Letters to the Editor published in the February 2015 issue.

From: Andrew Hudson, by e-mail

The picture of HMS New Zealand shown in Through the Eyes of the Artist, the Great War is not the same ship that is described in the bulk of the accompanying text. The battleship HMS New Zealand was completed in 1905 as described but it was not at Jutland. In 1912 the Indefatigable class battle cruiser New Zealand funded by the New Zealand government was presented to Britain and the original New Zealand was remained Zealandia.

It was the Battle cruiser New Zealand that was present at Dogger Bank and Jutland. Zealandia which was as the article mentioned rendered obsolete by the time of its completion was considered too vulnerable to serve with the Battle Fleet in April 1915 and with its sister ships was withdrawn to the East Coast. The battle cruiser received only slight damage at Jutland and was regarded as a lucky ship. Its fortune being ascribed by the crew to the Maori piupui or warriors skirt and the hei-tiki pendant presented by a Maori chief during the ships tour of New Zealand in 1913. With the gift went a prophecy that the ship would one day be in action and be hit in three places, but her casualties would not be heavy.

At Jutland the New Zealand was hit only on her after turret and there were no casualties. The old Maori chief had been emphatic that the same officers and men would be in the ship in action, and he was right.

David Eeles’s reply:

Thank you for your correction, and for the very interesting extra information, as unfortunately the grey funnel fleet is a little outside my area of expertise.

From: Peter Sommerville, Greenock

In the September issue of ST&Y there is a photograph of P&O’s Adonia leaving Gibraltar with the caption explaining the collapse of Renaissance Cruises resulting in most of their fleet being in lay up at Gibraltar.

I have a photograph (above) I took during this period where five of their larger ships (R One,R Two,R Five,R Six and R Eight along with two smaller liners Renaissance Seven and Renaissance Eight were in port.

I don’t think as stated that all eight of the larger ships were there together, I seem to remember one of them was impounded in Hawai, but I may be wrong.

The photo shows three large and two (double banked) on the Detached Mole while the other two were on South Mole.

From: Robert Langlois, Guernsey

The August issue contained an article of more than ordinary interest here in the Channel Islands, namely the detailed history of the L&CISCL (pages 54-58), yet another by Norman Middlemiss (how does he manage to produce so much quality stuff month by month?). I can enlarge on some aspects of the piece.

In his book “Merchant Ships of the World in Colour 1910-1929” (Blandford Press 1973) Laurence Dunn featured the London Queen (599/10), which was completed with accommodation for 20 passengers (22 according to the article). At the time of her construction, he says, her owners were seeking to develop the passenger side of the Channel Islands to London trade. Two years later they brought out the slightly larger Channel Queen (670/12), with berths for 40 passengers. He then says that “during the war a yet larger one carrying 60 was delivered, but was soon sold for Naval service”. I’ve always been interested in any passenger-carrying vessels trading to, from or within the Channel Islands, and had often wondered about this mysterious ship. Now NM has clarified this for me, with name (Island Queen) and Naval use (‘Q’ ship Privet). According to Dittmar and Colledge’s “British Warships 1914-1919” she served from 23rd November 1916 to 11th June 1919, during which time she also went under the names Q19, Alcala and Swisher, presumably as part of her deceptive disguises. The aforesaid book lists her as mounting only two 12-pounders, but the four mentioned by NM would certainly have produced the “devastating accuracy” and four hits as described.

I also didn’t know that the L&CISCL was renamed British Channel Islands Shipping Co. Ltd. following acquisition by Coast Lines. In the late forties and early fifties I used to go down to St Peter Port harbour to look at the shipping. In those days one could wander around freely and walk along the quays right alongside. In this way, I became familiar with the likes of the Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, Channel and Southern Coasts. Being so close to such vessels instilled in me a latent desire to one day go to sea, but this was never realised and I became just another shipping enthusiast. An elder cousin of mine served as a deckhand in Guernsey and Jersey Coasts and possibly others on the Channel Islands-London route, before transferring to the Sark/Alderney boats.

Guernsey Queen and Saxon Queen both helped to evacuate civilians from Guernsey in late June 1940, proceeding to Poole and Plymouth respectively. The former had already evacuated 92 British troops from St Valery, France on 12th June 1940, and later was at Sword Beach on D-Day+6 – an eventful war.

Reference the bottom of page 57, I well remember the Robina, Herm Coast and Sark Coast (the latter not to be confused with the above-mentioned L&CISCL unit), but had not known until now the precise name of their owner, now revealed by NM as Islands Shipping Co. Ltd., of Guernsey. The wooden-hulled Herm Coast was an ex-Admiralty MFW (possibly an inshore minesweeper), while Sark Coast was an ex-landing craft (specifically an LCGM = landing craft, gun, medium). Five days after Robina was chartered, she and Herm Coast contrived to collide with each other when passing through the Gouliot Passage between Sark and Brecqhou. Robina went to England for repairs and was not seen again, while the sunken Herm Coast was salvaged and returned to service.

Our local daily paper the Guernsey Evening Press printed a free commemorative copy of its edition of Saturday 8th August 1914, with front-page headline “War of the Seven Nations : Battles on Land and Sea”. There on the back page I spotted a routine advert by “The London & Channel Islands SS Co Ltd”.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is the fares, with returns costing only 50% more than singles. Both Norman Middlemiss (in the article) and Laurence Dunn highlight the low fares, the latter writing “Fares were exeptionally low and the Queens provided a very cheap means of travel to and from the Islands, or for a round voyage lasting nearly a week”. Evidently there was one weekly departure by each ship, and it is interesting to see how the advert seems to be geared to possible London shippers and passengers, even though appearing in a Channel islands newspaper. It must have been inserted by the London Managers.

The reference to “Produce and General Merchandise to and from the Islands” is also interesting. Laurence Dunn writes “Outwards the ships carried general cargo, but homewards it was always broken granite from the Guernsey quarries which, because of its great hardness was in demand for roadmaking”. This fits entirely with the Guernsey destination port in the advert being St Sampson’s (rather than St Peter Port), which was the loading point nearest the quarries, which were all in the northern part of the Island. On page 55 Norman Middemiss refers to “with cargoes of granite chippings for roadmaking on the return voyage” and also mentions the Jersey potato season, which wouldn’t have applied to Guernsey. I was intrigued by the mention of St Brieuc. There must have been a link with the Continent through that port, possibly via some kind of trans-shipment arrangement.

It’s a pity that the name of the dock from which the ships sailed in London is not clear because of the fold (it can’t have been more than 3-4 letters). It could well have been the East Dock, as mentioned by Norman Middlemiss on page 55 (left-hand column).

It is fascinating how the writings of Messrs Middlemiss and Dunn fit in with the contents of the advert, but I suppose that’s to be expected. Such images and records from the time represent living history when seen today, do they not.