Haynes, Fred

Garden Island Rangefinding

September 24, 2018

Before the days of radar an array of optical rangefinders was an important feature of nearly all warships. In Royal Naval vessels, including those of the Dominions, these were mostly made by the Glasgow firm of Barr & Stroud and rangefinders fitted in RAN ships were returned to the makers for repairs and calibration. As this was time consuming and expensive a decision was made in the early 1920s to conduct future rangefinder maintenance and repairs locally at Garden Island Dockyard.

It was not until 1925 that a site for a repair shop was selected and built on the northern hill alongside the signal station with access by Hill Road past the dockyard residences. This site presented long and uninterrupted views down harbour.

Tradesmen, including a foreman with required expertise, were recruited in the United Kingdom, most likely poached from Barr & Stroud. As optical work had previously been conducted by the Dockyard on submarine periscopes there was some level of local experience already available. This existing work had been carried out in the electrical workshop near the dominant shear-leg crane.

The largest rangefinder then fitted to capital ships such as the battle-cruiser HMAS Australia was the FX3 which measured 22 feet (6.7 m) in length. To enable these large instruments to be repaired and calibrated a special jig was sent out by Bar & Stroud and fitted along the eastern side of the new hillside repair shop. This enabled the water tower on Dover Heights and other similar landmarks to be used for calibration, with Clark and Shark islands used for closer ranges. In 1930 a two storey addition to the original building was completed, enabling all optical and mechanical instruments in the RAN inventory to be repaired locally.

With the WWII development of radar, optical range-finding became obsolete. The last RAN ships capable of being fitted with rangefinders within their directions systems were the HMA Ships the DDGs Brisbane, Hobart and Perth. However, as weight restrictions to these particular ships were imposed by the incorporation of the Ikara ASW missile system, their rangefinders were not installed. Photographs of these DDGs show that the directors have blanking discs where the rangefinders should have protruded.

This just left the smaller one metre base rangefinders used by ships for navigational purposes. These smaller instruments required much closer targets for calibration which included the top of the staircase on the western side of the Dockyard Chapel and the northern end of the Finger Wharf at Woolloomooloo Bay. For longer ranges the closest of the twin flagstaffs on top of the Harbour Bridge was used.

With the construction of a new Weapons Building (No 79) in 1969 the optical workshop was sited on the top level of this building with a new periscope workshop on the level below.

This did not last long: with the further construction of a new Integrated Weapons Workshop along the western side of the Captain Cook Dock in 1987 the limited work on rangefinders continued here until the closure of the Optical and Periscope workshop in 2010. So ended 85 years of local technical support by Garden Island Dockyard for the maintenance of optical instruments.

Rangefinder taken from WWI battleship HMS Revenge Imperial War Museum

The Spectacle Island Railway

September 5, 2017

By Fred Haynes

Spectacle Island is located near the suburb of Drummoyne at the confluence of Iron Cove and Parramatta rivers. It was originally named Dawes Island when surveyed in the weeks after the arrival of HMS Sirius, after Lieutenant William Dawes who was a Marine officer in Sirius. He was also a skilful surveyor and engineer and competent astronomer. The name ‘Spectacle’ came later when introduced by the artist and mapmaker John Skinner Prout in 1850. He remarked that at low tide it had the appearance of a pair of spectacles, being two small rocky islands connected by a rock platform visible at low tide. In 1860 the Colonial government proposed to develop an explosive magazine store at Spectacle Island.

The first building, erected between 1863 and 1865, was a sandstone powder magazine on the larger eastern island. Labour was initially provided using convicts from nearby Cockatoo Island with sandstone readily available from construction of the Fitzroy Dock. Towards the end of this period the convicts were relocated to the new Darlinghurst Prison and as a result civilian contractors were engaged to complete construction of the magazine. The island quickly became crowded with other buildings; most were designed by the Colonial architect, James Barnet.

With the advent of the new facilities at Spectacle Island the explosives magazines facilities on Goat Island closed in about 1864, because they were considered too close to the growing city. By 1884 all other Royal Naval stores held at Goat Island had also been transferred to Spectacle Island.

The Railway

A laboratory was built on the western island around 1878 and a causeway to connect the two islands was gradually built up by the dumping of spoil from the levelling of the larger island. A tramway of wooden rails was laid on the causeway.

The standard gauge railway system was expanded in the late nineteenth century and iron rails replaced the original wooden ones. Most of the buildings and wharves on the island were connected by rail with turntables, which are still used today to move heavy objects around the island. Manpower was employed to move the trolleys around the island, although with the use of forklifts on the island sometimes heavy loads are now towed to buildings. However in some buildings the modern forklift will not fit through the internal doorways.

