Thanks for all the comments ... and apologies for not answering them!

As some of you might have guessed, I have been on yet another of my numerous cruises. The latest one was to the Adriatic, and I will be writing a blog entry about it sometime over the next few days.

I did manage to upload some blog entries whilst I was away … but in the process I discovered a couple of minor problems. Firstly my iPad will not allow me to correct any errors … it just deletes the entire blog entry instead! Secondly I have been able to read readers’ comments, but have been unable to respond to them. I type my replies, press ‘Publish your comment’ … and nothing happens.

I suspect that these problems may be due to an incompatibility between the iPad’s software and Blogger’s software … but so far I cannot find any solutions. It may also be due to the very poor connection that I was using. (Aboard the cruise ship I was on the Internet connection is via a satellite link that can be interrupted if the ship is moving anything but very gently.).

I am sure that I am not alone in having the software problems, but if I find a way to solve them or get around them, I will let my regular blog readers know how I did it.

PS. I love cruising … but it is good to be back!

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Arsenal, Woolwich

During the latter part of the nineteenth century the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, was one of the largest (if not THE largest) manufacturing plants in the world. It was so large that it had its own railway system (with 120 miles of track!), part of which was 18-inch gauge, part of it 'standard' gauge (i.e. 4 feet 8½ inches), and part mixed so that both 18-inch and 'standard' gauge locomotives and rolling stock could run over it.

A map of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich (1877).

The Arsenal produced the majority of the artillery used by the British Army and Royal Navy as well as the ammunition, powder, and gun carriages they required. It was also the original home of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Military Academy (which trained young men to become Artillery and Engineer Officers), and until recently it housed the offices of the Quality Assurance Directorate (Ordnance) (the organisation that oversees ordnance procured and produced for the Army), the Royal Navy Ordnance Inspection Department, and the Ministry of Defence Publications section.

Probably the most famous type of gun produced at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, was the 'Woolwich Infant' The first of these large muzzle-loading guns was made in 1872, and it weighed thirty-five tons. This was followed by bigger guns of up to eighty-one and even one hundred and ten tons.

This photograph was originally captioned 'Largest and Smallest' and was supposed to show the size of the largest and smallest artillery pieces produced at that time by the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.

This photograph was originally captioned 'The 38-ton Gun and 7-pounder Abyssinian Gun'. They appear to be the barrels of the artillery pieces shown in the previous photograph.

One of the large muzzle-loading guns built at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. Some idea of the size of the gun can be gauged by the man standing to the right of the gun barrel. The original photograph was not captioned, but it appears to be a 16-inch 80-ton Gun. The largest muzzle-loading gun produced in the UK was the 17.72-inch 100-ton Gun, but that was manufactured by the Elswick Ordnance Company and not the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich.

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: British Army

Living as a I do near to the old Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, and the site of the old Woolwich Arsenal, I have come across and acquired several interesting photographs relating to the British Army during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

During this period the Royal Artillery operated as individual batteries that were grouped into brigades. The following photograph shows a Field Artillery Battery. It has been deployed, with the individual gun limbers to the rear and each member of the gun crew in their allotted position. I am not sure who the character dressed in white is, nor what role he is performing. By his bearing he appears to be an NCO, but what he is doing is any body's guess.

The next photograph shows a typical group of Royal Artillery NCOs. Such men were the backbone of any battery, and they don't look like the sort of person one would wish to argue with! They are also sporting some quite incredible moustaches, as was the custom at the time.

The following photograph shows an Infantry Company forming square. The amount of facial hair seems to indicate length of service and medals awarded if one makes a close examination of the photograph. It is also noticeable that there appears to be little or no consistency as to how the headgear should be worn, with some wearing it at a very jaunty angle whilst others are wearing it almost square on the head.

Resistance: A short review

I bought this film a short time ago and have managed to view it. I have not read the novel upon which it is based, but from the pace of the film I imagine that they have kept fairly closely to the book's plot.

It is not what I would term an all-out action war film, although it does posed some interesting questions about when one crosses the line between having to live with an occupying army and collaboration with the occupiers. As such, it could be seen as an allegory for the Allied occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The concept that men living in the countryside would have 'faded away' to join the resistance is not far fetched. In 1940 special teams of men drawn from the Home Guard we recruited to form Auxiliary Units (part of what was termed the British Resistance Organisation) to wage a guerrilla war against the invaders. Any that survived the initial period of occupation would have formed the basis of a large resistance movement.

