This blog post is in English as I
assume that more English than German speaking readers may find it interesting.
When preparing my Loch Ewe holiday
earlier this year, I consulted of course Steve Chadwick's book "Loch Ewe
During World War II" and learned about the military use of
Loch Ewe in WW1. I was electrified by a hint that there was a battery on the
Rubh-a-Choin Peninsula that was known, among other names, as "Fort Ru
Con".
When I asked in the Great War Forum,
I learned that the remains of the battery could still be seen, and this started
a research that has been ongoing ever since and is far from being over.
What I found on site will be described in a later blog post. However, it was much more interesting what I
found out about Loch Ewe’s history in WW1 after my return in June 2022, and that's what this post is about.
Since then, literature research took
up literally every minute of my spare time and costed a lot of money. The main literature
sources that I used are listed at the end of this blog post; they include both print
editions which I acquired, as well as digital documents from various archives
and online sources. The list is not complete nor is it academically accurate,
and I have not referenced the sources in the text - remember, this is only a blog post,
not a thesis.
But now to the subject of this blog
post:
As early as August 10th, 1914 – only
a few days after Great Britain had declared war on Germany - the British
Admiralty was sure that the fleet base Scapa Flow had been discovered by the
enemy and consequently decided to establish Loch Ewe as a secondary coaling
base. Rear-Admiral Richard P. F. Purefoy was appointed Senior Naval Officer
(SNO) of the base. He was appointed primarily for the base administration under
the direct orders of the Admiralty, but this did not render him independent of
the Admiral Commanding, Coast of Scotland (at that time Admiral Sir Robert
Swinburne Lowry), to whom matters involving his general responsibility had to
be referred. At the same time he was to fulfill to the best of his ability the
requirements of the Commander-in-Chief, Grand Fleet, with regard to supplies,
communications and other services.
Along with the appointment of Rear
Admiral Purefoy, some colliers from Cardiff were diverted to Loch Ewe instead
of Scapa Flow. In addition, Admiral Jellicoe, the Commander-in-Chief of the
Grand Fleet, sent 12.000 tons of coal to Loch Ewe. A temporary signal station in
Aultbea and a motor bus service for mails and provisions from Achnasheen were
established.
On August 12th, Admiral Jellicoe
sent the 3rd Battle Squadron to Loch Ewe to coal and to test the suitability of
this base and its capability for defence against submarine attack. However,
when they arrived at Loch Ewe on August 13th, they found themselves in a harbour
completely devoid of defences. Rear Admiral Purefoy pointed out the need for defences
if it was intended to make any considerable use of Loch Ewe as a base in the future.
On August 16th, the Dreadnought
Battle Fleet was sent to their new fuelling base, Loch Ewe, where they arrived
on the 18th; on August 20th at 6:30 pm they returned to their previous cruising
area east of the Orkneys.
The forces that anchored in Loch Ewe
on August 18th were
- HMS Iron Duke,
- The
1st, 2nd, and 4th Battle Squadron
- The
1st Light Cruiser Squadron (less HMS Falmouth and HMS Liverpool),
- HMS
Bellona,
- HMS Boadicea and
- HMS Assistance.
These are the ships:
The National Archives in Kew have an
undated, very rough sketch of the anchorages in Loch Ewe; it shows most
probably the situation on August 18th:
I tried to transfer the information
from this sketch to a map:
(© Open Street Maps Mitwirkende)
It is remarkable that according to
the original sketch, the pier for the fleat was the one south of Midtown on the western
shore whereas the headquarter of the naval base was at Aultbea.
