DOCSLIB.ORG

This Week in History HMS Hood and the Last 'Witch' to Be Jailed! HMS Hood

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
This Week in History HMS Hood and the Last 'Witch' to Be Jailed! HMS Hood This Week in History HMS Hood and the last ‘Witch’ to be jailed! HMS Hood was a battlecruiser built in Scotland for the British Navy. Launched in 1918, it was the pride of the navy. It was fast and well-armed. HMS Hood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMQ5MnQ_bmE At the start of World War II in 1939, HMS Hood was still the largest warship Britain had. She had earned the nickname “The Mighty Hood”. Germany had started their own ship building to try and compete with other European navies. They knew it was important to be able to attack ships around Britain. Why did they need a strong navy to overcome Britain? Germany built two battleships to rival the Royal Navy’s own best ships. They were called the Bismarck and the Tirpitz. The Bismarck launched first and headed for the Atlantic to attack ships bringing supplies from North America to Britain. The Royal Navy sent HMS Hood, and other ships, to intercept Bismarck. Shortly after dawn on the 24th May, the Hood confronted the Bismarck and her escort ships. They started to fire on each other at a range of 10 miles. Within 10 minutes of the battle beginning, the unthinkable happened. A shell from Bismarck pierced the weaker deck of the Hood and reached the magazine where the ammunition was stored. HMS Hood suffered a massive explosion and sank. The destruction was so fast and fierce, only 3 of the 1,418 crew survived. It had taken less than three minutes for the ship to disappear beneath the sea. The Bismarck firing. Photograph of Hood exploding. Taken from one of the German ships at the battle. To give an idea of how quickly the ship would have been destroyed, we can look at the footage of HMS Barnham. This was a warship that sank in November 1941. Captured on camera, the explosion of the ship’s magazine is devastating for the vessel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdrISbwy_zI The loss of life, and the Hood itself, was a shock to the Royal Navy. The government quickly moved to keep the sinking a secret. Why do you think they wanted to keep it secret? Which brings us to the witchcraft! This is Helen Duncan. She performed on stage as a medium (she claimed she could summon and speak to the spirits of the dead). During World War II, the Government kept some defeats a secret so it would not demoralise the people. They wanted people to hear about victories and brave battles, not losses. Following closely after the loss of HM Hood, the sinking of the Barnham was another big loss for the Royal Navy. So, this too was kept secret. Helen was giving one of her performances in Portsmouth shortly after the Barnham sank. She told the audience that the spirit of a sailor from the Barnham had appeared and told her the ship had been sunk. This brought her to the attention of the Navy and the police. Following a performance in 1944, a naval officer reported Helen to the police and she was arrested. She was charged under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 and sentenced to nine months in prison. She was the last person to be jailed under the Act and it was repealed in 1951. It was replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act which Helen also broke in 1956! Her supporters believed that she was sent to prison (a harsh punishment) to keep her quiet and stop her from revealing more secrets. If you would like to learn more – HMS Hood - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-45270946 The Bismarck - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kBBmtvZpQ Helen Duncan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As82uPOADrA .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Master Narrative Ours Is the Epic Story of the Royal Navy, Its Impact on Britain and the World from Its Origins in 625 A.D
    NMRN Master Narrative Ours is the epic story of the Royal Navy, its impact on Britain and the world from its origins in 625 A.D. to the present day. We will tell this emotionally-coloured and nuanced story, one of triumph and achievement as well as failure and muddle, through four key themes:- People. We tell the story of the Royal Navy’s people. We examine the qualities that distinguish people serving at sea: courage, loyalty and sacrifice but also incidents of ignorance, cruelty and cowardice. We trace the changes from the amateur ‘soldiers at sea’, through the professionalization of officers and then ships’ companies, onto the ‘citizen sailors’ who fought the World Wars and finally to today’s small, elite force of men and women. We highlight the change as people are rewarded in war with personal profit and prize money but then dispensed with in peace, to the different kind of recognition given to salaried public servants. Increasingly the people’s story becomes one of highly trained specialists, often serving in branches with strong corporate identities: the Royal Marines, the Submarine Service and the Fleet Air Arm. We will examine these identities and the Royal Navy’s unique camaraderie, characterised by simultaneous loyalties to ship, trade, branch, service and comrades. Purpose. We tell the story of the Royal Navy’s roles in the past, and explain its purpose today. Using examples of what the service did and continues to do, we show how for centuries it was the pre-eminent agent of first the British Crown and then of state policy throughout the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Pursuit: the Hunt for the German Battleship Bismarck by Captain Robert E
