Brock & the Winter Cruise of 1933 on HMS Mackay
Lieutenant-Commander Brock & the Winter Cruise of 1933 on the Mackay
In letters to his brother, Lieutenant-Commander Brock describes the Winter Cruise of 1933 on H.M.S. Mackay in the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet. The 1st Destroyer Flotilla was in flux while transitioning from V-class to D-class destroyers. Brock, Flotilla Torpedo Officer, explains the issues they experienced including ship defects, ill-conceived design, and inexperienced officers. He provides opinions of fleet and flotilla officers, including Frank Forrester Rose, Charles Frederick Harris, Gerald Maxwell Bradshaw Langley, and the Honourable Neville Archibald John Watson Ettrick Napier. Explore the interwar naval career of Patrick Willet Brock in his own words in this audiogram.
Quotes are transcribed as written without correction for current spelling, standards or sensibilities.
Canada Brock & the Winter Cruise of 1933 on H.M.S. Mackay
by K.M. Lowe
Patrick Willet Brock spent most of the 1930s on Royal Navy ships out of Malta. The island was the official headquarters for the prestigious Mediterranean Fleet as it offered one of the largest and most secure natural harbours in the region. Between the wars, the fleet was primarily engaged in routine peacetime duties and maintaining a strong presence. Activities included training exercises, manoeuvres, and generally protecting British interests.
While the Mediterranean fleet was based in Malta, staying in the Grand Harbour for too long was considered bad for morale and efficiency. Several times a year, the fleet dispersed on show-the-flag tours before regrouping for large-scale intensive exercises.
In 1933, Brock held the rank of Lieutenant-Commander and served as the Torpedo Officer for the 1st Destroyer Flotilla, borne in HMS Mackay. While Mackay had her own crew to operate the vessel, she also served as the mobile headquarters for the entire flotilla. As a member of the flotilla staff, Brock lived and worked aboard the Mackay—the designated ‘Flotilla Leader’—alongside the Flotilla Captain and a specialized team of officers who directed the operations of all destroyers in the group, which was typically nine ships.
That January, the fleet was on the annual Winter Cruise, which Brock described in a letter to his brother written from Galaxidi, Greece as “…a three weeks’ visit to the more God-forgotten ports in Greece to allow us to recover from the effects of the holiday season and to give the sportsmen element a chance of shooting some non-existent birds…”
The flotilla was in the process of swapping out their old V-class destroyers for the new D-class ships. Several new Ds had already arrived including HMS Defender and HMS Daring. The older Vs—Vimiera, Vampire and Vivacious—along with the Mackay, would return to England after the Spring Cruise. HMS Mackay was an Admiralty-type or Scott-class flotilla leader, which served with both the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets in the period between the wars. Built during the First World War, she had been re-commissioned in December 1931 for service with the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean. Vimiera, Vivacious, and Vampire were also built during the First World War. Their crews would take possession of the D-class destroyers in the United Kingdom and bring those new ships back to Malta.
In the meantime, the Captain of the Destroyer Flotilla, or Captain (D), along with his flotilla staff, would be “parked out in various ships.” Brock wrote that during the transition period, he was expecting to share a cabin with “the Honourable Neville Archibald John Watson Ettrick Napier, our distinguished signal officer. You would never suppose that Flag suffers under the burden of all those names — he is a most pleasant and unassuming fellow.”
Napier was a member of the Scottish peerage. ‘The Honourable’ was a courtesy title as he was the second son of the 12th Lord Napier and third Baron Ettrick. As Flag Lieutenant, he was also part of the flotilla staff. ‘Flag’ was responsible for the signals sent from the flotilla leader to the rest of the ships. If the Captain of the destroyer flotilla, known as Captain (D), wanted destroyers to change formation, it was the Flag Lieutenant’s job to ensure those flags were hoisted correctly and instantly. Napier, who was born in 1904, served through the Second World War and reached the rank of Lieutenant-Commander.