The Imperial War Museum has two
photos of ships mooring in Loch Ewe in their collection. They are associated
with the battle of Jutland but give a good impression how the situation in
August 1914 may have looked like. The first photo shows the HMS Vanguard:
(Source: Imperial War Museums)
The second photo shows ships of the
4th Battle Squadron:
(Source: Imperial War Museums)
At the beginning of the war it was
assumed that the Germans had advance bases in Norway or the Shetlands and would
employ mainly torpedo craft to attack the Grand Fleet. In the meantime however,
the thread of submarine attacks was also taken into consideration. Loch Ewe had
neither protection against torpedo crafts nor against submarines, so the fleet could never remain longer than
it was necessary for fuelling purposes. In the event of an alarm being given of
the presence of a submarine, the only possible action was to take the fleet to
sea immediately.
On August 28th, the Admiralty
advised Admiral Jellicoe to have HMS Illustrious proceed to Loch Ewe (arriving
on August 30th) to provide a temporary defence there, but the presence of a
guard ship could only be a temporary measurement.
On September 2nd, the HMS Assistance
arrived at Loch Ewe in order to serve as a base ship.
Excursus
1: HMS Illustrious and HMS Assistance
HMS
Illustrious was a pre-Dreadnought battleship of the Majestic Class. It was
built at the Chatham Royal Dockyard and launched September 17th 1896; she was
commissioned into the fleet in April 1898. When WW1 broke out, she was one of
the oldest battleships and served as guard ship at various harbours. In 1915
she was disarmed and became depot ship or unarmed transport. She was paid off
in April 1919 and sold for scrapping in June 1920.
Armament:
|
4
|
BL 12-inch naval guns
|
|
12
|
QF 6-inch naval guns
|
|
18
|
Q.F. 12-pdr. 12-cwt. guns
|
|
12
|
QF 3-pdr. Hotchkiss guns
|
|
5
|
18-inch torpedo tubes (torpedos partly fitted for gyroscopes)
|
Armament
plan of a Majectic class battleship according to Rickard, J.,
Plans of Majestic Class Battleships:
This is how HMS Illustrious looked like:
HMS
Assistance was originally planned as a civilian ship and purchased for use as a
floating workshop and water-distilling ship while it was still in construction.
She was launched December 22nd, 1900, and served as fleet repair ship in WW1.
In August 1914, she belonged to the 2nd Battle Squadron. She was scrapped on
March 11th, 1937.
Her
only armament were 6 4-inch guns, most probably BL 4-inch naval guns.
At about the same time as HMS
Illustrious and HMS Assistance arrived at Loch Ewe, a group of representatives
of the Director of Naval Ordnance visited Loch Ewe to draw up a scheme of fixed
defences. In their report dated September 1st they considered a day or night attack by
torpedo craft as the most probable form of attack, followed by a cruiser attack
and finally a submarine attack. They recommended measurements against torpedo
craft attacks but postponed protection
against cruisers and submarines as „matters for further consideration“.
Here is in brief what they
recommended:
- 4
batteries with 2 4.7-inch or 4-inch guns and 2 searchlights each with the
option of expansion by one or two guns and searchlights per battery if
necessary
- A
Port War Signal Station (PWSS) near Leacan Donna
- Garrison
for the four batteries in close proximity to the gun positions
- A headquarter in Aultbea
- A
water catchment, filtering and distribution system
- Supply
of fresh provisions from Glasgow
- Improvement
and extension of existing roads
- Establishing
the necessary telephone communication between PWSS, headquarter and batteries,
including a submarine cable across Loch Ewe
- Supplying
one large steam or motor boat and a skiff for communications, for the supply of
the batteries and for enabling HQ & medical staff to visit the batteries on
the western shore. The garrison should be completely independant from any other
ship present in the Loch.
Two enclosures to their report
describe in detail the necessary staff and the resulting buildings that needed
to be constructed.
Excursus
2: The Port War Signal Station (PWSS)
Overall
concept for observation of the Scottish coast:
The
indentation of the Scottish coast together with the sparseness of the
population made a close watch for enemy vessels necessary, with a focus on the north
coast of Scotland, the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides and the Minch.
