Some people in Sheerness have already reported the sighting in the area of a foreignlooking gentleman dressed like a farmer but having a military bearing. There are spies all around us. The Bulwark moved to the Medway anchorage earlier this month with the Fifth Battle Fleet to combat any German moves to invade England. She was launched in 1899 as a flag ship and carried 11 magazines connected by a passage running through the entire ship. These ammunition passages were packed with shells and cordite. The explosion was seen as far away as Southend and Sittingbourne where one man reported it as being just like a wonderful sunset

Princess Irene blown up  

At approximately 11:15 on the morning of Thursday, 27th May 1915, the Princess Irene was anchored off Port Victoria Pier in Salt Pan Reach, near Grain, when she suddenly suffered an internal explosion. Eye witnesses stated the flames rose as much as 2 miles high before settling into a dense cloud of white smoke.

The water was thick with oil and wreckage. Iva Barden, then aged 9 and playing in her garden at Grain, was struck by a metal plate. Rainham was showered with debris between Motney Hill and Bredhurst and glass shattered as far away as Sittingbourne.

Loss of life was heavy for as well as carrying only three men short of her full compliment of 225 officers and men, there was also an additional 160 or so men made up of Petty Officers, sailors and dockyard workers from Chatham and SheernessThey had been aboard her to complete various tasks before she was due to lay the 500 mines she was carrying 48 hours later. Immediately stories spread of nefarious acts by German spies and a story was reported of a dinghy leaving the Princess Irene shortly before the explosion. In truth, the Official Enquiry held by the Royal Navy was quite damning and referred to the priming of mines being carried out by ill-trained men under hurried circumstances. In a cover-up the final report blamed the explosion on a faulty primer.

Only one man survived and the few bodies that were located were buried in the Naval section of Woodlands Road Cemetery in Gillingham. A memorial to those lost in this disaster and also HMS Bulwark that suffered an internal explosion just off Sheerness in September 1914, was subsequently erected by Sheerness Railway Station.

   London  Morning   Post

 Feb 1^st 1915

 Startling New Theory in England about the blowing up of the Bulwark and Formidable.

 Some strange stories which are going the rounds in England concerning the real explanation of the sinking, of the British battleships Formidable and Bulwark, were brought here by a passenger arriving on the Franconia yesterday. Many of these are wild tales, but no doubt attaches to the fact the British authorities are considerably concerned over the result of official inquiries into the causes of the two disasters. Owing to the similarity of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of vessels, secret inquiries were said to have been ordered by Lord Fisher himself, in addition to the ordinary official inquiries. Some strange facts from i these investigations were brought to light. Sheerness is a coaling station on the east coast, and the majority of the North Sea squadron and Channel fleet rascal here. The Bulwark had Just finished or was just finishing coaling when she was blown up in Sheerness harbour. Following her usual custom, the Formidable coaled at  Sheerness too, and it was only a matter of a day after leaving the harbour that she sank in the channel off Torbay.  Official explanations that a submarine sank her were given out, but, according to the privately expressed views of a responsible official of the Navy Department, the real explanation is much more startling. Private investigations, it was said, showed that the explosion in both cases occurred in the coal bunkers, and circumstances pointed to the possibility that the disasters might have been caused by infernal machines. Going still further, it was discovered that the actual work of coaling the two battleships was carried out by the same gang of coalers. Upon this discovery suspicions, of course, were only natural, and the coaling gang was at once rounded up and placed under detention. Investigations are still proceeding on the assumption of the presence of spies, but have been allowed to be published in the English papers of the course of events, owing to the fact that the British authorities do not desire the Germans to have knowledge of the trend of the inquiries. In these circumstances the German acquiescence in the submarine story as the cause of the disasters is obvious, for if any such plot as is suspected is in existence, the German plan would naturally be to divert attention from the real facts. Since this startling discovery the authorities have ordered strict watch kept on all coaling ports, conditions of coaling, and the personnel of the gangs engaged in the work.

Another danger from the sea for Sheerness

The explosions of HMS Irene and HMS Bulwark are well known to many of the residents of Sheerness. Equally well known is the possible damage which some claim would be caused if the explosives on the SS Richard Montgomery, known locally as just “the wreck”, blew up.

Not so well known is the possible danger which might have been caused in July 1940 by the Royal Fleet auxiliary tanker The War African which was involved with others in a strange attempt to destroy the German invasion fleet. 

