Training Ship Vindicatrix

[Ken Norton]

Never went to vindi shipped out with Everards at Xmas, London river as cabin boy at 16
in 1963 then went deck boy etc.

[dave moore]

The name Agate brings back memories of one of the Vindi it went something like this ,were gonna we're gonna join old Agates Navy ,up at six o'clock twice around the block,dirty great icicles hanging from your c--land so on. Another Vindi song ,they say upon the Vindi the officers are good there's old Costello with a fecking great piece of wood, chorous I don't want no more Vindiwood gee but I wanna go but they won't let me go. Gee but l wanna go home .they say upon the Vindi the birds are mighty fine you ask for Betty Gable they send you Frankenstein.chorous. They say upon the Vindi the food is mighty fine an egg fell off the table and exploded like a mine, chorous ,plenty more verses .Another one a pool boy for me, a pool boy for me if your not a pool boy your no good to me the deckies are tall the stewards are small but the bonnie wee pol boys are the best of them all. Great memories Dave

[jeff batts]

Arrived at the vindi Monday 11th May. 1959. A day I shall never forget. Only did the required ten weeks for deckies. Thankfully no added weeks.

[Brian Seward]

I was at the Vindi from Dec 1944-Feb 45 My number was and still is R 330936. I am now 91 and doubt any of my shipmates are still alive, On leaving I was sent to T124T Rescue Rescue Tugs in Campbelltown as Ord Seaman discharged in 47 and went back to MN First trip SS Fort Ash to River Plate. I was on many ships till my last one "Pacific NorthWest" and paid off in Vancouver , where I have lived ever since... Strangely enough I then enlisted in the Canadian Engineers Reserves for 30 Years reaching rank of Captain.

Brian Seward

ps, Have the MN numbers been changed as I see members who have a number in the 650000, surely not that many people served in MN in a decade???.

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Brian
Welcome to the site and may i say you sure are doing well at your age,its good to see that there are still some real old timers araound!
Hope you enjoy what we have on offer,so just sit Browse and Relax
As for the Numbers well i can tell you that i joined in 58 and my Discharge Number is R697530 and yes there are many that have such numbers!
Cheers

[happy daze john in oz]

Hi John Daze, Sounds like you had it soft, polished floors and Codine Annie !
Terry Sullivan, Lancefield

Well Terry never knew we were neighbors.
Soft it was not, not even the bread had such a wonderful touch as that, toasted you could use it as a life raft. LOL

[Captain Kong]

Honestly , I always thought it was easy, I enjoyed every minute there, 12 weeks on deck.
After coming through the war years , no where proper to live, I loved it.
Brian

[Keith Tindell]

Not sure of the length of the courses at training school, deck training at gravesend in 1957 was 12 weeks, no money, only what you could take with you from home. Some talk of 10 weeks deck training, and claiming benefit, kt

[cappy]

Honestly , I always thought it was easy, I enjoyed every minute there, 12 weeks on deck.
After coming through the war years , no where proper to live, I loved it.
Brian

was there in dec ...only remember a nissan type hut no heating so it was cold and the food was crap not enough ...as for the schooling have said before i would have learned more on a collier in a few days which i had done already...awaste of time and money ....uniforms never worn again ...but learned comradeship and all in the same boat syndrome ......but always proud to say i was a vindi boy.....fond memories but total waste of time... as for the officers ....and i question that title ....well the less comment the better for most of them although old captain duguid had good standards.....and mebbe a couple of others ......just my view cappy

[j.sabourn]

The form of punishment at South Shields Marine school, took a leaf out of the council school where instead of writing out a 100 lines I shall not be a bad boy. You had to write out usually Article 9 or Article 15, 20 Times or so, these being lengthy rules of the road. Probably the only reason I didn’t have too much problem when up for second mate in the orals 4 years later when had.to recite them. Needless to say when you handed them in they were scanned that carbon paper had not been used , and the handwriting was the same, as usual there was a thriving black market on the sale of ones sold by entrenapaurs. JWS.