An
important role in this close watch played the so-called “Auxiliary Patrol”,
consisting of units of armed trawlers, yachts and motor boats. 3 of those units
were assigned to the Shetlands, 6 to Loch Ewe and Stornoway and 8 yachts and 72
trawlers to the Orkneys.
The
creation of this Auxiliary Patrol made it necessary to expand the system of
distribution of naval intelligence. In
order to pass information rapidly from the coast signal or observation stations
to the Naval Centers and to the Auxiliary Patrol and vice versa, eight small wireless
telegraphy stations were equipped in early 1915 to maintain touch, one
of them at Aultbea. Intelligence gained was passed to the Auxiliary Patrol
vessels, and all information gathered by
the
Auxiliary Patrol vessels was reported to the Naval Centers. From November 1914 on,
special arrangements were made by which the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand
Fleet could get information of hostile or suspicious vessels or mines gathered
by the war signal stations that were established between Cape Wrath and Ardnamurchan
Point, with its center at Aultbea.
The
role of the PWSS in the defence of Loch Ewe:
Aultbea’s
Port War Signal Station (PWSS) was an important element of the defences of Loch
Ewe. It was a central collection point for information about all ships
approaching the port with the aim of identifying them as friendly or enemy vessels.
This information came from the Auxiliary
Patrol via W/T and from the surrounding signal or observation stations via
telephone lines and was passed by the PWSS to the harbor defence facilities
like the battery on the Rubh-a-Choin peninsula (see below).
I
found some evidence that at the beginning of the war, there was a first PWSS
located at Aultbea, but unfortunately I don’t have any details about it except
that it consisted of two wooden huts.
In
the report of the Director of Naval Ordnance dated September 1st,
1914, it was proposed “to establish a Port War Signal Station on a commanding
hill near the Leacon Donna battery” (author’s note: this refers most
probably to the scheduled Rubh-a-Choin Battery). At the time of this proposal,
hut accommodation for the PWSS crew (1 officer, 6 men, most probably Coast
Guard personnel) had already been arranged for, but it seems that the works for
the new PWSS didn’t start before the turn of the year 1914/15.
In
a private letter dated January 15th, 1915, Captain W. B. Forbes of
the HMS No. 6 (SS Oruba), a ship of the 10th Coasting Squadron (see below), at
anchor in Loch Ewe, wrote: “Today I was to have gone ashore to inspect some
works at the signal station, but it's blowing too hard for the boat.” Work on
the PWSS was obviously in progress that day; some documents about a corresponding tender and the approval of funds, dated February 11th,
1915, that I found in The National Archives collections support this. The wireless
telegraphy (W/T) station mentioned above was established and began operations
on February 26th.
Unfortunately,
I have not found any further documentation about the PWSS, only a letter from
the Admiralty to the Senior Naval Officer Aultbea dated March 16th,
1917 approving “to remove the look-out near the War Signal Station at Ru Con (author’s
note: Rubh-a-Choin) to a new position at Gob a Gheoda and also to extend
the telephone from the present look-out to the new one”.
From September 1st on, i.e. soon
after her arrival, the crew of HMS Illustrious was – according to the ship‘s logbook
- employed fitting brails for „boom defence“. This is quite mysterious as I
couldn’t find any mention of a boom defence at Loch Ewe before that date. I’m
also not aware of any order to construct such a defence at this time.
A few days later, on September 6th, a group of Royal Marines started to establish a battery on the Rubh-a-Choin peninsula. I was not able so far to find any
written order to do so, but the time course is well documented in various
documents. I will go into more details of this battery in a separate blog post
including the results of my field survey in June 2022.
On September 9th the Dreadnaught
battle fleet arrived at Loch Ewe for coaling after the entrance had been
checked for mines. On September 7th at 6:00 am they proceeded to sea. On
September 13th they returned for coaling and repair.
