Dimensions
172 x 248 x 15mm
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.
