HMS ''Excellent'' is a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
"
stone frigate
A stone frigate is a naval establishment on land.
"Stone frigate" is an informal term that has its origin in Britain's Royal Navy after its use of Diamond Rock, an island off Martinique, as a 'sloop of war' to harass the French in 1803–04. ...
" (shore establishment) sited on
Whale Island near
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
in Hampshire. HMS ''Excellent'' is itself part of the Maritime Warfare School, with a headquarters at
HMS ''Collingwood'', although a number of lodger units are resident within the site, the principal of which is the headquarters of Fleet Commander (
Navy Command Headquarters
Navy Command is the current headquarters body of the Royal Navy, and as of 2012 its major organisational grouping. It is a hybrid, neither a command, nor simply an installation. Royal Navy official writings describe Navy Command Headquarters both ...
).
History
RN Gunnery School afloat
In the 1829 a Commander George Smith advocated the establishment of a Naval School of Gunnery; accordingly, the following year, the
third-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third r ...
HMS ''Excellent'' was converted into a training ship and moored just north of
Portsmouth Dockyard
His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is l ...
, opposite Fareham Creek. Smith was given oversight and set up ''Excellent'' not only as a training establishment but also as a platform for experimental firing of new weapons (the creek was used as a firing range). In 1832 Smith was replaced in command by
Captain Thomas Hastings, under whom the school grew both numerically and in reputation, as trained gunners began to prove their effectiveness in combat situations. In 1834 the original ''Excellent'' was replaced by the
second rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a second-rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th-century second rates had fewer guns ...
HMS ''Boyne'' which was duly renamed ''Excellent''.
In 1845 Captain
Henry Ducie Chads
Admiral Sir Henry Ducie Chads, (24 February 1788 – 7 April 1868) was an officer in the Royal Navy who saw action from the Napoleonic Wars to the Crimean War.
Family background
Chads was born in Marylebone, London, the eldest son of Captai ...
took over command of ''Excellent'' in succession to Hastings. He remained in post until 1854, by which time the Admiralty had purchased 'Whaley Island' (which at the time was little more than a sandbank). Chads was succeeded first by Captain
Thomas Maitland and then, in 1857, by Richard Hewlett. In December 1859 the
first-rate
In the rating system of the British Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a first rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era with the designation of Ships Royal capable of carrying ...
''Queen Charlotte'' took over the role of gunnery training ship and was likewise renamed ''Excellent''.
In 1863 Hewlett was replaced by Captain
Astley Cooper Key
Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key, (18 January 1821 – 3 March 1888) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado in November 1845 during the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata and too ...
, who was in turn succeeded by Captain
Arthur Hood some three years later. By this time, a
rifle range
A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by military ...
had been established on the island for the use of HMS ''Excellent'' and the first building appeared there, the land having been somewhat drained and levelled. Under Hood's leadership a
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
section was set up within the school; overseen by Commander
Jacky Fisher
John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, (25 January 1841 – 10 July 1920), commonly known as Jacky or Jackie Fisher, was a British Admiral of the Fleet. With more than sixty years in the Royal Navy, his efforts to reform the service helped ...
(who would later return to ''Excellent'' as commanding officer), this was made a separate establishment, as
HMS ''Vernon'', in 1876.
RN Gunnery School ashore
It was under Fisher's command, in the 1880s, that approval was given to move the gunnery school ashore, on to Whale Island. The initial proposal had come from a Lieutenant
Percy Scott
Admiral Sir Percy Moreton Scott, 1st Baronet, (10 July 1853 – 18 October 1924) was a British Royal Navy officer and a pioneer in modern naval gunnery. During his career he proved to be an engineer and problem solver of some considerable f ...
, who (having arrived to train as a gunnery lieutenant in 1878) initially used the island as a running track. The island had grown significantly in size since the 1850s: indeed, up until the early 1890s excavated
spoil
Spoil or spoils:
*Plunder taken from an enemy or victim
*Material (such as rock, earth or other overburden) removed during:
**excavation
**mining
**dredging
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons f ...
from the expansion of the Dockyard was routinely conveyed there, using
convict labour, to build the island up. Scott returned to ''Excellent'' as an instructor in 1883 and took the opportunity to submit a detailed proposal to Fisher which was accepted. (Later in his career Scott was again posted to HMS ''Excellent'' on two occasions, returning first as Commander in 1890 and then as Captain of the establishment in the early 1900s.)
The first buildings of the shore establishment were begun in 1885 (including what is now known as the Quarterdeck Block) and building work then continued alongside the tasks of draining and levelling the land (the site was known colloquially as 'Mud Island').
By 1891 the whole operation had moved ashore and the old ship was paid off. Centred on a large open drill ground, the site includes the
officers' mess
The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...
in a range to the north with rows of
barracks blocks for
ratings (demolished and rebuilt c. 2010) arrayed behind. To the west, opposite the Quarterdeck, were long
gun battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to facil ...
sheds; the long low drill shed to the south is a listed building (1892). Firing training took place on the batteries and all different varieties of guns were kept on site for instruction on their maintenance and operation. The
Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section
The Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section of the Munitions Inventions Department was an organisation set up within Lloyd George's Ministry of Munitions in early 1916. Originally based at Northholt aerodrome, in May 1916 the section moved to the Nat ...
of the
Munitions Inventions Department
The Munitions Inventions Department (MID) of the British Ministry of Munitions was created during the First World War in 1915. Its administrative structure encompassed university and industrial laboratories, private workshops, and military experime ...
was based here from September 1916,
under
Archibald Hill
Archibald Vivian Hill (26 September 1886 – 3 June 1977), known as A. V. Hill, was a British physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research. He shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or ...
