Force 4 Christmas 2014 Colour Supplement

Force 4
Christmas 2014
Colour Supplement
Created exclusively for, and copyright to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Associaon

Block Ships of WW1 and WW2
During both of the World Wars, a number of ships were deliberately scuttled at various locations to act as
Block Ships to either block enemy access to strategic points or else to act as shelter from winds and waves.
A classic example during WW2 of the former was the scuttling of a number of ships at Scapa Flow and of
the latter was the use of almost 60 ships, both merchant ships and warships, which formed the Gooseberry
breakwaters off the Normandy Beaches during the D-Day Landings. The RFA contributed 2 of their ships
to these tasks – the former RFA SPRUCOL at Scapa Flow and RFA WAR SEPOY at Dover.
RFA SPRUCOL had been completed at Sunderland on 27 February 1918 as one of the 18 Harbour Oilers
which constituted the CREOSOL CLASS and was 1 of only 4 which were diesel-engined, all of which
were sold to commercial owners after the Armistice.
SPRUCOL was purchased by the Anglo American Oil
Co Ltd on 31 March 1920 and she was renamed
JUNIATA. During the Shipping Depression of the
1930’s she was laid up at London, before being sold to
French owners in 1934.Anglo American repurchased her
in 1936 with her name unchanged throughout.
During WW1 the Admiralty had constructed strong defences
at Scapa Flow to protect the base but by the start of
WW2 these had fallen
into disrepair and
were proved woefully
inadequate on the
night of 14 October
1939 when the German
U-47 managed to
penetrate through
Kirk Sound and torpedoed
and sank the battleship HMS ROYAL OAK with the loss of 834 of her crew. The First Lord of the
Admiralty, Winston Churchill, ordered the construction of several permanent barriers to prevent any further
attacks and huge concrete blocks were assembled across the channels to replace the unreliable block
ships. Work commenced in May 1940 but was not completed until September 1944 and these Churchill
Barriers were officially opened on 12 May 1945, 4 days after the end of the War in Europe. As a stop-gap
measure further block ships were scuttled.
One of the ships earmarked was the former Depot Ship PANDORA which had acted as a floating workshop
in Portsmouth Harbour. She was towed to Blyth in November 1939 for preparatory work to be carried
out. Unfortunately as she was about to enter Blyth on 23 November, she hit a mine and sank in less
than 5 minutes! The 22 year old JUNIATA was then earmarked as a replacement.
She too proceeded to Blyth for the necessary work to be carried out and this took almost 4 weeks. The first
task was to clear her hull of barnacles and fungus to reduce towing resistance in order to speed up the journey
to Scapa Flow and to facilitate handling when she was being positioned in the strong tideways there.
She was so fouled that she had only made 4 knots on the voyage to Blyth. Next she had to be lightened as
much as possible, consistent with stability, by removing her engines and boilers and by the lifting of any

of the deck machinery that could be spared. It was necessary to leave on board the windlass, anchors and
cables, bollards for mooring and hand steering gear to ensure her safety at sea and for manoeuvring her
when she reached her destination.
When she had risen to as light a draught as possible, wooden patches measuring 10 feet x 5 feet were fixed
to the outside of her hull and she was then loaded with broken concrete and stone rubble mixed with cement.
This done, she was little more than a solid block, low down in the water, with the wooden patches
well submerged. Tugs towed her to Scapa Flow on 17 April 1940 where divers tightened the patches on her
hull. The plating behind them was then cut away, bulkheads were opened up and explosives were positioned
and wired up. The patches were then blown off and she sank to become part of the No 4 Barrier in
the middle of Water Sound between the islands of South Ronaldsay and Burray. She remained as an effective
block ship throughout the War, despite the strong tideways.
In June 1949 the wreck was raised for scrapping, but her condition did not allow a tow to a breaker’s yard
so she was instead towed to Inganess Bay and beached where she remains to this day.
RFA WAR SEPOY was completed for the
Shipping Controller at West Hartlepool on 06
February 1919 as one of the 15-strong WAR
CLASS of Freighting Tankers and was originally
under commercial management. She
transferred to Admiralty ownership in 1921
but remained under commercial management
until February 1937. On the outbreak of WW2
she became the Port Oiler at Dover Harbour.
On 19 July 1940 she was bombed and seriously
damaged during an air raid on Dover and
was again bombed during a further air raid on 25 July when she was hit amidships, set on fire, broke in two
and was burnt out. The deck formed a hinge between the fore and aft sections. At the time she’d been loaded
with drummed fuel stocks from the tanks ashore as these tanks were deemed adequate for foreseen requirements.
Over the next few weeks this drummed oil was extricated from holds which were inclined at
45 degrees. To assist, RFA CELEROL was brought from Sheerness for the purpose of extricating as
much contaminated FFO as possible which
was transferred to tanks ashore where it was
then treated with teepol to settle out the water.
Owing to her age and condition she was an
ideal candidate for use as a block ship so on
07 September 1940, filled with concrete, she
was towed into position and scuttled in the
Western Entrance to the harbour, effectively
blocking it. She remained there until 1950
when preliminary work began in removing
what was left of the wreck on 02 May. Further
removal work was carried out in 1960 and
then the Western Entrance was finally reopened on 26 April 1964.
The tremendous Channel tiderace caused the wreck to break up and be dispersed and as a result the commercial
MINNIE DE LARINAGA, which had been seriously fire damaged during an air raid on London

