TRAINING BRITISH SEAMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13049, 14 December 1905, Page 5

TRAINING BRITISH SEAMEN.

MARINE SOCIETY'S SCHEME. Dy Telegraph.—Press Association.— London, December 12. The Marino Society had arranged to send 100 of its Warspite boys on a voyage to Australia and back on the ship Illawarra, but as that vessel had not sufficient accommodation for them they are to go out on the Port Jackson

The .Marino Society was founded about ; the middle of the eighteenth century to recruit boys for the sea. One hundred and twenty years ago* the Admiralty gave the society ilio man-of-var Warepito as a training ship, and since then 65,000 boys have been trained for the Royal Navy and the merchant service. . At its quarterly meeting at Clark's Plao», Bis hops gate, London, recently the society accepted the offer of Messrs. Devitt and Moore, a firm of shipowners, to send 100 boys from the Warspite to their full-rigged sailing ship Illawarra, to be trained as seamen. The Illawarra was to sail early in January for Australia, returning the following autumn. Messrs. Deritt and Moore wore to provide the ship and fit her up completely. The ship's company was to' include a chaplain, medical officer, and four instructors, carefully selected by the Marino Society and Messrs. Devitt and Moore. The boys were to be properly instructed in all matters connected with the seaman's craft, and to assist in working the ship and handling the sails. All the boys intended for the Illawarra were to be apprenticed to the superintendent of the Warspite for two years as a deterrent to boys throwing up a promising- career before giving it a fair trial. The actual cost to the Marine Society of the voyage was estimated at about £2700. One gentleman promised £100 if nine others, would do likewise, and two ladies had promised £500. Further, the society has bean informed - that Government aid could be relied upon if the public supported the society's scheme. Tho Port. Jackson is an iron four-masted barque, and was built at Aberdeen in 1882. Her dimensions are: Length, 281.2 ft; breadth, 41.1 ft; depth, 25.2 ft; tounage, 2212. . The vessel has been laid up at London for gome tno/itii& , •fiMtk '"i .