The Vindi Bridge

[Chris Gundry]

I happened to catch the last part of the programe Coast on the BBC last week they were in the severn estuary and were talking about the time when the severn railway bridge was struck by two tankers, the Westdale H and the Arkendale H causing part of the bridge to collapse
and the loss of some crew members.25th October 1960.
This brought back memorys of my time at the Vindicatrix training ship, the bridge was part of our lives at the time as anyone who has been at the Vindy will know the the bridge had 22 arches and was part of a song about being a Vindi boy with only 22 days left . I can't remember the words, if there is anyone out that does remember them please get in touch.
I was at the vindicatrix from 11 July 1960 untill 16 September 1960 on the deck course and still can remember one of the officer who used to ride a bike around the deck at night not sure of his name I think it was mad haigate or something like that.

Some couple of years later I was standing at a bus stop in Weston- Super- Mare when a car stopped by me and the window was wound down and the Cheif officer from the Vindi with three lads in the car , he asked me for directions to a school where they were going to give a talk. I gave him directions but never mentioned that I had been at the Vindi ,I have always regreted not making myself known to him and I can't remember his name either.
Well thats all from me Happy sailing to all
Chris Gundry

[j.sabourn]

Maybe good job you kept mum Chris or you may have found yourself shanghiad into the group and given talks to the kids. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Yes I recall that time.
The loss of spans on the bridge had happened not long before I went there.
One of the lads was so upset as the spans had been the numbers of the days he had left there.

As to mad officers, were there any other type there??

[Doc Vernon]

All about Vindi ! And look who's in the Limelight! LOL I love all the various comments , can actually refer to a lot of my time at the Training Camp at SASSAR in Cape Town when doing my Catering Course duration of Six Months though! Tough at times but Fun as well.
cHEERS

Vindicatrix: Vindi Boys tell their story of what it was really like! » Berkness - Berkeley & Sharpness


Here is an oldie Post by Mike
SIX WEEKS TRAINING ON THE VINDICATRIX (By Mike Hall) (merchant-navy.net)


GALLERY - TS Vindicatrix (webeden.co.uk)


The Fortunate Life of a Vindicatrix Boy | Angus & Robertson (angusrobertson.com.au)

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Vernon.
Thanks for posting that printout, marvellous reading all about the Vindi again, although I have the book Vindi by Roy Derham, who also happened to be there the same time as myself. I was wondering if Chris knows that there is a Vindi Association with branches all over the UK?
Des

[Peter Copley]

"You ain't never going home New Boy." I remember the abuse (and spit) showered down on the lads on the quayside waiting to board the Vindie for the second supper sitting. My first day at the Vindicatrix I thought the lads on the upper deck, dressed in black battledress, looked more like rioting prisoners on a prison ship than trainee sailors.

[Graham Shaw]

Those training establishments-"ships"- floatable or concrete -sound so archaic now,and were definitely a product of their time for about a hundred years and more.I can't imagine it happening today -the conditions and unecessary discipline on them did not make a 'sailor' of you-that can only be done ,like I ,and many other cadets and ratings,did-thrust straight onto the life of a sea-going vessel with real men who knew their jobs-not under the thumb of and at the mercy of jumped-up and usually bullying sadistic,alcoholic ex captains,chief officers and chief cooks of those training 'ships' who had other issues as well....in my opinion.
MN Wreath (2).jpgPoppy (2).gif

[happy daze john in oz]

If such establishments existed today the owners would be done for cruelty to the inmates.
Physical harm, denial of substantial food, failing to provide suitable accommodation.
Denial of conjucal rights and many other infringements of civil liberties.

[Maurice Heather]

Hi I was on the vindi in 1956 I can remember most of the words, I have just started writing my life story so I'm at the point of when I first joined the MN hence coming across this site and the website for the Vindi association which I have just joined drop me an email

[Maurice Heather]

thanks just trying to figure out how to us the site and find my way round it, just like the first day on the Vindi