Around August 22nd, David Mearns and Blue Water Recoveries, LTD will begin the work of retrieving the bell of the HMS Hood aboard the Octopus, owned by Paul Allen of Microsoft. Another part of the mission is to film the wreck with equipment that was not available previously in 2001. Once the bell is saved, it will be house at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, and it will be viewable by the public in 2014. The full article and more information about the HMS Hood can be found here: http://www.hmshood.com/
It's important to follow the progress of this expedition because Wellings has direct ties to the Hood, and retrieving this bell is part of his history as well. For 10 months during 1940-1941 he worked with the British Royal Navy, and spent 5 weeks on Hood. He later was on the HMS Rodney when Bismarck was sent to the bottom. In 1983 then Rear Admiral Wellings published a book based on his time with the Royal Navy, “On His Majesty's Service”. The book contains his personal historical accounts of his time including diary entries, letters home and transcripts of dialogue between ships the night they encountered and engaged Bismarck for her final battle. If you would like a copy of the book you can get a hard copy through the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. I also have the entire book in a PDF file that I can attach in an email and forward to you if you would like to read this. Wellings was a wonderful and keen observer of the people and events around him. The fact that he allowed his personal thoughts and observations to be printed is extraordinary and goes a long way to let us into his head, his life and his emotions during the time he served in Great Britain. There are personal accountings as well as information about military movements and actions.
If you need contact information for a hard copy, email me individually and I will forward you to the person who can send you a copy. Or, I can attach the PDF in an email.
David tells me that we may be able to follow the progress of this 10 day expedition by checking into the HMS Hood web site. Paul Allen will also be tweeting, so if you have a Twitter account you can follow his musings. I am a bit challenged technologically, I have a very basic phone. But since this is important to me, I set up a Twitter account on line and now can view Mr. Allen's progress. This is easy to do by going to www.Twitter.com, and it's free. If you do sign up or currently have a Twitter account, let me know. We can “follow” each other, and make comments back to Mr. Allen or David this way.
The man who helped train the sailors of Hood later became the captain of the USS Strong DD 467. Let's show our support of David, Mr. Allen and them men who served and died on Hood. I will be posting information here in the blog on the progress as well.
Tammi
It's important to follow the progress of this expedition because Wellings has direct ties to the Hood, and retrieving this bell is part of his history as well. For 10 months during 1940-1941 he worked with the British Royal Navy, and spent 5 weeks on Hood. He later was on the HMS Rodney when Bismarck was sent to the bottom. In 1983 then Rear Admiral Wellings published a book based on his time with the Royal Navy, “On His Majesty's Service”. The book contains his personal historical accounts of his time including diary entries, letters home and transcripts of dialogue between ships the night they encountered and engaged Bismarck for her final battle. If you would like a copy of the book you can get a hard copy through the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. I also have the entire book in a PDF file that I can attach in an email and forward to you if you would like to read this. Wellings was a wonderful and keen observer of the people and events around him. The fact that he allowed his personal thoughts and observations to be printed is extraordinary and goes a long way to let us into his head, his life and his emotions during the time he served in Great Britain. There are personal accountings as well as information about military movements and actions.
If you need contact information for a hard copy, email me individually and I will forward you to the person who can send you a copy. Or, I can attach the PDF in an email.
David tells me that we may be able to follow the progress of this 10 day expedition by checking into the HMS Hood web site. Paul Allen will also be tweeting, so if you have a Twitter account you can follow his musings. I am a bit challenged technologically, I have a very basic phone. But since this is important to me, I set up a Twitter account on line and now can view Mr. Allen's progress. This is easy to do by going to www.Twitter.com, and it's free. If you do sign up or currently have a Twitter account, let me know. We can “follow” each other, and make comments back to Mr. Allen or David this way.
The man who helped train the sailors of Hood later became the captain of the USS Strong DD 467. Let's show our support of David, Mr. Allen and them men who served and died on Hood. I will be posting information here in the blog on the progress as well.
Tammi
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