The Experience of War at Spectacle Island - 1914 - 1918
Introduction
The 2009 Heritage Management Plan for Spectacle Island contained the following description of activity on Spectacle Island around World War 1:
"By the start of World War 1, production on Spectacle Island was in full operation producing projectiles, bursting shells and solid armour-penetrating shells. Torpedoes, mines, depth charges, possibly rockets and dummy practice projectiles of all types were also being produced.
Highly skilled technicians, engineers and support staff were in high demand as ever developing technological accomplishments meant that guns and launchers were becoming increasing more complex. Large numbers of men had to be accommodated on the island because of the storage and maintenance of all these hazardous products. Staff were also required to work for extended periods off shore on many naval vessels installing and repairing guns, torpedoes, detonators, cables etc. The Third Building Phase, 1913-1922 In the lead up to the WWI the number of workers on Spectacle Island was substantially increasing. Most were engaged in shell-filling but there were also a large number of support staff such as armourers, fitters and turners, joiners, painters, coopers and others. All operations on the island required clean conditions, dust-free zones, spark-free environments all requiring strict security and vigilance. In addition, all the facilities needed to be protected against potential sabotage or espionage. As permanent accommodation erected on the island was limited, workers were provided with an extensive range of facilities such lockers, change-rooms (shifting rooms), showers, latrines, mess-rooms, recreation facilities etc.” (Spectacle Island NSW Heritage Management Plan Public Version, Woodhead Pty Ltd for Department of Defence, 2009 pp. 14-15)
The Myth?
There is a large element of fantasy in these claims, considering that torpedoes, mines and depth charges were not manufactured in Australia until World War 2. Depth Charges were in use by the RAN from about 1917 but only for those ships in Mediterranean and North Sea waters, which were supplied from Royal Navy sources. Some were ordered late in the war but were not operational until after the war had concluded. Those torpedoes that were in the inventory were stored and maintained at Garden Island under the control of the Naval Engineer Officer, not at Spectacle Island.
There was no Australian manufacture of projectiles or modern shell filling explosives such as TNT or Shellite until the inter-war period, although there was an abortive project (not at Spectacle Island) to provide machined shell forgings to support the British Army at the time of “The Great Shell Crisis” of 1915. Cordite was, however, being made at the Cordite Factory in Melbourne, and was supplied to Spectacle Island to enable them to make up propellant filled and primed cartridge cases. The first batch of cordite was received at the Island on 5 November 1917, fairly late in the war.
Authoritative information about attempts to produce munitions during the war can be found in Chapter VII (The Equipment of Armies) of Volume XI of the official Australian war history.
A more sober, but still extravagant, assessment was made in the next iteration of the Plan, in 2013:
“During World War 1 there was hectic activity on the island and several hundred extra workers were appointed, mainly for shell-filling but also as armourers, fitters and turners, joiners, painters and coopers. There were few accommodation structures on site, however hundreds of lockers were provided for those who travelled to the island daily, as well as latrines, change rooms and mess rooms.”(Spectacle Island NSW Heritage Management Plan, Godden Mackay Logan Pty Ltd for Department of Defence, 2013, p.22)
The reality was much more mundane. These claims about hundreds of workers and hundreds of lockers can be readily refuted as a comprehensive accounting record for the Island during the war has survived.(1) The record, arranged by quarters, covers the period 1 July 1914 through to 31 March 1919, although 3 quarters in 1915 and one quarter in 1918 are missing from the file. It covers all expenses, although there are some limitations. For example, during most of the war some sea freight would not be recorded as it would would have been shipped as "free freight" on ships requisitioned into government service. Only freight utilising commercial options was captured.
Some Facts – Manpower
The wages bill is broken down into “Spectacle Island” and “Garden Island” components, the latter representing the wages of tradesmen maintaining the Island’s buildings and equipment, and possibly guns. Due to space limitations on the Island, gun mountings were held at Garden Island, managed until 1916 by the Naval Stores Officer and thereafter by the Naval Engineer Officer.
