I wondered, sewing, perhaps! LRO (G) Served from 1975 - 1998 Served in HMS Ganges. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. Reaching high into the sunlit sky stood the mast; its yardarms spread wide like a giant crucifix. Today lots of those instructors (JIs and Badgeboys included) would be in front of the beak for various abuses, harassment and bullying. Martin Foster, 54, of Haig Road, Uxbridge, had already admitted two charges of fraud by abuse of position. Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, The Duke of Edinburgh visiting HMS Ganges in June 1973 Picture: ARCHANT. Should one of letters be a millimetre out, you found the lot on the deck when you returned to the mess. HMS Ganges 'He had the misfortune to be placed under the care of two particularly brutal and drunken instructors whose continual bullying and abuse proved too much for this emerging free spirit ' His early life was hard by any standards. Early in 1940 Admiralty decided to close Ganges as a Boys Training Establishment and in April it became a Hostilities Only Training Establishment. Such a tragedy that this historical place has been left to rot. Richard Dunn. Mast erected using the foremast of HMS Cordelia, which was broken up 1904. Roger Jones, chairman at the HMS Ganges Museum said: "HMS Ganges was originally a ship of the wooden wall, launched in 1821. HMS Ganges had a reputation for its harsh discipline. HMS Ganges was a "stone frigate" or land-based institution for the Royal Navy, and between 1905 and 1976 was one of the key training bases used to prepare sailors to defend Great Britain. Free (donations towards running costs are welcome) For more information, please see our Privacy Policy, Please enter a password with 6 characters or more. While the training ship was originally based in Cornwall, she was moved to Harwich, and then Shotley in the 1890s, in order to be closer to a centre of population. Helpful. Change). I was ordered to report for my test one evening after supper. Many spars are believed to have come from this ship too. Thus was the nature of Ganges harsh training regime. Sad to see such an establishment close as it was so full of history and meant so much to so many. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Coronation Day of George VI. He was sitting on a stool and told me to stand in front of him and begin. the reason i remember the date is that it was my 15th birthday, We got shipped out to Suez in October 1956 cutting short our training by a couple of months. Dave Walton RN retired. First time ever looking at any RN sights. She was established as a boys' training establishment in 1865, and was based aboard a number of hulks before moving ashore. Steve Tarr. Welcome Guest. the top rung of a six foot ladder is about my limit! Offenders, known in the Navy as "defaulters", were mustered every morning and went before the Captain for a formal hearing, where they could be "awarded" up to 12 "cuts" -- very hard strokes of Among his many punishments, he suffered cuts, a particularly brutal form of Naval punishment. The cinemas would be packed with rows of Ganges boys in uniform and the caf at the corner of St Stephen's Lane would sell them many cups of tea as they waited for their bus back to Shotley. Martin Foster was treasurer for veterans who served at HMS Ganges training base in Sufffolk. One not only suffered the punishment such as doubling up and down the steps of laundry hill with a 303 rifle held high. Download Citation | On Feb 1, 2023, Olivier Champagne and others published Future change in amplitude and timing of high-flow events in a Canadian subarctic watershed | Find, read and cite all the . Royal Navy 238217 Ordinary Seaman HMS Niobe . Once the situation eases a bit there will be tangible progress to be seen.. Ken Smith, who now lives in Brighton, sent me memories of arriving at HMS Ganges in the severe winter of 1963 and his fear of the dreaded mast. HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A Gannett Company. The cold water often caused some boys to duck in and out of the water quickly or sometimes not at all. Each of us was required to construct a printing block using letters carved in wood. We are the largest and fastest growing community of UK forces veterans on the web with over 500,000 members! Boys were permitted to march through the streets of Ipswich with bayonets fixed. A historic Grade II listed former Royal Navy training mast has been taken down ahead of restoration work. St George IOM Boys training 3/5/45 Christmas leave 45 took all kit and returned to Ipswich station, then by the ubiquitous 3 ton Bedford to Shotley where we reopened HMS Ganges as a boys establishment. HMS Ganges in Shotley Gate, Suffolk, was a land-based training centre for recruits between 1905 and 1976. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please Discussions between developers and Babergh District Council planning officers have been concluded five years after plans for the huge project were given outline planning permission in December 2015. When I say there was sexual abuse Im speaking from personal experience. The previous evening I'd arrived at HMS Ganges training annexe, with an assortment of other would-be-sailors, and was placed in the capable hands of a spotty-faced junior instructor and a bullet-proof gunnery instructor who wore crossed guns on both lapels. It was a facade hiding unknown treasures unknown tricks for us to perform, the first of which was to mark our kit with our names. 1907. Please Login or Register. The boy was made lower his trousers, but kept is underpants on, he was made to bend over a chair. Discipline was severe, routine constant and fear of punishment loomed at every turn. It would seem those boy-sailors who were seconds ago shoving sausages into smiling faces, had all disappeared into that terrifying building, and by the cries belching from its belly were being eaten alive. Ken said: It was a dreadful winter. You are using an out of date browser. The inquiry was carried out by Hampshire Police after debit card transactions of 4,200 and cash machine withdrawals totalling 74,000 were made from the association's bank accounts between August 2010 and June 2012. Nevertheless, as bad and as cruel as I have describe Ganges, I remain proud to call myself a Ganges Boy. 1927. To get to the platform you would climb out over the Devil's Elbow, legs dangling in the air, only your grip keeping you from certain death. HMS Ganges was the name given to several Royal Navy ships from 1779 onwards, but in 1905 it was chosen for a new training base at Shotley Gate, near Ipswich, where about 500 boy recruits were stationed. For breakfast porridge was on offer, that salt-coated gruel I'd been forced to eat every morning of my schoolboy days. I just got on with it. Yes, I got it wrong! My heart sank and my elation evaporated as I desperately tried to quash all fears of my body falling from the Devil's Elbow. He deserted on numerous occasions and willfully disobeyed orders . HP10 9TY. Im here as my Son (15) wants to join the RN - Wellbeck route AIB soon. The Duke of Edinburgh visiting HMS Ganges in June 1973 Picture: ARCHANT (Image: Archant). Helpful Report abuse Kindle Customer Sorting The Wheat From The Chaff Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2014 Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Shotly Jan 7 1967 , 4 weeks in the annex, 11months in the main establishment,left the RN after 26 years, as C.C.MEA(P) and you could tell Ganges trained men a mile off, Regrets not a bit.Sorry for the lad in my class that drank a pint of pussers disinfectant (The black stuff that turned white when you added water) I believe he got his Discharge. His fellow recruit, Phil Bridge, said it was "a sad day, because it means a lot to us", but he was looking forward to a restored mast being returned. JavaScript is disabled. I had already taught myself to swim. I was sent to the training Ship HMS Ganges a cruel harsh 12 months lay ahead of me and thousands of other boys. He was fondling my right cheek as I tried to concentrate on pipping. 11.00 to 17.00 Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays between Easter and the end of October. However lessons, culminating in a test, were much more difficult. H.M.S. Maurice was nothing to do with HMS Ganges, in fact he had been a crew member of HMS Hambledon. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Charles Dickens might have penned it the best of times and the worst of times. www.amazon.co.uk/H-m-S-Ganges-Dozen/dp/0906418003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269273975&sr=1-1, www.navy-net.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/t=134/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=0.html, www.veterans-uk.info/vets_badge/vets_badge.htm. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN, Artist's impression showing the view across a residential street at the redeveloped HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. Researched and compiled by A. S. Grimmer (Solent Division) who sadly crossed the bar 6th January 2007. Indeed, I have never met a shipmate would ever claim otherwise. I knew only when it was over would I then be able to call myself a true Ganges Boy and, some years later, a real sailor. #42. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. It was easy to spot those who had been here the longest. Write to Dave Kindred, Kindred Spirits, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN. View of the iconic mast at the former HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. I would like to see the mast and museum moved to the safety of HMS Raleigh though to ensure its upkeep and maintenance. Martin Foster, 54, of Haig Road, Uxbridge, had already admitted two charges of fraud by abuse of position. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. Read about our approach to external linking. Most boys just wanted to complete their year and go to sea. On the remainder of the command 'Bayonets' the left hand pulled the bayonet from the scabbard, placed it on the barrel of the rifle and, with a quick twist of the wrist, secured it in place. Former recruit John Youngman said it would be "nice to see it restored to its former glory". 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I was so fearful of that oncoming event I was becoming a nervous wreck, each night reading the next day's daily orders, wondering if tomorrow would be the day I crapped my pants in public. The next six years passed with regular naval detentions, ( Royal Naval Detention Quarters RNDQs Portsmouth) exhausting punishments, solitary confinements, ending with a twelve month sentence in the infamous HMP Corradino, Malta. My instructors were Nobby Clarke and Ted Roe. 10/01/36- 08/02/36 HMS Pembroke. We had no one to confide in, our instructors would more than likely told us not to tell tales. I wrote this song a long time ago. Engineer commander had been on Amethyst up the Yangtse and was quite sympathetic when he was OOD. There's something to be said for finding how finding out how good you are at living with other people, and finding respect for yourself. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. He had the misfortune to be placed under the care of two particularly brutal and drunken instructors whose continual bullying and abuse proved too much for this emerging free spirit, . If you cracked on and didn't buckle you were okay, but I wouldn't want to do it again. Mr W Im sure the surprise and very welcome CD that popped through my letter box today was from you dear sir, so thanks very much and Im looking forward to listening to it very soon. Posted on February 5, 2019 by irishroverpei. CLICK ABOVE TO OPEN GALLERY. First Royal Navy ship to visit Eire, post independence? Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 1905. "It's very high - you get a good view though.". Bob Roberts. later times). HMS Ganges was the name given to several Royal Navy ships since from 1779, but in 1905 it was chosen as title for a new training base at Shotley Gate, near Ipswich where about 500 boy recruits. Welcome to Forces Reunited the place where you can find information and friends from HMS Ganges. The greatest fear was of messing up, this meant the whole class was punished. ", The honours board from the HMS Ganges, showing the victories of all the Royal Navy ships bearing the name (Image: HMS Ganges Museum). July 27, Awarded the Freedom of Ipswich. When the Gunnery Instructor was finally satisfied, you put the lot back in your locker as before. Some 100 boy-sailors were in the canteen, chewing and chattering; clattering knives forks and spoons against plates and bowls. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, Aerial artist's impression of one of the green spaces earmarked for the former HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. The showers usually took place at the crack of dawn, summer or winter we ran from the barrack towel around our waist to the showers. It was hoped that Developers Haylink Ltd would start work early this year, but their plans were scuppered by the Covid-19 pandemic. No way would the Royal Navy let the opportunity to instill fear into a young boy pass them by, So began another nine months of laughter and tears, disaster and joy. HMS Ganges as a training ship in the 1900s, HMS Ganges being broken up after training was transferred to the land base at Shotley, The boys climbed the mast whenever the base received high-status visitors, and as part of their training, The sailors in training doing exercises outside the gym, The honours board from the HMS Ganges, showing the victories of all the Royal Navy ships bearing the name. STANDING on a wooden disc about a foot in diameter, and saluting, does not sound too much of a challenge, unless it is 143feet above the ground and you only have a lightning conductor to grip between your knees. The pipe (whistle) was used aboard ship for passing orders and instructions. A planning application for the site was submitted and outline permission was granted in 2015. Contents 1 Foundation and early history 1.1 Allegations of abuse 2 Ganges at Harwich 3 Ganges at Shotley 3.1 1906 changes 3.2 Later developments 3.3 First World War 3.4 Post war developments 3.5 Ganges in the Second World War 3.6 Postwar and closure 4 References 5 External links The master at arms held a long thin bamboo cane, the instrument of the punishment. She was the last wooden wall ship to be a flagship, and the last to sail around cape horn unassisted. The overall height is 143 feet 10 inches, with the button being 11 inches diameter and 3 inches thick. Photos showing the rusting mast at the former site of HMS Ganges at Shotley peninsula have been released on social media, prompting concerns that the 142ft high structure is not being properly. Who would have believed us, this was 1955 words like pedophile and sexual abuse were unheard of. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. yes I was there in 92 .Essex, Nolfolk , Herts Suffolk and Cambs police all used it. She remained in service at RNTE Shotley until October 1976. At the tip of the Shotley peninsular sits a cluster of abandoned buildings that were once home to hundreds of young lads right at the start of their lives at sea. . Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History 13 March 1653 - Death of Simon de Vlieger (c. 1601, Rotterdam - buried 13 March 1653, Weesp) Simon de Vlieger (c. 1601, Rotterdam - buried 13 March 1653, Weesp) was a Dutch designer, draughtsman, and painter, most famous for. Report abuse. Other things we had to do included, clean a toilet with a toothbrush, polish a hundred square feet of block-wood flooring with a boot brush every night before going to bed, paint the inside of a dustbin white before putting your rubbish into it. Were scuppered by the Covid-19 pandemic ), you put the lot on deck. 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