[HMS Berwick, Royal Navy cruiser.] Duplicated 'List of Urgent Defects', ninety-two in number, with the priority of the necessary work indicated in manuscript, compiled on the verge of the ship's decommissioning in 1946.

Author: 
[HMS Berwick, Royal Navy County class heavy cruiser, of the Kent subclass, launched 1926 and decommissioned 1946; Second World War; North Sea convoys; Norwegian campaign]
Publication details: 
No place. [Admiralty, Whitehall.] Latest reference to December 1944.
£150.00
SKU: 15212

9pp., foolscap 8vo. Duplicated carbon, printed in purple (except for Item 27, added in black), with the type breaking up heavily at points. Listing 92 numbered items, with columns for 'Departmental Serial No.' and 'Priority', the latter marked up in red pencil with 'A' (top priority), 'B' and 'C'. The list is divided into the following subsections: 'Hull & Miscellaneous', 'Auxiliary Machinery & Gunmountings', 'Electrical', 'First Fitting Stores'. The document was presumably produced as part of an assessment of whether the ship should be saved or scrapped. The first two entries will serve as an example. Item One ('A' priority): 'Ship to be docked. All underwater fittings require examination & refit as necessary. (Priority list of underwater valves will be provided) | Ship's bottom to be cleaned & painted with approved composition. Date of last undocking June 1944. Composition used - Peacocks.' Item two ('A' priority): 'Propeller shaft require to be scraped, cleaned & degreased & examined & records of pitting brought up to date. | All propeller shafts grooved in way of eddy plates (original diameter 15 1/4": minimum diameter of worn portion 14 7/8" in June 1944) Shafts require to be repaired in accordance with method detailed in A.F.O. 1462/45. All shafts require to be coated on completion with two coats of ed Detel DIAU followed by two coats of Detel Red AC & one coat of anti-fouling composition. All rope guards require to be refitted or renewed as necessary.'