    Pursuit: The Hunt for the German Battleship Bismarck By Captain Robert E. Lewis, USNR, (Ret) Bismarck Prinz Eugen Norfolk Hood Hood, Prince of Wales, 6 destroyers Bergen sunk Suffolk les Home Fleet Scapa Flow Wa e of Princ Gdynia Rodney (Gotenhafen) Bismarck sunk Brest h rg Edinbu Prinz Eugen e Force "H" Dorsetshir Gibraltar It was May of 1941 when England stood alone. France, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands had fallen to Hitler’s Third Reich. The United States, Ireland, and Sweden were still neutral. Only the convoys crossing the sea from Canada and the United States provided the lifeline that kept England going. Now the German Battleship Bismarck, the largest, newest, and most powerful battleship in the world was threatening this lifeline. Bismarck, the jewel of the German navy, displaced more than 50,000 tons and was outfitted with eight 15-inch guns. She broke out of her German port for her first mission on May 18, 1941 and headed for the open Atlantic to intercept and destroy convoys en route from the U.S. The British Royal Navy located the Bismarck between Iceland and Greenland on May 24 and sent the pride of the Royal Navy, the Battlecruiser HMS Hood, the “Mighty Hood”, and the new, unfinished battleship HMS Prince of Wales, to face Bismarck. They were ordered by Churchill to find the Bismarck quickly because several large convoys were heading for Britain and there would be a terrible blood bath of merchantmen if Bismarck got loose among the convoys. In the ferocious battle that ensued, the Hood exploded and sank within minutes, losing all but three of her crew complement in excess of 1,300.
    [Show full text]
  • The Old Pangbournian Record Volume 2
    The Old Pangbournian Record Volume 2 Casualties in War 1917-2020 Collected and written by Robin Knight (56-61) The Old Pangbournian Society The Old angbournianP Record Volume 2 Casualties in War 1917-2020 Collected and written by Robin Knight (56-61) The Old Pangbournian Society First published in the UK 2020 The Old Pangbournian Society Copyright © 2020 The moral right of the Old Pangbournian Society to be identified as the compiler of this work is asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, “Beloved by many. stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any Death hides but it does not divide.” * means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior consent of the Old Pangbournian Society in writing. All photographs are from personal collections or publicly-available free sources. Back Cover: © Julie Halford – Keeper of Roll of Honour Fleet Air Arm, RNAS Yeovilton ISBN 978-095-6877-031 Papers used in this book are natural, renewable and recyclable products sourced from well-managed forests. Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro, designed and produced *from a headstone dedication to R.E.F. Howard (30-33) by NP Design & Print Ltd, Wallingford, U.K. Foreword In a global and total war such as 1939-45, one in Both were extremely impressive leaders, soldiers which our national survival was at stake, sacrifice and human beings. became commonplace, almost routine. Today, notwithstanding Covid-19, the scale of losses For anyone associated with Pangbourne, this endured in the World Wars of the 20th century is continued appetite and affinity for service is no almost incomprehensible.
    [Show full text]
  • Contents Chairman’S Column Admiral Sir Kenneth Eaton 2 Editor’S Note Nigel Blanchford 3 the Cased Oil Trade from Burma and the Tanker Shwedagon, 1912–1952 Peter H
    TopmastsAugust 2018 No. 27 The Quarterly Newsletter of The Society for Nautical Research Contents Chairman’s Column Admiral Sir Kenneth Eaton 2 Editor’s Note Nigel Blanchford 3 The Cased Oil Trade from Burma and the Tanker Shwedagon, 1912–1952 Peter H. King FNI 4 A Man’s a Man for A’ That: Daphne Austin and Barry Jolly 7 The Multi-ethnic Royal Navy and Merchant Marine, from the Seventeenth Century Onwards Marika Sherwood 10 The Fishing Fleets of the River Thames Bob Smith 13 True’s Yard Fisherfolk Museum Bob Smith 15 The Fenland Lighter Project H. J. K. Jenkins FSNR 17 Artefacts for Identification 19 SNR News 21 Invincible (1758) Historic Wreck Site Excavations John M. Bingeman FSNR 21 Strandingsmuseum Sy George John M. Bingeman FSNR 22 HMS Victory Relic Charles Ziegler 24 A Mysterious Artefact Cunliffe Hunter 25 Scilly Latitudes Paul Hughes 26 Conference Reports 26 Notices 30 Call for Papers 31 Conferences 32 Exhibitions 38 Lectures 40 SNR South 43 The Wellington Trust Heritage Evenings 43 New Books by Members 44 Society for Nautical Research Membership Report 46 Title image: ‘Sixty Degrees South’ by John Everett; courtesy of the National Maritime Museum (BHC2451) ISSN 2049-6796 Topmasts no. 27 Chairman’s Column Following this year’s AGM on 16 June at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the opportunity was taken to present two Society medals on the quarterdeck of HMS Victory: a very special place for such a ceremony. The Society’s most prestigious medal, the Centenary Medal, was presented to Dr Susan Rose.
