“Rabbits”, but not bunny rabbits. There are two types of rabbits in the navy. The first and most important is on first going ashore in a foreign port one goes on a shopping trips to buy presents for the folks back home especially for the kids. These are called “rabbits” and on some, custom charges will be levied by HM Customs and Excise before they can be landed in the UK and taken ashore when going on first home coming leave. What money is left over after completing the ‘Rabbit Run’ is pocket money and spent in bars, restaurants etc. It is never left to chance to do it the other way around, otherwise the kids might go without? Then they are “rabbits” which go towards making life on board more comfortable, for the dockyard fitting-out scale and themes are usually to a pre ordained Admiralty plan and are often sparse in scope and quality. Asking the right questions of key personnel and having the money to pay for an addition or modification often falls on willing ears, and by experience the “money” is not always GBP. As often as not as a quid pro quo it is usually in the form of some more desirable and difficult to come by payment, like for example navy rum and duty free cigarettes. The choice of who to ask for a rabbit request really depends on the size of the ask, bearing in mind that it is highly likely that what is being asked for might be illegal and could impede the fighting ability of a vessel or its watertight integrity, in which case no person in their right mind would even contemplate proposing or asking for. It can be directed to a dockyard section civilian manager or to the ships artisans/artificers depending. So what might you ask for? Well, an extra personal locker or the movement of such to a different position to maximise crew space; a bunk lamp fitting to be moved to enhance a reading position; a dividing curtain and curtain rail; an extra punkalouvre ventilation port in a living or sleeping space; coat hangers; supplied pictures to be placed in suggested sites and spaces, requiring hanging points to be installed, a mirror to be supplied and fitted etc. The wardroom mess president often asks for enhancement to wardroom fittings whether fixed or portable, usually to do with ceremonial, and HMS Royal Oak was no exception with the wardroom president Commander George Knightley Chetwode R.N. wanting something special. He wanted a dinner gong or a contraption to be rung or struck at certain times which could be used in the wardroom, in the wardroom flat and on the quarterdeck, the officers recreation area of the ship and also the central ceremonial muster point for events like “clear lower deck muster on the quarterdeck” and the ceremony of morning and evening colours at which time the White Ensign is raised and lowered respectively when in harbour. What he wanted was a gonging device where the device was struck by a tool to make a sound which would be audible and recognised by officers of the ships complement. It had to be functional but ornate and it had to be unique to the Royal Oak ergo it could not be legally used in and by any other ship. Moreover it had to cost next to nothing using bits and pieces of wood, brass and copper pieces and some clever metal fretwork to cut the necessary pattern out a solid sheet of thick plate brass, all found in various lay apart stores in the ship or dockyard, and capable of being machined on the ships basic lathes, turning devices and taps and dies (threading systems). Like all capital ships, it carried plumbers, joiners, shipwrights, welders, foundry workers and turners, all messing, with artificers under the heading of artisans. The following shows the Artisan branch badge and the skills included.

BADGE	MAKE UP	RATE	ALTERNATIVE MAKE UP AND ASSOCIATED RATE	DATE
	Crown above crossed axe and hammer with star below	CPO Artisan	1. CPO Artisan 2. Crown above crossed axe and hammer with star below - Ship Mechanic 1st class RNR 3. Crown above crossed axe and hammer with star below - Marine Engineering Artificer (Hull) 1st class RNR 4. Crown above - Chief Shipwright 5. Crown above - CPO Artisan 6. Crown above - Artisan 1st, 2nd or 3rd class 7. Crown above - Ship Mechanic 2nd class RNR 8. Crown above - Marine Engineering Artificer (Hull) 2nd class RNR 9. Star above - Skilled Shipwright 10. Star above - Blacksmith, Plumber, Painter all 1st class; Chief Carpenter's Mate and Carpenters Mate 11. Star above - Armament Mechanic RNAS 12. Star above - Cooper, Joiner, Shipwright 1st or 2nd class 13. Star above - Chief Shipwright 14. Star above - Chief Blacksmith, Chief Plumber, Chief Painter, Chief Cooper 15. Star above - Chief Joiner 16. Star above -All Artisans 1st, 2nd or 3rd class 17. (waa) All other Artificers (but not ERA's) 18. (waa) All other Artisans 19. (waa) Ship Mechanic acting 2nd and 3rd class RNR 20. (waa) Marine Engineering Artificers (Hull) acting 2nd and 3rd class RNR	1951-1968 1968-1970 1970- 1932-1948 1948-1951 1948-1968 1968-1970 1970- 1890-1919 1890-1924 1916-1918 1919-1924 1919-1932 1919-1948 1924-1948 1924-1968 1890-1913 1913-1968 1968-1970 1970-

