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Angels with webbed feet
Angels with Webbed Feet.
The Prologue
He stood on the platform watching the great ship that would one day be his to command and his mind went back six years to where it all began. A smoke filled office where the director of Naval Construction and a committee of officers struggled to plan the conversion of impressed merchant ships for the demands of the newly declared war. For most of them it was fairly simple liners into troopships or hospital ships was straight forward and needed no time in dry dock, just rip out the luxuries and fit in as many bunks as possible. For others it was a little more complex, the Armed Merchant Cruisers needed to have guns and magazines fitted so in the case of ships no designed with that possibility in mind their structures had to be strengthened. The impressed trawlers were also no real problem as the many smaller shipyards could do the work, it was just a matter of selecting which trawlers went to which yard and get the guns and other equipment to them. In this war though new types of ship would be needed, ships to tend to the new submarines, ships to clear mines and newest of all ships to work with aircraft. All had to be planned, likely ships requisitioned, yards selected to do the work and specifications drawn up. The Submarine Tenders and Mine sweepers turned out to be relatively straight forward as their needs were obvious, but what was needed for aircraft. Already Jellicoe was demanding some way for aircraft to work with the Grand Fleet, with Churchill and Fisher joining in. Could more ships like the Ark Royal be converted? Did they need faster ships to keep up with the fleet at sea? Was it even possible to operate aircraft at sea or did you just need a ship to move from anchorage to anchorage only operating aircraft while in harbour? Was it better to have a larger number of small ships only operating a few aircraft or to have a smaller number of large ships with many more aircraft? All was still to be decided, and only the harsh lessons of the coming war could give the answers. It’s strange now to think how it all could have been so different if one very new reserve Sub Lieutenant knew how and when to keep his mouth shut. Without him filling in as note taker at the meeting would this new ships namesake have made such an impact? Would she have even been present at the great naval actions of the war? 1st and 2nd Jutland, the Dardanelles, 2nd Dogger Bank and last but not least the Antwerp Raid. Oh yes this new ship had a lot to live up to if she was to carry the name HMS Campania.