The Diary of Thomas Victor Rayson-1916

To 1914 - To 1915 - To 1916 - Miscellaneous

Dec 18th till 19th
Remaining in harbour

Dec 20th till 22nd
Under 2hrs notice until 11pm on 22nd

Dec 23rd
In harbour

Dec 24th
Left for sea 11pm.

Dec 25th
At sea weather rough heavy swell.

Dec 26th
Arrived in harbour @ 6.10 am. & coaled ship 180 tons.

Dec 27th till 31st
In harbour

January 1st 1916 till 4th
In harbour. Blowing heavy.

Jan 5th
Left for sea 4o/c pm.

Jan 6th, 7th
At sea.

Jan 8th
At sea evening proceeding to harbour arrived @ 10o/c

Jan 9th
In harbour coaling ship 500 tons & oiled

Jan 10th till 15th
Remaining in harbour

Jan 16th till 23rd
Remaining in harbour

Jan 24th
In harbour coaled ship 85 tons.

Jan 25th
In harbour

Jan 26th
In harbour - all hands watch keeping 2.30 pm.

Jan 27th
In harbour. Steam for 22 knots 45 mins notice from 6am.

Jan 28th & 29th
In harbour. Under short notice & @ 11.30. am left for sea on 29th weather fine

Jan 30th
Arrive in @ Cromarty 11.30. & Saw some of remains of xxxx proceeded to coal @ 1 o/c pm. Amount taken in 220 tons. Under short notice

Jan 31st
Went to sea 12 o/c noon for firing & returned in the evening @ 4.30 pm under short notice

Feb 1st
In harbour. Left for Queensferry 1.30pm.

Feb 2nd
Arrived in Queensferry 8.30am & coaled ship 220 tons. Lit up all round. 10.30 pm ready for sea. Warning of air raid but nothing done

Feb 3rd
Still under short notice. 1/2 hr. 2.30 went under 2 1/2 hrs notice under 4 hrs 10 o/c pm.

Feb 4th
In harbour. Under 24 hrs notice for repairing of boiler

Feb 5th
24 hrs notice up @ 9am.

Feb 6th
Proceed to sea @ 2.30 pm

Feb 7th
Arrived in harbour 11 am & coaled 240 tons.

Feb 8th & 9th
In harbour under short notice

Feb 10th
Still under short notice 11.30am went under 4hrs 11.45am 1 hrs & @5.45 got under weight for sea. Heard news that a German squadron were @ sea. Weather calm

Feb 11th
@ sea weather same as previous day Guns crews all closed up till 10 o/c am we found they had gone back to harbour.

Feb 12th, 13th
Arrived back @ Queensferry @ 7 o/c am & coaled ship 309 tons

Feb 14th
In harbour 2 hrs notice

Feb 15th till 23rd
In harbour

Feb 24th
Under 2 hrs notice

Feb 25th
Proceeded to sea. 12 o/c noon weather rough

Feb 26th
At sea weather rough

Feb 27th
At sea weather as previous day

Feb 28th
Arrived in @ Queensferry 9 o/c & proceeded to coal & oil ship under 4 hrs notice

Feb 29th
In harbour 8.30 pm @ night went under 1 hrs notice

March 1st
Still under 1 hrs notice

March 2nd
Went under 4 hrs notice @ noon

March 3rd
Left for sea 2 o/c pm. Weather moderate

May 24th
In harbour

May 25th
In harbour 8.30 from Captain sent wire to men on leave for extension of 24 hrs & told xxxx of Seaman to leave in the morning.

May 26th
In harbour seaman left for leave until Monday 5th June.

May 27th
Went under 1/2 hrs notice @ 12.30 am in the morning & also heard the news that H.M.S. Chatham had struck a mine whilst on her way north outside Harwich.

May 28th
In harbour went under 4hrs notice @ 8.30 am Fleet Surgeon joined ship Bannister

May 29th
In harbour coaled ship @ 5.30am 104 tons.

May 30th
In harbour lit up all round @6.30 & went to sea @ 9 o/c pm

May 31st
At sea weather find expecting action @ 12 o/c noon but did not go until 2.30 pm when we were standing by as Barham & squadron were in action we saw one ship blown up

