38 NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2007
Shore touch by surveyors
C
OULD you erect a pole standing in icy waters
whilst being buffeted by winds and waves?
Could you make a secondary triangulation station
requiring precision, or reweb a theodolite telescope?
And would you, after perfecting these skills and more, put up
with being paid only 1s 6d per day extra?
No, me neither. And yet,
a century ago, that is what the
Eloise Waldon-Day, of
Navy’s Surveying Recorders had Portsmouth Grammar
to put up with.
School, looks back
Theirs was arguably one of
at 100 years of
the hardest and least-recognised
positions in the Navy. And they
Surveying Recorders
deserved to be recognised.
The Hydrographic Department
convoluted facts and information
has a long pedigree, as it was
such as how to use logarithms and
formed in 1795 when Alexander
heliostats, whether from a fixed or
Dalrymple was appointed
moving platform.
Hydrographer of the Navy and
After qualifying, the new SRs
found himself with the job of
would be sent around the world
sorting, selecting and compiling
on surveying vessels to examine
up to 20,000 charts and reports
features in the territory of potential
which had been left unexamined.
or existing enemies, to chart sea
The RN Surveying Service, as
lanes and find new, quicker or
it became known, dates back to
safer trading routes.
January 1817, when special rates
During World War 2, manning
of pay were established for officers
harbour craft became the most
employed in hydrography.
popular WRNS category, and
But it was almost a century
Wrens all over England abandoned
before the ratings were brought
their duties or requested to
into the fold, though for decades
relinquish their rates to start again
they had been assisting officers
as ‘real sailors’.
with their tasks.
Among their duties were
The proposal to introduce the
running the launch employed on
SR specialisation was initially
surveying duties in Plymouth.
● Above: Listening for the messenger to trip the fi rst bottle of a Nansen cast. Nansen bottles were designed to be activated by a brass ‘mes-
rejected in 1904.
Their standard of work was such
senger’ which caused the bottle to tip over at a certain depth, trapping a sample of seawater using spring-loaded valves. The sample could
Admiral Sir Arthur Field, ninth
that the Navy Hydrographer at the
then be tested for salinity and temperature. The tipping mechanism could also set off a second and subsequent messengers in a sequence,
Hydrographer of the Navy, was
time sent a special commendation
activating a line of bottles at varying depths.
running out of volunteers for a
to the Director of the WRNS,
job which involved conditions of
Dame Vera Laughton Matthews, the end of the war, and no women In the hundred years since (Hydrographic, Meteorological SRs, numbers of the oldest Navy
exposure and long hours.
saying that the high standard of joined the SRs until almost 50 the specialisation for ratings was and Oceanographic). establishment are dwindling.
He saw that no one would
work was ‘fully comparable with years later. introduced, it is estimated that The new specialisation will The last SRs qualified in
willingly put in the necessary
what would have been expected Hayes, however, had a forgiving
1,500 ratings have served as eventually take over from the December 2003, and as of 6 July
effort without some inducement,
from a regular Navy crew’. nature, and maintained her links
Surveying Recorders.
existing Surveying Recorder and 2007 there were just 64 SRs left.
and successfully resubmitted the
The report particularly praised with the Surveying Service,
Women today in the
Naval Airman Meteorological and The youngest, AB(HM)
proposal in 1907.
the boat’s coxswain, LW Florence generously donating money to be
specialisation work alongside and
Oceanographic specialisations – the Goldsworthy-Trapp, will retire
There is no exact date for the
Hayes, for her exceptional ability shared between Hecla, Herald, and
carry out the same duties as men.
former now known as AB(HM)s. from the Navy in May 2041 at
introduction of extra pay for SRs,
in handling the boat and all- Hydra Welfare funds during the
Techniques have changed
As the new intakes replace the latest.
but there is an attractive logic to
round intelligence, coolness and Falkands Conflict, having noticed
enormously over the century
the possibility of it being July 3,
leadership. that the main focus of the attention
– sounding machines have been
the day of St Thomas the Apostle,
In return for their excellent was on the warships rather than
replaced by echo sounders,
patron saint of surveyors, which
service, the Navy promptly the survey vessels which had acted
electronic fixing has replaced
would have been known to their
abolished the Wren boat crews at as ambulance ships.
sextants, and today’s surveyors
Lordships at the time.
work almost exclusively with
Although the ‘Establishment of
satellite navigation and global
Roster’ for Surveying Recorders
positioning systems.
(SRs) officially appeared in 1920,
Despite celebrating its centenary
the first documented evidence of
this year, the specialisation is in
their presence was in 1908, when
decline.
POs and ratings “employed on
Its fate was sealed when the
certain surveying duties” qualified
for 6d, 1s or 1s 6d, “according to
introduction of a new Warfare
ability”.
Branch specialisation was
SRs wore a badge representing
formally announced on January
an octant, a device said to resemble
16 2004 – the OM(HM)(U),
a ham bone.
or Operator Mechanic
Training was conducted locally
on an ad hoc basis, and was a
● Left: Scientifi c trawler HMS
lengthy, tortuous process, learning
Daisy off Lowestoft in 1915
● Able Seacat Fred Wunpound of survey ship HMS Hecate
Putting the cat into Hecate
WUNPOUND – funny name, His main duty was mouse
funny sailor. exterminator (and no one
LS (Leading Seacat) Fred ever saw a mouse on board
Wunpound was the mascot the ship), for which he was
of survey ship HMS Hecate, rewarded with a luxury wicker
obtained for £1 from Plymouth basket next to the gyro room
RSPCA in 1966. – poor Fred never really got
He was forced ashore in his sea legs.
1975 by anti-rabies laws On leaving the Navy Fred
– but not before he travelled had two good conduct badges
more than a quarter of a (and one disgraceful conduct
million miles in Hecate – the badge – the so-called ‘fish
equivalent of more than ten market incident’ in Brixham).
times round the world, giving Fred spent his last 15
him a fair claim for the title months in peace in Taunton,
‘most-travelled cat’. and died in his sleep in 1976.
Navy News is indebted to former SR Lt Ian Austin RN
(retd), of the HM Training Group in Plymouth, who has
produced a history of the SR specialisation, from which
this feature draws its material.
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