Showing quick-firing gun on disappearing platform.
Thornycroft & Co., Ltd.
Showing gun raised to firing position.
The first person inside the sacred precincts to greet the stranger is a keen-eyed "Petty Officer of the Guard." When the credentials have been examined the visitor is sent under the guidance of a bluejacket to the "Officer of the Day," whose "cabin" is inside the maze of corrugated iron and weather-board. The doors flanking the passages traversed display cryptic lettering, such as I.O. (Intelligence Office), S.R. (Signal Room), S.N.O. (Senior Naval Officer), "Commander" (usually the second in command of the base), P.M.S.O. (Port Minesweeping Officer), C.B.O. (Confidential Book Office), M.L.Com. (Motor Launch Commander), O.O.W. (Officer of the Watch), "Officers only" (the wardroom and gunroom combined), and, finally, the O.O.D., or the abode of that much-worried individual, the Officer of the Day, whose duties happily terminate when his twenty-four hours of administrative responsibility are over, only, however, to return in strict rotation.
Fig. 17.—The central pier of a typical anti-submarine naval base. 1. Wardroom. 2. Sec. to senior naval officer. 3. Admiral's cabin (S.N.O.). 4. Flag commander (or lieutenant). 5. Base intelligence office. 6. Base commander. 7. Chaplain and gift store. 8. Drafting officer. 9. Store officer. 10. Chart-issuing office. 11. Cabin of the officer of the day. 12. Telephone exchange. 13. Warrant officers. 14. Pay office. 15. Fleet paymaster. 16. Paymasters and asst.-paymasters. 17. Writers and W.R.N.S. 18. Engineer-commander's office. 19. Men's quarters (for base duties and reserve). 20. Men's recreation room. 21. Petty officers. 22. Men's mess-room and adjoining galley. 23. Sick-bay. 24. Fleet surgeon. 25. Baths. 26. Baths. 27. Stores. 28. Boom defence office. 29. King's harbour master. 30. Hull defects office. 31. Police and cells. 32. Coaling office. 33. Wireless cabin. 34. Guard room. 35. Railway platform. 36. Sentry box. 37. Cranes. 38. Berths for armed yachts in harbour. 39. Motor launches in harbour. 40. Drifters. 41. Patrol trawlers. 42. Minesweepers. 43. Whalers. 44. Coastal motor boats. Larger ships, such as sloops, destroyers, "P" boats, coaling and ammunition hulks, lying out in basin.
Again comes an apologetic examination of credentials, possibly followed by a few minutes with the admiral commanding, and then the grand tour commences. First come the ships lying alongside the stone pier, with their short funnels belching black and very sooty smoke. These are the "stand-off" units, whose crews are enjoying a brief few hours ashore after days or weeks out on the dangerous seas beyond. Big drums of oil are being lowered by ropes on to their decks. The sound of hammering comes from more than one engine-room, where machinery is being overhauled. On the decks of several, men with little or no resemblance to the clean "Jacks" of the naval review are fondly polishing, painting or greasing the long grey barrels, steel breech mechanism, or the yellow metal training wheels of guns. Others are cleaning rifles, which have recently been used with special bullets for sinking floating mines. One ship is washing down decks after coming in late from night patrol; another is receiving its three-monthly coat of grey paint; while on to the deck of a whaler—black and ominous-looking—hundredweights of provisions in boxes and bags are being lowered from the quay.
Astern of these lie two tiers of light grey spick and span motor launches, their decks spotlessly white, and their small canvas and glass screened wheel-houses ill concealing polished brass indicators, Morse signalling key, electric switches, binnacles and other paraphernalia. Behind these lie the 40-knot coastal motor boats, like miniature submarines, with torpedoes in cavities in their aft decks, and little glass-sheltered steering-wells. Further towards the head of the pier is a line of big flat Scotch motor drifters, built for rough weather with 9-inch timbers, their decks a maze of wire nets, glass floats and brick-red chemical canisters.
On the opposite side of the pier, in front of the S.N.O.'s cabin, lies a big grey yacht with four 12-pounder guns and an anti-aircraft weapon pointing over the sky-reflecting water. Lying out in the basin are big minesweepers, looking more like pre-war third-class cruisers, two slim-looking dark grey destroyers, a dredger and a few nondescript craft.