Page 42
by then in the distance later on we came to the Lion & her squadron they were in action. At 4o/c we sighted the Battle Fleet of Scapa FLow with Jellico in Command @ about 5o/c they picked up their stations & we & whole fleet opened fire @ about 5o/c. Shortly after the xxxx xxxx one of our destroyers on starb bow blew up. When @ a distance of about 5000 yds. on our starb beam came range 6500 yds five German Battle Cruisers the leading one was xxxx to be the Derflinger. The other unknown one of the coast raiders we fired five or three broadsides @ her & in response she fired @ us & only one of her shells hit us & that was our foremast breaking the five voice pipes on a level with foubridge(?) but not much damage done to the mast. One boy was struck of on the arm, by a splinter but was not hurt much & after that we fired a torpedo @ her & missed but the next one hit her in amidships & we afterwards learnt she sunk along with the other just before we fired the torpedoes. The Invincible which was steaming on our port quarter let go a broadside into the Derflinger but as she let go so did the German ship & she must have hit ours for as she fired there was one terrific explosion amidships a sheet of flame & smoke when that cleared away there was nothing left of her only the two ends sticking our of the water nobody saved as yet this happened between

Page 43
6 & 6.30 pm. we still carried on firing @ different ships but we stopped firing about 7o/c as no ships were in range of our squadron but all the Battle Fleet were still @ it up till about 8.30 pm as we could see them quite plain. Whilst steaming to cut off some German ships which had managed to escape from the clutches of The Battle Fleet. We came up to 5 German armoured cruisers making a dash to break through the lines be we caught them in time & opened fire & they answered back sharply but they every where but hitting us falling all around the ships this was about 9.30 @ night. During the action we fired about 300 rounds of ammunition & two torpedoes were fired one shot from our port battery all the firing was from starb side

June 1st
Weather grand action stations @ 2.30 am, as expected to meet some German ships that had go away but could not get back as they were cut off @ about 3o/c am. We sighted a Zeppelin which had no doubt came out to aid the Germans to get back, but nothing doing as us & our squadron opened fire with shrapnel & sent her off but was not able to hit her. Steaming about all day but nothing doing in the German line weather rough @ night

June 2nd
Arrived in Queensferry @ about 9.30 am. & as we passed the Lion & squadron and we could see how they had been battered & where they had been on fire so far as we know we were the luckiest squadron of the lot although in amongst the thickest of it: we coaled 560 tons. & left for sea again @ 7.30 pm. where -for not known. Weather calm.

June 3rd
Weather rough at sea doing patrolling duties over the scene of the Battle found the bows of a destroyer nationality not known sunk by one of our destroyers accompanying us.

June 4th
At sea weather moderate patrolling round Skayer Rack (?) @ about 5o/c found a deserted trawler fired @ it but not sunk so left it.

June 5th
Arrive back @ Queensferry @ 9.30 am & second advance party of Stokers went 5o/c

June 6th
In harbour Captain cleared lower deck @ 11.45 congratulating ships company of the way they behaved in action & also that the ship developed more horse power than she was designed for 30,000 h.P built for 22000. That means 8000 more

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also we beat our previous record of the Heligoland fight of Aug 28th 1914

June 7th & 8th
In harbour. News of Ld Kitcheners death drowned with all hands on HMS Hampshire of the Orkneys.

June 8th, 9th, 10th
In harbour

June 11th
In harbour Admiral had us all up on the upper deck and complimented the ships company on the way they behaved in action & hoped he would still continue to do so

June 12th & 13th
In harbour

June 14th
In harbour went under 2 1/2 hrs notice @ 12 o/c noon.

June 15th
In harbour 2 1/2 hrs notice

June 16th
In harbour 2 1/2 hrs notice. King George V on board to inspect ships company @ 3.30 pm accompanied by Admiral Beatty & General Sir H Smith Dorrien aide comp to the King

June 17th
In harbour

June 18th
In harbour. Full watch below 6pm left for The Tyne 10 pm.

June 19th
Arrived in @ Palmers Yard Hibburn Dock 5.30am & proceeded on leave @ 9am.

Aug 19th
At sea expecting action any moment about 1 o/c we encountered 3 Zeppelins & firing @ them during afternoon. Well @ 4.55 whilst travelling @ a speed of 27 Knots we were struck by a torpedo which hit our bows carrying the men on deck to be swamped & thrown all over the place hardly had the noise of the explosion died down when another hit us aft: This causing 1 death & 6 seriously injured of which 1 died before dark about 300 of us were taken off sick men first then boys in a trawler which happened to be near all the other ships left us only leaving us 3 destroyers which kept circling round us

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but with all this we had 3 more torpedoes fired before the night but The Good Old Ship had all her watertight doors shut which saved us from sinking @ once we went back to the ship @ 8o/c to take off some more men & left the ship @ 8.15 & made way to Grimsby got in there 9o/c on the Sunday. Heard the news on Monday that the ship had two more torpedoes hit her Sunday while in tow & sank about 9o/c Sunday evening. The last two explosion killed the hands in No3 Stokehold 9 making the casualties up to 11 killed So it will be seen that the ship took 28 hrs or more before she sank although being hit by 6 torpedoes show how well watertight doors are to a ship when in action

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