SEA CADETS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 388, 23 June 1928, Page 1

SEA CADETS

NORTHUMBERLAND BOYS j NEW ERA OF TRAINING Representatives of a new era in the training of men for the sea, 31 cadets, mostly English public school boys are aboard the Northumberland, now in port. Gone are the days of five years’ apprenticeship on wind-jammers and the long hard round of the old training ships. For about 18 months the Northumberland has been a school and a practical demonstration of the labour of seamanship to the lads, who after four years become junior officers in the mercantile marine. “Would you like us to bring our jazz band?’’ was the question asked when the cadets were invited to a party in Auckland this evening. The orchestra is part of a concert company which entertained the ship on Saturday nights during the voyage and it is said to be a first-class dance band. Its members are willing to broadcast from IYA. Six a.m. is the hour the lads leave their bunks and they wash-down decks from 6.31) until breakfast. The on duty in the morning does the ordinary tasks of the seamen and deckhands of a ship and the rest of the boys learn navigation and trigonometry. School is held for one watch of the day and lectures in seamanship, signalling, cargo, stability rnd other nautical subjects are given each evening, except Friday, which is a free night. The Northumberland carries a special staff to look after the boys, including a doctor, a school master, a physical training instructor and a wireless instructor. The work of the boys allows her to reduce her deck crew to the bosun, carpenter and two ordinary seamen. Every boy on the ship can swim and a big tank is erected in the warm weather for them. Sport is encouraged and the ship can produce two cricket and Soccer teams. One of the ambitions of the Federal Steam Navigation Company is that one of these days all its officers will have been its owns cadets. The Northumberland is helping it along.