DHOBYING IN THE RN

A number of you will have similar memories of the Chinese Laundrymen who were part of our ships companies in the past.  If you want some night time reading a copy of BR 1277 is available by clicking HERE and going to the bottom of the article.
The Royal Navy had many traditions, procedures, routines, organisations, but none transcended the act of nightly communal dhobying and showering followed
by a change of uniform into ‘night clothing’, affecting every member of the
crew.
Recently, we have witnessed the passing of Mary, the Mary of the Hong Kong
side-party. She became famous because she took on a task (with her mainly
female workers) sailors didn’t like doing, namely to keep the ships side at
1 deck and below looking smart, clean, rust free and well painted right down
to the water line so including the boot topping.  In the main, sailors
maintained 01 deck upwards.  To those of us who served in Hong Kong, Mary
was not only a ‘saving grace’ work-wise (even mine, but in black instead of
grey for I was a submariner there), but had a choggie (naval speak for
Chinese people) smile which illuminated Hong Kong and Kowloon together.
However, it has to be said that Mary was nothing but shrewd and  became a
rich person whilst most of her peers were markedly poor.
It is not absolutely certain when Mary started her service to Hong Kong’s
dockyard, and after its demise, to the ships moored in the environs of HMS
Tamar, but it is believed to date from the 1950 period more or less five
years after Hong Kong bounced back from the Japanese occupation of the area.
However, her services do pre date the more profound yet unsung services of
the inestimable value of the Chinese Laundry, which just about every warship
came to value irrespective of where, geographically, it served.  If Mary
provided a ‘service’ to the Royal Navy it was parochial, whereas the almost
countless Hong Kong families afloat in HM Ships provided a service
considered by many to be yet another branch, living, working and yes,
fighting alongside the other more well known branches of seamen, engine
room, electrical, S & S, communicators, aviators and Royal Marines. In
short, the Chinese laundry in HM ships became indispensable.
So, if Mary and her side party pre dates the proverbial Chinese laundry,
when did this service begin and as importantly, what service was in place
before it did so ?
I can remember so well the Suez War in 1956 and being a member of the crew
of a big ship namely the Flagship, HMS Tyne. She was berthed alongside in
Port Said at the northern end of the canal and serviced not only the needs
of the large crew, made so by having all the extra officers and men required
to service the Flag, but also the needs of many shore based personnel, even
including some elements of the army and the air force, and in addition many
of the small vessels (minesweepers etc) present in the harbour.   Add to
that, that Tyne had Egyptian senior officers as prisoners of war in her
cells and spare officer cabins, and they too had their needs!  Tyne had a
huge laundry and also a huge bakery providing clean clothes and bread rolls
in the thousands for many who were engaged in this conflict.  Prior to
joining Tyne, I had served in a small frigate for eighteen months with no
laundry of any sort other than bathroom sinks and dhoby buckets. A couple of
years after the Suez War, I gave up my bucket/wash basin/ laundry/and packet
of DAZ dhoby dust (soap powder), swapping it all for a can of DAS (diesel
after shave) when I joined submarines.
Many of you I know will have been to Cyprus, not too far away from the Suez
Canal, whilst others would have visited Egypt or sailed East through the
Canal heading for the sun of the Indian Ocean and beyond. All of you will
recollect that the temperature in those climes, even in October/November,
can be very high, and whilst pleasant dressed in shorts and tea shirt, it is
unbearable when dressed in No 8’s with full anti flash gear, and remember,
in a ship with 1950 style air conditioning: my meaning here, is to suggest a
ship circulating cooler air than ambient, and still bloody hot down below in
enclosed and confined spaces.
In such conditions, personal hygiene, dhobying of worn articles of kit and
bedding,  is a prerequisite,  and even if the facilities are available,
prickly heat, dhoby rash and other discomforts are still common place in
such an operating environment.
In HMS Tyne, the laundry dealt with thousands of articles of kit from
everything above the very personal articles like socks, handkerchiefs,
underwear, and these included such items as hammocks, sheets and blankets
(where used). This was the case in every large ship at this time, indeed all
cruisers and above, with reduced laundry services in destroyers and below
until just the ubiquitous ‘dhoby bucket’ was the only laundry available.
