Port Depot Ship Rosyth

[Chris Grimshaw]

Afternoon Team

Scan shows a cover to 'Port Depot ship' Rosyth, December 1918

Was this a vessel, or Shore establishment and was it named?

Chris

[Alan Baker]

I have found an officer on Ancestry - Lt Rupert Oswald Jones, RNR - awarded an OBE in July 1919 "for valuable services in charge of the Port Convoy Office, Suez"

Probably the same officer, so it looks like he "never went to sea". Hope this helps

[Frank Schofield]

Chris

Lieut Rupert Oswald Jones, RNR seniority 3 Aug 1911
In Nov 1918, Jan 1919 & March 1919 Navy Lists, listed under HMS Duke the RN Depot at Port Said
No mention of a Lt/ Commander rank

Frank

[Nick Colley]

I'm confused - how can he be in Port Said and Rosyth at the same time?

Is that a hyphen between Rupert and Jones?

chrs
N

[Frank Schofield]

Nick

Well spotted. Sorry no Lt/Commander Rupert-Jones RNR listed in any of the three quoted Navy Lists

Frank

[Nick Colley]

Crikey, Chris, you have a cover addressed to someone who never existed, but who was in two places at once. Where did the cover originate? Hogwarts????  ;D

chrs
Bewildered of Billericay

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi All

Yes, confirm hyphen is present.  I'm wondering if cover is from a brother or son. 

Port Said also confuses me.  Cover is ex Slingsby collection.  He probably got it from 'Hogwarts'

Chris

[Tony Walker]

You wondered whether Port Depot Ship Rosyth was an actual ship or a shore establishment.  This sent me chasing.

Rosyth developed as an important naval establishment after a major construction programme was completed in late 1916.  I have an artistic PPC aerial view of the base contrived early in 1916 which shows a number of land based buildings and very many ships anchored around the place, not base ships to my reckoning.  Torpedo Boat Destroyers were based at Rosyth and they used a centralised censor procedure (Gould 4B82 for instance), and this is likely to have been land based.

I have a cover with a double oval cachet PORT DEPOT SHIP / ROSYTH dated 18 February 2020, interestingly post-war like yours.  It has the 8 barred circle cancel and was sent from Rosyth to Messrs R Wade in Chatham.  I think this was a central land based facility at Rosyth from which mail received was then distributed to the various ships or to their central depot as in the Torpedo Boat Destroyers.

Cheers
Tony

[Michael Dobbs]

Gents

Although not my collecting area, but I am following this with interest just to see where it goes and to see if the issue is finally resolved!

Tony - do you mean 1920, rather than just last year (2020) ?

Mike  :)

[Frank Schofield]

Gents

Borrowed Harry Potters wand and came up with:-
Acting Cummander John Archibald Rupert Jones
Appt to HMS Crescent (ex Cruiser) Depot ship at Rosyth
on 9th June 1916

Frank

[Tony Walker]

OK, now that Frank has indicated we may well be dealing with someone in the real world, here are a couple of items which suggest (from the cover at least), he was at a real place

Tony

[Tony Walker]

Yes Mike, should have been 1920, not 2020.  It must have been all the excitement of going into Tier 4......
Tony

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hello Everyone.

Seems we now have a'Real Person'  Great, and a name for what was certainly Port Depot Ship in 1916, HMS Crescent.

A purist would then ask, Did HMS Crescent remain in commission in 1919 or was she replaced with a shore establishment of another vessel?

Thanks to Everyone.

[Michael Dobbs]

Hi all

According to "Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy (Being a list of the Static Ships and Establishments of the Royal Navy)" Compiled by Lt Cdr B Warlow RN (Maritime Books, 1992):

CRESCENT Scapa Flow, Rosyth, Depot Ship
- CRESCENT (1892) Cruiser, Submarine Depot Ship 1917, Scapa Flow 1917-18, General Depot Ship Firth of Forth 1919, sold 22/9/1921
- GLORY (1899) Battleship, renamed CRESCENT 1/5/1920 Depot Ship, sold 19/12/1922
- SUTLEJ (1899), Cruiser, overflow ship Rosyth 1917-18, incliuded in establishment CRESCENT 1918, sold 9/5/1921

So, still in commission as HMS Crescent in 1919 - no date as to when taken out of service, but sold 22/9/1921.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Frank Schofield]

The cruiser CRESCENT later depot ship at Rosyth, was sold on 22nd September 1921 and broken up in Germany
The attached scan shows she was the depot ship (ex Cruiser)

Frank