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All Hands 2020-1 (UK Spring) P a g e 22

On her return voyage, with a cargo of coal, she caught fire off Comodoro Rivadavia on the Argentine coast, and
after several attempts to save her, or her equipment, she was abandoned ablaze in the South Atlantic and finally
shelled by an Argentine gunboat.
Captain Miethe was badly knocked down. The war lost, his ship lost, the crew dead or scattered and his homeland
flooded with misery. It broke many a good man’s heart! But the race of men brought up on the Waterkant (water’s
edge) is made of stern stuff. He survived, settled down in Valparaiso, fought his way up once more, living in the
port as one of the most respected members of the seafaring fraternity.

8 From Other Journals – Sourced by Chris Clarke (ClarkeC59)
8.1 1978 - End of the Worcester
Extracted from The Bumph. January 2020 Vancouver Conway Club - Secretary: David Whitaker (52-54).

A familiar sight on the London River is soon to
disappear forever, for the old training ship
Worcester has come to an end of her working
life. Since the Thames Nautical Training
College closed in 1968, to be replaced by the
Merchant Navy College, now housed in fine
new buildings on the foreshore at Greenhithe,
the ship has been used as a boat station, but
with the completion of the new boathouse she
is surplus to the requirements of the college.
The cost of putting her into order for a new life
elsewhere is hardly a practical proposition in
view of the cost, and the old ship is to be broken
up. So will disappear the last of three ships to
bear the name Worcester at Greenhithe.
The first Worcester was a 50-gun frigate of 1,471 tons. Loaned by the Admiralty to the Association of London
Shipowners as a training school for Apprentice Officers, she was first moored in Blackwall Reach, but because of
river congestion she was moved to Erith in 1863. At Erith she suffered from pollution and effluent and in 1869
she was moved to Southend. Conditions at Southend were so exposed that it was said, “she rolled her guts out and
the cadets were frequently sick”. Accordingly she was moved to her final berth at Greenhithe in 1871.

The success of the Worcester soon necessitated her replacement by a larger ship. The second Worcester was a
110-gun three-decker, laid down as the Royal Sovereign. While on the slip she was renamed Royal Frederick and
by the time she was launched in 1860 she had been reduced to two decks, 86 guns and 4,726 tons. She was
converted to steam propulsion, a 500 hp engine driving a screw, and was once again renamed, this time Frederick
William. After a short spell of service she was paid off in 1877, her engine removed and she was converted to the
Cadet School Ship Worcester. Before she finally left Greenhithe in 1946 to be broken up at Grays, over 5,000
boys had received their nautical training in her.
The third and last Worcester was specially built as a training ship for harbour service in 1904 for the London
County Council, and up until 1939 as the Exmouth, moored at Grays, she provided sea training originally for boys
sent on board by the “Poor Law” authorities and later by fee-paying parents. After war service at Scapa Flow, she
returned to the London River at Greenhithe, where she was renamed Worcester.
The last Worcester is 5,400 tons, is 346 feet long and 53 feet beam, with a draft of 18 feet. Built of iron below the
waterline and mild steel above, she resembles a “ship of the line”, but her headroom of 9’ 6” is vast compared
with the traditional 5’ 6” or so. Her small tumblehome and small masts and yards show how she differs from a
genuine wooden wall.
8.2 The Conway Remembered – Geoffrey Tinker (Sea Breezes Oct. 1987)

The following is by kind permission of David Whitaker, Editor of NPESC’s Seatimes March 2020 http://npesc.ca.
The NPESC is a Registered Society in Canada with the goal of furthering the professional education of Canadian
mariners. The Society works closely with the Marine Campus of the British Columbia Institute of Technology,
Camosun College, the Western Marine Institute and other Canadian educational institutions.