The acting is a little wooden in places, and the film's pace is rather slow. As Doctor Samuel Johnson once, this film is 'Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.' I don't feel that I wasted my £5.00 ... but I am glad that it did not cost me any more.

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Navy: Paper Ships

During the Victorian and Edwardian period many children had to make use of paper model soldiers rather than metal ones. Printing paper soldiers (either coloured or black-and-white) was widespread, and they were also bought by adults who often cut them out and glued them into scrapbooks.

Some years ago my wife found – in an old craft shop – a single sheet of paper on which was printed images of different Royal Navy Victorian and Edwardian warships. She bought it for me ... and since then it has languished in one of my numerous cuttings files. I found it whilst looking for the original photographs I have used in recent blog entries about the Royal Navy, and I thought that it might be of interest to some of my regular blog readers.

I suspect that this particular sheet was designed to be used by adult scrapbookers, but the top three could certainly have been glued onto cardboard, suitably mounted so that they stood upright, and used by an aspiring young naval officer to 'sail' around on his playroom floor.

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Navy: Part 4

No types of vessel typifies the part played by the Royal Navy in the creation of the British Empire than the River Gunboat.

HMS Heron was an 85-ton river gunboat that was built by Yarrow for service in Africa, although some of her sister ships served on the Yangtze River in China.

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 85 tons
• Length: 108 feet
• Beam: 20 feet
• Draught: 2 feet
• Maximum Speed: 9 knots
• Complement: 25
• Armament: 2 × 6-pounder QF guns; 4 × MGs

An almost identical gunboat was built for the Portugese Navy. She was named Macao and served on the Yangtze River until 1943, when she was handed over to the Japanese. They renamed her Maiko. After the war Maiko was transferred to China as the Wu Feng and is thought to have served under that name until 1968.

Probably the most famous river gunboats of the late Victorian period are those that were commanded by Royal Navy officers and that saw service on the River Nile. These included the Melik ...

... and the Sultan.

They were part of a three-ship class, and were all built at by John I Thornycroft and Co. at Chiswick on the River Thames. They were then dismantled and shipped to Egypt where they were reassembled.

Their particulars were:

• Displacement: 134 tons
• Length: 145 feet
• Beam: 23 feet 6 inches
• Draught: 2 feet
• Maximum Speed: 12 knots
• Armament: 2 × 12-pounder QF guns; 6 × MGs

The Melik is still extant, and a society (The Melik Society) has been set up to ensure her preservation.

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Navy: Part 3

The torpedo was the bête noire of warfare in the Victorian era. They were thought to be so powerful that they could easily sink a battleship and yet even the smallest steam launch could carry one or more.

The torpedo gave rise to a specialist type of fast craft whose main task was tactically offensive, the Torpedo Boat. In turn the Torpedo Boat lead to the design of a ship designed to counter it, the Torpedo Boat Destroyer.

TB75 was a typical 1st-class torpedo boat. She was one of 57 similar vessels built in the mid 1880s.

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 75 tons
• Length: 125 feet
• Beam: 13 feet
• Maximum Speed: 21 knots
• Complement: 14
• Armament: 2 × 3-pounder QF guns; 4 × 14-inch torpedo tubes

HMS Daring was a member of the A-class of 27-knot 'turtle-back' destroyers. These were built between 1894 and 1895, and the 42 ships in the class were not built to an homogeneous design. Each shipbuilder was given the basic specification by the Admiralty ... and built their batch of ships to their particular design.

The class particulars were:

• Displacement: 220-300 tons
• Length: 180-206 feet
• Beam: 18.5-20.5 feet
• Maximum Speed: 27-28 knots
• Complement: 45-60
• Armament: 1 x 12-pounder (3-inch) QF gun; 2-5 × 6-pounder QF guns; 2 × 18-inch torpedo tubes

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Navy: Part 2

The workhorse of the Royal Navy has always been the cruiser, and amongst my collection of old photographs I have two that stand out as typical.

HMS Ariadne was a protected cruiser of the Diadem-class. They were termed 'protected, because they were fitted with an armoured deck but no belt or side armour like the armoured cruisers.

