Page 121 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022

sons to sea. The Academy in Portsmouth lasted until 1837 when it was abandoned in favour of sending all ‘Volunteers’ to sea. Over the next twenty years the Admiralty gradually gained con- trol of the training of young cadets and in 1857 it decided that all cadets should have a formal training period in a moored ship before going to sea in a training ship. The chosen ship was ini- tially HMS Illustrious (a two-decker), followed in 1859 by the larger HMS Britannia. The Britan- nia chosen for the cadets was the fourth ship to bear that name. She was a ‘first rate’ of 120 guns with three decks, launched at Plymouth in 1820. She had been a flagship in the Mediterra- nean in the mid-19th century, and saw service in the Crimean War (1853 – 1856). Initially moored with cadets in Haslar Creek in Portsmouth Har- bour, she was moved in 1862 to Portland, with the cadets and a scratch crew of ratings and dockyard workers, as the cadets’ proximity to the town of Portsmouth was considered unde- sirable for the ‘young gentlemen’!
The ’Hulks’ at Dartmouth 1863 – 1905
Portland also proved unsuitable for the cadet training ship due to Portland’s high winds and lit- tle activity for the cadets available ashore. So, in 1863 Britannia once again moved (but this time being towed as it was considered too risky to set sail) to the River Dart at Dartmouth on the South Devon coast. She was welcomed by the town which became indelibly associated there- after with Royal Naval officer training. Dartmouth on the South Devon coast was chosen as the anchorage of the training hulk due primarily to the shelter provided in the harbour near the mouth of the River Dart.
Once in place off Sandquay on the river side of a hilly peninsular called Mount Boone (owned by the estate of Sir Walter Raleigh who had received the property by Royal Grant from Queen Eliza- beth I), Britannia was secured with four pre-sunk anchors. Jetties were constructed and also some shore-based facilities, including a cricket
ground. Britannia was subsequently derigged and had her main and mizzen masts removed to allow for structures to be erected on deck. On arrival in Dartmouth, Britannia had around 230 cadets but numbers quickly rose to over 300 causing overcrowding. It quickly became clear that a second ship would be required.
The ship chosen to supplement Britannia as a training hulk was the Hindostan. She was a two- decker of 74 guns, built for the Navy in Bombay of local teak and launched in 1841 (so 21 years younger than Britannia). When she arrived from Devonport in 1864, she was moored ahead of Britannia and connected to her by a covered gangway.
By the end of the 1860s, Britannia was showing her age and decay had set in, and she was now also deemed too small for what was required of her in terms of cadet numbers and training facilities. So, she was replaced in 1869 by a much larger ship specially adapted to the task. This ship was originally launched in 1860 as a screw ship (altered during building from a sail- ing three-decker) as the 131-gun HMS Prince of Wales, but now renamed HMS Britannia. Since her launch she had been laid up at Portsmouth as obsolescent, having been superseded by the new ironclads. She arrived in Dartmouth already a hulk, having had her boilers, engine and all masts bar the foremast removed. The old Bri- tannia’s figurehead was moved to the bow of the new Britannia. The four transom figures that held up the old Britannia’s stern gallery were also removed and still exist at the Naval College to this day, together with a replica of the figurehead (the original having rotted away by the 1990s due to constant exposure to the elements since 1820).
Naval officer recruit training continued in the two hulks and associated shore-based facilities for the next 36 years, with electric light being installed in both hulks towards the end of the 1880s.
The ‘Stone Frigate on the Hill’
By the mid-1870s, concern over the general training and health of cadets (the close proxim- ity of cadets aboard the hulks had led to regular outbreaks of illnesses, including even diphthe- ria) and serious consideration was being given to providing a permanent shore establishment. Dartmouth as a location was by no means the obvious choice at first. The Admiralty commit-
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