From the annexe, I had sometimes seen it, partly hidden by snowy skies as it towered above the buildings, and it looked frightening then, but now, marching beneath its cobweb rigging, it looked truly awesome. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Several tales about bullying and the harsh regime generally, not so much about the famous and frequent official canings. Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, Independent Babergh District councillor for Ganges, Derek Davis. So as I have said already, we kept our heads down aiming for that final day when wed be drafted to a ship. HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. Learn how your comment data is processed. During the third disastrous week, it spent so much time on the deck I thought I might as well leave it there! Even if it amazingly stayed put, as soon as I slammed the rifle onto the parade ground off it popped again. Yes indeed, they were the best of times and the worst of times. ( Royal Naval Detention Quarters RNDQs Portsmouth), Listen to No Flowers for Geordie on SoundCloud. Find out more about HMS Ganges at www.hmsgangesmuseum.com, or visit the museum, located at the end of King Edward VII Drive, in Shotley, IP9 1QJ. Allegations of Abuse. In 1907, its famous 143ft (44m)-high training . The latest development means that construction work could start immediately, however, due to the coronavirus outbreak, progress has been delayed. Early in 1940 Admiralty decided to close Ganges as a Boys Training Establishment and in April it became a Hostilities Only Training Establishment. they said. We caught up with Jim Dines, Director of TS Rigging, whose team. yes I was there in 92 .Essex, Nolfolk , Herts Suffolk and Cambs police all used it. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. During Ganges's time in Cornwall allegations of harsh and brutal treatment were reported to the Admiralty.One wardroom steward shot himself over the matter, and the reports aroused indignation in the local community. Rumour had it many years ago a boy did fall, bouncing off the safety net and through the Post Office roof. http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/hms-ganges-swimming-pool-shotley-may-2015.t96792, 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. The overall height is 143 feet 10 inches, with the button being 11 inches diameter and 3 inches thick. I heard many boys saying things like , dont bend over in front of the seamanship officer, or always face him dont turn around. 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. First time ever looking at any RN sights. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. He was fondling my right cheek as I tried to concentrate on pipping. A Gannett Company. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. This portion was taken from the foremast of the corvette Cordelia which was paid off . . The Admiralty decided that the shore base should bear the name of the original training ship, HMS Ganges. RO1 (T) Served from 1970 - 1975 Served in HMS Ganges. On his 15th Birthday he was sent, with 2000 other boys, to the notorious HMS Ganges training establishment at Shotley Point where a harsh regime held sway. Did my intro to Pusser at HMS Raleigh in ' 52 . Yes, I got it wrong! contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. HMS Ganges 2 in the harbour put all boys ashore and was then used as Naval Operations Ship, Harwich. Engineer commander had been on Amethyst up the Yangtse and was quite sympathetic when he was OOD. Some boys failed the initial inspection which only lengthen their time in the freezing conditions. In 1907, its famous training mast was erected on the parade ground. It was hard, often . 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. I arrived at Ganges in the late afternoon on March 15th 1955, along with roughly a hundred other fifteen year old boys. Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, Aerial artist's impression of one of the green spaces earmarked for the former HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. Mr Youngman, who joined the navy aged 15 in 1965, said he had previously climbed up to the top of the mast but "couldn't wait to get back down". Sailors' uniforms were a familiar sight in our area until HMS Ganges closed in June 1976. Used to have chats with old Tick-Tock and RPO Salmon gave me my 1 postal order when the max was really ten bob. While I probably believed the stories, I was still determined to quality for my chain. 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 kindly chef asked me whether I intended to eat the mountain of food I'd heaped on my plate or climb it! Jon Sparks. H.M.S. She remained in service at RNTE Shotley until October 1976. Recruits used to climb the 143ft (44m)-high mast in formation, with the "button boy" standing on a small, circular platform at the very top, hands-free, but with his legs resting against a metal supporting bar. 