For the entire available period the average quarterly wages bill for Spectacle Island was £818, with a range of £603 (in June 1916) to £1,192 (in December 1917). The average of £818 equates to £63 per week, or 1260 shillings. Taking the basic wage of 53 shillings at that time as the divisor, this equates to an average wages staff of about 24, far short of the “several hundred”. A similar calculation for the Garden Island wages bill results in a staff of about 6.
The mid-war Navy List of October 1916 lists the senior staff at the Depot as:
Naval Ordnance Officer - Leut James Creber
R.W. Moore - Naval Staff Clerk Class II
Two Naval Staff Clerks Class III
Inspector of Warlike Stores - vacant (role was being filled by Leut Creber)
The same staff numbers appear in the Navy Lists for October 1914 as well as October 1918, except that in 1914 all the Naval Staff Clerks were Class III.
Salaries expenditure included management, clerks, naval police and the naval ratings borne as boat crews.
Overtime for salaried staff, a likely indicator of peak activity, averaged only £10 per quarter, with a high of £29 in the September 1914 quarter, which is understandable as this quarter covers the outbreak of the war and the mobilisation of the RAN fleet. Salaries for depot police also peaked in this quarter at £345 against an average of £242, likely for similar reasons.
Total salaries and wages averaged £1,896 per quarter, with a range of £1,529 in the March quarter of 1915 to £2,197 in the December quarter of 1918, the latter being the quarter in which the war ended and HMA ships and defensively armed merchant ships commenced destoring and being laid up in the case of naval vessels. Salaries in the last quarter of the war were 1.2 times those in the first quarter of the war, whilst for wages the multiple was 1.53.
Some Facts – Activity Levels
The records give an insight into activity at the beginning and end of the war. For example, these are the harbour operations recorded during the month of August 1914 at the time of the initial mobilisation:
1/8 Hire of derrick & deck lighters and towing punts 2/8 Towing lighter from Gore Bay 2/8 Hire of tug "Middy" 3/8 Hire of tug "Middy" 3/8 Hire of deck lighter 4,8,11,14,17/8 Towage - "Encounter", "Protector", "Berrima", "Westralia" 5,6,13/8 Towage - "Cufic", "Demosthenes", "Runic" 19/8,8/9 Towage - "Euripides", "Medic", "Shropshire" 20,24/8, 1/9 Towage - "Karamea", "Aorangi", "Maheno" 21/8 Towage "Upolu" 31/8, 1/9 Hire of "Canna", 3 tows and labour etc. (There is a large number of non-RAN ships in the list, these being either defensively armed merchant ships or ships requistioned by the government as troop transports, supply ships or armed merchant cruisers ("Berrima".)
Total freight expenses (shipping, lighterage and towage) ranged between £120 (September 1916 quarter) and a high of £4,073 (December 1918 quarter). Examination of the detail of the latter shows that the major expense of £2,988 was for freight for “Reserves HMAS ships per “Toromeo”. As this ship left Sydney for London in early September 1918 it's presumed that this was an outward shipment of reserves to the UK or Mediterranean. "Toromeo" had been in government service but had been returned to its owner, hence the large freight bill.
Total value of issues ranged between £2,073 (June 1916 quarter) and £61,169 (September 1914 quarter) with an average of £19,976. The higher figure is clearly related to the storing of the fleet and the equipping of troop ships and defensively armed merchant ships on the outbreak of war.
Total value of receipts ranged between £4,102 (June 1916 quarter) and £51,888 (March 1919 quarter), with an average of £19,881. This makes the June 1916 quarter the quietest recorded for issues, receipts and wages.
Need More Evidence?
If you would like more evidence that Spectacle Island was not the great arsenal of the Southern hemisphere during World War 1 check out the periodic reports of ammunition stocks on the Island available in digital form at the National Archives of Australia. The citation is NAA: MP472/1, 11/15/8451. An example of a page from these reports is below - this one, from the end of 1918, is the first record of depth charges being present on the Island.