    [Show full text]
  • Enigma Machine and Its U-Boat Codes
    THE U-BOATS 0. THE U-BOATS - Story Preface 1. THE UNBREAKABLE CODE 2. THE U-BOATS 3. U-110 IN TROUBLE 4. U-110 CAPTURED 5. U-110 SINKS 6. THE CODE IS BROKEN (TEMPORARILY) 7. U-559 - U-BOAT CODES ARE BROKEN 8. U-505 IN PERIL 9. THE CAPTURE OF U-505 10. ENIGMA TODAY This image depicts a flotilla of U-Boats in Bergen, Norway, at the close of WWII. In the center is U-2511, skippered by Captain Adalbert Schnee, which returned from patrols in the Atlantic after Germany surrendered in early May of 1945. The ship returned to Bergen on the 6th of May where it was released to the Allies. It was later scuttled by the British. One of Hitler's best weapons to hinder successful Allied convoy trips was the U-Boat. The Unterseebooten (under sea boats) were German submarines which attacked, almost at will, because the commanders knew (through the Enigma codes) the specific coordinates of Allied ships as they passed through convoy routes. At the same time, the German navy had high hopes for its new battleship, the mighty Bismarck. With her massive size, she could severely impede sea travel to and from Britain - as she did when she sank HMS Hood, pride of the Royal Navy. However ... Bismarck's power - and Germany's plans for her - abruptly ended when Britain sank the Bismarck on May 26, 1941. Hitler and his forces would thus have to depend on their U-boats. Like Allied submarines, the German vessels were different from today's nuclear subs which can remain underwater for months.
    [Show full text]
  • Remni May 24
    MAY 24, 2019 remembrance ni HMS Hood was no match for a much younger ship - the Bismarck HMS Hood off Iceland during April 1941 On 24 May 1941 two mighty ships engaged in battle – the respective pride of the German and British navies: the Bismarck and HMS Hood. When HMS Hood was sunk, she had 1415 on board. There were only 3 survivors. 14 of those who perished were from Northern Ireland. Page !1 MAY 24, 2019 The King during his final inspection of HMS Hood on 06/03/1941. She was in Rosyth, undergoing a minor refit. In this photo, he is greeting an officer, who is most likely Captain Ralph Kerr. Summary - HMS Hood was a 42,100 ton battlecruiser built in 1920 for the Royal Navy. It held the position of world’s largest warship for more than two decades. In May 1941 Hood and the new battleship Prince of Wales were sent out to search for the German battleship Bismarck, which had left Norway for the Atlantic. On the morning of May 24th, the two British ships found the Bismark just west of Iceland. During this Battle of the Page !2 MAY 24, 2019 Boldre parish church in the New Forrest has a Hood memorial chapel Denmark Strait, one or more of Bismarck’s fifteen-inch shells found HMS Hood’s magazines and detonated in a massive explosion, killing all but three of her crew of 1,415. The event shocked the British nation and the entire world. The three survivors were Ted Briggs (1923–2008), Robert Ernest Tilburn (1921–1995) and William John Dundas (1921–1965).
