Alma Mater - HMS Mercury, Leydene, Nr Petersfield, Hampshire
The 1953 Review programme showed the Visual Signalling badge like the image to the left. The image to the right is a map of Mercury - click on it to enlarge it.
Mercury was the god of travellers. He had a winged hat and sandals, so he could fly. He carried a staff with two snakes winding round it.
He was also the god of thieves! When he was only a few days old, he stole the cows of Apollo. Mercury made special shoes for the cows and made them walk backwards, so no-one could follow their tracks. Eventually Apollo noticed that Mercury was playing a new musical instrument called a lyre, strung with cow-gut! Apollo was furious with Mercury, but thought the lyre was wonderful. So they agreed that Mercury could keep the cows and Apollo would get the lyre.
Mercury was also the god of science and business. I think that he's the god of the Internet as well!
This is our badge, dating from the 1st World War, and is the badge we rally to. Whilst always subservient to the famous flag hoist of Lord Nelson at Trafalgar, it is nevertheless very famous and very important. The flags shown comprise the actual signal which was hoisted to deploy the Grand Fleet into action at Jutland at 1817 on the 31st May 1916. The translation of the mottos is "Wisdom by Signs". Historically, the outcome of this battle is still (2003) argued about, unlike Trafalgar, but the symbolism of the badge is not in doubt.
By substituting the crossed guns in these pictures with CROSS FLAGS, you can see what the badges looked like.
Quote from the Shotley Magazine of Easter 1954
" The Admiralty have recently stressed the importance of good spelling and writing in the Communications Branch. The reasons are obvious. A message, although read 100% correct, is worthless if the addressee cannot read it; and so often a further handicap may be that he has to attempt this task under poor lighting conditions - for example in an Operations Room or on the bridge at night. Valuable time may be lost whilst the message is returned to the receiving operator for elucidation. Another danger of bad writing is the snowball effect on a message that has to be relayed. Telegraphists must never think that the typewriter has or will take the place of the pencil - in fact the occasions when they have to use a pencil are normally the most important." AND From the Editorial of the same Magazine " .....yet an insidious growth has been breaking to the surface with unprecedented insistence. We refer to the habit of reading what are known as "comics" henceforward to be termed more appropriately, "horrors." The national press and the BBC have given much anxious consideration to this subject in recent months, and there is little new to add to their deliberations and conclusions.................The "horror" is not merely an ill substitute for reading; it is the enemy of reading. The sole benefit to be derived from the "horror" is an acquaintanceship with fifth-rate and unscrupulous minds. The inevitable harm can best be described as a petrefaction rather than as a putrefaction, of the human brain."
Over on the sparkers side, I have published a feature piece about John Eilbeck, one of many sparkers highly respected, but, one of few who has bothered to tell his story in print!
