It was designed throughout to demonstrate all the electrics in that class, ergo, HMS Iron Duke. Each and every deck could be removed revealing the wiring, dynamo's, alternators, condensers, inductors, motors, battery-packs etc throughout the ship, everything an engineering student would require for a good understanding of how the ship worked and functioned. The whole gunnery systems was laid bare for a good understanding. Regrettably, over the years, parts have been taken out and lost, but for all that, it is still a priceless piece of history, and as such, is in the hands of the nation and not in the hands of a collector.

  However, since we have a good picture of the ship, as good perhaps as we will get, now is the time to comment upon her suitability to act as a flagship with regard to her wireless telegraphy aerial rig. Although the Iron Duke had the W/T equipment fit commensurate with being able to generously communicate by wireless (i.e. of a battleship) she would have been frustrated by not being able to transfer radiated energy from her transmitters to her aerials with any great efficiency. W/T equipment come 1914 was at a high level of sophistication and aerial theory was exceedingly well understood, and was well applied to all shore W/T stations but only to a few ships of that time.

  Now without in anyway getting technical, read on seeing only ordinary every day English words, the finest aerial is a straight long taut vertical piece of wire, excellent for one frequency. In WW1, this was called a "Marconi Aerial" simply because Marconi used such a piece of wire in his first wonderful successful experiments. A warship, particularly a large and important ship has to talk on different frequencies and all with near equal efficiency. To make that happen we add a horizontal piece or pieces of wire to the end of the long straight wire making a suitable join or connection. As the vertical piece is long, then so too should be the horizontal piece. We can now call the vertical piece the FEED and the horizontal piece the ROOF. The higher the roof and the length of the roof, the better the communications achieved. Just as a by and by, the FEED should meet the ROOF in its middle, and moving the connection forward or aft takes away some of the efficiency of the communication. In this picture (a) of a WW1 cruiser, the aerial rig is ideal, rigged that way to minimise smoke/soot pollution with the W/T office just forward of the mainmast.

Typical of this Aerial

  In pictures (b) to (e) of various types of WW1 warships, the exercise in rigging is to make the ROOF as long as possible. I promised no technical talk. The FEED points reflect where the W/T office is sited in the ship, and the end of the extension pieces are tethered and do not willy nilly fly around in the breeze.

NOW...END OF NON-TECHNICAL SPEAK!

  From my picture above of the model of the Iron Duke Class, you can readily see that from the after funnel to the stern there is absolutely no room for any form of an upright structure however low or thin in girth it might have been, with the deck space monopolised by 'Q' turret (in the ships waist) and 'X' and 'Y' turrets aft. This means that her main aerial rig is in the direct vicinity of the single mast, itself stubby, not much higher if at all from the tripod top with a stub mast going on from the spotters position. So as not to impede either 'A' or 'B' turrets (forad) firing on even modest elevations to achieve range, no attempt was made to fit other than a receiving wire from the bow to the top of the stub mast, meaning that all the aerials were rigged in a very small area in the immediate vicinity of the tripod and forward funnel. Apart from there being no obvious feed or roof, the smoke/soot affect of the forward funnel would have severely reduced the efficiency of the radiating elements, not to mention rendered the ceramic or glass insulators ineffective, unless washed with soapy water on a regular basis. By today's standards, it must have been an MI (Mutual Interference) nightmare. Given their lack of knowledge on the actions of the ionosphere and their "noisy" radio transmitters, things must have been fraught to say the least.

   So, on this subject, to finish with a pictorial image of aerials and their potential uses.

  Just before WW1, there was a major fleet manoeuvre involving the 'goodies' and the 'baddies' in those days known as RED and BLUE forces. A referee ship was appointed to carry a deciding flag - and staff - (visibly, for all to see) on the outcomes, deciding which side won and which didn't. She was the cruiser HMS Euryalus and she monitored each side over the radio waves using her aerials as follows:-

  Finally, let's change from N=Naval to M= Merchant/Maritime/Mercantile (your choice) and look at the most famous ship of all as she was in 1911. Yes, that is the White Star Liner 'Titanic'. The same rules for W/T aerials applied here and the feeder and roof are very obvious.

  In summary, as designed, there was no room for aerial diversity necessary for a flag ship. Even knowing that ships could not listen through their own transmission, when a Morse key was pressed all receiver aerial paths were blocked not only in the transmitting ship but also in ships in close company. It can therefore be readily seen that any W/T inadequacies were not the fault of telegraphists or W/T equipment within the vessel, but with the lack of suitable aerial arrays caused by inappropriate masts and mast configurations.

