Conrad Press logo was designed by Maria Priestley.


OWNERS 1935 – 2018 (Current)
1935 - Mr. Ernest Richards
1935 - Mr. L. S. Saunders
1936 - Mr. Harold Bell
1939 - Lt. R. H. Calvert-Link RNVR
1941 - His Majesty King George VI (The Royal Navy)
1945 - Naval Department of Sea Transport
1949 - Mrs J. O. M. Scott
1950 - Mr. H. E. Chubb M.I. Mech.E. MBE
1950 - Mr. T. H. V. Haydon
1959 - Ingram. O. Capper MN. RNVR.
1962 - SHEEMAUN YACHT CO. Ltd. (Captain I. O. Capper)
1965 - Flt Sgt. T. W. H. Burton Ex-RAF
1967 - Rear Adml. G. T. S. ‘Peter’ Gray CB. DSC.
1981 - Lt Cmdr. Ian Pearson RN
1987 - Dr Rodney L. Pell


INTRODUCTION
‘ An ethereal shuttle clatters back and forth in the Loom of Time endlessly weaving the Tapestry of History’
Anon.
T he Sheemaun, 25-tons was launched in 1935 from James Noble’s Boatyard in Fraserburgh Scotland and is now recognised internationally as a fine surviving example of a G L Watson designed 1930’s Gentleman’s Motor Yacht. The history of Sheemaun is inextricably interwoven with the widely differing stories of a unique group of people who over the past eight decades have put their hands to her wheel. World events and contemporary experiences are revealed as Sheemaun shuttling her way back and forth in the ‘Loom of Time’ has woven a colourful and unique tapestry of adventures and stories which fall naturally into a tetralogy.
1/ The pre-Second World War period
2/ The Second World War Period
3/ The Post-War Period
4/ The 21 st Century
Commissioned in 1934 by Banker Ernest Richards, design No 561 by the Leading Yacht Designers, Messrs G L Watson & Co. Ltd was agreed and Sheemaun was built and launched in 1935. The stories around her building and naming, and her adventures as she passed through the hands of her four pre-war owners are revealed.
A unique and colourful record of reminiscences and echoes of events, sometimes thousands of miles and many years apart have come to light. I have introduced some imaginary characters who in order of appearance are – ‘Jock’ Bell, ‘Sandy’ Stewart, Skipper Buckie (based on real life skipper Buchanan), Andy, Lt Clive Baker RNVR, ‘Chalky’ White, ‘Paddy’ Docherty, Jim, Pete and ‘Taff’ Davies. The stories otherwise are those of real people and all the events happened.
Requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1940, Sheemaun served in the Second World War as His Majesty’s Yacht Sheemaun , a Thames Estuary Patrol Services boat armed with two Hotchkiss heavy machine guns. Her many patrol duties included dealing with the dangerous magnetic mines dropped by German bombers into the Thames. She was damaged by the concussions from some of those mines, she was strafed by German fighter-bombers and was present at the sinking of the ammunition ship the SS Richard Montgomery in the Medway approaches.
Amazingly, the memoirs of the late Stanley Dodd RNVR, who served as mechanic on HMY Sheemaun in the Second World War, have been discovered and revealed to me by the Dodd family. Stanley’s writings provide a vivid personal first-hand account of life in East London during the ‘Blitz’; of life and death in London’s Docklands and the adventures of a Royal Navy Armed Thames Estuary Patrol Services boat. The extracts from Stanley’s writings provide a unique, never-before revealed, primary historic source.
The stories of bravery and of gruesome sea-battles involving the men who would one day come to put their hands to Sheemaun ’s wheel are recounted. One of those men, Lt. Gordon Gray RN, who preferred to be known as ‘Peter’, was later to become Rear Admiral ‘Peter’ Gray CB. DSC.
‘Peter’ purchased a ‘Visitor Book’ in March 1942 and kept it with him on every vessel on which he served or sailed. The ‘Visitor Book’ tells its own stories as it is shaken by broadsides crashing out, by mines exploding and by bombs. One day it would accompany ‘Peter’ aboard Sheemaun . The ‘Visitor Book’ provides another fascinating and previously undisclosed primary historic source.
Post-War, Sheemaun continued with her adventures as did those who would in their turn hold her wheel. She was present in 1953 at the spectacular Coronation Celebrations and Spithead Fleet Review by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. She engaged in some clandestine gold smuggling in the 1950s! Later, when owned by former Lancaster Bomber Captain Thomas Burton, Sheemaun was taken to the Mediterranean and berthed in Spain for a while before becoming, for fourteen years, the private yacht of Rear Admiral ‘Peter’ Gray CB. DSC. She would spend her next six years as the Cadet Training Flagship of Pangbourne Nautical College.

