Sea Cadet Corps.

[Jim Brady]

Yes Hugh apart from teaching you seamanship etc it also taught you how todo a bit of dhobi and how to press your gear.We did'nt like the brand new collars and were scrubbing them every five minutes to get them light blue,then there was the way in which to fold and press them to get the four creases,for the four winds we were lead to believe.I dont think our mothers would've pressed the bell bottoms in the way in which they had to be done.Turn them inside out and fold them seven times from bottom to top they were quite hard to press them to get the required result.I made a press from two pieces of egg crate and a couple of bolts with wing nuts (no brace and bit, burning the required holes through with a red hot poker)I used to put my bell bottoms in the press as soon as I got home.All good clean fun I can't imagine the kids of today doing it.I seen some sea cadets the other week the uniform seems tobe a blue shirt and navy strait trousers.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Phil Crawley]

I too have a lot to thank the Sea Cadets for, the four years I was in and the courses I was sent on set me up for the Vindi and for many other things in life, thanks to Jim Brady for introducing this thread.
Phil Crawley.

[Jim Brady]

Hi Phil,thanks for your nice words.When I look back maybe that new officer that came to our unit was right when he complained that the unit had no badges.When I look at some of the activities that some of you did partake in we did nothing like that.I remember being in Fleetwood on holiday with my kids and there was a band competition between diffferent Sea Cadet units,the music was brilliant and the badges on their arms was something that I had never seen,we did'nt have a band or any badges!!!but i still enjoyed our unit.
Hi Ron,I bet you got some satisfaction of going back as an instructor it's nice to pass on some knowledge to kids who are interested.I met an old school mate of mine in a pub,he had done 22 years in the Marines,he had some high rank in the cadets.I was telling him of my time in the cadets and my strong point being semaphore,he wanted me to come to the cadets and teach them the semaphore,he insisted "never ever come there smelling of drink" enough said I never went what a pity.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Tommy the T]

I too was in the Sea Cadets, from 1976 to 1980 , only left the cadets as I went to Gravesend Sea School, I was at T.S. Fortitude in Stockton on Tees, loved every minute of it, certainly taught me alot of things including discipline & self belief & working as part of a team etc .

Our unit was only a few hundreds yards from the River Tees so we did alot of sailing, pulling etc, as I rose thru the ranks from J.S to O.S & onto A.B. I soon cottened on that all that "Pulling " was hard work so as our unit had a "Cutter" I always tried to get on that , 1 of the officers suggested that as I liked being on the Cutter so much that I should do the MEM course, so a long story short I was sent to HMS Sultan a few times for various courses & gained my badges to become MEM grade 1 , I hardly ever "Pulled" again after that.
Finally made it to Leading Seaman & 1 year I was part of the Guard Drill when entered into the Areal Finals, I remember the countless sundays we spent practising for the competition, If I say so myself we were pretty darn good, went to Rosythe for the finals....& won
The prize for winning was 10 days onboard HMS Averley, a Mine Sweeper, we joined her in Chatham & sailed to Bologne, Cherbourg, Jersey & Guernsey & back to Portsmouth, what a fantastic trip that was, & with me being an MEM ( cadet) I spent most of the trip in the engine room....lovely & warm , tho all cadets had to do Bridge watch on the helm etc.....I recall the OPEN bridge .....couldn,t wait to get back to my engine room.

As others have said, the uniform always helped when chatting up the ladies ....when we were in Jersey I sadly was on duty & couldn,t go ashore, but was on gangway duty when we first arrived there....anyways some of the cadets had been ashore & had met up with a few girls & brought them back to the ship to see if they could get them onboard....I asked the RN Officer on duty & he allowed them onboard but only to stay up on deck....not to go below....sighs ( lol) , I got chatting to 1 of the girls & the next day had a "date" with her, had a great time, after my date & when I got back onboard I was grilled by the RN regulars on what i got up to , I,ll refrain on the details .

The following year I became Guard Commander for the Guard competition & was promoted to Cadet Petty Officer......wow, lots of gold badges to sew onto my uniform , PHEW ! & we spent 4 days aboard HMS Buchante ( not sure of the spelling after all these years ) as she was our unit parent ship, again, great time was had.
I recall our guard being on parade when the Duke of Edinburgh visited HMS Warrior ( where she was renovated back to her former glory ) in Hartlepool....anyways....theres me standing to attention as HRH inspected our guard & he stopped & chatted to me cos he noticed I had a badge on my uniform for the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, I was honoured indeed & had a photo of me chatting to HRH in the local paper the next day .

I recall the trouser press I made from 2 short planks of wood & bolts /wingnuts, my creases were always regarded as good, other cadets didn,t know how I did it until my trips on the above mentioned ships where my press went with me onboard , LOL .

