Angharad When you are an officer of the watch on the bridge, and you are dealing with coloured lights at night, ie red and green, for port and starboard, then to be colour blind would not only be dangerous for your vessel, but for others, especially when operating in close formations, as was often the need during the war. Plus, as mentioned, signal flags are often coloured, so you could misread signals, although semaphore (not flags) and Morse were probably the main visual methods of signalling at this date, although signal flags were used a any number of things when navigating a ship or advising others regarding what you were doing or intending to do etc. etc. On entering the Service I understand that from the latter part of the 19th Century officers were required to declare whether or not they were colour blind, and if he implied that he wasn't then he would have put himself in a difficult place should the discrepancy be discovered, even if it was to serve for King and Country, and it looks as though he paid the penalty, and it was probably suggested that he resigned and hence, also, the note that he was not to serve in the RN for the duration, which would be normal in those circumstances. Concur with David regarding RFA. If you would like to send me a copy of your document, I'll see if I can make sense of the "scribbled note," but no promises ! Paul On Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:04:28 -0400, Angharad Holmes via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: > >I have my Grandfather's World War 1 Naval service history and there is one thing in particular that I would like to know more about, and wondering if someone on here can throw any light on it for me! > >He was a merchant seaman before the war, got his Masters Ticket July 1914, then he served a year in the Royal Field Artillery. > >In April 1916 he seems to have been transferred to the Navy as a Sub Lieutenant (temporary), went to HMS Excellent (April - May 1916)which I believe was a shore establishment in Portsmouth and was then posted to HMS Princess. (? Princess Royal). > > In June 1916 his record states that "he resigned" and > “ he is notto serve on any vessel in RN service for the rest of the war”. This statementseems to have been modified in June 1917 but I cannot make out the scribbled note on his record that says why. > >In June 1916 he transferred to the RFA and served the rest of the war out on various ships, one of them being the S.S.Gothland which was torpedoed off Malta in 1917. He was then on the S.S.City of Shanghai until 1923. > >He was killed during Dec 1940 after a year dodging u boats in the Atlantic. > >My father said that his dad was in the "wavy navy". > >I would like to know what the resignation in 1916 is all about, I thought you couldn't just resign during war time! and why was he not allowed to serve in the RN for the duration of the war. > >By the way - he was colour blind! > >In anticipation > >Angharad > > > >Angharad Holmes >angharadholmes@aol.com > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html