    [Show full text]
  • Battleships and British Society, 1920-1960[1]
    A Global Forum for Naval Historical Scholarship International Journal of Naval History August 2004/ December 2004 Volume 3 Numbers 2/3 Battleships and British Society, 1920-1960[1] Mark Connelly University of Kent, United Kingdom This article will explore the image of the Royal Navy’s battleships in British society between 1920 and 1960. Although much of what follows might be said to apply to Royal Navy as a whole, particularly ‘glamorous’ vessels such as aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers, it is the contention of this piece that the Royal Navy’s battleships by virtue of their sheer size and power captured the public imagination more than any other type of warship. The study of the image of the battleship in popular culture provides a significant insight into the atmosphere of Britain helping to reveal and highlight attitudes not just towards the Royal Navy, but also towards politics, the empire and Britain’s role in the world. Christopher M. Bell’s recent work has revealed that the Admiralty had an ambiguous attitude towards propaganda and publicity in the inter-war years. Disdainful of what it regarded as cheap appeals to the popular imagination, at the same time the Admiralty realised that it had to maintain the profile of the Navy. As foreign navies expanded abroad and the RAF tirelessly highlighted its benefits at home, the Admiralty rather reluctantly became involved in publicity activities.[2] Ralph Harrington’s has recently the great importance of HMS Hood to the British people showing that it was far more than a utilitarian and functional piece of equipment.[3] This article seeks to expand Harrington’s thesis by looking at British battleships in general, and place them within the wider framework of British society between 1920 and 1960, the year in which the last British battleship, Vanguard, was scrapped.[4] The article will examine the political and military arguments behind British naval policy in general, and the attitude towards battleships in particular.
    [Show full text]
  • Nmrn Collections and Stories 1 4
    NMRN COLLECTIONS AND STORIES 1 4 OURS IS THE EPIC STOR Y of the Royal Navy, WE TELL THE STORY of the Royal Navy’s multi-faceted combined operations like D-Day. roles in the past, and explain its purpose today. Sometimes the Royal Navy was the implacable its impact on Britain and the world from its Using examples of what the service did and foe, enforcing state policies like the opium trade origins in 625 AD to the present day. We will continues to do, we show how for centuries it or enabling colonial expansion. Beyond these tell this emotionally-coloured and nuanced was the pre-eminent agent of first the British significant events the Royal Navy’s purpose has story, one of triumph as well as failure and Crown and then of state policy throughout the always included peacetime service as well as war muddle, through four key themes. world. This purpose has included life-or-death fighting. Its success has always been defined as struggles against implacable foes like the much by the complex logistical operations which 1 Company from the first Royal Marine defeat of the Spanish Armada, to great keep warships at sea, as by the warships Commando unit, formed in 1942. set-piece sea battles like Trafalgar, or huge, themselves. 2 The sailor Jack Tar capturing Napoleon, 1803. People Purpose Power Progress WE TELL THE STORY of the Royal Navy’s people. WE TELL THE STORY of the Royal Navy’s power as WE TELL THE STORY of the Royal Navy and We examine the qualities that distinguish people a defining influence.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Deaths in Service of Royal Naval Medical, Dental, Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service and Sick Berth Staff
    Index of Deaths in Service of Royal Naval Medical, Dental, Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service and Sick Berth Staff World War II Researched and collated by Eric C Birbeck MVO and Peter J Derby - Haslar Heritage Group. Ranks and Rate abbreviations can be found at the end of this document Name Rank / Off No 1 Date Ship, (Pennant No), Type, Reason for loss and other comrades lost and Rate burial / memorial details (where known). Abel CA SBA SR8625 02/10/1942 HMS Tamar. Hong Kong Naval Base. Drowned, POW (along with many other medical shipmates) onboard SS Lisbon Maru sunk by US Submarine Grouper. 2 Panel 71, Column 2, Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon, UK. 1 Officers’ official numbers are not shown as they were not recorded on the original documents researched. Where found, notes on awards and medals have been added. 2 Lisbon Maru was a Japanese freighter which was used as a troopship and prisoner-of-war transport between China and Japan. When she was sunk by USS Grouper (SS- 214) on 1 October 1942, she was carrying, in addition to Japanese Army personnel, almost 2,000 British prisoners of war captured after the fall of Hong Kong in December Name Rank / Off No 1 Date Ship, (Pennant No), Type, Reason for loss and other comrades lost and Rate burial / memorial details (where known). Abraham J LSBA M54850 11/03/1942 HMS Naiad (93). Dido-class destroyer. Sunk by U-565 south of Crete. Panel 71, Column 2, Plymouth Naval Memorial, Devon, UK. Abrahams TH LSBA M49905 26/02/1942 HMS Sultan.