Obviously, all shore establishments had a laundry and pussers laundry chits
were in use shortly after WW2. So who manned and ran these LAUNDRIES?
Answer, sailors from the crew. These were usually all volunteers, mainly
from the stokers, the greenies, the seamen and Royal Marines
branches/divisions, who like many others (butcher, fresh water tanky for
example) were brown card ratings neither daymen or watchkeepers but full
time special duties.
In approximately 1950/51 (certainly during the early part of the Korean War)
the Admiralty ordered that spaces should be made available in HM Ships to be
assigned and dedicated as permanent LAUNDRIES – HMS Tyne was also the
Flagship for the Korean War.  Laundry machinery was designed or procured
from well known manufacturers and for the first time in naval history, a
laundry school was established at Devonport in HMS Drake. The whole process
of washing, ironing and starching clothes which started from pragmatic
experience very soon became a science and led to the appointment of the
Laundry Officer.  In the early days, the Laundry Officer was an important
appointment (not readily given to any old subby/junior officer) although
later on in the story, and after the introduction of the Chinese Laundry,
the appointment was ridiculed by the lower deck.
Many local orders were scripted to lay down the rules for these embryonic
LAUNDRIES, being relevant to the type of machinery fitted, the crew borne
and the number of laundry men engaged. By 1955, the very first BR (Book of
Reference) BR 1277 had been issued to the Fleet sponsored by the
Engineer-in-Chief’s Department of the Admiralty called ”LAUNDRY MANUAL”.
The BR was dated 26 August 1955.
Whilst doing one of my regular runs to the National Archives, I was able to
get this BR, and because dhobying per se and laundry matters generally
affect the whole of the crew, I thought it a fitting subject for a webpage.
In a moment, I am going to publish the content of the BR, but before I do
just a quick note about the Laundry School in HMS Drake.  The Laundry School
was just one of several schools within the main RNB at Devonport. It became
known as the ”NAVAL JOURNEY”, and throughout units in the Fleet (which had
a laundry),  a laundry man became known as ‘Journeyman’.  Now, the
definition of a ‘Journeyman’ is a person who has finished an apprenticeship
and is qualified, but works for a person other than for himself. Clearly, a
laundry man was not so well qualified, and in any event, in the navy, that
description fitted well to an artificer or a mechanician.  The title,
although coined to fit the nomenclature used in the naval laundry business
was soon dropped, but for many years it meant that your dirty laundry would
take a ‘journey’ through the cleaning processes and finish up all nice and
clean the other end. That will become apparent in the contents of BR 1277
below.
For many years, ships based on Hong Kong and Singapore used laundry features
offered by the locals.  This method ran in parallel with what was happening
in the Fleet at large viz, RN Laundries.  Some of the larger ships which had
LAUNDRIES fitted, stood down the RN laundrymen and in their place came local
Chinese men often interrelated. At first, when such a ship had completed its
2½ year commission and was due to return to the UK, the Chinese crew were
landed and the RN ‘dhoby Wallah’s’ resumed their task. However, as time
passed, these Chinese crews would take passage to the UK and then transfer
to a ship coming back to serve in the Far East. After a while, they became
permanent in the RN, shifting ships when necessary as refits and long DED’s
occurred.  Moreover, the permanency soon saw them serving in ships in waters
around the world, and that was the point, albeit piecemeal, when the RN
stopped servicing their own LAUNDRIES. Remembering the piecemeal bit, by the
early to mid 1960’s Chinese laundrymen were the norm onboard RN surface
ships.
I was amazed about what was involved in the RN laundry service and the BR
tells all.  Different I agree, but worth a browse to recall names like
Teepol, Bendix washing machines, detached stiff collars which I wore in the
early 1960’s with front and back stud, and the like. Some of it is really
fascinating especially the Presses and Pressing section.  Get your wife to
have a look at it and check that she is doing it properly – the pukker and
pusser way !  Enjoy.