Docks in September 1940, was scuttled in the same position.
Another block ship, although this time not an RFA, is well worth a mention as she later had a very famous
namesake! The modified ROYAL SOVEREIGN CLASS battleship HMS HOOD was commissioned for
service with the Mediterranean Fleet on 01 June 1893 at a cost of £926,396. She subsequently joined the
Home Fleet in 1903. Along with every other battleship in the world, she became obsolete with the arrival of
HMS DREADNOUGHT in 1906. In late 1911 she was towed to Portsmouth and was later employed as a
target for underwater protection experiments and in secret trials of anti-torpedo bulges. In August 1914 she
was placed on the Sales List but instead ended her days as a block ship.
She was scuttled across the South Ship Channel entrance to Portland Harbour on 04 November 1914 to
block a potential access route for enemy submarines or torpedoes fired from outside the harbour, but when
she sank she turned turtle and remains there to this day, with her keel just a few feet below the surface at
Low Water and clearly visible.

Copy for Force4
Free, lifelong services and support for vision‐impaired ex‐Service men and women
When someone loses their sight, at any stage in life, the effects can be devastang. Blind Veterans UK, the naonal
charity for vision impaired ex‐Service men and women, provides praccal and emoonal support to help veterans
overcome the challenges of sight loss and live full, independent lives.
It doesn’t maer how or when a veteran lost their sight, or when they served,
Blind Veterans UK will provide a lifeme of free services and support to help veterans
discover life beyond sight loss.
Blind Navy veteran John Wheeler from Doncaster began to lose his sight while in
service. John joined the Navy in 1962, inially training at HMS Granges before
qualifying as a Communicaons Rang and moving to HMS Mercury. He also
served aboard HMS Adamant and HMS Zulu, and it was here that John began to
noce his eyesight deteriorang.
John, who is now 67, was discharged as a Radio Operator 3 rd Class in 1966 and was
eventually diagnosed with the hereditary condion Leber’s opc atrophy, and has
very lile sight remaining. Because of his me in service, John was eligible for free,
lifelong support from Blind Veterans UK. He contacted the charity in 2006, and has
been receiving vital support ever since.
John says “Blind Veterans UK has helped me immensely by giving me computer training and a screen reader and
corrector scanner on permanent loan, which helps me read arcles.”
Blind Veterans UK will provide whatever someone needs to ensure that they can live independently with sight loss.
That could be anything from the equipment and IT training that John received, to mobility training, rehabilitaon
and the camaraderie of meeng people in the same situaon at Blind Veterans UK’s social events.
The charity has three training and rehabilitaon centres in Brighton, Sheffield and Llandudno, North Wales, as well
as a network of welfare officers around the UK to ensure veterans can receive support at home.
Blind Veterans UK’s No One Alone campaign aims to reach out to more veterans like John. More than 68,000 people
could be eligible for free help and support without realising it. If you know someone who served in the Armed
Forces, including doing Naonal Service, and is now suffering from severe sight loss, visit www.noonealone.org.uk
or call 0800 389 7979.

The Last Sll Operang veteran from the Galipoli Campaign
RFA/ HMS WATERWITCH
built by Fairfield Govan,
Yard No 502
Engines by shipbuilder
Last Name: HALAS 71 (1990)
Previous Names: RESIT PASA (intended), BOSPHORUS No.71 (1923), HALAS (1954)
Port of Registry: Istanbul Turkey
Propulsion: Twin triple expansion. 2 x T3cy 101nhp 2scr
Launched: Saturday, 17/10/1914
Built: 1915
Ship Type: Ferry
Tonnage: 584grt 363nrt (1990: 339nrt)
Length: 161.0
Breadth: 26.0
Owner History:
Royal Navy
1923 Sirke Hayriye ‐ Bosphorus Steam Nav Co, Istanbul
195x Turkiye Denizcilik Isletmeleri, Istanbul
1985 Il‐Tur Ileri Turizm ve Yat Isletmeleri AS, Istanbul
Status: Acve ‐ 2008
Remarks: Ordered by Turkish Government as RESIT PASA, taken over by Admiralty 11/1914 while building; served a dispatch
vessel
Reported sold for breaking up in 1984
Resold for conversion to to excursion steamer and entered service in 1990.
Have a look at their website:‐ hp://www.myhalas.com/about/
And the Clydebuilt Database:‐ hp://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.aspid=304
And the Galipoli Associaon website:‐ hp://forum.gallipoli‐associaon.org/forum_posts.aspTID=508&tle=hms‐waterwitch

A Miscellany of old Friends,