  This picture shows the final result of the ships staff creation:-

  This magnificent plumbing job sits on the hall carpet outside my dining room door, and has been lovingly cared for by my wife for more years than she cares to remember. Note the top down and the brilliant craftsmanship. First note the top bar and the second bar both carved out of a solid slab of thick sheet brass. The top bar shows two oak leaves either side of an oak apple and the second, a white ensign left juxtaposed with a union jack right and in the middle an anchor. The 4” shell of 1903 manufactured pivots (swings) on the second horizontal bar, the bottom of shell casing in its stationary position rests 1” above the broad sure-footed polished hardwood base.The device gets its strength and stability from the two tall vertical uprights anchored to the base plate and connected integrated with the cross member horizonal bars. The device is in perfect original condition and remains as first made with a possible exception, namely the striking tool(s). Near to the top of the shell casing on both upright an open hook has been added on which hangs the striking tool one per side. All joints are brazed and not soldered for strength purposes. By the date the device came into my care there was only one striker shown here on the left, which is made from a split cane secured at the top with a substantial long screw metal eye, and at the bottom with a rigid non-malleable ball of material wrapped in a piece of shammy leather which is secured to the cane by a waxed cod line sealing the bag and closing the end of the split cane. The dinner gong has gobbled up a factory of bluebell metal polish cans by many hands including wardroom stewards and Royal Marine sentries used to maintain the high shine you see in the photograph. It was made using a 4” shell casing manufactured in 1903, a good thirteen to fourteen years before the gong was assembled/manufactured. Shell casings were collected after use and returned to munition factories for refilling and reuse at a later period and to this day still are, and several were used up to six times before being discarded meaning that the shell casing was still in full use as a cordite container ready to blast a shell projectile integral to its casing towards a target, certainly up to 1910 or thereabouts (added information by telecon with Jo Lawler subsequent to this letter below) given the largely Royal Navy Pax Britannica of those time without any substantial wars. This use of shell casing’s was not uncommon but be aware shells of a much larger size were fired not by a shell casing having its own cordite charge but by a massive cordite charge placed immediately behind the heavy shell, usually 12” and above to 15” shells ! Years after the shell casing sell by date had expired, it remained of interest as an ornament and was much used at either full height or cut down to make things like ash trays or Jardinières. We don’t know which ship last fired this four inch shell but that is of no lasting importance: Royal Oak was not fitted with 4” guns until her 1924 refit replacing her 3” guns. I asked for advice from the navy’s oracle, namely the Explosives Museum out on the Gosport/Fareham side of the Fareham Creek for advice, sending all the many details markings punched into the base of the shell and what follows is that communication answering my request.

  When asked (again in a telecom) whether it was feasible that this shell casing was available for use to add it to this dinner gong built at any time between 1914 and the Spring of 1916, the answer was perfectly feasible. Many of these discarded shell casing after up to six fillings, discarded by the navy and not be munition engineering company’s viz (and see above in the letter from the Explosion Museum) the mention of the King’s Norton Metal Company who manufactured shell casings) were given to places like Whale Island for instructional purposes and for cutting down and with their firing points removed and replaced by portable firing points used in field guns for various calibres for saluting purposes. They were ubiquitous throughout the naval shore establishments as highly prized highly polished artefact both in the UK and also around the world in our many foreign bases. A big capital ship like the Royal Oak in the final stages of fitting out, of makers trials at Devonport in the Spring would have had its choice of shell casings at the Devonport Gunnery School of 1916 at that time a part of Devonport Barracks called HMS Vivid. I own such a device so I am able to show you how such a system worked. I am going to use a naval 1956 12 Pounder brass shell case. A 12 pounder is the direct equivalent to a 3” shell and either can be fired from a 3” mounting. It denotes the weight of the shell which is 12 pounds and that’s quite heavy – you wouldn’t want that to come hurtling towards you. For most people men and women a soccer type football is easy to understand. One sees footballers kick a ball from one touch line over to the other with the greatest of ease. We couldn’t do it just like that because we are generally not in shape. But how would footballers cope if the football was replaced with a ball weighting 12 pounds. The answer is THEY WOULDN’T because 12 pounds is 13 TIMES repeat 13 Times heavier than a FIFA Approved football weight.

