Training Ship Vindicatrix

As a 16 year old, 61 years ago. I went through the Vindi gates. The date I have never forgotten. Monday, 11th 0f May, 1959. It is etched in my mind as is my rego number, R709635 :)).

I was on the vindi December 1958 my number was r702169

I was there in July 49, Dugaid was Captain, Popeye was my class teacher, Brown was sports master, Banbury was the lifeboat teacher, and Strange or something close to that was the Fuhrer, hard Basward. But I enjoyed it all Bad food not withstanding.
Des

As i have posted somewhere before, i never did go to any UK Training Establishment such as the Vindi, but by the sounds of it all, was indeed very similar to the place that i was trained at in Cape Town (Old Wingfield Aerodrome) that was converted to a Catering Training Camp for the South African Railways and Harbours in those days.

We went there for our Catering Training, Waiters, Cooks and the likes.
It was a Six Months Duration, and no one was allowed out for that time,there were high Wire Fences around the Complex , so it was hard to get out.

Did not have Huts as at the Vindi but three Long Buildings ,that were at one time used as the Hangers for the Aircraft, converted into Accommodation for some 300 of us !

Very strict Rules were in place with heavy penalties for any breach.
So that was how i got my job with the Union Castle Line , and was very lucky indeed .

So yes i too recall that First day i went aboard the old Dunnottar Castle my First Ship and what an experience it was. My Number was implanted as well into my Brian and that i have never forgotten,
Cheers

Des, I went there in 1960 and Duguid was still the skipper.
Strange was there and he said to me,
'Lad just because we have the same name does not mean you will get an easy time here'.

But like all the others I survived and lived to tell the tale.

I

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I was there for three months in 1952,
Strange always said he hated Stewards.
He was in a lifeboat after being sunk in the Russian convoys. and had frostbite in his toes He asked a steward to chop his toes off with the axe. He said, No/
So he suffered for weeks before treatment to amputate his toes.
He always walked with a limp.
After he died his widow said , He lost his toes in a motor Bike accident.
He always said, "When I die my grave stone will be Blank.
and people will say, Thats Strange."`
I went to a Vindi Re-union at Sharpness and took a walk through the Cemetery in Berkeley.
I found his grave, and it had ALL his details on it.
I could have danced on his grave, but didnt..he was a character larger than life.
Brian

A bit of history for anyone at the Vindi early sixties and earlier still, a good video and the story of the two barges that collided and damaged the bridge, kt

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-eng...shire-54651734

That happened no long before I started training there.
Many of the lads would count the gaps on their last ten days or so, one for each.
Then some dissapared as a result of the accident, buggered up the count down.

at the vindi you were a new boy ......bridge boy ........poolboy...in that order ...always remember shouting at new boys........you aint never going home new boy.....the vindi did nobody any harm......well that sea pie with cod bones the size of tree branches was a bit off putting .....but just remember always being hungary .....great memories make good lives......all the 5s cappies number.....but never met 666....guesss he was in the galley though.....lolcappy

I saw that, fascinating little bit of history. I could just glimpse the tower for the swing bridge over the canal that I used to walk to on a Sunday if it was nice.
Jeff'.