.
Later, full-sized dummy
gun turrets were provided for training purposes. Seagoing training also took place up until 1957 on a series of battleships, cruisers and destroyers that were attached to the facility. From the late 1950s
guided missile training was also provided.
The Portsmouth Field Gun Crew, competing in the Royal Navy
field gun competition
The Royal Navy's field gun competition is a contest between teams from various Royal Navy commands, in which teams of sailors compete to transport a field gun and its equipment over and through a series of obstacles in the shortest time. The compe ...
at the
Royal Tournament
The Royal Tournament was the world's largest military tattoo and pageant, held by the British Armed Forces annually between 1880 and 1999. The venue was originally the Royal Agricultural Hall and latterly the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. In its ...
, used to be based at the site.
[ A small museum in the Quarterdeck block preserves artefacts from ''Excellent's'' days as a gunnery school; among them is the ]Royal Navy State Funeral Gun Carriage
The Royal Navy State Funeral Gun Carriage is a converted Ordnance, BL, 12 pdr 6 cwt, MK II, gun carriage which has been used in the UK to bear the coffin at the funeral processions of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King George ...
which is drawn by naval ratings at state funerals of monarchs and other distinguished UK citizens.
Decommissioning and recommissioning
The gunnery school closed in 1985 whereupon HMS ''Excellent'' was decommissioned. The site then became part of HMS ''Nelson''.
The establishment was recommissioned as HMS ''Excellent'' in 1994 following the closure of the old HMS ''Phoenix'' in nearby Tipner
Tipner is a residential district of Portsmouth, located on the north western corner of Portsea Island in southern England. It includes a housing estate, built during the 1930s, that used to function as married quarters for the Royal Navy, a yac ...
and Horsea Island
Horsea Island was an island located off the northern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, England; gradually subsumed by reclamation, it is now connected to the mainland. Horsea falls within the city of Portsmouth and was wholly owned by the Ministr ...
, and the relocation of the school of Fire Fighting and Damage Control from there to Whale Island.[
]
Captains of HMS Excellent
The following list goes as far as 1984. It shows the date of appointment, and rank and decorations held at the time. In some cases a captain held several sequential appointments. It does not show captains held on the books of the ''Excellent'' who were not commanding officers of ''Excellent''.
Elements within the site
Maritime Warfare School elements within the site are:
* MWS Phoenix school of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence, damage control
In navies and the maritime industry, damage control is the emergency control of situations that may cause the sinking of a watercraft.
Examples are:
* rupture of a pipe or hull especially below the waterline and
* damage from grounding (ru ...
and fire fighting
Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter.
Firefighters typicall ...
HMS Phoenix
* South East Naval Military Training Centre
* Defence Diving School Boat Section
HMS ''Excellent'' also provides administrative and infrastructure support to the Maritime Warfare School elements at Defence Diving School, Horsea Island
Horsea Island was an island located off the northern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, England; gradually subsumed by reclamation, it is now connected to the mainland. Horsea falls within the city of Portsmouth and was wholly owned by the Ministr ...
, and small arms ranges at Tipner
Tipner is a residential district of Portsmouth, located on the north western corner of Portsea Island in southern England. It includes a housing estate, built during the 1930s, that used to function as married quarters for the Royal Navy, a yac ...
.
Lodger units
Lodger units are:
* Navy Command Headquarters
Navy Command is the current headquarters body of the Royal Navy, and as of 2012 its major organisational grouping. It is a hybrid, neither a command, nor simply an installation. Royal Navy official writings describe Navy Command Headquarters both ...
– Fleet Commander
The Fleet Commander is a senior Royal Navy post, responsible for the operation, resourcing and training of the ships, submarines and aircraft, and personnel, of the Naval Service. The Vice-Admiral incumbent is required to provide ships, submarine ...
* Headquarters of UK Maritime Battle Staff
* Fleet Regional Photographic Unit (South East Region)
* DASA (Navy Branch): Defence Analytical Services and Advice
Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) was a statistical and economic unit within the MoD, initially created in 1992 from various statistics branches within the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence (MoD), as the Defence ...
is a Division of the MOD tasked with providing statistical and analytical support to the Nav
Statistical Publications produced by DASA Navy
Cadets
HMS Excellent is home to a number of Royal Navy cadet units:
* Volunteer Cadet Corps
The Volunteer Cadet Corps (VCC) is a national youth organisation managed by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and sponsored by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The VCC comprises:
* Headquarters VCC. Based at in Gosport.
* VCC Training Centre. B ...
** Portsmouth Division Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps
The Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps (RMVCC) is part of the Royal Navy's Volunteer Cadet Corps. There are units (Divisions) in Arbroath, Chivenor, Gosport, Lympstone, Portsmouth, and Plymouth.
The RMVCC exists alongside the Royal Marine ...
** HMS Excellent Royal Naval Volunteer Cadet Corps
* TS Alamein Sea Cadet Corps
*Sea Cadet Corps National Training Centre
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Portsmouth Action Field Gun
– Photos and Video
Volunteer Cadet Corps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Excellent
Royal Navy bases in Hampshire
Royal Navy shore establishments
Organisations based in Portsmouth