Coaster Skelwith

[Hywyn]

Charles Pritchard is commemorated on the town Memorial at Caernarfon, North Wales. A gravestone in the local Churchyard also commemorates him stating that he was Lt Charles Pritchard, RNR of the HMS Skelwith Force,who died on active sevice March 12th 1916 and buried at Perim, Arabia.

This is confirmed by CWGC which refers to the vessel as HMS Skelwith with the further info that he is now commemorated on Maala Memorial, Yemen due to the remoteness of the Perim graves in terms of maintenance.

I have searched for the ship HMS Skelwith/Skelwith Force to no satisfacory conclusion.

Does anyone know anything about her..type,duties etc?

Does anyone have any info further re Lt Pritchards death?

TIA

Hywyn

[kin47]

Hello

Pritchard's cause of death is recorded as apoplexy (simply put a stroke).

SKELWITH FORCE was coaster of 562 tons hired as a fleet messenger from Sep 15 to July 16.

All best

don

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Have you looked for his service records in ADM 240 and ADM 340? If he had a mate or master's ticket there should be Board of Trade records for him at Kew too.

[Hywyn]

Don

Thanks for the info. My understanding of Naval terms/ways etc is negligible so a short explanation of what a 'messenger' does would be much appreciated if possible. I see that she was a coaster and I assume that Messages/Orders would go by wireless etc so I'm stumped as to what this means.

Per Ardua

No, I had not looked at Kew yet. However you prompted me to remember an excellent , ever growing,site on Welsh Mariners.

http://www.welshmariners.org.uk/index.php

Here's what it says about Capt Pritchard. The info has headings when displayed on the site. The 122/76 & 77 are under Kew References, possibly the Board of Trade records you refer to.

PRITCHARD Charles Caernarfon 1859 038115 14/03/16 2m78 1m81 OC83 CAE 122/76&87

PN:05635. 1m/80237/Moel y Don/1886-7. Died on active service on 14 March 1916 whilst serving as C/113139/Shelwith Force/1915. Lieutenant RNR (temp). (BT123/5). (LCR Ms:18569/31).

I'll have a bash at deciphering all that. By the way there are two Charles Pritchards in the result. I believe the other one ,born 1810, to be the father of the above.

Thanks again to you both.

hywyn

[historydavid]

Hello hywyn,

There appears to be a problem with the address you gave for Welsh mariners.

Best wishes

David

[Hywyn]

Hi David

It seems to work ok for me. If it still doesn't then Google "welsh mariners" and it should be the top response.

Hywyn

[horatio2]

The FAAM should also have some material on him in their RNR officers' pay and appointing ledgers.

[Hywyn]

Thanks for that Horatio. I'll have a look round their site.

My Club Stewart used to be in that mob. Waving table tennis bats around the deck parking planes up and things apparently.

Hywyn

[per ardua per mare per terram]

BT123/5 Board of Trade: Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen: Registers of Certificates of Competency, Masters and Mates of Steamships, Foreign Trade. Number not used.Transferred to BT 122/91

A fleet messenger would carry dispatches, mail and messages not consifered important enough for wireless. I assume that Messages/Orders would go by wireless etc wireless was both high tech and limited to morse, it was also of limited bandwidth,using spark gap technology (not even valves) whist being easy to get a lock on.

Here's a good thread for more about wireless.