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. HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. Editors' Code of Practice. The master at arms held a long thin bamboo cane, the instrument of the punishment. I just got on with it. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich and Shotley . The Royal Naval Training Establishment Shotley (known within the Royal Navy as HMS Ganges) was established in southern Suffolk in 1905. "In 1860 she was decommissioned and laid up, and in 1866 she was turned into a training ship, and her guns were removed. It began snowing on Boxing Day. I joined up in 1968,three years after my brother, he hated it I was one off the sad ones that loved it, even the kit musters on the mast! He would lay on the number of cuts prescribed, each cut raised a welt on the boys buttocks. CMEM (M) Served from 1972 - 1987 Served in HMS Ganges. Within ten minutes, a second pair of gates appeared, the gates of the real HMS Ganges. Maybe we were unlucky with Instructors as one was Court Marshalled, discharged and sent to prison for so called abuse. 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. AboutPressCopyrightContact. It was named after a pre-existing training ship by the same name that was launched from Bombay and based at Shotley. Our kit was stowed in small silver lockers that we polished daily, but not like any normal person would stow their clothes. Change). Im quite sure few if any boys receiving cuts ever thought to run away again. The HMS Ganges site was initially opened in 1904 acted as a boys training facility for the Royal Navy. 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. One lad, a Geordie, was drafted early to a Destroyer bound for the Mediterraniann sailed from Plymouth He was washed overboard on his first few hours at sea..His parents never knew of the misery he suffered at Ganges. H.M.S. 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. 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 culprit was brought before the Commanders table, the punishment was awarded as six or twelve cuts. last entry 16.30 We are also please to welcome visitors at any other time by prior appointment - please telephone 01473 788315 or 01473 788723 to arrange this. An appeal by Woolverstone Parish Council was turned down two years later. HMS Ganges in Shotley Gate, Suffolk, was a land-based training centre for recruits between 1905 and 1976. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He went on to be an SD subby. Charles Dickens might have penned it the best of times and the worst of times. 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. Now i know why! JavaScript is disabled. It had been HO (Hostilities-only) traing during the war. Rather than do the two as a pongo I signed on the dotted line for a dozen , best thing I ever did and I regret not staying in for the full time . Shotley Marina, Shotley Gate, Ipswich, IP9 1QJ. 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 . I shuddered to the bone, as I'm sure did other boys. Ganges training establishment. The white letters would then be transformed, by our nimble fingers, into red with silk thread using the chain stitch. Former recruit John Youngman said it would be "nice to see it restored to its former glory". 1905 to 1976 saw 150,000 recruits pass through HMS Ganges. This page is dedicated to the memory of Tony whose commitment to the Royal Navy and especially HMS Ganges was unlimited. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. 1903. It may not display this or other websites correctly. HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. The HMS Ganges training base, which opened in 1905, closed in 1976 and has remained derelict. Welcome to Forces Reunited the place where you can find information and friends from HMS Ganges. The facility remained there until its closure in June 1976, NO FLOWERS FOR GEORDIE, HE'S NOT HERE TODAYTHE SEA HAS CLAIMED MY GEORDIE BOYPLEASE NO FLOWERS TODAYFIFTEEN YEARS OF LEARNING, HE'LL NOT GO DOWN THE MINESO WE TOOK HIM NEAR TO IPSWICH TOWNFAR FROM THE SEAMS OF THE TYNEIN A PLACE THEY STILL CALL 'GANGES' WITH TWO THOUSAND OTHER BOYSHE LEARNED TO SPLICE AND SAIL A BOATTALL ORDERS WERE HIS TOYSTHE 'BULLY BOYS' CAME NIGHTLY, DID THINGS A BOY COUNDN'T TELLBUT THEY MADE HIM WRITE IN HIS LETTERS HOME MAMMA YOU'R BOY'S DOIN WELLTHEN NEWS CAME OF SOME FIGHTING IN A FAR OFF DISTANT LANDWE NEED THOSE BOYS THUS SPAKE FOUR RINGSIN OUR BIG SHIPS THEY CAN RIDEIT'S WRITTEN ON HIS PAPERS, TWAS NOT THE DEED OF A MAN BUT A WAVE THAT TOOK MY GEORDIE BOYFIVE MILES OFF PLYMOUTH SOUNDSO NO FLOWERS FOR GEORDIE HE'S NOT HERE TODAY THE SEA HAS CLAIMED MY GEORDIE BOYPLEASE NO FLOWERS TODAY. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 June 2021 . 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