Royal Navy Training Ships: Recreation

Royal Navt training ship Mercury
Figure 1.-- This photograph was taken about 1907. The boys from the training ship 'Mercury' are enjoying a swim. Notice that they are not on the ship, but some kind of shore facility looking rathefr like a summer camp.

The boys spent a great deal of time on the training ships and, later in the program, relateded shore facilities. It was essentially like attending a boarding school. Given the age of the boys, one would think thst there would have been some provision for recreational activities. Here we have virtully no information. We do notice the boys were allowed to swim. Of course this was a useful skill for any sailor. Thus gthere must have been swimming lessons. The photogtraphic record suggests that a good part of this activity was recreationsl. Of course this was only possible seasonally. Given the confines of the ship, we wonder how much free time the boys could have been given. The photographic record does not tell us much as it mostly comes from after World War I, at least snap-shot type images giving us some idea about daily activities.






HBC





Related Military School Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Return to the Main Royal Navy training ship page]
[Return to the Main English naval school page]
[England] [France] [Italy] [Germany] [United States]



Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer] [School sandals]


Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Cloth and textiles] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Topics]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]




Created: 8:09 AM 10/17/2011
Last updated: 8:09 AM 10/17/2011