Boulevard Nautical School

[Ivan Cloherty]

Jim

You got a hole in one first time, what a memory, you have the advantage of me. Sadly Yvonne died just before Christmas after a long illness after 54 years of marriage. Mum lived in Orchard Park Road until she died in 1982. In my times home on leave I lived there until 1965 when I got married and moved to London and came ashore as a Supt, my wife died in 1993. After nine years alone I was lucky enough to meet my present wife, Wendy. My brother, Peter, still lives in Bridlington. When I lived in OPR we gazed out onto fields at the front and allotments all the way to Greenwood Avenue, they tell me that there are houses now nearly as far as Dunswell and Cottingham.

As far as the Priest is concerned my mother went to see the Bishop of the Diocese, believe it was Leeds and talked him into it, she not being a Catholic probably impressed him, either that or in her quiet way probably threatened to castrate him, she could be very persuasive

All the best Ivan

[James Cafferty]

Hi Ivan,
Very sorry to hear about your sister. However nice to hear from you.
I'd love to have a chat with you over the phone. How do we get in touch?

best regards,
Jim

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi Jim have sent you a private message with phone and email details, it will appear under 'notifications' at top of page

Regards

Ivan

[Roger Cooke]

Hi Ernest .... I was at the Boulevard in the period 1960 - 1962. My first time away from home. I lived at the Merchant Navy Hotel on Anlaby Road very close to the town centre along with Gordon Wrigley who went into Blue Funnel. I remember many faces but few names from my class ... Andy Bean, Andy Johnson come to mind. It was a good time in my life and I guess it helped me to grow up and become independent. After 2-years I "passed out" and joined Houlder Bros but when my joining instructions came through it was to the "Cerinthus" a small oil-tanker operated by Hadley Steam. Not the best first time experience of life at sea especially for a young man who thought he'd be on a cargo/passenger ship operating to Australia! I stuck it out for a year and then left to join the police in West Yorkshire where I stayed for 4-years ... now that was an experience! Next move was into a uk bank where I worked until I retired. My current interests revolve around the internet and online marketing.... it keeps my grey cells active. I look back at my time in Hull with fondness. Roger Cooke

[j.sabourn]

Although I did not attend this establishment knew at least 3 people who did, they however started off in the Fishing Industry. Always remember the advert they had in either Browns or Reeds Nautical Almanac of one of the boys sextant to eye supposedly taking a sight with all the shades down, he might have got away with it if Global Warming ever gets advanced as some of these green lunatics suggest. How the photo ever got past the school authorities wouldnt know, unless they didnt know better. At present time cant remember their names but may come back later. Two of them, father and son brought fishing vessels down to Australia, this was during the time there was a Whaling Station at Albany. I worked opposite both of them on different ships in the oil Industry. Their surname has come back to me, the son was Harry Ford, his father cant remember his first name. The other one was also a fisherman out of North Shields, his father owned a couple of Trawlers when fishing was not frowned upon by the Lords and masters in Brussels. The son and father both worked in the North Sea oil Industry, and their surname has just come back to me the son was Billy Boyle, his father dont know first name and is a long time dead. His son the same as Harry Ford are both alive and well as far as I know, one in Perth W.A. and the other in North Shields, Cappys favourite place. In fact it may have been Billy Boyle on the photograph in the Almanac. Cheers John S

[John Arton]