Mobilisation and After
At the start of the war, the RAN Ordnance Depot was just one year old. However it was staffed with an experienced manager, Lieutenant James Creber, (Officer-in-charge); an experienced gunnery and seaman officer qualified for command, Lieutenant Henry Cayley (Inspector of Warlike Stores) and foremen who had transitioned from the Royal Navy Ordnance Depot. Creber had been in charge as a Chief Gunner of Spectacle Island between 1904 and 1908, and resumed in 1912 after sea service. He remained in the post through the war years. It's likely that he also acted as the Inspector of Warlike Stores during much of the war as Cayley was serving at sea. Creber was therefore well qualified to oversee the mobilisation and the sustainment of the fleet as far as guns and ammunition were concerned.
Here's a somewhat breathless account of the mobilisation from the Evening News of Saturday 1 August:
"FLAGSHIP ARRIVES PANTING AT 20 KNOTS FEVER HASTE IN FARM COVE. ... The flagship Australia, smoke-begrimed and spray spattered, and panting like a hunted animal, arrived at Farm Cove at 11 o'clock this morning. It was no wonder that she appeared as she did. For during the whole run from Bundaberg on the Queensland coast, she maintained an average speed of 20 knots. Hardly had she been signalled off the Heads than the coal lighter alongside Garden Island made preparations for receiving her, and whilst yet moorings were being taken up by the flag ship on her arrival, coaling operations began, everything being in readiness on board. ... News of the European situation cancelled all arrangements and the Australia, in company with the cruisers Melbourne, Sydney, and Encounter and the destroyers Warrego and Yarra, have been strenuously engaged in fleet evolutions, and manoeuvres, pending direct orders as to their destination. … A mysterious atmosphere pervaded Farm Cove and the Sydney naval establishments generally. Active operations were this afternoon in progress on Garden Island, Spectacle Island, and the King Edward Victualling Yard, Darling Harbor. What these operations are is being kept a profound secret, none but employees being allowed within the precincts. It is known, however, that all the stores for the several ships are being got ready for immediate shipment on the vessels' arrival. The supplies are for six months' sea use and must be on board before Tuesday morning. Similar preparations are being made at Spectacle lsland for filling up the fleet's ammunition rooms and shell rooms. The reserve guns which for years have lain at Garden Island for mounting on board local vessels of the mercantile marine are also receiving attention. They include a large number of six-inch quick-firing guns and small machine guns, together with their mountings.… The harbor defences already are receiving attention. Garden Island, King Edward Victualling Yard, and Spectacle Island are under extra guard. A boom and net defence is being prepared at tbe entrance to the Sutherland dry dock, Cockatoo Island."
News of the declaration of war reached Sydney on Wednesday 5 August but by then Admiral Patey in the flagship HMAS Australia had already left Sydney (on the 4th) in pursuit of German cruisers as had HMAS Melbourne (also the 4th) and HMAS Parramatta (on the 3rd). It is presumed that these were the ships ammunitioned on the 2nd and 3rd of August. Sydney newspapers also reported on Monday the 3rd that "most of the smaller vessels took in ammunition at Spectacle Island yesterday morning":
It's likely that the Royal Navy had left significant stocks at Spectacle Island as war reserves and denoted as on "Imperial" account. They probably included guns and ammunition for the defensive arming of merchant ships. The accounting record shows a high level of "repayment" transactions by which Australia drew on Royal Navy stocks (and vice versa to a lesser extent). Freight costs were demarcated between Commonwealth and Imperial throughout the war.
My own assessment is that the depot continued to perform its pre-war functions much as before, at a somewhat higher tempo. At certain times such as when the fleet was first stored on the outbreak of the war the tempo was much higher. The accounting record suggests it was a “peaks and troughs” war for the depot.
There were also some new functions undertaken.
As the bulk of the fleet was operating overseas the reserve ammunition stocks followed them around. For example, in the December 1917 quarter an issue valued at £11,643 was made to the Naval Ordnance Officer, Malta. This shipment, of 1,771 packages, on the SS Ascanius, was almost certainly reserve ammunition stocks and ordnance spares for the Australian destroyer flotilla, which the Australian government had agreed, in May 1917, to transfer to the Mediterranean from Pacific and Asian waters. The 6 destroyers assembled at Malta for training and commenced Adriatic patrol duty in mid-October 1917. International freighting at this level was something new.
