NAVAL RECRUITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23923, 25 March 1941, Page 4

NAVAL RECRUITS

LIFE AT MOTUIHI

TRAINING YOUNG SEAMEN WORK OF H.M.S. TAMAKI Excellent conditions for the training of naval seamen are provided on Motuihi, in the Hnuraki Gulf, where the little-used quarantine buildings have been converted into the naval training station known as H.M.S. Tamaki. Life was not all it might have been at first. It is not so very comfortable yet. A hammock with a thin mattress spread on what in future must he called the deck is not as comfortable as a hammock properly slung. Hut the Public Works Department is rapidly converting bare huts into messdecks, where the ratings will be able to live in conditions approximating those in a ship. Other buildings are going up rapidly. Besides clothing and food stores, a power house and clothes-washing and hath facilities, a gymnasium is in the course of construction. At one end of this there will be a chapel and on Sundays the whole building will be used as it church. At present services are held in the large dining hail. The training in H.M.S. Tamaki is largely of a practical nature. The island's situation, with deep water and safe beaches on both sides, makes it ideal for boat work in any weather. While one class of seamen is away pulling or under sail another will he on tin* jetty at instruction in heaving the lead. Yet others will be at work learning the various knots and splices and bends and hif elites that are the ABC of I heir new calling. The men lead a varied and interesting life in which recreation is not forgotten. During summer weather bathing has been most popular. Soon a proper ground will he available and then lootball will become as important a part of the training as it was on the Philomel. The men soon become lit in H.M.S. Tamaki