Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

John Evelyn Moore (1 November 1921 – 8 July 2010) was a submariner in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, a Fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

and after retirement from the Royal Navy the author for 15 years of the authoritative naval publication ''

Jane's Fighting Ships ''Jane's Fighting Ships'' by Janes Information Services is an annual reference book of information on all the world's warships arranged by nation, including information on ships' names, dimensions, armaments, silhouettes and photographs, etc. E ...

''.

Early life and naval career

Born at St Illario just outside

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

on 1 November 1921

All Saints Day All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the church, whether they are know ...

, Moore was the son of an import-export merchant. The family then moved to New Zealand before Moore was sent to

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. T ...

, an independent boys' boarding school in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, to complete his education. He joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and after specialising in

hydrographic survey Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, offshore oil exploration/offshore oil drilling and related activities. Strong emphasis is placed ...

ing was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1942. He joined the submarine service in 1944, later commanding the submarines HMS Tactician, HMS Telemachus, HMS Totem (P352),HMS Totem and HMS Alaric (P441). He served in Ankara, Turkey from 1958-1960 in conjunction with the Turkish Navy and NATO. From 1960-1963 he worked in the Plans Division of the Admiralty at Whitehall, London. From 1963-65 he was Commander SM at HMS Dolphin, Gosport. He was then appointed Commander of the Seventh Submarine Squadron, based at HMS Medway (former Landing Craft Tank ''LCT1109'') in Singapore until 1967. Following service in the Far East, Moore was promoted to Captain and served as chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, Naval Home Command (CINCNAVHOME) and later in the Defence Intelligence#The History of DI, Defence Intelligence Staff (Navy) at the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence in charge of Soviet Naval Intelligence.

Development of 'Goldfish' and the Trongle

During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Moore became acquainted with the difficulties experienced in getting men from submarines to land and later in his career he devoted much attention to this subject. While in command of the Seventh Submarine Division in Singapore in the mid-60s during the period of confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia he carried out experiments with the

Special Boat Service The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the special forces unit of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The SBS can trace its origins back to the Second World War when the Army Special Boat Section was formed in 1940. After the Second World War, the Roya ...

(SBS) of the

Royal Marines Commandos 3 Commando Brigade (3 Cdo Bde), previously called the 3rd Special Service Brigade, is a commando formation of the British Armed Forces. It is composed of the Royal Marine Commandos, alongside commando qualified sailors, soldiers and airmen f ...

, working closely with a young 2nd lieutenant in that unit called

Paddy Ashdown Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, (27 February 194122 December 2018), better known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. Internati ...

, later to become a British MP and latterly Lord Ashdown. These experiments built on earlier developments that had led to the development of 'Goldfish', which allowed submariners to enter and leave their vessels while submerged. Moore designed a device which he named '

Trongle Trongle is a device used on submarines to help swimmers, especially the naval special forces, to locate a submerged submarine in order that they may return to it. The trongle was invented by Captain John Moore of the Royal Navy. ''Warships of the Royal Navy'' (1979); ''Seapower and Politics from the Norman Conquest to the Present Day'' (1979); ''Warships of the Soviet Navy'' (1981); ''The Encyclopedia of the World's Warships''(1985); (with Richard Compton-Hall) ''Submarine Warfare: Today and Tomorrow'' (1986); and ''The Impact of Polaris'' (1999).

Honorary appointments

Moore was appointed Visiting Professor of International Relations at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

from 1987–89 and at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

from 1990–92.

References

Sources

* * Captain J.E. Moore's daughters

External links

The Papers of John Evelyn Moore
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, John Evelyn Royal Navy submarine commanders Royal Navy officers of World War II 1921 births 2010 deaths Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society British writers British expatriates in Italy