Great times indeed, kept me off the streets & out of trouble, something the youth of today would benefit from I,m sure.

cheers
Tommy the T

[Jim Brady]

Tommy reading your story and the stories of the other chaps I realise that our officers must'nt have had much interest.As I mentioned our unit never had one badge amongst about 40 boys,we never went anywhere apart from one time we went on a parade to the Liverpool Cathedral.Reading some of the stories here some good times and places visited made your units far more interesting than mine.I still really enjoyed my time in the cadets,it was only mine and my three mates own initiative to go down the docks of a sunday that made it that bit more interesting.
Tommy funny you should make that trouser press,I made mine 20 years ealier I should've taken out a patent on it.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Colin Hawken]

Captain Kong,your post#3,would the Submarine course have been at HMS Dolphin?

[Graham Payne]

Hello everybody, I thought I would mention that from their members annual subscriptions the
T.S. Indefatigable Old Boys Assosiation each year donates a cash lump sum of approx £700 to the most improved Sea Cadet Force in the country

[Captain Kong]

Captain Kong,your post#3,would the Submarine course have been at HMS Dolphin?

That is the one Colin, HMS Dolphin, the Submarine traing school at Gosport I think. We did the tank escape with the Davis Escape apparatus and then went to sea for a day on an A class submarine. HMS Aeneas, That was very exciting. I think it stopped after that when HMS Affray was lost in the Channel the year later in 1951.
The Gunnery Course at HMS Excellent, Whale Island was great, Very Strict discipline there, with the big hard case GIs shouting orders and you really had to move. No one walked, you went everywhere at the Double.
They had 15 inch gun turrets with the bags of "cordite", learned how to load the shell and then two bags of "cordite", All dummies of course.
Then they had the Dome where we had twin Oerlikon `PomPoms`, shooting down the attacking German planes, that was really good.
To be on HMS DUKE of YORK was really something, A 35,000 ton battleship that had sunk the German battleship Scharnhorst, with her ten 14 inch guns, Sleeping in hammocks in the Mess Deck, with drills and parades on the Quarter Deck.
We did racing in Portsmouth Harbour in 32 foot cutters rowing the mile against other crews, we won same as when I was on HMS DIDO, the previous year, I had two medals with my name and the name of the DoY, and DIDO on , These were stolen from my office when I had a party in my home on my 70th Birthday, I had kept them safe for all those years. Some of the guests kids went in there and were playning on my computer, while I was getting a few bevies and entertaining their parents and then found the medals missing after they had gone.
I have a few photos on my computer but still waiting for it to come out of dry dock.

The Sea Cadets were part of the Admiralty at that time but later they were cut adrift and had to become self financing and the courses with the Navy were cut back or even stopped.
Cheers
Brian.

[EIFION]

Pleased to saythe sea cadets are alive and well, during August we had a crowd of them aboard the schooner " Pickle" at Holyhead, took them for a parade of sail around the harbour including firing the canons etc, great kids loads of fun

[John Griffiths]

Was in the Holyhead Unit - TS 'Mona' as it was then back in oh....must have been late '60's......about '67 to definitely when I reached 14 ( which was in '71.) She somehow became TS'Prince of Wales' later on.

Loved it all. Sailing in the ASC's in the harbour and now and again for a 'banyan' across Holyhead Bay to Church Bay. Rowing - or pulling - the Admiralty Whalers around the harbour on a drill night, getting an 'easy' time by manning the motor boat known as a cutter - all ex Navy small boats.

Loved the uniform too! Never changed hat ribbons, mind - but then, we did have the best band in the North West and won trophy after trophy at Fleetwood in the heats and finals. That was great with the girls and I did have a 'romance' up there as a result of winning the comps one year. Funnily enough, I still remember her name!

Marching through the town in blancoed belt and gaiters, with a Lee Enfield almost as nig as myelf at my side....the annual 'Thetis' submarine parade and the annual Rememberance Day parade at the cenotaph - always followed by a bit of a luch with soft drinks and sarnies at the local British Legion.

They were good times and I enjoyed every day which, for a lad off a council estate who could not afford to go on holidays, meant I was 'taken care of' by the Unit in return for which I learned self discipline, respect for my elders and ocupied my time doing something constructive.

My daughter also joined the Cadets - up on The Wirral - and she loved it. She is now in her mid twenties but her experiences gave hjer a taste for adventure and she has been on a few tall ship cruises as a result of the passion for the sea given to her by the cadets.

As for me, it stimulated a desire to go to se - which I did in '75 - and 20 years of it still never took the sea out of my blood. I'm ashore now, but the Sea Cadet corps did a great deal for me and for that I will always be grateful.

John