John Blackshoe Sends: Serendipity History –

Sailors and Ships in the Age of Sail (Part 3 of 3)

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History of the man who photographed the Sailing Vessel Garthsnaid, in a storm in part I

ALEXANDER HARPER TURNER (12 July 1900- 8 February 1963)*

* 12 July 1900 birth date is from family sources, but his maritime documents show date of birth as 31 August 1900

Ancestry.com has a wealth of information on millions of people, and once you find a full name and birth date you can usually chase many threads pertaining to birth, death, census, military and civil records. If there are family trees you can access, there are often family photos. Most of the following was gleaned from material on Ancestry.

Our intrepid photographer Alexander and his twin brother “Jock” were born in Sunderland, Durham, England in 1900. Their father was a tailor and outfitter, who employed others. His family was well off, and had a servant girl living with them at 9 The Oaks, East, Sunderland, which was the family home for several decades. It is a charming brick row house in a neighborhood of prosperous merchants and the like.

There are numerous interior and exterior views of the family home here, on a site similar to Zillow for American house sales. 

Even at a young age, it was clear that he was destined for a life at sea with Alex (left) and Jock (right) in their sailor suits, and another unidentified child, probably circa 1905.

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Alexander Harper Turner went to sea by way of an indenture signed at age 15 in Aberdeen to be an “Apprentice” aboard the Milne owned steel Barque “Inveresk” a near sister ship of his later voyages aboard Inversnaid/Garthsnaid. The Royal Museums Greenwich have the original crew list for that voyage. 

His shipmates on that first voyage, included two other apprentices signed up the previous year, the 57 year old Captain; a Mate (age not stated); 22 year old Boatswain; 50 year old cook and steward; a 65 year old sailmaker; 53 year old carpenter; a 17 year old cabin boy, and 15 sailors ranked as sailor, ordinary seaman or able seaman ranging from 18 to 53 years old. Birthplaces included the British Isles, Norway, Finland, Russia, Italy, two Australians and three Americans.

His first voyage was brief, only from 1 November 1915 to 19 December 1915, at a time when Britain was already engaged in WW1. Turner’s father later served as a 1st Lieutenant in the Tank Corps.

He did not remain ashore for long, and reported aboard Inversnaid on 2 January 1916 where he served until 19 May 1919 (per his 2nd Mate Certificate), but his service continued after that.

Ancestry.com member trees provided a photo of Alexander Harper Turner in his uniform, probably circa 1917-1920, perhaps at the time he qualified as Second Mate.

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On June 12, 1919 Turner was issued his “Certificate of Competency as Second Mate of a Foreign Going Ship” at age 18. 

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He qualified as 1st Mate on 3 April 1922, with his prior service listed as aboard Garthsnaid from 10 July 1919 to 17 December 1921. (reflecting the sale and renaming of Inversnaid to Garthsnaid as a Canadian flagged vessel.)

In August 1922 he left the steadily diminishing sailing fleet and began voyages aboard the Steam Ship Rhode Island out of Liverpool. This was another Clyde built ship, a steel screw steamer 420 feet long, 54.2 foot beam and 29 foot depth of hold for 5655 gross tons, launched in 1918. Unlike the long and wind driven voyages of sailing ships, this ship engaged in regularly scheduled runs between Liverpool and the United States. Although he had a First Mate certificate for sailing ships, he served mostly as Second Mate. (No photos found of this SS Rhode Island.)

Master Certificate (Square rigged) 25 June 1925
Source
 (The source listed has several certificates for Turner)

In 1925, Turner began sailing on SS Bay State as Second Mate, prior to his getting his Master license. In July 1926 Turner married Marjorie Towns in Tynemouth, Northumberland. She was four years younger, and had been born in Turner’s home town of Sunderland. They lived the rest of their lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, about 20 miles from Sunderland. It is unclear if he continued to go to sea after marriage, or worked ashore in some boring office job.

 

In the late 1930s the Royal Navy began to recruit officers and enlisted for service in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), and the more amateurish Royal Naval Volunteer Supplementary Reserve (RNVSR). The RNVR became the route by which virtually all new-entry commissioned officers joined the naval service during the war – the exception being professional mariners who already held master's tickets, who would join the RNR. Most of the officers in landing craft, Coastal Forces and the Atlantic Convoys were RNVR and many regular officers were astonished how well they coped. A significant number achieved command of corvettes and even frigates. By 1945 there were over 43,000 officers in the RNR/RNVR/RNVSR. (Source)

Turner enrolled in the Royal Naval Volunteer Supplemental Reserve on 5 July 1937, according to the Navy List for 1937, presumably as a Temporary Lieutenant.

By 1940, Turner was assigned to command of the ”Brit,” a 90 foot steel craft with 20 foot beam and 4.6 foot draft, for 75 tons, propelled by a single diesel engine. 

“[Brit] was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 16 September 1939 for service as a tender. Renamed [HM Tender] WATCHFUL, she became the base ship for the fleet and was repainted in battleship grey. She carried stores and torpedoes to the destroyers lying in Yarmouth roads.”

On 29 May 1940, she was deployed to assist in the Dunkirk evacuation and reportedly rescued 900 troops. On 12 December 1945, she was returned to her owners, the Longfield brothers and was refitted and restored to her original name, BRIT, to operate once more as a pleasure cruiser for the start of the 1946 season.” (Source)

 

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HM Tender WATCHFUL was one of the “Little Ships” which rescued the British Army from Dunkirk, carrying 900 soldiers home on four trips. Above she is shown pre-war as the “Brit” operating as a day tripper for whale watching type cruises out of Yarmouth.

Turner was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions aboard HMS WATCHFUL in the Dunkirk evacuation, as announced in London Gazette 27 Aug 1940.

Subsequently, Turner commanded three minesweepers as a Temporary Lieutenant: (Source)

• HMS Cypress (T 09) a minesweeping trawler- 5 March 1941-mid 1941 -

Source

• HMS MMS 5 (J 505) a motor minesweeper- August 1941- 20 August 1942

• HMS MMS 7 (j 507) a motor minesweeper- 20 August 1942-30 December 1942

 

This is the first of the 294 ships of the MMS-1 class (J501-J794), often called “Mickey Mouse Sweepers” virtually identical to the two commanded by Turner. These swept for magnetic influence mines by having two of the sweepers dragging an electrical cable between them which would be periodically energized to create a magnetic pulse to detonate mines. Later they added a large noisemaker to also activate acoustic mines. (Source)

Turner was promoted to Temporary Commander effective 31 July 1944. (Source)

Commander Alexander Harper Turner

in 1944 or 1945 in his “wavy navy” uniform

Source

Nothing more was found about Turner except that he died 8 February 1963.

So, at life’s end, if asked what he did with his life, I am sure Commander Turner would have proudly told anyone willing to listen:

“I was a sailor, and you should have seen us on the Garthsnaid. And this is no shit¹. Coming out of Chile, bound for Mozambique in 1920. It was blowing Beaufort force 9 or 10, and we sent men aloft to gasket the fores’l. And, I like a damn fool, decided to take my new camera out to the tip of the bowsprit to take a photo. I got the photo, and luckily lived to tell about it. Here’s the proof:”

Sailing Vessel Garthsnaid, 1920, outbound from Chile to Mozambique.

Source State Library of Victoria [Australia]

A sharper, larger version is available here and makes a great screen saver.

¹ The obligatory prelude to any sailor’s sea story.