The arrangements made for the defence
of the fleet at Loch Ewe were the following:
- Two
destroyers patrolled outside day and night
- Three
picket boats were on patrol day and night across the harbour entrance
- HMS
Illustrious and HMS Seagull (torpedo gunboat) anchored in positions on the
western shore to guard the entrance
- The
Sound entrance was guarded by destroyers anchored there
- Outer
ships of the battlefleet were ordered to have guns and searchlights ready
- All
ships had to be darkened and to have net defence out at night.
On September 15th Admiral Jellicoe
pointed out the necessity of net defences to the Admiralty as it would not be
possible to anchor ships in exposed positions in winter, nor would an efficient
patrol be possible by destroyers and patrol boats in bad weather. In a telegram
to the Admiralty he wrote „A submarine obstacle would be of considerable value
at Loch Ewe and could be quickly prepared at dockyard and quickly placed.
Request that one similar to that proposed by Admiral Colville for Scapa may be
made and sent up. It would be placed from Ghamnha Point to Sgeir an Araig and
from Gob na Lice to point east of big sand bay.“
On September 17th a conference was
held on board the HMS Iron Duke at Loch Ewe between Winston Churchill, the
First Lord of the Admiralty, the principal members of the war staff and the
chief officers of the fleet, at which various important questions of policy and
strategy were discussed. Concerning Loch Ewe it was decided not to mount fixed defences, but to
station six 30-knot destroyers there, to leave the Illustrious in the entrance
as a gun and searchlight defence, and to provide a submarine obstruction if
possible. This is quite remarkable as the work for establishing a battery on
Rubh-a-Choin was still in progress and was not stopped.
By
October 2nd, a submarine obstruction was not yet provided. Admiral Jellicoe
wrote to the Admiralty:
„… recent
experience has shown the necessity of a submarine obstruction, and I shall be
glad to know whether it is prepared for Loch Ewe. One of either the Scapa or
Cromarty pattern is very necessary, but the Scapa pattern would probably be
kept in place under bad weather conditions more easily than that constructed
for Cromarty.“
Again,
nothing happened.
It
was an incident a few days later that finally led to a decision by the
Admiralty. Admiral Jellicoe wrote in his book: „At 5 A.M. on October 7th a
submarine was reported inside Loch Ewe, being sighted by a collier and by the
Assistance; she was fired at by the latter ship, in misty weather. On receipt
of the report I ordered all vessels to leave Loch Ewe at once, and sent a
division of destroyers there from Scapa to search for the submarine. Later
investigation indicated that the report was well founded.“ In a telegram to the
Admiralty he wrote: „… it has been reported that one if not two enemy
submarines entered harbour yesterday morning being seen by Assistance and a
collier. … Assistance fired at her. … Until harbour is defended and submarine
obstacle is provided it will not be safe to use this base. Can steps be taken
to hasten provision of obstacles both for Scapa and Loch Ewe. It is very
undesirable to have all heavy ships at one base and neither is safe now.“
One
day later, on August 8th, the Admiralty confirmed the provision of an anti-submarine
defence for Loch Ewe.
Excursus
3: The submarine sighting in Loch Ewe
First
of all: The incident did not occur on October 7th, but on October 6th. The HMS
Assistance logbook reads that day: "5.55 Submarine reported"; on
October 7th, the Assistance was already on her way to Scapa Flow.
What
is striking in Jellicoe's report is the statement that the Assistance shot at the
supposed submarine, and did so in misty weather. I couldn't find out which
ships anchored in Loch Ewe on October 6th, but the expression "all vessels"
definitely suggests several ships. In addition to the HMS Assistance, only the
HMS Illustrious and the Palma, a supply ship, are known to me by their names.
The misty weather can be confirmed in HMS Illustrious‘ logbook.
In
a harbour of 3x6 miles, in misty conditions and in the presence of other ships,
shooting at a supposed submarine seems more than negligent. Interestingly, the
Assistance‘s logbook does not report any shots. The complete entry of 5:55 is:
“Submarine Reported. Hands man + arm ship. ”The next entry was made at 9:30
a.m.:“ Hands employed as requisite ”. In the Illustrious‘ logbook there is only
one entry at 6:00 a.m., i.e. immediately after the supposed submarine sighting:
"Hands cleaning ship". Would you assume that a crew cleans their
ship in the middle of a battle between another ship nearby and a (supposed) enemy submarine?