Sheemaun in her sailing rig off Dover in 2010, Photo courtesy Roland Kenward
The 21st Century sees Sheemaun certified by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Julian Oswald GCB, as being of National Historic Merit. In 2010 the National Historic Ships Committee, a British Government funded Authority, appointed Sheemaun to be the 2010 Flagship of the United Kingdom Historic Fleet. Sheemaun was present, by invitation, when a thousand vessels and millions of cheering sight-seers joined in the 2012 Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in celebration of the Sixty Years that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth had been on the Throne of the United Kingdom.
For anyone born after say 1950 and living today in the modern ‘here and now’, unless a war historian or coming from a family that has retained sentimental war stories and mementos, then it would be very difficult to imagine what life was like during those turbulent years 1939 to 1945.
However, should one recline comfortably in Sheemaun’ s snug saloon, maybe with a glass of decent claret in hand, lulled by the gentle rocking of her hull, the rhythmic creaking of leathered gaff jaws on pine and the chuckling of wavelets against her timber hull; then there come magical moments when the old boat stirring slightly, whispers her adventures and her reminiscences into one’s head. Sounds from the past echo from her solid timbers, ghostly figures clamber the companion ways. Voices from the helm call for compass courses and position fixes, give orders or shout warnings to brace as explosions pound her timbers.
After the War, when once again functioning as a private yacht and in happier and less frenetic circumstances, friends and families have laughed and conversed. Sounds of singing, of a guitar, a fiddle, a concertina or whistle have all echoed in her timbers. Lovers have shared with Sheemaun their giggling experiences of secret moments and tanned bodies have sunbathed on her decks. Her sails have filled to the wind and her engines have rumbled. Sheemaun has taken her part together with other classic and historic vessels as bands have played, and parades have been held at Maritime Festivals in the UK and in France, Belgium and Holland. She has sailed around England, she has cruised the Baltic Sea, she has sailed to the Channel Islands, to Paris and to Minorca in the Mediterranean Sea and back.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am especially grateful to Mike and Barrie Dodd, sons of the late Stanley Dodd RNVR who served as mechanic on HMY Sheemaun in the Second World War during her role as an armed Royal Navy Auxiliary Patrol Services Boat. Mike and Barrie kindly passed to me the hand-written memoirs of their late father from which the reader will find sections quoted word for word. I am also most grateful for the material, pictures and stories kindly provided by Nicholas Gray whose father the late Rear Admiral Gordon Thomas Seccombe ‘Peter’ Gray CB. DSC. came in his retirement to own Sheemaun. Nicholas Gray told me how his father had described his years of cruising in Sheemaun as providing
‘Some of the happiest times in my life.’
Nicholas Gray also kindly provided the ‘Visitor Book’ which his late father had kept with him on every vessel in which he had served or commanded - including Sheemaun .
I am very grateful to Lt. Cmdr. Ian Pearson who passed on precious log-books when he parted with Sheemaun . I express my sincere appreciation to Bill Macdonald who so vividly recorded the story of Fraserburgh Boat Building; to Helen Richards and Sue Reid, daughter and granddaughter of Ernest Richards who commissioned the building of Sheemaun . Thanks, and appreciation also to Shirley Critchley, granddaughter of Judge Haydon KC. Shirley sailed on Sheemaun together with her Grandfather and her uncle Vernon Haydon. My appreciations also to Christopher Crouch DFC. grandson of Judge Haydon KC; and to Brian and Andrew Burton son and grandson of Flt. Sergeant Thomas Burton RAF. To Lord Hayter cousin of Emory Chubb, to Captain Richard Forward MN, to Nick Hewitt Maritime Historian formerly of the Imperial War Museum; to Dan Houston editor of ‘Classic Sailor’ magazine and to a dear friend, the late Martyn Heighton past Director of National Historic Ships UK and to Denys Tweedell, past Commodore of the Royal Temple Yacht Club, who tutored me for my Yacht-Master examinations.
Very important also is my wife Maura who has been encouraging and supportive and who has applied