Railway still in use today leading to Storerooms and Magazines. Author

While the rails are made of iron in most of the more modern buildings, the rails in the original magazine explosive buildings are still of wood, some above ground and others set into the floor. Of the 21 wooden trolleys (known as drugs) still existing on the island, there are several designs with flanged iron wheels and others have wheels made from delta metal. The latter were used in explosive buildings with iron rails, this prevented any possibility of sparks which could have disastrous consequences.

Spectacle Island today

After about one hundred years of service the armaments depot on Spectacle Island closed in the 1960s. It followed the same fate as Goat Island, this time being too close to the expanding residential areas of Balmain and Drummoyne. The Navy had also adopted more demanding NATO regulations for munitions storage. The explosives were transferred further up the Parramatta River to the Royal Australian Navy Armament Depot (RANAD) at Newington. It is ironic that Newington suffered the same fate and closed when much of the site was absorbed into Sydney’s Olympic precinct in time for the 2000 Games.

Currently Spectacle Island is the home of the RAN Heritage Collection and is a repository for many of the Navy’s heritage artifacts. When ships or establishments decommission, selected items are sent for storage. Items include relics from the ship and presentations such as silverware and trophies that have been awarded, called PR&T for short. The Sealed Pattern Collection provides examples of housekeeping items issued to ships. Each item had a tag with a description and an ID number, attached with a lead seal. The item then became an example when a new supply was required. This collection was originally held at the Royal Edward Victualling Yard (REVY) at Pyrmont. The Naval Cadet unit TS Sydney is also housed on the Island together with all the facilities required to support them.

Further reading on Spectacle Island is to be found in an article from the NHR of March 1976 – www.navyhistory.org.au see Home page then Search for Spectacle Island.

Chloe and Sadie – or 100% Pitched and Ditched

December 16, 2011

This article is by Fred Haynes who for many years worked at Garden Island Dockyard firstly as a Scientific Instrument Maker and later as Technical Officer in charge of the Optical and Periscope Workshop. After 36 years at GID Fred served another 9 years as an Assistant Curator at the Naval Heritage Centre collection at Spectacle Island.

In the Fleet Air Arm different aircraft were unofficially rated by their pilots for their takeoff performance on the catapult. This was the ability to become airborne after launch, or being ‘pitched’. Performance of individual aircraft varied greatly and sometimes for some reason flight could not be maintained. This invariably meant the aircraft would crash or ‘ditch’ in the sea. The ratio of successful launches to failure was colloquially called the ‘pitched and ditched record’.

When the RAN took delivery of HMAS Melbourne it came fitted with the latest developments in naval aviation technology including the British designed steam catapult, angled flight deck and mirror landing system. In fact it was the decision to fit these to Melbourne that resulted in her delivery being delayed. Both HMAS Sydney and Melbourne were laid down as Majestic Class light fleet carriers towards the end of WW II but only Sydney was completed and commissioned as HMS Terrible. The uncompleted second ship was laid up at the end of hostilities and remained incomplete until the decision by the RAN to acquire two carriers for its new Fleet Air Arm. It was also decided to acquire a third carrier HMS Vengeance on loan from the RN until Melbourne was completed.

The newly acquired HMA Ships Sydney and Vengeance aircraft were Hawker Sea Fury FB11 and Fairey Firefly 5. Both these aircraft were catapult launched and often relied on JATO rockets for necessary additional thrust for takeoff when fully loaded. While these ships required conventional skills for refit maintenance of their hulls and propulsion systems the maintenance of their catapults presented new challenges for Garden Island Dockyard.

Catapults previously fitted to RAN ships such as the cruisers Australia, Hobart and Sydney used either compressed air or cordite charges. The aircraft sat on a cradle fitted to the catapult and required a crane to lift them into position prior to launch. The usual method for testing was to fire a large test baulk of wood to simulate the weight of the aircraft.

The new carriers required a different method of testing catapults leading to the design of a re-useable four wheeled test vehicle which the Dockyard called ‘Sadie.’ Sadie was used during the active service lives as RAN carriers Sydney and Vengeance. When Melbourne was introduced with her modified design she was able to launch the later jet powered de Havilland Sea Venom FAW53 and twin turboprop Fairey Gannet AS1 and 4. Sadie was no longer able to cope with these new requirements and a new test vehicle was built, fitted with a four wheel undercarriage from a Canberra jet bomber It contained ballast tanks that could be filled with water to simulate different aircraft weights.

