HMS POWERFUL AND OTHER SHIPS...

[violetmoon53]

Just want to say I am really pleased to have found this forum and say hello to everyone.

I have the history of all the ships/ bases where my great grandfather served from 1916-1929.

I am trying to piece together all I can as none of the family know any details of his life.

He started his navel life on HMS Powerful and his last entry is at HMS Pembroke which I believe was an onshore base.

Some of the writing is very hard to decipher and maybe someone will be able to help me.

As I have just joined the forum will have a quick look around.

Thanks for reading

violetmoon:)

[Batstiger]

Hi Violet,

here are a few pics of HMS Powerful which was used as a training ship from 1915.

Bob.

[violetmoon53]

:)Hi Bob,

Thank-you for the links to the photos of HMS Powerful, what fantastic pictures. Would you mind if I copy the photos?

I have no knowledge of Naval Ships, so all this is new to me.

My great grandfather was Charles William Joseph Clark b1899 and I found the information of his naval life from the National Archives online documents.

Yesterday was spent trawling the internet looking for information on the ships he served as the list is very long! Found this wonderful site!!!

It's very confusing as some of the ships listed also have other names in brackets by them. Are you able to tell me what this means?

HMS Powerful- until Jan 1916

HMS Victory I- Jan 1916- he was only here for 3 days. Am I right in thinking that this was an onshore base. Have read conflicting reports some saying it was at Chrystal Palace, others saying based in Portsmouth.

HMS Inflexible- 1 Feb 1916-15 April 1917

HMS Woolwich (Octavia)- April 1916-May 1917

HMS Inflexible-Aug 1917-March 1918

HMS Pembroke I-March 1918-July 1918- I believe this is a landbase at Chatham?

HMS Island P????-unable to read the name-July 1918-Dec 1918

HMS Actaeon?-Jan-March 1919

HMS Wildfire-April 1919

HMS Attentive II- April 1919-July 1919

HMS Lucia- July 1919-Sept 1919

HMS Maidstone- Sept 1919-Nov 1919

HMS Pembroke I- Dec 1919-April 1920

HMS Wildfire- April 1920-Feb 1921

HMS Pembroke I- Feb-JUne 1921

HMS Vivid III (Raleigh)- July1921

HMS Raleigh- July 1921-Aug 1922

HMS Calcutta- Aug 1922

HMS Dartmouth- Aug-Oct 1922

HMS Pembroke I- Oct 1922 -Jan 1924

HMS Columbine? (Mackay)-Jan 1924-Nov 1925

HMS Columbine? (Shakespeare)- Nov-Dec 1925

HMS Pembroke I- Jan 1926

HMS Columbine (???)-Jan 1926-Sept 1926

HMS Columbine (Violent)??-Sept 1926-Oct 1926

HMS Pembroke I- Oct 1926-Dec 1927

HMS Cumberland??-Dec 1927-May 1928

HMS Tamer II (Reppel?)- May 1928-July 1928

HMS Vivid II (Reppel)- July 1928-Aug 1928

HMS Pembroke I- Aug 1928- no further entries


The document also includes other information but will need to investigate this further as I haven't a clue what it all means.

Sorry it is such a lot of information at once but any help about any of the ships would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading

violetmoon:)

[Batstiger]

Hi again Violet.

I have trawled through some of the names that you have listed and found the ships that your Great Grandfather possibly served on.
Amongst the list are quite a few shore bases and judging by the dates he was attached to them strikes me as though he was in transit to other ships. HMS Vivid eventually became HMS Drake which is Devonport Barracks. By Tamer you possibly mean Tamar which is another shore base along with Pembroke.
Judging by the fact that he was attached to at least three depot ships suggests that he was an engineer of some sort.
I think you will find Wildfire is a shorebase as well as Dartmouth.
Hope this helps in some way although I could be wrong in parts. No doubt someone will correct me !

Bob.

[violetmoon53]

Hello Bob,

Once again thanks for all the photos and details. Much appreciated. Fascinating and very proud to think my great-grandfather was on board these vessels serving his country.

I have his Seamans Service Records which I downloaded from the National Archives- hard to understand some of the details on there.

Are you able to tell me if I can get any further more detailed documents relating to his Naval career as on this document it says transferred to card as from 1st Jan 1929. It lists some details under the Badges column and would love to find out what this all means.

Many thanks for sharing your knowledge.

violetmoon:)

[Batstiger]

Hi Violet.

I misled you on the Dartmouth, here she is.

Bob

[violetmoon53]

Good morning Bob,

Once again thanks, your help is very greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

violetmoon:)

[traceyr]

Hi violetmoon,

You may be interested to know that your great-grandfather was serving on HMS Raleigh on her last voyage, when she was shipwrecked off the coast of Labrador in August 1922. She had previously visited the Pacific coast (Vancouver, San Francisco, Monterey, maybe other ports) before passing through the Panama Canal on her way to the Atlantic. He probably returned on HMS Calcutta to Liverpool (which would explain the short time on the latter).

The ships' names brackets would appear to indicate time spent on those ships while at shore installations such as Vivid, Tamar.

If anyone else can provide more information on HMS Raleigh's trips between 1919 and Aug. 1922 I'd be very grateful: My grandfather was also on board.

[SCRG1970]

Violetmoon

I have attempted to give you a bit more info on where your relation served and what type of ship and where it was serving.
This should let you google/wikipedia for more info and at least you will know you are on the right ship. Cant say what your g/grandfather was doing but if you know his rank or rating you can "best-guess" it sometimes. Perhaps you can post that info.

POWERFUL Ex-Powerful Class Cruiser acting as Training Ship for Boys at Devonport.

VICTORY 1 Portsmouth Naval Barracks

INFLEXIBLE Invincible Class Battlecruiser with the 3rd Battle Cruiser Squadron at Jutland.

WOOLWICH Depot Ship for Destoyers
OCTAVIA Admiralty M Class Destroyer

INFLEXIBLE

PEMBROKE Chatham Naval Barracks

ISLAND P?????

ACTAEON Sheerness Torpedo Training School

WILDFIRE Sheerness Naval Base

ATTENTIVE II Dover Naval Base

LUCIA Depot Ship Devonport 2nd Submarine Flotilla

MAIDSTONE Depot Ship Portsmouth 3rd Submarine Flotilla

PEMBROKE/WILDFIRE/PEMBROKE

VIVID II Devonport Naval Barracks as Crew for HMS RALEIGH

RALEIGH/CALCUTTA Already posted

DARTMOUTH Weymouth Class Cruiser Reserve Fleet at Devonport

PEMBROKE

COLUMBINE Rosyth Naval base

MACKAY Scott Class Destroyer with Atlantic Fleet as Leader of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla and later the 7th Destroyer Flotilla

SHAKESPEARE Shakespeare Class Destroyer as above Leader 7th Destroyer Flotilla

PEMBROKE/COLUMBINE

VIOLENT Admiralty V Class destroyer Atlantic Fleet 7th Destroyer Flotilla

PEMBROKE

CUMBERLAND Kent Class Cruiser. Brand new and sailing from UK to China as part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron

TAMAR II Hong Kong Accounting Base Probably on his way home to UK for release

PEMBROKE Aug 1928 Discharged from the Navy.


Hope this helps yyou with your research


Best regards

Gerry

[lunatrace]

HI

Charles Clark was also my great grandfather.

Would love to hear from Violetmoon to find out more

Thanks
:)