Sailor Boy

[GrannyOgg]

Advice please - an ancestor shown on the 1891 census as a sailor boy age 15 The ship War Sprite

a training ship situated at River Thames off Charton Pier Woolwich.  Would a sailor boy have a service

number and how long would he serve.  I would be grateful for any information please.

[gortonboy]

hi,,are you sure of the name of the ship,,,,,if you post the boys details,,maybe we can have a crack at tracking any records that survive,,

[gortonboy]

i think you mean charlton pier and the ship is called Warspite,,,,Admiralty: Thorn, Solebay, Iphigenia, Venus and, in May 1862, HMS Warspite (re-named TS Warspite) – by which time the Marine
Society’s mooring had been moved to a position off Charlton Pier, near Woolwich. In 1877 HMS Conqueror became the next TS
Warspite, and in 1901 she was moved to a new mooring off Greenhithe. Finally, in 1923 the cruiser HMS Hermione became the third and last TS Warspite, and she had a capacity for more than three hundred boys. In 1929 she was moved to a new mooring
off Grays.
To qualify for a place on TS Warspite a boy had to be the son of poor parents, medically fit and of good, honest character. He
would then be apprenticed to the Marine Society for two years, and his training would be “free of all expense to parents or
guardians”. After a minimum of six months training, boys could be selected and sent for service with the Navy, and the Society
would then cancel their indentures. Boys destined for service in the Mercantile Marine would complete the twelve to fifteen month
course on TS Warspite and then be “discharged to the Society’s Shipping Agent for draft to sea” on the understanding that they had
to complete the remainder of their indentured apprenticeship at sea. It is important to note that the aim of this Marine Society
apprenticeship was to instruct the boys in the “elementary duties of a seaman” and not to produce a candidate for the Second
Mates Certificate of Competency. Nevertheless there is no doubt that this training provided a route to a career as a ship’s officer.
As a matter of interest, the published aims of the Marine Society in 1935 were to relieve distress by training and fitting out poor
boys of good character for service at sea and to benefit the country at large by sending a steady stream of well-trained lads of good
character and physique to serve in the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, TS Warspite was closed down and subsequently broken up for scrap in response to the
National appeal for “Steel for Victory”

[madpants]

Pics and info on thje Warspite

http://www.rootschat.com/links/05su/

[gortonboy]

hi,,,if you google "the marine society"  you will find out a lot.     heres another extract,,,,,,,,,,,,   The proposal being readily adopted, the Marine Society was instituted; and eventually, in the year 1772, incorporated by Act of Parliament. The boys selected for the sea service are taken from the following classes: 1. Boys who are destitute, without relations, without friends, and without support 2. Boys in abject distress, recommended by governors, or occasionally by individuals of respectability, who have witnessed the misery and wretchedness; 3. Boys who have been apprenticed, charged with petty offences, of a truant disposition, under complaint of disinclination, unconquerable aversion, or total inability to follow their trades, on the indentures being legally cancelled, and the masters requesting the society to fit them out for the sea service 4. Boys of a hardy daring disposition, devoid of instruction or employment (being the sons of poor widows or other worthy labouring persons in distress, who are burdened with large families), applying, with their parents' consent, to be fitted out for the sea service; 5. Boys, under similar circumstances, from various parts of the country, when town boys do not offer in sufficient number; and 6. Boys from the country, recommended by governors, as being in the paths of danger in civil society. Parish boys may be received to fill vacancies on board the society's ship, on payment of £4 4s. No boys are received whose friends appear to be in a capacity to fit them out for sea at their own charge. Various plans were at different times brought under the contemplation of the society for a more beneficial arrangement as to some receptacle for the objects of the charity, in which they might be taken care of, and receive the benefit of instruction, both religious and professional, until such time as they could be properly provided for. In the year 1786, a proposition, originating with Alderman Brook Watson, MY., was adopted by the society. They first procured a merchant vessel, named the Beatty; this ship having become decayed and worn out an 1799, application was made to the Admiralty for the loan of a Government ship. The application was complied with, and from that time the Lords Commissioners, in order to promote the views of the Marine Society, have accommodated them with one of Her Majesty's ships as a training vessel for boys. The Warspite, a noble two-decker, formerly the Conqueror, is the ship now lent to the society. The society holds in trust the following special funds, devoted solely to the purposes for which they were given or bequeathed: 1. Consols. £17,045 9s.,

[madpants]

The link above is for the Marine society

[GrannyOgg]

madpants and gorton boy  Thankyou very much for all the info.  The boy concerned was Arthur George

Collett born Dec 1874 Whitechapel, his mother was a widow and was working as a servant so I guess she was poor

[gortonboy]

Glad to be of help....Forgot to mention that there are records of boys who served on these ships. i think the link to the marine society is where you will find out more. Good luck in your research.

[GrannyOgg]

Many thanks gotonboy