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 11,000 tons
• Length: 435 feet
• Beam: 69 feet
• Draught: 27 feet 6 inches
• Propulsion: 2 × triple expansion engines (18,000 hp) each driving a propeller
• Maximum Speed: 20 knots
• Complement: 677
• Armament: 16 × 6-inch QF guns; 14 x 12-pounder (3-inch) QF guns, 3 × 3-pounder QF guns; 2 × 18-inch torpedo tubes
• Armour: Deck: 2.5-4 inches; Conning Tower: 12 inches; Casemates & Gun Shields: 4.5 inches

HMS Brilliant was a member of the the Apollo-class of 20 second-class protected cruisers. As such she was much smaller and more economic than HMS Ariadne and her like, but also somewhat less capable.

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 3,600 tons
• Length: 314 feet
• Beam: 43 feet 6 inches
• Draught: 17 feet 6 inches
• Propulsion: 2 × triple expansion engines (9,000 hp) each driving a propeller
• Maximum Speed: 19.75 knots
• Complement: 273 to 300
• Armament: 2 × 6-inch QF guns; 6 x 4.7-inch QF guns, 8 × 6-pounder QF guns; 4 × 14-inch torpedo tubes
• Armour: Deck: 2 inches

Five ships of this class (including HMS Brilliant) were sunk as blockships as part of the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids in April 1918.

Victorian and Edwardian Miscellany: Royal Navy: Part 1

Over the years I have managed to collect a few photographs of ships of the Royal Navy from the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, and I thought that they might be of general interest to regular blog readers.

The Admiral-class battleships are one of my favourites designs. They were precursors of the Pre-Dreadnoughts and the first significant 'class' of ironclad battleships built by the Royal Navy.

The leadship of the class was HMS Collingwood.

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 9,500 tons
• Length: 325 feet
• Beam: 68 feet
• Draught: 26 feet 4 inches
• Propulsion: 2 × Humphries compound inverted steam engines (9,600 ihp) each driving a propeller
• Maximum Speed: 16.8 knots
• Complement: 498
• Armament: 4 × BL 12-inch guns; 6 × BL 6-inch guns; 12 × 6-pounder QF guns; 4 × 14-inch torpedo tubes
• Armour: Belt: 8–18 inches; Bulkheads: 7–16 inches; Deck: 2–3 inches; Conning Tower: 2–12 inches; Barbettes: 10–11.5 inches; Battery Screens: 6 inches

The final ship in the class was HMS Benbow. She was unique as she was armed with two of the largest guns that available, the BL 16.25-inch'

Her particulars were:

• Displacement: 10,600 tons
• Length: 330 feet
• Beam: 68 feet 6 inches
• Draught: 27 feet 10 inches
• Propulsion: 2 × Maudslay compound inverted steam engines (10,860 ihp) each driving a propeller
• Maximum Speed: 17.5 knots
• Complement: 523
• Armament: 2 × BL 16.25-inch guns; 10 × BL 6-inch guns; 12 × 6-pounder QF guns; 5 × 14-inch torpedo tubes
• Armour: Belt: 8–18 inches; Bulkheads: 7–16 inches; Deck: 2–3 inches; Conning Tower: 2–12 inches; Barbettes: 10–11.5 inches; Battery Screens: 6 inches

To me these ships the epitome of good Victorian battleship design, and remain amongst my all-time favourite warships.

Resistance

During a recent visit to the local branch of ASDA I saw that the price of a DVD I had though about buying had dropped to only £5.00. It seemed like a bargain ... so I bought it.

The film is entitled RESISTANCE, and it is based on a best-selling, alternative-reality novel by Owen Sheers.

The story is set in Wales during 1944. The D-Day landings have failed, and the Germans have mounted a successful counter-invasion. A very small section of the occupying army has been sent into a valley in the Black Mountains, where they find that all the men have 'disappeared' (i.e. gone to join the British Resistance).

The film's 'stars' are Andrea Riseborough (who was very impressive when she played a young Margaret Thatcher in a made-for-TV film in 2008) and Tom Wlaschiha, and Michael Sheen (an actor who I think is unequalled by other actors of his generation) makes a guest appearance.

Some of the reviews that I have read are not very complimentary about this film. Nonetheless I hope to watch this DVD in the near future ... and I am sure that I will end up thinking that it was £5.00 well spent.