The defensive arming of merchant ships, a task shared with the Naval Engineer Officer at Garden Island, was something that had been planned for, but not previously executed. It likely remained a major function for the remainder of the war. Records of this activity have survived in the National Archives although they haven't been sighted by this author yet.(3)
A shell filling and emptying room had been completed about 1914 with its design suggesting it was needed for the heavy 12-inch projectiles used by HMAS Australia. However Australia's absence overseas for most of the war suggests it had little use. Filling of cartridge cases with locally produced cordite was also a new function, but this did not start until late 1917 or early 1918.
It’s worth noting that Commonwealth Government Estimates for 1926-27, a decade after the war when naval activity was reduced due to peace initiatives and the economic situation, showed the total approved complement for the Island was only 31, comprising managers (2), technician (1) (2), clerks (6), foremen (3), storehousemen (7), laboratorymen (2), gun examiner (1) and naval police (9). This was for an establishment that now encompassed the Newington sub-depot as well as Spectacle Island. In the first 2 decades of its life RANAD Sydney was always a very lean organisation.
Social Jottings
In April 1916 Lieutenant Creber was sufficiently unburdened by his wartime work to host a picnic for wounded soldiers:
"On Saturday afternoon Lieutenant and Mrs. Creber gave a delightful launch picnic for about 20 of the men from the Soldier's Convalescent Home at Woolwich. ... A delightful afternoon of sunshine sandwiched in between "a rain and a rain" made the al fresco entertainment particularly enjoyable. After exploring the Parramatta River as far as Ryde, the launch was steered to Spectacle Island where Mr. and Mrs. Creber reside. Here are immaculately kept lawns laid like lengths of green plush between the severe-looking powder magazines, testing rooms &c. Afternoon tea was served to the merry music of a gramophone, Mrs. Creber being assisted in entertaining her guests by her daughter, and some voluntary girl aids." (4)(5)
In November 1918, with the end of the war approaching, Creber participated in the celebration of Jack's Day, a fundraising occasion for King George's Fund for Sailors:
"A feature of the street attractions on Jack's Day on Friday next will be a naval exhibit consisting of projectiles, cartridges, fuzes, cutlasses, guns, and other arms which will be classified and displayed in a large tent in Macquarie-street, near the Queen's statue, on Friday and Saturday. There will also be shown a number of trophies and relics from the German ships Emden, See Adler, and Komet, and a partially mutilated enemy mine discovered on the Australian coast at Gabo. The whole collection, which illustrates the wonderful progress made in naval gunnery since the year 1865, has been arranged by Lieutenant-Commander Creber, naval ordnance officer, Spectacle Island. The munitions groups show the types of projectiles used in the Nelson period on the old Victory and by comparison those used by the Queen Elizabeth, the Inflexible, and the Australia."
"A facsimile of the 15-inch shell, weighing 1920lb, with other smaller shells ranged round it, afford a striking example of the formidable and destructive nature of the guns on modern British warships. There is to be a full-sizes diagram of the interior of a 12-inch shell, showing the bursting charge, primers, and fuses. Two types of Maxim guns, representing the old order and the new, samples of cordite, a collection of cases for the transport of ammunition to magazines of ships will be displayed in sections, while, in a large specially-constructed frame by themselves, there will be a collection of vicious weapons, called boarding pikes, which were used in the period 1700 - 1876."(6)
Notes
1. NAA: MP472/1, 11/19/3988 Naval Ordnance Depot Spectacle Island, Sydney - Statements of Stores issued and received 1914-1919 2. Assistant Inspector of Naval Ordnance 3. NAA: MP472/1, 11/17/4609 Defensively Armed Merchant Ships Accounts from Spectacle and Garden Islands 4. Australasian, 8 April 1916, page 37 5. In 1919 Creber's daughter Blanche married Mr. Thomas Arthur Hewetson, late AIF Anzac, of Mallanganee. Could they have met on that wonderful Saturday afternoon in April 1916? Unfortunately not, his military record shows that he did not return to Australia until 1918. 6. Sydney Morning Herald, 30 October 1918, p. 11
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