Target Practice

Martin's Grandfather, Captain H. T. Mosse, RN, on his experience as CO of HMS King Orry, a converted Isle of Man ferry, while it was being used for target practice during World War 1.

"When I was in the King Orry in the days when we were in harbour, it was my job to tow targets to any ships that were firing, but on one particular occasion, I think it was the 2nd Battle Squadron, they were doing their firing at about 20 miles and all of a sudden I felt something had hit me, and the First Lieutenant went down and chased out about it, and we discovered that a 6" 'proj' had come in about a foot off the water and gone straight across and through and out the other side. Fortunately nobody was hurt but I had two holes in my ship, only about a foot above the water, and did not think it good enough, so I hauled down the firing flag and intended to come back. Then I remembered that the 2nd Battle Squadron had just about finished their firing and there was going to be a division of cruisers, when I saw them approaching, and I signalled to the Admiral that I had been hit and I thought it better for me to go back into harbour because we hadn't got watertight doors or anything of that sort and I was put into the dockyard for 5 days and they made good the repairs."

From the tape, 'GRANDFATHER: Captain Harry Tylden Mosse, R.N., talks to his son-in-law Col. Richard Arthur Rupert Fanshawe (1972)'.

Perhaps in recognition of the extraordinary bravery that such a task must have required, King Orry, with HTM still in command, was given the signal honour of being allowed to lead the defeated German Grand Fleet into Scapa Flow in 1918. This is commemorated in a painting still on view in the Isle of Man Museum in Douglas, which later featured on an IoM postage stamp. HTM modestly passes over the event on the tape.

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