PWB recounted some of the issues the flotilla experienced on the Winter Cruise, including rough seas. “Beagle dragged in the night and bumped Brazen. Achates dented her bow going alongside an oiler. Daring’s brand-new capstan engine has refused duty. It’s a shocking design, and God only knows why it was allowed to go to sea. And Defender filled an oil tank so full that it burst the deck above and overflowed over everything. Two of our new ships have to go to dockyard for repairs before they’ve been out of the builders’ hands a dog watch.”
HMS Beagle and HMS Brazen were both B-class destroyers launched in 1930 and 1931. HMS Achates was an A-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the late 1920s, and was later sunk during the Battle of the Barents Sea in 1942. The D-class destroyers were nearly new in 1933. The Royal Navy destroyer evolution during this period was incremental. A-class ships were built as fleet destroyers and minesweepers. B-class ships were designed to be anti-submarine destroyers. D-class ships were larger and faster than the others with longer range, representing a definitive step up in size, speed, and endurance. As and Bs had a complement of 130 to 140. The Ds had between 140 and 150. HMS Mackay, the flotilla leader, was an Admiralty-type or Scott-class flotilla leader. She was physically larger, and designed specifically to carry the Captain (D), along with his tactical and administrative staff. She housed 15 to 20 extra officers and signalmen for a total of 165 to 185. By 1933, HMS Mackay, having been launched in 1918 and recommissioned twice after that, was a middle-aged veteran leading a pack of brand-new ships.
Captain (D) at this time was Charles Frederick Harris (1887-1957), a distinguished officer whose career spanned both World Wars. He entered the Royal Navy in 1902, the same year PWB was born, eventually serving as a Lieutenant-Commander during the First World War. In the interwar period, Harris held significant leadership roles and was Captain (D), 1st Destroyer Flotilla from December 1932 until July 1934. Following this, he was appointed Director of the Naval Air Division at the Admiralty in 1934. During the Second World War, he commanded the shore establishment HMS Badger before serving as Flag Officer of the Reserve Fleet from 1944 until his retirement in 1945. Harris was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his service.
PWB wrote about Harris in a letter to his brother that spring. “I don’t know why I was young enough to think that new ships would mean less work. It is quite the reverse as nothing appears to function yet, and the new officers don’t know the drill. Trouble is, they won’t R.T.B.—read the bloody orders—and want everything handed to them on a plate. Even then, they drop it. However, the new Captain (D) is a Master Man, which is a great blessing. In all respects, it is a pleasure to work for him. Some of our commanding officers are rather tough propositions, but I think he is just the man to deal with them—“suaviter in modo, fortiter in re”, seems to be his line of country.”
The Latin translates to “gentle in manner, firm in execution,” and PWB’s comments indicate that he greatly admired Harris. The two would work together until both left the Mediterranean Fleet in 1934, Harris to go to the Admiralty and Brock to the HMS Vernon shore establishment in Portsmouth.
Links
For more information on the topic of this programme and the sources used, please use the links below.
Dedicated volume on the Mediterranean in the 1930s period at The Navy Records Society: https://www.britishmilitaryhistory.co.uk/docs-middle-east-1930-1947-malta-1930-1945/
The British Navy Between the Wars at Navy History Australia: https://navyhistory.au/the-british-navy-between-the-wars/
Overview of the book The Mediterranean Fleet, 1930-1939 at Navy Records: https://www.navyrecords.org.uk/the-mediterranean-fleet-1930-1939/
Article titled Malta: Bastion in the Mediterranean at Warfare History: https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/malta-bastion-in-the-mediterranean/
Naval History, preserving naval history research and memoirs ….. making contemporary accounts more readily available: https://naval-history.net/
Grokopedia’s biography of Charles Harris: https://grokipedia.com/page/charles_harris_royal_navy_officer
Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum: https://navalandmilitarymuseum.org/
Imperial War Museum: https://www.iwm.org.uk/
Sub-Lieutenant Brock Joins HMS Vindictive at the China Station in 1926
Sub-Lieutenant Brock Joins H.M.S. Vindictive at the China Station in 1926
Patrick Willet Brock served the first few years of his naval career in the Mediterranean, and then in 1925 he applied for a transfer to China. To protect British trade, citizens and vast commercial holdings in China at this time of unrest, Great Britain carried out “Gunboat Diplomacy”. PWB travelled from Vancouver to Shanghai on the Canadian Pacific Steamship, Empress of Australia. He wrote letters to his brother describing his first few months in China where he was assigned to the Royal Navy cruiser H.M.S. Vindictive.
