A junior officer joining Dumbarton Castle recalls a commanding officer, Broadhead, with merchant-service experience and a career in maritime law. Broadhead assigned navigation and anti-submarine responsibilities and sent the officers on short specialist courses. Sea trials then led to the ship's working-up period. Before departure, Broadhead proposed changing the propeller pitch to gain about one and a half knots, approximately ten per cent of the ship's speed. The initial official reply dismissed his intervention. In the memoir, the eventual pitch change proved his proposal correct.
Notable Point · 2:30:37-2:32:58
Dumbarton Castle's officers and a disputed propeller improvement
A commissioning memoir pairs specialist officer training with Broadhead's proposal to improve the corvette's speed by changing propeller pitch.