I need help with interpreting a Navy WW1 record

[Hazel17]

I found this record of my great grandfather as part of the Register of Seamen's Services. I confess to being clueless when it comes to all things military so could someone help me interpret it?

He was born in May 1899 and began serving in June 1917 - would he have been called up automatically as soon as he turned 18?
He appears to serve from 13 June 1917 on the Vivid II - does that mean was sent out to serve on the ship straight away from the first day he signed up or was there usually a training period that's not shown on here? I know that the usual training period was greatly shortened during the war as they needed men at the front.

What do the List, no and ratings columns mean? Can anyone read what the rating column even says?

On the third line it says ... shore and underneath on demob. It looks like it says 30/08/1971 by demob but does the date above it say 7/03/1919? So was he demobbed in March 1919? 

I guess the v.g in the character column means very good character but what does the A column mean?

Lower down it is stamped paid war gratuity. What does this mean?

My aunt thinks that he was gassed during the war and thinks that effected his ability to work –any ideas on how to verify this? Are there likely to be any more sources of information about his navy service, I checked some links on the NA site but no results.
I'm sorry to have so many questions but if anybody knows the answer to any of them or knows where I can look to find out I would be very grateful. I will put a scan of the puzzling part below.

[Hazel17]

I hadn't realised the picture would come out quite that small when I compressed it. 

[mmm45]

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/monmouth_class.htm#HMS Donegal

Heres HMS Donegal...i think Vivid 2 was the RN Barracks at Devonport Plymouth a training establishment shore based.

A i think is ability.
War Gratuity was a lump sum paid on discharge to sailors.
Rating was his rank.I think its STO11 stoker 2nd class.basic entry level rating

Ady

[Hazel17]

Hi Ady

Thanks for that information and link. That answers some of my questions. :-)

The NA describe these records as straightforward to understand... which they are if you know all about the navy. You do learn a lot doing your tree!

Hazel

[Hazel17]

I returned to looking at this service record.

I have trawled the net and found not a great deal on the HMS Dongeal. Does anyone know where I could find out what the ship was doing when my great-grandfather was on it? I'm guessing the National Archives.

I'm still puzzling over the entries in the A column. Date 31/12/1917 - Pat. 31/12/18 - Sup. What could pat and sup stand for?

[mmm45]

Hi
Its not Pat its Sat as in Satisfactory( think they were graded Sat, Good,Superior) and  Sup as in superior for their abilitys.

Ady

[km1971]

Here is a sample from the NA website - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/dol/popups/rn-late-example.htm - with the Ability easier to read.

Ken

[Hazel17]

That makes sense Ady and Ken. A very badly written S for Sat. So I guess he got better as he prgressed which makes sense. Thanks 

[Hazel17]

On a different note the last date on the service record is the 30th August 1919. Does anyone know whether men serving in 1919 would have had any leave to take at home? I think the ship he was on was back in the UK in 1918 and didn't leave again andd was scrapped. There's no other ship noted underneath apart from a very vague hard to read blur that might be a stamp.

The reason I ask is that is the date of demob and the date of his first child's birth are less than 9 months apart so he needed some shore leave! (The baby was supposedly born premmature but how early could premature babies survive in 1920?)

Hoping my tree isn't badly wrong....