Quotes are transcribed as written without correction for current spelling, standards or sensibilities.
Canada Brock Joins H.M.S. Vindictive on the China Station
by K.M. Lowe
Canada Brock’s Arrival on the China Station
In 1925, after spending the formative years of his naval career in the Mediterranean, twenty-three-year-old Sub-Lieutenant Patrick Willet Brock applied for a transfer to the Royal Navy’s China Station. The traditional “treaty-port” system was collapsing under the weight of surging Chinese nationalism, and Great Britain had responded by intensifying its “Gunboat Diplomacy.” This policy involved the strategic use of naval force—both implicit and explicit—to safeguard British trade, citizens, and vast commercial holdings during the early, volatile years of the Chinese Civil War.
Brock received his orders while at home on leave in Canada and departed from Vancouver aboard the Canadian Pacific Steamship Empress of Australia, arriving in Shanghai in early 1926. Though he had expected to serve on the river gunboat HMS Moorhen, his orders were changed at the last minute. He was instead assigned to the cruiser HMS Vindictive.
For the 23-year-old Sub-Lieutenant Brock, the spring of 1926 was a time of acclimatization and observation. He witnessed the simmering tensions resulting from the previous year’s “May Thirtieth Movement,” which was a series of anti-imperialist strikes and boycotts—and prepared for the more direct naval actions that would come later.
The “Bolshevik” Cruiser: Life Aboard the Vindictive
HMS Vindictive was a ship with a complex identity. Originally designed during the First World War as a heavy cruiser, she was converted into an aircraft carrier while still under construction, only to be rebuilt back into a conventional cruiser between 1923 and 1925. By 1926, she was a fully armed cruiser with a complement of over seven hundred men, including thirty-seven officers.
The Vindictive arrived in China from England trailing a cloud of scandal. In December 1925, sensationalist headlines in England and Canada claimed mutiny on board. Newspapers reported that the socialist anthem “The Red Flag” had been sung by ship personnel and labelled the Vindictive a “Bolshevik ship.” In an essay called, “Notes on Vindictive,” Brock wrote the following about the incident.
“In the winter of 1925 to 26, I was on leave in Canada after having had a very good commission in a smart cruiser flagship in the Mediterranean. I noted casually one day a headline in the local rag: “Bolshy Ship of the British Navy!” Underneath was a photograph of HMS Vindictive and a confused and rambling statement that there had been a communistic outbreak in the ship and had now acquired a reputation of being “red.” …The reported Bolshevism was as greatly exaggerated as the reports of Mark Twain’s death.”
Brock wrote that the fallout of the incident led to a change in captain. However, the timing of leadership change may not line up with actual events. George Francis Hyde had been in command of Vindictive during some of 1925, but by the time Brock joined the ship, it was captained by Ronald Howard, a veteran who had commanded the vessel once before in the early 1920s.
Familiar Faces
Despite being thousands of miles from home, Brock found familiar company on the Vindictive. Among the officers on board was Francis Robert Woodcock “Jack” Nixon. Born in Duncan, B.C. in 1904, Nixon attended the Royal Naval College in Esquimalt at the same time as Brock.
