HMS Worcester (Thames Nautical Training College)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0064 WOR
Held at	: National Maritime Museum   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/ ›
Full title	: HMS Worcester (Thames Nautical Training College)
Date(s)	: 1863-1968
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: Section 3: WOR/: 5ft: 152cm
Name of creator(s)	: HMS Worcester

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

By the middle of the nineteenth century it was generally realised that there was a problem in providing properly trained officers for merchant ships. In 1859 the Conway was established in the Mersey for this purpose. The idea of having a vessel on the Thames originated with William Munton Bullivant (1827-1908), a London merchant and Richard Green (1803-1863), a Blackwall shipbuilder. By 1861 an active committee had been formed and the Admiralty agreed to lend the Worcester, a 50-gun frigate, as a school. The Thames Marine Officer Training School was opened in the following year. The vessel was initially stationed at Blackwall Reach but moved to Erith the following year where she remained until 1869 when she was moved to Greenhithe. Within a few years, with the increase in the number of cadets, the ship had become too small and in 1876 she was replaced by a larger vessel (formerly the Frederick William). It was at this time that the name of the school was changed to the Thames Nautical Training College, HMS Worcester. The college was incorporated in 1892 and in 1922 it purchased land at Greenhithe. In 1938 the Cutty Sark was acquired by the college and berthed abreast of the Worcester. At the outbreak of war in 1939, the cadets were transferred to Foots Cray Place near Sidcup and the ship was returned to the Admiralty. At the end of the war the old vessel was handed back but within a few months the training ship Exmouth was made available and, renamed Worcester, was officially handed over in July 1945. In 1953 the Cutty Sark was taken over by the Cutty Sark Preservation Society and was docked permanently at Greenwich. The Thames Nautical Training College continued until July 1968 when it became part of the Merchant Navy College at Greenhithe. The third Worcester was sold in 1978 to be broken up.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records relating to HMS Worcester consisting of printed reports, 1863 to 1968; minute books, 1861 to 1867, 1881 to 1965; harbour log books, 1862 to 1865, 1867 to 1869; visitors books, 1935 to 1947, 1953 to 1968; ledgers, 1862 to 1870; wage books, 1933 to 1936; hooks of newspaper cuttings, 1857 to 1967, 1917 to 1967, together with photographs and other miscellaneous items. There are further records at the Merchant Navy College at Greenhithe, and the records relating to the cadets are with the records of Seafarer Education Service, now with the Marine Society at Lambeth.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Please contact the Archive for further information.

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue online at the: National Maritime Museum website .

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The records were presented to the Museum in 1970.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Edited by Sarah Drewery, Jun 2011.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
2010-08-26