    [Show full text]
  • Hammocks: a Maritime Tool by Michele Panico November, 2018 Director of Thesis
    Hammocks: A Maritime Tool by Michele Panico November, 2018 Director of Thesis: Dr. Angela Thompson Major Department: Maritime Studies During the age of sail, sailors slept in hammocks made of canvas, suspended on the gundecks and secured to the beams above. This work seeks to understand the adoption and adaptation of hammocks as a maritime tool on sailing vessels and the subsequent impact and changes their presence caused. The adoption of hammocks onto maritime vessels affected all aspects of life at sea; including alterations to the construction and supplies needed aboard ships, which resulted in monetary impacts. Hammocks allowed for an increase in the number of men aboard vessels, they shaped modifications and improvements in sleeping conditions, and strengthened the divisions in ranks, while also acting as a means of comradery. In addition, hammocks created revisions in rules and regulations. Likewise, they altered forms of protection and defenses. Furthermore, hammocks affected health and hygiene by playing large roles in governing the cleanliness of ships and sailors. They also had various functions in relation to the sickbay, including a key part in burial. Finally, this thesis concludes with the replacement of hammocks by bunks. Ultimately, it evaluates the hammock as a maritime tool that influenced life at sea during the age of sail. Hammocks: A Maritime Tool A Thesis Presented To the Faculty of the Department of Department History East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Arts in Maritime Studies by Michele Panico November, 2018 © Michele Panico, 2018 Hammocks: A Maritime Tool by Michele Panico APPROVED BY: DIRECTOR OF THESIS: _____________________________________________________ (Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Introductions to Heritage Assets: Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950
    Ships and Boats: 1840-1950 Introductions to Heritage Assets Summary Historic England’s Introductions to Heritage Assets (IHAs) are accessible, authoritative, illustrated summaries of what we know about specific types of archaeological site, building, landscape or marine asset. Typically they deal with subjects which lack such a summary. This can either be where the literature is dauntingly voluminous, or alternatively where little has been written. Most often it is the latter, and many IHAs bring understanding of site or building types which are neglected or little understood. Many of these are what might be thought of as ‘new heritage’, that is they date from after the Second World War. This overview looks at ships and boats built after 1840. Principally drawing on archaeological, technological and historical sources, it describes vessels used on English inland and coastal waters and in the open sea. The evidence of wrecks and abandoned vessels is drawn on, as well as extant vessels. Also included is the early development of submarines. This guidance note has been written by Mark Dunkley and edited by Paul Stamper. It is one is of several guidance documents that can be accessed at HistoricEngland.org.uk/listing/selection-criteria/listing-selection/ihas-buildings/ First published by English Heritage September 2012. This edition published by Historic England July 2016. All images © Historic England unless otherwise stated. HistoricEngland.org.uk/advice/ Front cover I K Brunel’s SS Great Britain. © David Noton, used with permission of the
    [Show full text]
  • Ian Ballantyne
    BOOK REVIEWS Ian Ballantyne. Killing the Bismarck: journalistic history. Ballantyne buttresses Destroying the Pride of Hitler’s Fleet. his narrative with passages, mostly brief, by Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword British eye witnesses drawn from letters, Books Ltd., www.penandsword.co.uk, 2010. published sources and websites. He was 301 pp., illustrations, maps, appendices, end also able to interview 11 participants, 50 notes, bibliography, index. UK £ 25.00, years and longer after their involvement in hardcover; ISBN 978-1-84415-983-3. the epic pursuit of the German battleship. He explains that he wanted to portray, “The whole operation, moreover which among other things, how a spirit of culminated in her destruction is of vengeance after the loss of the battle-cruiser exceptional interest…in point of dramatic HMS Hood to Bismarck’s guns on 24 May reversals of fortune, of the frequent animated the British fleet. Ballantyne also alternation of high optimism and blank wanted to reveal the “necessary brutality of disappointment, of brilliant victory followed the Bismarck episode’s finale” (p.15). quickly by utter defeat, it is probably unique The narrative is supported by on warfare.” These words are from Captain informative endnotes (which, however, do Russell Grenfell’s The Bismarck Episode not provide page numbers for references (1949), the first authoritative book on the cited) and five pithy appendices on topics attempt by a powerful new German such as the myths that have circulated about battleship to break into the Atlantic to the sinking of the Bismarck and whether attack Allied merchant shipping in late May Hood, before being blown up, had 1941.
    [Show full text]