How the Future King of England is Trained.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 9, 2 March 1907, Page 50

How the Future King of England is Trained.

OUR SAILOR PRINCES. Prince Edward and Prince Albert are to go to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, as naval cadets at Easter. This

decision of the King and the Prince of Wales, now definitely announced, shows the value which both His Majesty and His Royal Highness set on the value of the training afforded by the seaservice. “There is no better place in the world,” said William IV., the Sailor King, “than the quarter-deck of a Brit-

ish man-o’-war for turning a boy into an English gentleman.” King Edward and the Prince of Wales have often quoted, and heartily endorsed, this dictum. They know its truth by experience, and now they mean to put it to further proof in the case of the promising little fellow who will one day rule as King Edward the Eighth. Prince Edward will ultimately enter the Army, and the Osborne training will therefore be rather more important for Prince Albert, who is expected to adopt the Navy as a profession in the same wholehearted manner as the Prince of Wales. Prince Edward’s first ambition was to become a doctor, but lately he has developed an intense concern in affairs of the sea, as becomes the destined monarch of a maritime country. The Russo Japanese War was cleverly utilised by his parents and tutors to awaken his interest in ships and sailors. They provided him with a splendid fleet of model battleships, guns, forts, maps, and charts. The Prince promptly became enamoured of these beautiful things, and consigned all his other toys to the lumber-room. His hereditary sailor instincts at once became apparent, and he took up a regular course of naval studies under the expert guidance of his father.

During the war. nearly every hour of Prince Edward’s playtime was occupied in fighting mimic battles with his model vessels, in scanning maps and charts, and thereby accumulating valuable knowledge concerning the technical details of various kinds of war craft. The Prince at this time took a keen delight in instructing his sons in sailorlike accomplishments, such as trimming sails and making knots and hitches, and in explaining the mysteries of mar-ine-engineering. Besides the naval toys, he presented them with a perfect flotilla of model boats, with which they played at the seaside or sailed upon the ornamental waters in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Then came King Edward’s splendid gift of the large model brig on Virginia Water. This completed Prince Edward’s joy, an dgave the finishing touch to his enthusiasm for the sea.

At Osborne the young princes will work in the engineering shops and learn the rudiments of a naval officer's duties both above and below deck. They will be taught to use their hands in the roughest work, sueh as sail drill, knotting, and splicing. When they have arrived at their 'teens they will receive

a thorough elementary training in physics, marine engineering, etc., including the use of tools and machines. When they leave Osborne they will go to sea, and will there be instructed in practical seamanship, navigation, pilotage, gunnery, mechanics, and engineering. Such is the course mapped out for our sailor princes.