The
statement that the supposed submarine was shot at can therefore be doubted.
Now
let's look at the opposite side, the supposed submarine itself. According to
Jellicoe, the sighting was "well founded".
With
the kind support of the German Submarine Museum Cuxhaven, I searched the
logbooks of all 34 German submarines that were launched before October 7th and
can confirm that none of these submarines can have been in Loch Ewe. The
missions of the German submarines in 1914 are well documented; documents that order
or describe submarines of the Imperial Navy to penetrate into Loch Ewe on
October 6th, 1914 are not known. The submarines mainly carried out reconnaissance
trips in the North Sea in search of the Grand Fleet and the British blockade
lines. Only occasionally more modern diesel-driven submarines were ordered to
the bases of the Royal Navy on the British east coast in order to intercept British
combat ships.
Conclusion:
No matter what was sighted in Loch Ewe on October 6th, it was not a submarine
and it is very unlikely that it was shot at.
As a result of this incident, Loch
Ewe could no longer be considered a safe anchorage until the installation of a
submarine defence was completed. All the colliers, store and ammunition ships
were diverted to other bases. HMS Illustrious was recalled as Loch Ewe‘s guard
ship; she left Loch Ewe on October 14th first to Lerwick, then to Loch na Keal
in the Isle of Mull. HMS Assistance was sent to this harbour too.
Completion of the submarine defences
at Loch Ewe were being pushed forward with all possible speed. It was decided
to install the same submarine obstruction that was used at Cromarty base. On
October 29th, Commander Donald J. Munro, King’s Harbour Master at Cromarty, was
appointed to supervise the anti-submarine defences of Scapa, Cromarty, and Loch
Ewe.
Along with the construction of
submarine defences, the naval base was expanded.
End of October, the Admiralty
approved stationing armed trawlers or drifters at various strategic positions along
the coast. They were grouped in units of six boats, each boat armed with one or
more guns. Loch Ewe was allotted 2 of those units.
In a message to the Admiralty dated
November 5th, 1914, Rear Admiral Purefoy described the situation as follows:
„Two Yachts, the coast guard cruiser
"Safeguard" and five motor boats, shore staff and a party of marines
at the battery are at present based here, shortly to be augmented by 12
trawlers“.
He requested a depot ship with a
medical and an Accountant Officer, as the absence of HMS Illustrious had led to
„unnecessary delay in obtaining pay vouchers and money“ and „the nearest medical
officer lives 7 miles away and the next 14 miles, neither of these gentlemen
are Surgeon and Agents“. On November 20th, the steam yacht HMS Vanessa under
the command of Capt. Le Marchant was sent to Loch Ewe to serve temporarily as a
depot ship. It was planned that it should be replaced by HMS Aro in December, but
as far as can conclude from the documented discussions, that was not the case
until later in 1915 – if ever.
In a note dated December 9th, 1914,
Sir William Frederic Nicholson (head of the Military Branch of the Admiralty
Secretariat) listed the vessels that were ordered to serve as tenders for the
Vanessa:
Yacht - Hersilia No. 2 Trawlers - Orlando 365
Natal 305 Calliope 367 Cardiff
Castle 638
|
Yacht - Rhouma No. 22 Trawlers - Lacerta 625
Newhaven N.B.
82 Bellona 23
|
Yacht - Lorna No. 24 Trawlers - Settsu 650
Kimberley 11 Owl 373 Oriole 636
|
Yacht
Calanthe No. 43
|
Remark: The numbers are the pendant
numbers that served to identify ships.