The new vehicle was christened ‘Chloe’ after the famous painting in the landmark Young & Jackson’s Hotel in the ship’s namesake city. Testing was conducted when the ship was alongside resulting in a large splashdown up to 200 metres ahead of the ship. The float was then lifted back onboard with the aid of the 250 ton hammerhead crane. On one occasion a commercial fisherman returning to the then commercial Woolloomooloo Bay ignored repeated warnings and was distraught when covered in spray after Chloe landed alongside.

Following Melbourne’s 1967 – 1969 major refit came new aircraft, the Douglas A4G Skyhawk and Grumman S2 Tracker. This required an upgrade of Chloe with saddle tanks added to reflect increases in weight, but this upset the test vehicle’s already pedestrian aerodynamics. Accordingly another test vehicle was introduced comprising a steel girder frame forming a sled plus a large cylindrical tank for ballast water. The sled was not fitted with wheels but had two wooden skids. This produced unpredictable and spectacular results and as a result use of this unloved and unnamed test vehicle was discontinued shortly after its introduction. Both Chloe and her unnamed successor were last seen in a derelict condition at the old Rydalmere Naval Stores. Certainly Sadie and Chloe held the record of 100% pitched and ditched in RAN service.

Pitched and Ditched – the big splash. RAN

Miscellaneous Materials

December 31, 2004

In 1959 as an apprentice Scientific Instrument Maker in the Optical Workshop at Garden Island Dockyard I learnt to use these materials as part of my trade.

The use of optical devices such as telescopes, binoculars sextants theodolites and rangefinders by the Navy was to aid practical watchkeeping, navigation, hydrography, and gunnery. All these instruments were repaired during their service use utilising a range of miscellaneous materials.

Beetles, trees, birds and spiders all provided the raw materials for returning these unserviceable items to ‘as new’ condition, ready for re-issue to the Fleet.

Beetles

When first starting in the Optical Shop one of the first items issued by the storeman, along with a wooden box to keep optical cleaning equipment, was a screw top jar. This is where beetles became an essential part of an Instrument Makers toolbox. In this jar was mixed a thick soup of shellac, a secretion of the Lac Beetle (Tachardia lacca), and methylated spirit.

By the time the apprenticeship was completed this mixture had developed into an evil brew, jealously guarded by its owner. It became the universal glue, used for anything, from sticking bits of chart paper packing around lenses, to holding tin foil spots onto prisms for adjustment. It was even used to secure graticule wires in some sextant telescopes.

Sometimes after thinning down with rectified spirit (alcohol used for cleaning optical components) it was used for its more conventional use of rudimentary French polishing of an instrument case. After this exercise the lid was left off the jar for several days to allow the excess alchol to evaporate, and the brew soon returned to the usual Vegemite consistency.

One of the older tradesman in the workshop boasted of having had the same shellac jar for twenty years ‘man and boy’. He obviously ignored the fact that after this period of time there was not much of the original mix left. It had become just like the proverbial hundred-year-old axe that had only had three heads and five handles.

Tree Sap

Trees were certainly used to provide the wood for various stowage boxes for optical instruments. However from the early 1800s resin obtained from the bark of balsam fir trees (Abies balsamea), found in North America, was collected and refined for many uses, including assembly of optical components. Optical cement has to have a refractive index similar to glass so that it becomes invisible when looking through the instrument.

Canada Balsam, as it was known, continued to be used to cement lens and prism elements together even after synthetic optical cements were developed.

Prisms combinations fitted to binoculars and rangefinders were assembled in a jig and baked in an oven until the balsam set. When the instruments were tested for collimation and errors were found to be outside the range for mechanical adjustment the prisms could be reheated and adjustments made.

Of course with experience you learnt to get adjustment right the first time thus avoiding the need for movement after the ‘first bake’. With all adjustments for collimation and focus satisfactorily completed the prism combinations were again removed and placed in the jig for their ‘final bake’. After the final bake all excess balsam was removed and the prisms given an optical clean.

Most modern two part cements do not offer this ‘readjustment if not right’ feature, giving only one go to get it right. Perhaps the nearest to balsam is the ultra-violet setting cement, similar to that now used by dentists. The light is used to harden the cement and by giving a limited exposure one is still able to carry out limited adjustment before full exposure. Canada balsam is still used to prepare microscope slides.
Scientific Instrument Makers at work in Garden Island Dockyard’s Optical Workshop.

Birds

Probably the most exacting operation to perform on optical instruments was to clean the graticule or field lens. This is usually the one optical surface in critical focus, and as such any dust contamination appears as black spots in the field of view. In the case of submarine periscopes, specks the size of five microns (.00005”) and up become visible. Submarine captains can become very paranoid performing emergency dives after spotting a potential enemy aircraft that always seems to be in the same place in the field of view.