The above image show a 12 pounder N =Naval British = arrow Lot 56 Made by E C C in 1956

  Reduced in height leaving enough of a sound chamber so that when the .303 cordite cartridge is fired it makes a loud bang which travels down the field gun barrel sounding as though a 12 pounder shell had been fired. Note as well as the shell casing being much reduced in height its central firing mechanism has neen bored out and a threaded access has been created.

  The image above is an adaptor which is small enough in its central core to take a standard .303 cordite cartridge. It has a thread which will marry into the thread made in the 12 pounder shell casing. The adapter is screwed into the orifice in the shell casing for an air tight fit. The wording around the rim reads “Adapter! 12 PDR Field Gun for .303 BLANK NL!

  The image above is of a box containing 2 rows of .303 cordite cartridges each with 10 rounds which are also used for line throwing: a big bang but with no projectile made in May of 1955. Line throwing is a regularly used method of exchanging rope and hawser between warships when coming alongside each other at sea to effect a transfer. The cartridge is placed as normal into a line throwing rifle. A light weight metal rod is placed down the rifle barrel attached to a thin and light nylon cord. When the rifle is fired the cordite blast ejects the metal rod taking the light weight cord to the ship now laying alongside but at a small distance. To the firing ship end of the nylon cord is attached a heavier rope and if necessary to the end of it, is attached a more substantial rope. The crew in the receiving ship haul in each section accordingly. The transfer – fuelling pipes, stores, personnel, food, beer, mail, ammunition etc can now be transferred . The last substantial rope over is used on a running pulley and each crew pulls and hauls accordingly. We call these light jackstay and heavy jackstay transfers.

  This following is a picture of me being light jackstayed from the flagship the cruiser HMS Tiger (Rear Admiral Martin La Touche Wemyss) to an escorting destroyer HMS Cleopatra (Captain Webster R.N.) off Singapore. I was boarding Cleo as she was affectionately called, for last minute checks on her operational communications organisation (Chief Radio Supervisor (Radio Communication Instructor) Peter McKenna, before she turned to port to visit Japanese ports and we turned to starboard heading for Australia, Brisbane, Newcastle spending Christmas 1977 alongside in Sydney.

  The above image shows the cartridge box open showing the bottom layer of 10 .303 cordites (or blanks). Note the extreme left bullet has been fired in the conventional way of striking the centre red coloured explosives cap. The next bullet along leaning outside of its rack had not yet been used and you can see that its centre red coloured cap it taught and has not been punctured. The .303 cordites are pressed into the adapter central aparture which is then offered up to the cut down shell casing screwed into its central hole. The firing mechanism is struck by the firing pin of the field gun piece just like the trigger of rifle strikes the centre of a loaded bullet.

