Royal Naval Training Establishment Shotley, known in the Royal Navy as , was a naval training establishment at

Shotley Shotley is a village and civil parish south-east of Ipswich in the English county of Suffolk. It is in the Babergh District, Babergh district and gives its name to the Shotley peninsula between the Rivers River Stour, Suffolk, Stour and River ...

, near

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. Starting in 1905, it trained boys for naval service until 1973 (The school-leaving age was raised to 16 so ended the recruitment of 15-year-old boy sailors). In September 1973, HMS Ganges admitted adult entrants to the Royal Navy who only underwent 6 weeks training (6-week wonders) (the same as at HMS Raleigh near Plymouth) It finally closed in 1976. It had a mixed reputation in the

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 F ...

, both for its reputed harsh methods of training boys in order to turn out professionally able, self-reliant ratings and for the professionalism of its former trainees. It is particularly famous for its 143-foot (44 m)-high mast which all boys under training were required to ascend, at least to the half-moon and for the mast manning ceremonies held whenever a dignitary visited the establishment. During the later 1980s and until 1999 RNTE Shotley was used as a residential centre for civilian police officers to complete their basic training. Forces which used this centre included Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Thames Valley and South Wales. The Suffolk and Essex police forces used the site on an ad hoc basis in 2007.

In fiction

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

's children's

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s ''

We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea ''We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea'' is the seventh book in Arthur Ransome's ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books. It was published in 1937. In this book, the Swallows (John, Susan, Titty and Roger Walker) are the only recurring cha ...

'' and ''

Secret Water ''Secret Water'' is the eighth book in Arthur Ransome's ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books. It was published on 28 November 1939. This book is set in and around Hamford Water in Essex, close to the resort town of Walton-on-t ...

'', the character Commander Walker is an officer stationed at Shotley.

References

External links

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RNTE Shotley Pictures and information Summer 2007

HMS Ganges Association Web site

Site photos taken between 2006 and 2009

HMS GANGES (RNTE Shotley) Books
Historical books and DVDs of HMS GANGES. Military schools Defunct schools in Suffolk Training establishments of the Royal Navy Educational institutions established in 1905 1905 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 1976 1976 disestablishments in England Shotley {{Suffolk-school-stub