Excursus
4: HMS Vanessa and HMS Aro
HMS
Vanessa was a steam-powered yacht built in 1899 and made available to the Navy
on October 15th, 1914. She was iron-plated and served as an Auxiliary Patrol
yacht with two 6-pounder guns. In February 1917 she was renamed Vanessa II and
returned to her owners in March 1919.
The
following photo shows Vanessa before her conversion for military use:
HMS
Aro was built in 1898 by Sir Raylton Dixon & Co., Middlesbrough, and
launched on May 9th under the name Albertville. She served as a passenger and
cargo steamer in Africa and was renamed Aro in 1905. In October 1914 she was
sold to the Royal Navy and served as a torpedo sub-depot ship and troopship
during the war. In January 1920 she was sold to W. R. Davies, Liverpool and
renamed Stella. After being sold subsequently two more times it was finally
broken up on June 23rd, 1925.
On December 6th, 1914, the old Edgar
class ships of the 10th Cruiser Squadron were paid off and replaced by armed
liners. 4 of them were put in charge of the Sappho, an Apollo class cruiser, and
patrolled from December 7th on from the Hebrides north-westward, mainly for the
purpose of stopping ships which might be carrying contraband destined for
Germany. Their base was Loch Ewe, and they were under the command of Admiral de
Chair.
Later they were transferred to Scapa
Flow for other patrol and boarding duties
A quite extraordinary class of ships
started its career on the same day: The „10th Coasting
Squadron“ (or "Special Service Squadron") under the command of Commodore Haddock. It consisted of 14 merchant
ships that were disguised with dummy turrets and guns and their appearance was
altered to represent British battleships and battle cruisers. They were first
stationed at Scapa Flow, and it was planned that they should accompany the
fleat at sea. However, they were significantly slower compared to real battle
ships what made them useless for their original purpose. From January 6th,
1915, at least a part of them was detached to Loch Ewe where they were worked
up to carry out fleet movements. What I could find out is that HMS No. 6, the
former merchant ship SS Oruba, aka HMS Orion (the ship it was meant to
represent) was the first to arrive, followed by 8 others until January 26th,
1915. In a private letter, Captain W.B. Forbes, the commander of HMS No. 6,
wrote: „I think at present my job is being a scarecrow - and queer rumours are
afloat, some day perhaps the crows will refuse to be scared and the job will
end.“
However, it turned out differently:
The speed of the dummy ships could not be improved and in consequence, no
practical use for them could be found. From summer 1915 on, the ships of the
squadron were diverted to other duties or sunk as blockships (among them HMS
No. 6).
This is a photo of HMS No. 6 from
the collection of the Imperial War Museum:
(Source: Imperial War Museums)
Excursus
5: The Shore Gyroscope Station
The
next interesting episode in the military history of Loch Ewe in WW1 was the
establishment of a gyrocope testing and repair station.
In
a torpedo, a gyroscope was connected directly to the steering and was used to
compensate for undesirable influences such as drift in the drive in order to
maintain the programmed course.
From
November 1914 on, work began on building a shore gyroscope station at Loch Ewe
(I have not been able to determine the exact position so far).
In
a message to the Admiralty dated November 5th, Admiral Purefoy wrote that the
material for a „gyro testing room“ had arrived. Two months later, on January
8th, 1915, this shore gyroscope repair station was approaching completion.
At
this time, it was already planned to send HMS Aro, a torpedo sub-depot ship
with facilities for „torpedo and gyro work“ as new depot ship to Loch Ewe, see
above.
Given
this future redundancy, the Admiralty asked Admiral Jellicoe „whether this
shore station is required to be kept in full working order, if not it is
proposed to keep reduced staff there“. Admiral Jellicoe agreed to this proposal
the same day.
On
January 22nd, 1915, the Admiralty informed Admiral Jellicoe and Rear Admiral
Purefoy that the staff of the shore gyroscope station had to be reduced. As
long as HMS Aro was not yet on duty at Loch Ewe, the torpedo sub-depot ship Sobo
would inspect the station regularly.