Birds played an important role in the elimination of these specks of dust. Three inch sections of feather quill were sharpened much the same way as the old quill pen nib and these were used to gently pick specks off the lens surface. For more stubborn specks, stuck to the surface due to static charge, the quill was used to sweep them off across the surface of the lens. The softness of the quill ensured that scratching of the glass did not occur and allowed frequent re-sharpening of the pointed end.

Several optical instruments actually had small packets of quills included in the spares carried in their transport box. One of these was the Barr & Stroud metre base rangefinder. Quills even had a Pattern Number and in 1969 could still be ordered from Naval Stores. (0552-972-3673)

Spiders

Survey instruments such as theodolites used by the Hydrographic branch require extremely fine graticules to enable accurate measurement. Tavistock theodolites still in use in the late 1950s utilised spider web to provide filaments for their graticule. Web is the ideal material for this purpose because of its fineness and strength. One optical design handbook even describes how web can be unravelled, just like a piece of rope, to obtain individual strands of extreme fineness. When the web is stretched across the graticule holder and glued down with shellac, unlike human hair or wire it will not sag due to changes in temperature or humidity.

Of course the initiation into this operation lent itself to the inevitable reverse ‘leg pull’ to the new apprentice. The foreman would instruct the ‘new hand’ to ask the storeman for the ‘spider web tools’. Not sure, he would hesitantly ask for the tools, and would be handed a drawer containing the items along with the same type of screw top jar used for shellac. The tools consisted of several wire frames bent into a square with a handle fitted. When asked what the jar was for the storeman would answer ‘to keep the spider in’. By now the apprentice would be sure that it was all an elaborate joke, but he soon learnt otherwise.

After catching a suitable spider from the outside wall of the workshop, or amongst the bushes on the northern hill of the Island, he learnt how to collect the web on the frames.

Placing the spider on the top of the frame it was prodded until it did a ‘bungee jump’, and as it fell its web would be wound onto the frame by rotating the handle. With the spider safely back in the jar the web was washed with alcohol to remove the globules of sticky glue. When dry the web could be laid across the graticule holder and cemented in position. The final operation was to find a nice fat fly for the spider as a reward. Some spiders lived for up to six months in their screw top home.

Spider web was one of those items not held by Naval stores, but we would often say that they had plenty on their shelves, if only we could find the Pattern Number to order it.

These are only a few of the miscellaneous items in the Optical Instrument Makers toolbox. There were others such as hair, handkerchiefs, pitch and cork, but that’s another story . . . .

Queen Bee – Radio-Controlled Target Aircraft of the 1930s

June 9, 2002

Navies ignore threat of aircraft

The emergence of airpower as a formidable weapon at the end of WW I was to a large extent ignored by Allied Navies as a threat. The bomber was seen as a weapon to be used against enemy land forces and manufacturing industries and not the Capital ship at sea. However in 1921 American General “Billy” Mitchell showed the potential of airpower against ships at sea when in 1921 his bombers sank the surrendered German battleship Ostfriesland as a demonstration.

British and American navies were still unconvinced by this demonstration and pointed out that the targets were undefended, not underway, or capable of manoeuvring. Mitchell pointed out that even more efficient and effective tactics for attack would be used in wartime. The Royal Navy and American Navy still remained reluctant to admit that bombers could in any circumstances sink heavy warships. A decade later further improvements in aircraft capabilities, particularly in carrier based torpedo bombers, began to influence thinking on anti-aircraft defences for warships.

Anti-aircraft gunnery

In 1933 in response to the need for both the Royal Navy, and the Army, to improve their standards in anti-aircraft gun accuracy, the Air Ministry issued Specification 18/33. This called for a radio controlled target aircraft for operation from land or sea. The De Havilland company submitted a revision of their basic Tiger Moth design which was a combination of the wooden fuselage frame of the earlier Moth Major with the normal components of a Tiger Moth, fitted with Short Bros floats for naval use and radio control equipment under hinged decking in the rear cockpit. The aircraft could still be flown manually from the front cockpit.

Experimental work on radio control at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farmborough enabled the aircraft to be flown remotely while being shot at. If efforts to hit the target were unsuccessful it was able to land alongside the ship and be hoisted aboard for further use.

AACU with "Queen bee". Note wheels fitted to floats. The D.H. "Queen Bee" Wireless-controlled Target Aeroplane (130 b.p. D.H. "Gipsy-Major" engine). — AACU with “Queen bee”.
Note wheels fitted to floats.
The D.H. “Queen Bee” Wireless-controlled Target Aeroplane (130 b.p. D.H. “Gipsy-Major” engine).