Although two years younger than Brock, the two had joined HMS Orion together in 1920. According to a story on the website, For Posterity’s Sake, Nixon had been given permission to start his career early to support his widowed mother.
The Vindictive also carried the Honourable Walter Seymour Carson, son of the famous Irish unionist Lord Carson, who had served on HMS Orion with Brock and Nixon.
Bock and Nixon were not only friends, but Brock was the best man at Nixon’s wedding held in Victoria, BC in 1928. Tragically, while Brock’s career would see him retire as a Rear Admiral and live into his 80s, Jack Nixon would meet a different fate. Nixon was killed in 1941 when the troopship S.S. Nerissa was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland.
The Seasonal Migration: From Shanghai to Wei-hai-wei
In the spring of 1926, the Vindictive was anchored in the Huangpu River, the naval hub of Shanghai. However, as the sweltering summer approached, the Royal Navy followed a strict seasonal migration to avoid the “oppressive heat and disease” (such as malaria and cholera) prevalent in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
In a letter to his brother, Brock described the ship’s problematic departure from the “Fairy Flats”—the historical English name for the treacherous Tongsha sandbars at the mouth of the Yangtze.
“To turn in the narrow and crowded Whangpoo River, we had to go up at slack water to a bend in the river, let go an anchor, and swing with the assistance of the first of the flood. All would have been well if the river were emptier, but the flood swept us down on a steamer at anchor and she had to veer clear. Then proceeding downstream, a steamer shoved off from the jetty without considering us, and the tide bore us over to her side and we scraped along her. All our boats were out, and might have been crushed to matchwood, but they escaped with a few scratches. We got down to Woo-sung where the Whangpoo joins the Yangtze about 1300 hours, and then had to anchor and wait for the next flood tide before we could pass the Fairy Flats at the mouth of the river. Considering that the Yangtze brings down something like one million tons of mud per day, the wonder is that the entrance is not more silted up than it is. You can see the yellow colour of the river water eighty or a hundred miles out to sea.”
Their destination was Wei-hai-wei, a British-leased “health resort” and naval outpost 457 nautical miles north of Shanghai. Wei-hai-wei, and specifically Liugong Island (Liu-kung Tao) at the mouth of the bay, served as the official Royal Navy summer training ground. For the crew of the Vindictive, this was a period of conducting drills and gunnery practice in a cooler climate to ensure the ship was fighting-ready before deploying to dangerous, pirate-infested hotspots.
Muscle and Workhorses of the Station
While heavy cruisers like the Vindictive provided the muscle for major diplomatic shows of force, the daily “piracy patrols” fell to smaller vessels like HMS Moorhen, HMS Woodlark and HMS Bluebell, all mentioned in Brock’s letters. Late in 1926, Bluebell would gain fame for rescuing the hijacked British steamer Sunning from pirates—a story that made headlines across the Empire.
Links
For more information on the topic of this programme and the sources used, please use the links below.
For Posterity’s Sake: A Royal Canadian Navy historical project dedicated to the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy and the ships they lived and served in. https://forposterityssake.ca/
The Dreadnought Project: Naval history wiki focusing on naval history in the period 1880-1920. https://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/
Canadian Navy List: on CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum website. https://navalandmilitarymuseum.org/archives/publications/the-navy-list/
Britain’s Forgotten Naval Port in China – Weihaiwei: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuhQYA8iw8g&t=2s
Valour Canada: Not-for-profit organization that educates young Canadians about our shared military heritage. https://valourcanada.ca/
Historical Photographs of China: University of Bristol virtual photographic archive of China. https://hpcbristol.net/
Virtual Shanghai Project: research and resource hub dedicated to the history of Shanghai from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. https://www.virtualshanghai.net/
Navy Cadet Brock's Eyewitness Account of the Halifax Explosion of 1917
Canada Brock - Halifax Explosion of 1917
On the 6th of December 1917, two ships collided in the Halifax harbour and caught fire. One of the ships carried explosives for the Great War raging in Europe. The burning vessel drifted toward the Halifax shore, attracting crowds of spectators unaware of the danger. A few minutes after 9 AM, the fire reached the main cargo hold, triggering a detonation of 2.9 kilotons of explosives. The blast flattened everything within a 2.5 kilometre radius, and the shockwave was felt hundreds of kilometres away. On that December morning, Patrick Willet Brock was a 14-year-old cadet at the Naval College, located on the Halifax harbour. PWB recounted this historic event in journals he kept throughout his years at the naval college.