As
stated above, I couldn’t find any evidence as to whether and when HMS Aro
entered service at Loch Ewe, nor what fate the shore gyro station took. Both of
these will be subject of my further research.
In the beginning of 1915, on January
9th, there was another sighting of an unknown submarine in Loch Ewe,
but soon after, a new threat emerged, this time from the air.
In a private letter dated January 26th,
1915, Captain W.B. Forbes, whom I mentioned above, wrote: “There is a yarn that
airships or zeppelins were over this Harbour on Saturday” (author’s note: January
23rd, 1915). The next day, he specified this information: “… there
were certainly '3 of 'em,' when I investigated evidence today to report to
Admiral, I found this out but I can't say more.”
It can be doubted that German
airships actually advanced as far as Loch Ewe. Captain Forbes' statements are
probably caused by the general hysteria that arose following the first German
airship attack in a completely different place 700km = 435mls south-east of
Loch Ewe on January 19th/20th, 1915:
On January 19th, the Zeppelins
L3, L4 and L6 took off from Germany. The
purpose of their mission was on one hand reconnaissance over the North See, on
the other hand to bomb targets near the Humber estuary. However, strong winds
from the north forced them to change their plans; instead of the Humber estuary
they attacked the Norfolk area in the late evening, causing only little
material damage but killing two people. On January 20th they arrived
back in Germany.
I have no idea what evidence Captain
Forbes claims to have found, but other Zeppelin missions around the end of
January are not reported, and the 3 Zeppelins that took part in the Norfolk
attack have definitely not reached Loch Ewe.
From January 30th, 1915, Loch Ewe
served as coaling station for the 10th Cruiser Squadron following increased
German submarine activities in the Irish Sea. Admiralty instructed the SNO at
Stornoway to make every effort to protect Loch Ewe from attack. On the first
view it seems to be remarkable that the SNO at Stornoway and not the SNO at
Aultbea was instructed. The reason was a reorganization that had taken place
end of 1914:
Given the isolated position of Loch
Ewe and the assessment that it lacked of supply and repair facilities, it was
decided that Stornoway would be a better base for Auxiliary Patrol Area I than
Aultbea. As a result, Rear-Admiral Reginald G.O. Tupper was appointed Senior
Naval Officer of Patrol Area I at Stornoway on January 7th, 1915.
This led to the situation that in
the same Patrol Area, there was a Rear-Admiral at Stornoway and a Rear-Admiral
at Aultbea. It was decided that until Loch Ewe was adequately protected and
became a base for the Fleet, there was scarcely room for two flag officers in
Area I. Rear Admiral Purefoy was therefore replaced by Commander Cecil Watson
as SNO Aultbea, a position subordinate to the SNO Stornoway.
Excursus
6: The Senior Naval Officers at Aultbea in WW1
It
was rather difficult to follow the sequence of Senior Naval Officers at
Aultbea. Here is what I could find so far:
Name | Rank | From | Until | Remarks |
Purefoy, Richard Purefoy
FitzGerald | Rear Admiral | 12.08.1914 | unknown | The last letter from Rear Admiral
Purefoy as SNO Aultbea that I found is dated February 13th, 1915 |
Watson, Cecil | Commander | Feb. 1915 | unknown | Source: Naval Staff Monographs
(Historical), Fleet Issue, Volume XIII (October 1925) |
Nugent, Rowland | Captain | 24.02.1915 | 01.07.1916 | Source: Personnel records at the
National Archives |
Freeman, Frederick Henry Peere Williams | Captain | 28.04.1916 | unknown | The last letter from Captain Freeman as
SNO Aultbea that I found is dated March 1st, 1917 |
Walker, Frederick M. | Captain | Jun 17 | Feb 18 | The first letter from Captain Walker as
SNO Aultbea that I found is dated June 19th, 1917 |
Boys, William H. | Captain | 14.03.1918 | Okt 18 | |
Alston, Hubert G. | Captain | 28.09.1918 | Apr 19 | |
There’s
a big question mark concerning Commander Watson. I could only find one source mentioning his
appointment sometime in February 1915, and given the fact that
Captain Nugent was appointed SNO on February 24th, 1915, Commander
Watson cannot have held this position for long.