  Now, can you imagine challenging the Establishment, from any level, even from an admiral's position, let alone from a humble warrant officer in the wireless telegraphy branch? The Establishment (the Admiralty then, now the Ministry of Defence (Navy)); and the Naval Historical Branch, amongst others, would not entertain ANY intrusions upon the so-called knowledge of naval history, by and large taken from official records made at the time of the incident; any incident. I hear you say, well that's reasonable, for after all aren't they the custodians of naval history per se? That reaction is overwhelmingly common-place, which is the sole reason why what follows, is added to a snippet (normally reserved for trivia or incidental information) instead of a page all on its own as an integral part of my long menu of Navy Smaller Stories from which you have retrieved this snippet.

  Admiral Beatty, was heard to say to his flag captain at the time of Jutland asking what must have been a rhetorical question, what's wrong with our bloody ships?, when certain of his capital ships were easily despatched by German gun fire.

  I have spent a great deal of time (years) reading and translating (into modern W/T jargon/language) the findings of the outcome of many trials conducted from 1900 until 1913 in the fleet, by the then Experimental Branch of H.M. Signal School, in those days and until 1941 established in R.N.B.Portsmouth, working alongside the operational side of the Signal School. That Experimental Branch became ASWE, now itself, outdated and long gone. Those trials and their outcome were documented in fine detail, and those which proved to be successful (and there were many) were incorporated into the fleet, so by the time of Jutland, they were practiced procedures in an operational environment at sea, finessed over a period of at least two years.

  Above firstly you will see a model of the Iron Duke and then five examples of 1916 aerial rigs one of them [a] applying to the battlecruiser Invincible under Beatty’s command, with a picture of Invincible flat-out proudly wearing her battle ensign and producing an almighty pollution of smoke, soot and steam. A little later a picture of the rig Euryalus carried. From these we can build a picture which doesn't require an explanation from a naval historian. First off, look at the Invincible. Although difficult (nay, impossible to see) she had a 'main roof aerial' strung between the upper parts of her fore and main masts .

  It beggars belief that any visual signalling communications between Invincible and other vessels was reliable enough for command purposes, even though we know from the 1916 V/S Manual (OU 0443) flag hoists were hoisted on both masts simultaneously, and that flashing lights were used from both signal decks forward and aft as well as semaphore signalling, with helliographs being used in whatever part of the ship had the sun and the distant vessel in sight free from smoke etc. Whilst her W/T fit was "modern" (all main transmitters used CW (Continuous Wave) technology with some secondary transmitters still using either SPARK or ARC technology which by 1913 were obsolescent, used with modern aerial rigs as shown in the five aerial outlines above, she would have been the first choice for providing reliable and coherent communications within the groups and pan-fleet including short wireless stations/organisations. In those days, ships could not "listen through" and during transmission, reception was not possible. That was the norm for the time, and so it applied equally to the German warships. Invincible (and others, like the Warrior for example) would have made ideal flag-ships, simply because their design and build were fully conducive to the operation of modern 20th century wireless communications. The aerial fit of the Euryalus is all telling and was typical of an all singing and dancing modern warship.

  On the other hand, take another look at the model of the Iron Duke. From what I have explained in ordinary English to you, you can see at a glance that there was no room for the state-of-the-art aerial, namely a main roof. Nor for that matter for any V/S signalling except from that one poition/signal deck, which meant regular manoeuvring of the ship to guarantee best signalling advantage. As a flag ship, despite having, like all other main fleet units, Continuous Wave systems, her limited space for suitable aerials in both height and azimuth rendered her MOST UNSUITABLE for flag ship duties. I wonder if Jellicoe matched Beatty by asking why I have got a single masted ship?, for by having it, he was in many ways lumbered. Having modern transmitters down below and inefficient aerials up top, is rather like an F1 track-car driving on second hand tyres with poor suspect treads. A transmitter is virtually useless unless it can be matched to an efficient aerial array, where there are no losses and no VSW (Voltage Standing Waves). I have mentioned the 1916 V/S Manual of a relatively few pages. There is also a W/T Manual 1916 of 359 pages which was a confidential Book - CB242: I have "devoured" this manual and interpreted for my own benefit. Jellicoe was fortunate in that he had two signal officers appointed to the flag ship, in addition to the ships crew of communicators with their officers as complement. Both were commanders and both were rewarded with the DSO after the short (few hours) battle. One was a Commander (S) - no, not a pusser - in those days the (S) signified Signals, and the other a Commander W/T. Jellicoe had a very high level of expertise (more than most naval commanders have ever had), and as facts and the records show, the vast majority of communication traffic, and with it intelligence, left and was received by W/T. Had the flag ship been fit for purpose (hampered in many ways by the old fashioned 'Q' turrent midships in the waist) which saw very little action, the overall performance might have been very much better, but of course, we will never know. What I do know and with passion and massive experience at sea on flag staffs, is that the well known (for my branch that is) saying of "Of what avail the loaded tube?; the cannon and the shell?; if Flags and W/T default, the Fleet will go to hell would have had some bearing on the RN at Jutland!

At Jutland, it could be argued that we very nearly did?

  That to me might be a better accolade for the communication branch badge, than showing the signal hoist 'Equal Speed Charlie London'.