Service from the Sea
Service from the Sea is the new book from Penguin Group (NZ) outlining the history of the Navy in New Zealand and featuring illustrations of the many and varied objects in our Navy Museum. Service from the Sea has been enthusiastically received by many ex-naval men and their families. The staff at the Navy Museum are deservedly proud of ‘their book’ as it brings many of the Navy’s taonga (treasures) to a wider audience.
The book was written by Kelly Ana Morey, who is the Navy Museum’s Oral Historian, and it was illustrated with many photos taken by Paul Restall, our Museum’s photo archivist, as well as with photos drawn from the Museum’s own archives. Navy Today took the opportunity to interview Kelly Ana Morey about the new book.
What were the highlights of your research and writing?
My highlight definitely ended up being HMS NEW ZEALAND, especially the battlecruiser’s first visit to NZ before WWI, though the return visit [1919] is pretty interesting too. The Maori prophecy was especially interesting and I ended up doing tons of extra work on the ship, hunting down archive photographs in national collections and charting the ship’s progress through the press of the day.
During the first visit of 10 weeks the press covered it every day in the inimitable style of the time. I particularly loved the little details like three lines about a child going missing during a visit and about a Wanganui Collegiate lad who stowed away on board (sadly neither of those tales made it into the final text). I’m hooked definitely and one day will write a book-length piece on the ship!
It must be very different from writing a novel - you have no control over the characters or the events, but must reflect the actual history.
I think what made it such a different (for want of a better word) experience from the writing I’ve done prior wasn’t the fiction/non-fiction thing, but reworking what was essentially an existing narrative. I make no bones about the fact that I relied very heavily on Grant Howard’s Portrait of the Royal New Zealand Navy (1991) and the naval histories written by S.D. Waters [The Royal New Zealand Navy; Wellington : War History Branch, Dept of Internal Affairs, 1956] and Matthew Wright [Blue Water Kiwis: New Zealand’s naval story, Auckland, Reed, 2001].
I did however meticulously write every word, though I cover exactly the same ground. The book was always intended to be a "soft" social history with an emphasis on the ordinary sailor. I didn’t re-invent the wheel, I tried to make it - in publishing terms - a bit more ‘sexy’. I definitely approached it as a writer with a publishing brief, a word limit and a deadline. You may argue that my approach has resulted in a once-over-lightly in terms of the big picture history, but the depth is provided by the intimate “snap-shots” of naval life, which definitely have a lot more of me in them than the central text. In truth I would have been happy if we could have done away with the primary text all together, but one does need a context to hang those great oral histories, wonderful minutiae and the rare images on.
My other reason for not doing as much independent research as I wanted to was simply the time factor. Paul Restall, the photographer/photo archivist, and I ended up doing it in just over four months (which is too fast!) I think all things considered we did a pretty good job.
The most difficult part of doing a naval history is how little written general stuff there is on the RNZN (plenty on the RN though) so that leads back again to the naval histories I mentioned earlier.
If I had written about one specific thread about the Navy, policy or recruitment, for example, I would have been able to source archival material and write a detailed analysis, but that kind of thing has to be a passion or a life work and has no place in a warm, sunny, big-picture kind of history.
And you have incorporated oral histories a lot…
What I did bring to the table was the use of the oral histories which, of course, are my baby. I prepped about three times as many as are in the book, so we lost a lot including my MTB boys and one of my POWs to meet the requirements of the publisher. And there were the archive photographs, some of which had never seen the light of day - they’re something else I was very strong on. You will notice there aren’t too many photographs of ships and admirals!
Our Navy’s Maori dimension - it goes back to ships’ names (e.g. HMS TAURANGA, 1891) and to ships’ gifts as well as our sailors....
I totally regret that I missed out aspects like the Maori dimension, beyond opening and closing the book with the story of HMS NEW ZEALAND’s piupiu. Again I ran into the problem of no easily-accessible research materials and the lack of time to do the archive research and analysis. Doing the Navy’s long involvement in Antarctica was another area that was difficult for that reason, as was the most recent decade of the Navy’s operations. There is remarkably little material and I had not enough time to go out and collect it.
The NZ public’s pride in their Navy comes through as in HMS NEW ZEALAND’s two visits and the reception for ACHILLES after the River Plate....has the pride lessened in modern times?
I don’t know if naval pride specifically has changed, I resist saying diminished because how do you quantify pride? My Dad would say that what we need is a good war!
The British dimension - did it really shackle us, or was it also a reflection of NZ society of the time?
Our whole concept of nationalism is so different from what it was five, six, seven decades ago, which also answers the question about the British connection. I definitely think all the various stages and removals from the idea of being a colony were products of their time. Change is good - it means (as an institution) the Navy’s heart still beats and its mind still thinks.
I project-managed the book from about the midway point, although doing Service From the Sea was very different from my novels. I would love to do another similar book with Paul Restall, though with a greater time frame. But I’m still a fan of the social history and its role of bringing history to a general readership.
Book Offer!
Penguin Group (NZ) has donated a copy of Service from the Sea for a lucky reader.
Question: What cruiser was our Navy’s ‘flagship’ from 1956-65?
To enter the draw, please answer the question on a postcard or back of an envelope, add your name and postal address, and send to:
Service from the Sea Draw
Editor, Navy Today
HQNZDF
PO Box 3997
Wellington 5045
Closing date: Friday 29 May 2009.
Note:
Service from the Sea is a companion book to: With Honour: Our Army, Our Nation, Our History by Richard Wolfe. Penguin/Viking, North Shore, NZ. 2007.
Previous | Contents | Next