Following various submarine
sightings between February 8th and 15th, 1915, and the fact that the planned
system of booms and gates had not yet been finished at that time, Admiral
Jellicoe reduced the number of colliers anchoring in Loch Ewe to only two.
Later in 1915, more precisely on April 5th, Swarbacks Minn (a deep
sea channel off the west coast of Shetland) was judged a better coaling base
for the 10th Cruiser Squadron.
On March 18th, 1915, Admiralty
decided that the fixed defences for the boom net (i.e. the four batteries) that
had been proposed on Sept 1st, 1914, were to be postponed as the
estimated costs of BP 10.800 could not be justified.
Nevertheless, the works to set up
the boom net continued, and on
October 6th, 1915, the boom defence at the entrance to Loch Ewe was
completed. It consisted of Munro Anti-Submarine Nets extending from Gob-na-Lice
Point on Ewe Island to the mainland near Sgeir Moitaig Rock off Rubh-a-Choin
Point, and from the shore 100 yards north of Fisher Point, Inverasdale, to the
west side of Ewe Island. The 175 yards wide gate was situated 720 yards from Fisher
Point and marked by three Drifters, the easternmost Drifter being responsible
for hauling the Gate open. Written regulations for passing the Gate were
issued.
(© Open Street Maps Mitwirkende)
Only
4 months later however, on February 6th, 1916, the SNO Aultbea
informed the Admiralty about a severe damage of the boom defence, caused by
rough weather throughout the whole January.
He
wrote “A large number of the floats have been washed away and several sections
of the net defence have sunk. New floats and nets are being obtained from
Inverness and repairs are being carried out as quickly as possible.”
In the following months, Loch Ewe
was increasingly used for coaling by the 10th Cruiser Squadron and
other ships, and on June 19th, 1917, the SNO Aultbea requested that
a new boom should be fitted as he regarded the existing one not being a
sufficient protection.
He asked for a boom similar to the
Cromarty Inner Boom as this would only require the same number of Drifters as
the present one. This was approved by the Admiralty on July 30th,
1917.
Unfortunately, I’m not able to go
into the technical details of boom nets and submarine defences at this point.
This is a science in itself; should I ever have more detailed insights into
this subject, I will post a separate report.
The decision by the Admiralty of July 30th, 1917, is the last information about Loch Ewe in WW1 that I have. As far as I could find out, the base
was disbanded in 1919.
Main sources for this article:
1) Books:
- John Rushworth Jellicoe - The Grand
Fleet 1914-1916: Its Creation, Development And Work
- F.J. Dittmar, J.J. Cooledge –
British Warships 1914-1919
- Steve Chadwick – Loch Ewe During
World War II
- R.A. Burt – British Battleships
1889-1904
- H.R. Gibson, Maurice Prendergast –
The German Submarine War 1914-1918
2) Digitalized Material:
- The National Archives, Kew: Secret
packs of the Commander in Chief Grand Fleet, Volume XIV, pack 007, section D, Folios
131-164
- The National Archives, Kew: Grand
Fleet Bases: Scapa, Cromarty, Shetlands, Loch Ewe, Clyde
- The National Archives, Kew: Aultbea.
Removal of look-out station and sick quarters to new site, Loch Ewe
- National Library of Scotland: Monthly
/ Quarterly Navy Lists, several volumes
- Royal Australian Navy: Naval Staff
Monographs (Historical), several volumes
- Imperial War Museums: Private Papers
of Captain W B Forbes AM RN
- Deutsches
U-Boot Museum Cuxhaven / Stiftung Traditionsarchiv Unterseeboote: Several war
journals of German submarines
3) Websites:
