Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, Independent Babergh District councillor for Ganges, Derek Davis. First time ever looking at any RN sights. I took a bowl and ate the lot. Frederick "Ben" Rodgers author of "Lily & Me", "The Royal Navy & Me" and collector of Rover automobiles, Review from Newfoundland CraigChurchill. Joined Ganges Feb '61..went through the same as everyone else. Royal Navy 238217 Boy 2nd Class HMS Ganges II. July 5 The old HMS Ganges sails out of Harwich Harbour. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. 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. An appeal by Woolverstone Parish Council was turned down two years later. Mr Jones said: "There is a lot of truth to the statement that you entered as a boy, but left as a man. Yes, I got it wrong! 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Probably running away was the worse decision, they were always caught and returned to the camp. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. It had been HO (Hostilities-only) traing during the war. 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. (LogOut/ HMS Ganges (1821) This page summarises records created by this Organisation The summary includes a brief description of the collection (s) (usually including the covering dates of the. It closed in 1998 or something. HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, The Duke of Edinburgh visiting HMS Ganges in June 1973 Picture: ARCHANT. He went on to be an SD subby. Through the year the training was intense, probably a good thing, it gave us little time to regret joining the navy. Unfortunately HMS Ganges is no longer there apart from a few buildings and what is left of the mast. As Rudyard Kipping wrote in his famous poem IF the you will be a man my son. The HMS Ganges training base, which opened in 1905, closed in 1976 and has remained . Well this seems a good time to see if this site works properly. George Douglas Blake HMS Warspite. I had thought that our group were the only sailors, if we dared call ourselves that, in this annexe, but I was soon to discover there was a continuous rotation of faces, each at various stages of initiation, a small factory taking in baby civilians at one end and throwing out almost sailors into the real HMS Ganges at the other. Dave Walton RN retired. A planning application for the site was submitted and outline permission was granted in 2015. 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 were stationed. HMS Ganges in Shotley Gate, Suffolk, was a land-based training centre for recruits between 1905 and 1976. Boys normally signed up to a contract of 12 years, which would leave most of them aged in their late 20s after their tours. It was hoped that Developers Haylink Ltd would start work early this year, but their plans were scuppered by the Covid-19 pandemic. 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. His early life was hard by any standards. Each evening after we had cleaned the mess, we took everything out of the locker rolled each item into a nine-inch sausage, tied white tape around both ends, and then placed every item on a blanket. 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. 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. Padre Weekes was always good for a fag and Jim Conroy (PTI) taught me to yodel. George Blake joined the Navy in 1935 and served up to 1950. 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. The mast was erected in 1907 for boy entrant training purposes using the lower foremast (steel) from HMS Cordelia (1881) with other sections from the mizzen mast of HMS Agincourt (1865). Observer career path/ real life experience. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. A question of Religion?Maybe MaybeNot???? The number of air raids at Shotley began to increase dramatically and its ratings soon had to go to the air . The showers at Ganges were just one bare room with several shower heads, no privacy. The test consisted of two lengths of the pool while wearing a boiler suit, then floating for five minutes. I did climb that mast. My heart sank and my elation evaporated as I desperately tried to quash all fears of my body falling from the Devil's Elbow. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. These were all regular happenings at Ganges. July 27, Awarded the Freedom of Ipswich. Anniversary Toast - HMS RALEIGH 25th Oct 2009, Telegraph: "Captain Peter Grindal Obituary", Future Ford vehicles could repossess themselves, 10 myths told by Covid 'experts' now debunked. A historic Grade II listed former Royal Navy training mast has been taken down ahead of restoration work. Our kit was stowed in small silver lockers that we polished daily, but not like any normal person would stow their clothes. Were you a 'button boy'? Martin Foster, 54, of Haig Road, Uxbridge, had already admitted two charges of fraud by abuse of position. Editors' Code of Practice. what an incredible article, thanks for that dave, how far did you get up that mast? She was the last wooden wall ship to be a flagship, and the last to sail around cape horn unassisted. Among his many punishments, he suffered cuts, a particularly brutal form of Naval punishment. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN, Artist's impression showing the view across a residential street at the redeveloped HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. At about 60 feet was the Devil's Elbow, the most dangerous and frightening part. Sad to see such an establishment close as it was so full of history and meant so much to so many. Some 100 boy-sailors were in the canteen, chewing and chattering; clattering knives forks and spoons against plates and bowls. She remained in service at RNTE Shotley until October 1976. 1937. We can reunite you with your friends who served at HMS Ganges and we have a wealth of information on different units, bases and ships in the site. Free (donations towards running costs are welcome) He deserted on numerous occasions and willfully disobeyed orders . While I probably believed the stories, I was still determined to quality for my chain. ", The sailors in training doing exercises outside the gym (Image: HMS Ganges Museum). Didn't like it, there are better ways of teaching than violence, but it hardened me up and made me self disciplined. 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. Real posh supercilious bastard. Two other ratings are recorded as 'drowning' whilst on the books of HMS Ganges and both were in 1944. Learn how your comment data is processed. BBC Blue Peter presenter John Noakes attempted to climb to the top of the mast. Welcome Guest. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. RM B54PCM - Twiggy the baby elephant was half an hour late for her appointment to 'tow of the premises', the 47 year old Captain Derek Napper Napper, skipper of HMS Ganges the naval training school at Shotley Suffolk, and found she had been replaced by a couple of horses. 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. The Royal Navy training mast in Shotley Gate, pictured in 1936, was erected in 1907, A photograph of the base taken sometime in the 1950s (left), with recruits on the mast in 1937, with one recruit just about visible near the very top, John Youngman said his training at the site stood him in good stead for the rest of his life, Warning: Third party content may contain adverts, A pupil band from The Royal Hospital School performed at the event, It is expected to take at least a year to restore the mast at the tip of the Shotley peninsula, across the water from Felixstowe and Harwich. Richard Dunn. I came across a clip on youtube that really saddened me and it tells its own story about the UK as it is now and the real fact that such things as pride, standards etc have long been lost and decay and neglect are the order of the day, I do not need to walk very far from my home to see with my own eyes the evidence all around me. contact the editor here. The pipe (whistle) was used aboard ship for passing orders and instructions. 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, . A Gannett Company. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN (Image: Archant). 1927. . However, for most of us boys, qualifying meant we could wear the Bosuns chain with our uniform instead of a lanyard. Abuse Details. 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. 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. Read about our approach to external linking. Within ten minutes, a second pair of gates appeared, the gates of the real HMS Ganges. 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. Down the road we proudly thundered, the first time any of us had seen the outside words since the day of our arrival. HMS Ganges Museum is dedicated to the 160,000 boys who went through the gates as boys and marched out as men, from its inception as a Royal Navy Training Establishment in 1905 to its closure in 1976. In attendance was a senior officer, medical officer and the master at arms. 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. We were ordered to turn around and bend over, if the instructor was satisfied we were clean, we were allowed out. I told him "I don't give a flying feck!" You are using an out of date browser. 1903. For spite I think, because it wasn't compulsory. HMS Ganges closed on June 6. Saw your message. HMS Ganges is a little bit different though, because they have to get the spine road in first and do some prep work. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich (from 1899) and Shotley (from 1905). Attempts have been made to contact developers Haylink Ltd but have been unsucessfull. 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. AboutPressCopyrightContact. contact the editor here. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich (from 1899) and Shotley (from 1905). Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, Aerial artist's impression of one of the green spaces earmarked for the former HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. 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. Discipline was severe, routine constant and fear of punishment loomed at every turn. I knew that once the weather was respectable, when it was no longer dangerous, my skinny little skeleton would be transported, step by trembling step, up that perilous rigging. The site was closed in 1976 and was used as a maaried quarter estate by the RAF. 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. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. HMS Ganges had a reputation for its harsh discipline. The HMS Ganges site was initially opened in 1904 acted as a boys training facility for the Royal Navy. Editors' Code of Practice. 1971. This punishment was something I never witnessed and can only describe from what other boys told me. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich (from 1899) and Shotley (from 1905). Indeed, I have never met a shipmate would ever claim otherwise. 1907. All thanks to my Instructor CMEM LUCKENS . This portion was taken from the foremast of the corvette Cordelia which was paid off . The former treasurer of a naval veterans' organisation has been jailed for 18 months after nearly 80,000 was withdrawn from its accounts. HMS GANGES AT HIGHNAM COURT, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 1940 - 1942. Aerial artist's impression of one of the green spaces earmarked for the former HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. He would lay on the number of cuts prescribed, each cut raised a welt on the boys buttocks. yes I was there in 92 .Essex, Nolfolk , Herts Suffolk and Cambs police all used it. Yes indeed, they were the best of times and the worst of times. She remained in service at RNTE Shotley until October 1976. 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