Shotley church is interesting that it has no tower. It is also interesting in the occupants of its
churchyard. The war graves are quite sobering and the memorial to the submariners of WW1 is particularly of interest.
That being said the church interior is interesting in its own right. The chancel has a rather imposing
Reredos (or retable) with a decalogue.
Reredos vs retable
The term reredos is sometimes confused with the term retable. While a reredos generally forms or
covers the wall behind an altar,[2] a retable is placed either on the altar or immediately behind and
attached to the altar. "Many altars have both a reredos and a retable."[3] But this distinction may
not always be observed. The retable may have become part of the reredos when an altar was moved away
from the wall. For altars that are against the wall, the retable often sits on top of the altar,
at the back, particularly when there is no reredos (in which case a dossal curtain or something similar
is used instead of a reredos).
The retable may hold flowers and candlesticks.
Top
The Wikipedia page on the C16 WW1 Submarine:
"
C16 was built by Vickers at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, laid down on 14 December 1906 and was commissioned on
5 June 1908. The boat collided with C17 south of Cromer, Norfolk on 14 July 1909 when the steamer Eddystone drove through
the flotilla - colliding with and sinking HMS C11. C16 was undamaged and participated in the Lord Mayor's Pageant (17-24 July 1909).
C16 was sunk after being rammed at periscope depth by destroyer Melampus off Harwich on 16 April 1917.
The boat bottomed out at 60 ft (18 m). A Mate – Samuel Anderson – was fired through a torpedo tube to try to escape,
but unfortunately drowned. The captain – Lieutenant Harold Boase – tried to flood the boat in an effort to escape
through the fore hatch, but the fender jammed the hatch, so the crew was trapped. The escape attempts were recorded
by the commanding officer, and were found corked in a bottle found lying near him when the hull was salvaged.
All the crew of C16 died. C16 was salvaged and recommissioned. C16 was finally sold on 12 August 1922.
"
Thw Wikipedia page on the E4 and E41 WW1 Submarines:
"
On 15 August 1916, submarines of the 8th Submarine Flotilla were training off Harwich, with E41 acting as a target to allow
the other submarines to practice attacking submarines. E41 was running on the surface at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h) when the
submerged E4 passed in front of E41. Although E41's crew saw E4's periscope and attempted evasive action, E4 rammed E41
and sank immediately with the loss of all 33 aboard, while E41 sank within 90 seconds, with 18 killed and 15 rescued by the
destroyer Firedrake.[ Both submarines were salvaged and returned to service,[25][26] with E4 being listed as part of the
9th Submarine Flotilla, also based at Harwich, from October 1916. E4 remained part of the 9th Flotilla until the end of
the war, although she was noted as being paid off in December 1918.
"
