Nautical Training Ships: An Illustrated History

Phil Carradice

Nov 2009 · Amberley Publishing Limited

About this ebook

For well over a hundred years all around the coast of Britain there were located a series of nautical training ships. Often surplus navy wooden walls, the ships provided a means of educating boys and young men, while preparing them for a lifetime at sea. The more famous of the schools included HMS Conway, initially on the Mersey, and then at Menai; the TS Mercury, at Hamble, Hampshire; the Mars on the Tay, at Dundee; the Vindicatrix at Sharpness Docks on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal; the Worcester on the Thames and the Arethusa at Greenhithe. The Arethusa, converted from a sailing vessel, lasted until 1974 before she was purchased and sailed to America to be restored as a typical sailing vessel of the late nineteenth century. Phil Carradice tells the story of the training ships that helped keep Britain a maritime nation from their foundation to their demise as Britain's once-proud merchant marine declined in the latter years of the twentieth century.

About the author

Phil Carradice is a full time writer and broadcaster. He is a graduate of Cardiff University and UWIC in Cardiff and taught for thirty years, becoming Head of a large residential Special School. He has had numerous books published including novels, history, biography and poetry. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 & 4 and on TV programmes such as The One Show. He presents The Past Master on BBC Radio Wales. He lives in the Vale of Glamorgan.