HARWICH DIVISION

DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR: MISS C. BENNETT.

The stations in this Division are rather scattered, and the numbers of W.R.N.S. members on each are not great; the two Sub-Divisions of Shotley and Osea Island, which were to have had 90 and 180 women respectively, were unable to have their full complement of women for want of accommodation. Shotley has never had more than 30 women, and Osea is only now increasing her number to 50.

The following account will, I hope, give some idea of the Sub-Divisions and the work done at each:- Gorleston (H.M.S. Kingfsher), the naval base for Great Yarmouth, was one of the earliest to get started. The majority of the women here are doing mine-net work, and the others are storekeepers, clerks, and telephonists. These women are all immobile except the telephonists and one clerk.

Some of the mine-net workers became quite skilled in splicing the cables and ropes on these nets; their C.P.O. told me they could manage all but the very heaviest splicing quite successfully. This was very responsible work, as to these cables the mines were attached, and it was important that the splicing should be strongly done. When they had finished the repairs, the women would take the nets down to the quay and help load them on to the drifters and trawlers.

 At Lowestoft (H.M.S. Halcyon II) the women are doing boiler cleaning on the trawlers and drifters, depth charge work, sail-making, wirework under skilled men electricians, storekeeping and clerical work.

 It was rather a disappointment to us that women were unable entirely to replace men as boiler cleaners, but the thoroughness of the work depended a great deal on the strength of the wrists, for to get into the more difficult corners of the boilers very heavy tools had to be used, and for these the women's wrists were not strong enough.

Most interesting sketches of some of the women on this station have been made by Miss Keyes for the Imperial War Museum. The setting for these sketches was very picturesque, the workshops being right on the quay, and being mostly old-fashioned buildings which had been adapted for war purposes. The subjects chosen were the women at their sail making, the women in the naval stores, and the depth-charge workers in the engineering shop.

Last summer the W.R.N.S. ratings attached to this base showed themselves as successful in play as in work. On the August Bank Holiday a regatta and sports meeting were held at Oulton Broad. The "Wrens" showed themselves proficient scullers, carrying off several prizes, and at the sports meeting their team easily defeated the W.R.A.F. (Norwich) in a tug-of-war.

During the winter the Lowestoft W.R.N.S. concert party gave several successful entertainments to the seamen and others. At Ipswich (H.M.S. Ganges I) there is a small naval telephone exchange run entirely by our women under a W.R.N.S. duty officer, who is responsible for the delightful little hostel in Burlington Road as well as for the women at their work.

The women at the Coastguard Station, Harwich (H.M.S. President II), are clerks, and there is also a motor driver, the only one in the Division. This little station suffered the fate of most of the very small units; it changed officers fairly frequently, but is now under the same officer as Shotley.

At the Training Establishment, Shotley (H.M.S. Ganges I), which is across the harbour from Harwich, the women are cooking in the small galleys for the men attached to the barracks; the boys' cooking is all done by men in the main galley. We hoped that our women would eventually take on all this work as well as the running of the Officers' Mess, but the armistice came before the women's quarters were ready.

In the meantime the Shotley women, consisting of telephonists and clerks, as well as cooks, are being housed in the Pier Hotel, Harwich, which is not in a particularly good locality, but is very centrally situated for the women getting to their work, as it is right opposite the quay from which the boats leave for the barracks. This crossing, though short, can at times be nasty, owing to bad currents, which makes landing the other side extremely difficult, and often entails a climb.

 The mobile women at the Coastguard Station also live in this hostel, which is in addition the Divisional Headquarters.

 The Parkeston unit was closed down just before Christmas. Here were the anti-gas respirator workers, who were attached to H.M.S. Dido. They had three rooms in the Parkeston Quay Hotel, and the respirators were brought there from the ships for repair.

The women at H.M.S. Osea are practically all domestic workers. They are gradually taking over both officers' messes and some of the warrant officers' ones as well. If there had been accommodation for them sooner, the women would have been employed as cleaners on the boats and in the engineering shops. W.R.N.S. gardeners are being employed now.

This station is additionally interesting for the reason that when one goes there, there is always the excitement of wondering whether the tides will permit of returning to the mainland in time to catch the train, and if so will one go by car across the "hards" with a chance of sticking in the mud, or must the journey to Maldon be made by boat?

In justice to the authorities on the island in charge of the transport, it is only fair to say that out of the many who have visited there, only one of our headquarters officers has been really badly held up. She certainly was delayed nearly 24 hours; but in other instances the delays have been very short indeed, and the journeys accomplished without any mishaps. This is rather wonderful when one hears the tales of the narrow escapes men have had with the tide coming up and how they have had to abandon the lorries and swim ashore.

Kings' Lynn (H.M.S. President VI.) is such a tiny station, consisting of one non-administrative officer and a shorthand typist in the naval transport office, that it can hardly be called a sub-division; but these two members say they make up for quantity by quality!

CATHERINE BENNETT

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