This turned out to be an intriguing story, but let us start at the beginning, in the early 1870s when the Seaman Torpedoman first arrived as a job in the military branch of the Royal Navy.
The reason for this was the arrival of what was known as the Whitehead Torpedo, which was introduced into the Royal Navy in 1871. At first there was no set man to handle it, then suddenly in 1874 a number of Seaman Gunners were selected and trained on how to work with torpedos, though they were still expected to work with standard guns as well. They did get extra pay though, a penny a day.
Our man, however, is actually a Torpedo Boat Coxswain, rather than a torpedo handler, and he would have manned the steam-powered torpedo boats. That means he would also have been either a Leading Seaman, or a Petty Officer Second Class, and he would also have had extra pay, of twopence a day. We know all this because of the badge, which, on the Wills version is described as "two crossed torpedoes with a star below and a steering wheel above, the latter indicating the ability of the man holding it to take charge of a small torpedo boat such as large ships carry. Chief and other petty officers, (whether Gunnery or Torpedo) are eligible for the rating, which carries extra pay of 7d. a day"
As for his tally, or the band of black on his hat, that leads us to H.M.S. Argyll, one of the six "Devonshire" Class armoured cruisers that were assigned to the Channel Fleet, and transferred to the Atlantic Fleet in 1909. She also had a brush with royalty in 1911, when she escorted the Royal Yacht to India, with King George V aboard.
Her life changed dramatically in 1914, when she became part of the Grand Fleet; however she never got to see enemy action, she ran aground and was completely wrecked, on the Bell Rock, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, on the 28th of October 1915. There were no injuries and no loss of life. However it was a strange incident, as it was caused by the fact that the Bell Rock Lighthouse was kept unlit until requested, in order not to assist the enemy. Our ship did send in and ask for light, but the light was never switched on.
As always, Smith`s issued this set in almost all of their brands, and also issued it twice. First of all, they issued it without any mention of the Imperial Tobacco Company, but with a descriptive text on the back. Then they reissued it, as on our card, with reference to the Imperial Tobacco Company, but without a descriptive text.
Our section of the set first appears in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
- NAVAL DRESS & BADGES. Sm. Nd. (50). See H.172, Ha.172, and X1/H.172. Multi backed. ... S84-12
(b) Back without descriptive text, with I.T.C. Clause. 8 backs.
(A) Glasgow Mixture - Mild, Medium & Full
(B) "Orchestra" Cigarettes
(C) "Pinewood" Cigarettes
(D) Squaw Thick Black Tobacco
(E) "Studio" Cigarettes
(F) Sun Cured Mixture
This is exactly the same text as appears in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, save a new card code of S548-300