I can only recall sailing with one guy, a 3rd Mate, from this school. He was very intelligent but had been a bit wayward in his teens. He told me that he was only at sea as when he was 16 the judge had told him it was either Borstal or the sea. He was the owner of a huge shock of long hair, it was the 60's, and our bald headed Captain was always onto him to get it cut, so one day he did, parcelled it up with a bit of ribbon and left it on the bar top with note saying "to the Captain, because you need it more than me", which went down well!!!
Later on that trip we were in dry dock in Lisbon and one night the pair of us were drinking in a bar when we were approached by a rather tubby fellow who spoke in a very plummy English accent. He asked if we were British and why we were in Lisbon. The 3rd Mate replied in his best Hull accent that we were off a ship in dry dock and then asked this guy what he was doing in Lisbon. Tubby man drew himself up and replied in his plummy voice that "Actually he was a chopper pilot for the RFA" and they were in port bunkering before heading off to West Africa to service Naval ships there. The 3rd mates reply to this was to sya to him " so its true then", "what" replies mr. RFA, "pigs can fly, no feck off" says the 3rd Mate. Now this would have been o.k. but mr. RFA and his companions took exception to this insult and came for us. We beat a hasty retreat going out through the bar window after chucking a table through it first and legged it down the street followed by a bunch of RFA lads howling for our blood. Rounding a corner we ran full tilt into two Portuguese policemen bowling them over. No sooner had we extricated ourselves from them and apologised to them that they got bowled over by the RFA gang. Last we saw of them was them being led away at gun point by the coppers. Later that day a very irate RFA Captain turned up on board demanding our Captain explain to him how he could not sail on his important refuelling mission as a number of his officers were locked up in jail after getting into a fight with two Englishmen off a tanker. Our Captain replied innocently, that it could not have been any of his crew as none of them had been ashore that night as everyone was working long hours in dry dock and at the end of the day were too tired for any shore trips let alone drinking and fighting....as if.
RFA Captain stormed off in a right huff and we got a pat on the back as the Captain was no lover of anything that smacked of the Navy.
rgds
JA

[Gordon Holmes]

Hello all,

This is my first post on this site, I just had to join in when I saw my old school mentioned! I attended between 1969 and was the first School Captain of the amalgamated BNS and Bilge schools in 1972 ( I think ). Before you all shout what a big head, the only reason I was made school captain was because I was the oldest boy and politics dictated that it should be a BNS guy.

I have many great memories of the Boulevard.... spending lunch hour in Georges ( the barber ) all throwing our caps in the window, buying single No6 ciggies from George and getting a wet shave from him. I'm struggling with teachers although I do remember Mr Crawford ( geography ) Johnny Mahon, and a maths teacher that committed suicide who was particularly adept with the slipper. I remember that he requested that BNS boys should carry his coffin at the funeral and I was one of the pall bearers.

I also remember going down to 'troughs' ( school dinners ) and boatwork in one of the docks. Quite tough to haul that lifeboat back into the davits. Also, I remember walking down the Boulevard one day from the Hessle road end to see loads of our boys tied up to trees facing into the road. It was the Trawler school who had ambushed some of the boys and thought it would be funny to tie them up, much to the amusement of passing motorists.

Guys I knew... Dave Davis, Paul Coats, Nigel Schofield.... whatever happened to them. I went to sea with P&O and stayed for seven years before swallowing the anchor and joining the Met Police where I completed 30 years. I've got loads of memories of the school and the teachers but will wait to see if this thread comes alive again.

All the best..... by the way, my name was considered too posh so I was christened 'Flash' which was a nickname that stuck throughout my merchant service !!

[Ivan Cloherty]

With 67 threads this thread is already alive Gordon, so start getting those stories sea and shore ready, quite a few ex policemen on this site, so get your regaling boots on and start treading the boards

[Ron Chaplin]

Hi
I was at Boulevard 1962-65,enjoyed every bit of it. Still in touch with lots classmates owe a lot to Mr Davies. Mr Dickenson,Mr Evans(Sven),Mr Jones (Chut),Mr Flavel,Mr Mahon,Mr West,and not forgetting Nobby Clark who was still around helping you pass all tickets. Without BNS I don't know where I would have ended up.A great time.

Ron Chaplin

[Richard Holdsworth]

Or to give it it's full title KINGSTON UPON HULL HIGH SCHOOL FOR NAUTICAL TRAINING! Although this training establishment has now been demolished, it was a prestigious training establishment in its time. As well as being a training school for fishermen and cooks, it also boasted its own pre ticket cramming department for mates and Old Men!

I was there from 1961 to 1963 and have some fond memories of my time there and my first time living away from home.

Did anyone else out there attend the place???

I was there in pre-sea training 1962; then sailed a deck cadet with Blue Star Line