  Because of the regular and normal reuse of shell casing of up to six times before being discarded, it is now firmly believed that the dinner gong could not possibly have been manufactured for use in the previous HMS Royal Oak of 1892 which was decommissioned in 1911 and scrapped in 1914. It is strongly believed (and regularly practiced) that the Royal Oak’s wardroom mess president, Commander George Knightley CHETWODE, would have sought and subsequently designed and commissioned the piece as a wardroom dinner gong, a very smart (resplendent even) wardroom “rabbit” for the navy’s (and his) brand new battleship which was commissioned on May 1st 1916 and thirty short days later found itself in the thick of it at Jutland. Those in the know, appreciate that many trials were yet to be conducted and certified as a ‘pass’,and for a battleship, the mother of all work-up’s to come after the commissioning except for an aircraft carrier! Her gunnery alone HAT’s and SAT’s (Harbour acceptance trials and Sea acceptance trials) would have been a grueling and irksome task for the vast amount of gunnery officers and ratings embarked, requiring many tweaks and calibrations, and I’ll wager that many were incomplete before she arrived in Scapa before the battle commenced on May 31st 1916. It must have been a bloody big worrying time in the same way as the WW2 incident when the battleship HMS Prince of Wales was sent into action against the Bismarck without completing her basic work up. She didn’t perform well, in fact badly, and it was only after she retired from the shooting match to seek fuel, now shot up and with many casualties which might not have occurred had she been fully operational and ready for action that the ‘defect’ showed itself! It was later made known that one of the shots she managed to get away towards the Bismarck had actually hit her and holed one of her fuel tanks, leaving Bismarck with a shortage of fuel oil trying to make good her land fall at Brest France. The minute she left Plymouth Sound enroute for the Orkney’s she started her self-testing work up and from that moment heading west into the western approaches, then north into St George’s Channel, the Irish Sea and around finally into Scapa Flow she would have had very few, if any occasions to sound the dinner gong. As the wardroom mess president and sponsor and no doubt the payer for the Royal Oak ‘gong’ it was his own personal rabbit used for the good of his mess members, and there were many! It would have been his right to claim the dinner gong on leaving the ship at the end of the commission but he chose not to because his appointment was cut short, he being promoted to the rank of captain in 1917 and most in the vessel stayed on until the end of the commission in January 1919. At that time he could have claimed rightful ownership and well he might have done so, but that isn’t known. What is known is somebody did and the dinner gong left the ship in 1919 after the party to say goodbye to her long standing captain (Jan 16 to Jan 19), Captain MACLACHLAN was concluded, a party he, now Captain CHETWODE (by this time a famous destroyer tactician and Captain ‘D’) attended. Nobody to my knowledge knows what happened to the dinner gong after that time, until some time in the mid first decade of the 21st century when somebody, not au fait with the royal navy (for the badging of the dinner gong is explicit with just a cursory glance at the top sections of the device, and from that they might have put two and two together to come up with the name RoyalOak, which was named after the hiding place (an oak tree) of the future King Charles II leading to the restoration of our monarchy in 1660 after the beheading of his father King Charles I in 1649 on the authority of Oliver Cromwell and others. In 2009, now eleven years ago I approached the Royal Oak Association asking them if they were interested in owning the ships dinner gong. Although polite and friendly, they were not interested because as they told me, their Association had a dedicated task namely to cover the 1939 sinking and dreadful loss of lives, and to commemorate them. The WW1 history of the ship was in the distant past when it took part in Britain’s largest sea battle since Trafalgar namely Jutland. They were not aware that the captain and commander of the newly commissioned ship (just 30 days old) had been honoured with an MID each and that the Royal Oak had damaged at least two large heavy German ships. My point in 2009 was the 1939 ship was the same as the 1916 ship even though, desperately saddening as it was, Royal Oak didn’t get the chance to take part in WW2 although U47 and Gunther Prien did and we all know the consequences!

  I am in my 82nd year now and I will soon be reducing my holding of many naval quality pieces. Despite the assistance and positive encouragement of the Explosion Museum and several other naval bodies, I am at a loss of not understanding an organisation’s belief in my story, nay quite often disbelief, but that’s life in a blue suit so they (sailors) say!!

  In 2006 my wife and I were out shopping in our local town of Petersfield in Hampshire. We had made it a practice of my wife shopping for items other than food which we did together, as much as anything because of the weight sometime involved, on our re-meet an hour or so later, and I would go off to the junk shops and antique shops to see what was new and worth considering. Petersfield and its environs had many retired naval people living in and near by, and I myself bought a house in Hill Brow (a tiny enclave on the outskirts of the town) called Lee Croft, the one time former home of Vice Admiral Sir Stephen Ferrier Berthon KCB. On this particular Saturday morning I called in to the Folly a group of tiny shops each owned by separate people but each looking out for one another when enthusiastic browser called in and the owner was absent. I immediately set my heart on this Royal Oak piece, not showing too much enthusiasm for the lady owner was quite unaware of what adorned this shop/outlet that morning, newly in two Saturdays before, and I didn’t want to be charged an ‘historical dividend’ on the shop price ticket. Mind you neither did I barter which would have been unkind I thought!

  That’s my story. Since September 2007 we have lived in the lovely quaint Georgian market town of Bury St Edmunds, with an enormous parish church (thought to be one of the largest in the land) playing host to the body, in her fine but faded coffin of Mary Tudor and we have a splendid cathedral even though we are but a medium sized market town (Suffolk has no city’s or motorways) and the Bishop lives and works 35 miles away in another town called Ipswich which is Suffolk’s County Town. We have also plaques on town buildings to commemorate where such people as the King of France once lived and Charles Dickens wrote Pickwick Papers here in town. What excites me is we have a small finite number of ICBM Trident submarines (I was a submariner) and we are graced by being the adopter of one of them called HMS Vengeance the youngest of the four boats. I deem that a great privilege for our town. Ooops, I forgot to mention that Mary Tudor buried here is the sister of Henry VIII, daughter of Henry VII, Queen of France by marriage, who sadly died when just 37 years of age. Incidentally our house is built in the grounds of a house called Fornham House (now divided of course), which was once owned by a very famous naval family the last naval incumbent being Vice Admiral James Rivett-Carnac the beach master at Sword Beach during the Normandy Landings of 6th June 1944.

Mary Tudor - Queen of France

Yours aye