The prototype DH.82B Queen Bee, as it was named, first flew at Hatfield on 5 January 1935. Later that year a demonstration flight showed all the manoeuvres from take-off to touchdown being completed without a pilot onboard. Success of the prototype led to production orders to revised Specification 20/35.

Queen Bee K5102 ready for launch on catapult

Anti-Aircraft Cooperation Units (AACU) were established at home and overseas bases including Malta and Singapore to operate the aircraft.

On August 26th 1935, while on exchange service with HMS Sussex of the Mediterranean Fleet , HMAS Australia was fitted in Portsmouth Dockyard, between the after funnel and X-turret, with a light 50-Knot rotating Catapult Type S IIL. Deadload trials of the catapult were completed on 9 September in readiness for embarkation of the new Seagull V.

"Queen Bee" K5102 being launched from HMAS Australia — “Queen Bee” K5102 being launched from HMAS Australia

While serving in the 1st Cruiser Squadrons Mediterranean Fleet, in Alexandria Egypt, Australia was called upon to operate the Queen Bee during the conduct of anti-aircraft gunnery exercises During the flights from Australia the front cockpit was fitted with a dummy pilot that gave the appearance of a piloted aircraft. He was christened “Fearless Fred” and was an attempt by the crew to add some light relief to the exercise.

The following is an extract from the Midshipman’s diary of Capt. W.F. Cook (Ret), who was part of Australia’s crew at that time.

11 February 1936. “Should have gone to sea today but it was found that Shropshire had no light Catapult charges for the Queen Bee. Our catapult being the only one which would take the charges, so we embarked the Queen Bee. It took a long time to fit the trolley so we didn’t go to sea in the afternoon.

Queen Bee ditching after being shot down.

Bad weather prevented us flying the Q.B. on the 12th, 13th, & 14th February, but the 1st Cruiser Squadron left harbour at 0630 on 15th Feb & this was the first day it was flown as a target. Australia’s second run was quite good & C.S.1 (RADM Max Horton ) congratulated us! The Q.B. was shot down in the close range shoot. We put up a second one which was apparently damaged by a near miss ( by Ajax) and crashed.

Australia's boat attaching a line to recover crashed K5102 — Australia’s boat attaching a line to recover crashed K5102

To sea on the 18th Feb. Where the Q.B. survived shooting by the Battle Squadron, Coventry & Arethusa, but damaged a wing as we hoisted it inboard. We flew one on the 19th Feb, but low cloud spoilt the shooting & finally the Q.B. got out of control and crashed.
Flew again on 25th of Feb. Shooting was poor and & finally the Q.B. ran away from us and landed 56 miles away safely (controlled by Fearless Fred!! see attached poem by TORO) & we re-embarked her undamaged.

Australia hoisting crashed K5103/ onboard. Dummy pilot "Fearless Fred" amongst recovered wreckage on deck — Australia hoisting crashed K5103/ onboard. Dummy pilot “Fearless Fred” amongst recovered wreckage on deck

Flew on 27th Feb; Q.B. landed undamaged & I took the cutter (32′ x 12 oared ) away to tow her back alongside. Flew on 3 March, landed undamaged & hoisted in. Flew on 5 March, Q.B. “old Fred” passed through all sorts of hellfire & then cracked up on landing.
Flew on 10 March, Q.B. stayed up for about 15 runs & then crashed on landing. (multiple pom poms helped!!)
Flew off for the last time on 12 March. “Daring Dan” went out of control after 8 runs & crashed.

The poem referred to in the diary was written by Lieut (E) J. W. N. (Johnny) Bull after the recovery of the runaway Queen Bee on the 26th of Feb 1936. Judging by the diary comments for 12th of March “Fearless Fred” may have been lost on one of his flights on or after the 5th of March and replaced by “Daring Dan”.

On 13 March, Australia received a fine signal from the Commander in Chief: “The willingness and promptitude with which Australia undertook the duties of Catapulting & controlling ship for the Queen Bee firings have been equalled by her efficiency in these duties.”

A total of 320 Queen Bees were built by de Havilland and 100 by Scottish Aviation near Glasgow. The last production aircraft was delivered in July 1944.

References:

Scale Aircraft Modeling
Midshipman’s Diary of Capt. W.F. Cook RAN (Ret)
JANES all the worlds Aircraft 1936

Haynes, Fred

Navies ignore threat of aircraft

Anti-aircraft gunnery

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