The Halifax Explosion
by K.M. Lowe
The Halifax Explosion on the 6th of December 1917 remains the deadliest man-made disaster in Canadian history. The event is still considered the largest accidental non-nuclear detonation in recorded history. The disaster was caused by a harbour collision between the Norwegian vessel SS Imo and the French munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc, which was carrying high explosives for the Great War in Europe.
Patrick Willet Brock (PWB), a 14-year-old cadet at the Royal Naval College, witnessed the event and wrote about it in the journals he kept throughout his years at the naval college.
The sheer scale of the casualties was immense, particularly considering Halifax’s population at the time was only about 60,000. Nearly 2,000 people were killed—about 1,600 died instantly, and hundreds more succumbed to their injuries later. The dead included more than 500 children and 200 military personnel, many of whom were working at the dockyards. Approximately 9,000 others were injured, with hundreds blinded after watching the burning ship from their windows only to have the blast shatter the glass inward. Many others suffered ruptured eardrums and severe burns. But the crisis went on for days. They weren’t just dealing with the largest man-made blast of the pre-atomic age—they faced a merciless blizzard, a medical crisis, and a frantic search for answers in the wreckage.
The physical destruction was equally staggering.
- The Blast Zone: 325 acres (1.3 square kilometres) of the city’s North End were completely obliterated.
- Buildings: Over 12,000 buildings were damaged, with 1,630 of those completely levelled.
- Housing Crisis: 6,000 residents had their homes destroyed, and 25,000 were left with inadequate shelter.
- Economic Cost: Property damage was estimated at $35 million in 1917 ($700–$800 million today), though the modern replacement cost of the entire district—including docks, railways, and factories—would likely reach billions.
PWB wrote, “Outside points were most generous in their aid. As soon as possible. The injured were sent by train to Truro and other points, where the citizens were most kind to the sufferers. The way in which the United States sent their aid was very generous. Relief trains and ships were despatched.”
Truro, Nova Scotia, sent a relief train within the hour, while Moncton and Saint John dispatched firefighters, equipment, and medical personnel by rail that same afternoon. Prince Edward Island granted $8,000 for relief and sent a contingent of nurses to assist the city’s overwhelmed hospitals.
Perhaps the most famous assistance came from Boston, Massachusetts. Governor Samuel McCall did not wait for a formal request, immediately telegraphing, ”Understand your city in danger… Massachusetts ready to go the limit in rendering every assistance you may be in need of.”
The governor also did not wait for a reply. Before nightfall, a relief train loaded with doctors, nurses, and supplies departed Boston. This forged a bond between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts that remains strong over a century later. In gratitude, Nova Scotia sends a large Christmas tree to Boston every year. In 2025, a 45-foot white spruce was officially lit in the Boston City Common on December 4th, just two days before the anniversary of the explosion.
Links
For more information on the topic of this programme, please use the links below.
Excellent Article at Legion Magazine: https://legionmagazine.com/features/halifax-explosion/
Halifax Explosion: https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion
Nova Scotia Archives: https://archives.novascotia.ca
History of the Canada’s Royal Naval College: https://canadiansatarms.ca/history-of-the-rcn/
Royal Military College of Canada, which holds originals of PW Brock’s journals: https://www.rmc-cmr.ca/en
Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum: https://navalandmilitarymuseum.org/