 THE   story is told by Chief Petty Officer Ronald Apps in the book “Forgotten voices of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain”

    In it he tells how he joined the War African in 1940 that was anchored off Sheerness for an idea that he has always assumed was thought up by Churchill. She was filled with fuel oil and there were mines and detonators down in the tanks. The idea was that the crew would run over to Boulogne and about five or six miles out from the harbour they would set the controls and lash them with the boilers going full bore. They would let them run into Boulogne harbour and let them blow up to destroy the German invasion fleet. It was called operation Lucid and the crews spent four weeks preparing for it. They practised setting the controls and evacuating the ship with speedboats alongside. The idea was that at the blowing of a whistle the crew had to rush down, get into the speedboats and away. The four weeks were, according to CPO Apps, a bit hairy because the tanker was full of fuel oil and it was primed and ready to explode and there were air raids during the night. . He said “When you’re in this tanker and the Germans are coming over and dropping bombs, it’s not very ….shall I say sleep inspiring. It’s one of those things you either get used to or you don’t sleep. I got round the idea that I had to sleep or I wouldn’t be able to walk around the next day. In the end it was decided the operation was too risky and we would be blown up as well and the whole thing was cancelled.”

Details and history of  RFA Tanker War African

 Gross tonnage 5218 Length 410 ft Beam 52.30ft Shipping Controller, managers A. Weir & Co, London. 
1919 Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co, London; 
1921 ABSIA, same owner; 
1927 N.V.Petroleum Mij 'La Corona', The Hague; 
1927 SALSAAS, Skibs. A/S Nanset, Larvik, Norway; 
1937 OAKFIELD, Finchley SS Co. London; 
1940 taken over by MOWT (Hunting & Son, manager); 
1946 Oak Shipping Co, London; 
1951 Finchley SS Co, London; 
1955 scrapped Emden.

 More Spying 

   Reading "A Book of Trials" by the Rt Hon;Sir Travers Humpreys,I found this,which might enthuse someone with an interest in the world of Subtefuge & spying;the tale of 41 Year Old;[140771?]WO George Charles Parrott;in charge of the Rifle Ranges @ Sheerness,Kent;who in 1912 had gone to Ostend,on the pretext of visting "A Lady",but in fact was meeting up with Members of the Imperial German Navy & selling secrets @ £5.0s.0d a time,his Bank Account showed many deposits of £5 & £35 in Gold was found in his Rooms,caught with his fingers in the Till Parrott maintained the money borrowed was a loan being repaid by the German Family,that he had lied about "A Lady" [who didnt exist!} as he didnt want Mrs Parrott to find out about Her & that was his reason for going to Ostend.
For going abroad without permission he was discharged from the Royal Navy,as he had been reported by the Authorities who were watching him keenly,without causing him to stop,allowing the spooks to follow & trap him.He was sentenced {somewhat lightly} to 4 years Hard Labour.
I note that a Record of Service of a 140771 George Charles Parrott b.5 April 1871 Cheltenham Gloucs.is listed on the NA,if it is his it should make interesting reading!

                                  Even more spying                               

Mutiny in Sheerness and other dockyards before 2^nd world war

The following is an abstract of the paper of David Turner, who wrote his PhD thesis on the Communist Party of Great Britain  in the Medway towns and who wrote a joint article on the topic of the  sabotage with Kenneth Lunn of the University of Portsmouth  

                        The Dockyard and Sabotage Scare, 1933-37

Between 1933 and 1936 there occurred nine incidents of apparently deliberate damage to Royal Navy vessels in British Dockyards: four were at Devonport, three at Chatham, one at Sheerness and one at Portsmouth. There was also an incident in a private yard, at Barrow-in-Furness. The Admiralty arrived at the conclusion that as many as six of these could be attributed to politically-motivated sabotage, rather than malicious damage.

In February 1936 John Salisbury was dismissed from Devonport Dockyard 'services no longer required' ('SNLR'). He was identified by MI5 as the communist ringleader in the Yard, but there was no evidence to show he was a saboteur. Subsequently, 'positive vetting' (active investigation of personal backgrounds) was introduced for prospective Dockyard employees and a new purge procedure was agreed by the Cabinet, without reference to Parliament. In September 1936 Harold Easthope, a casual worker at Devonport, whose son was allegedly a Communist, was dismissed. In January 1937 four workers from Devonport Dockyard (Francis Carne, Alfred Durston, Henry Lovejoy and Edward Trebilcock) and one from  Sheerness Dockyard (Henry Law) were dismissed ‘SNLR’, after MI5 identified them as Communists. None of these men could be proved to have carried out any act of sabotage; they were not prosecuted, not informed of the case against them and not allowed the opportunity to defend themselves

At least they were not hanged like Richard Parker

A major spy story concerning

 Losel,a German

 photographer

 on next page