HMS Raleigh
FLAG OFFICER SEA TRAINING
Raleigh in the round
HMS RALEIGH? Home of the new entry trainees undergoing their basic Royal Navy training, isn’t it?
It is a bit like stating Cornwall is the home of the pasty – true, but there is rather more to it than that. At present some 2,100 recruits pass through the gates at Torpoint each year, a figure that will rise to 2,700 next year. But even in 2016 that cohort will make up less than 14 per cent of the total number of Service personnel who will undergo training at Raleigh. There are six separate schools at Torpoint, including initial recruit training. On a typical day you would find around 2,000 staff and students across the 239-acre site, most of them involved in training provided under Initial Naval Training (Ratings); the Defence Maritime Logistics School; the RN Submarine School; the RN School of Seamanship; the Military Training Unit; the Board and Search School and the School of Maritime Survival. Others will be attached to or have business with the Band of HM Royal Marines Plymouth. And Raleigh’s estate stretches beyond the town of Torpoint to include Jupiter Point on the River
Lynher, the Gutter Tor refuge on Dartmoor and the Pier Cellars facility near Cawsand, three miles or so to the south. So if you added up all the fledgling chefs, submariners, loggies et al who visit Raleigh every year, the total would be around 20,000 – not far off two-thirds of the Naval Service. Returning to the Initial Naval Training role, the average age of new recruits at the base is 21, and around 15 per cent of them are female – training is standard, whatever the gender or age of the recruits. And while RN officer training is carried out at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, 32 per cent of the RN Officer Corps begin their careers as ratings. Recruits are transformed from civilians to Royal Navy sailors over a ten-week intensive initial training course, with the trainees – up to the age of 37 – working in classes of around 30 people. By the end of week ten the recruits will have been exposed to the Royal Navy ethos and heritage, as well as to the physical and mental challenges that help shape the modern sailor, ready to undertake further, more specialised, professional training. At the end of each INT course Raleigh also opens its gates to
family and friends for the passingout parade – some 300-400 people usually take up the invitation. The main business of the other schools on site is: Defence Maritime Logistics School: The training of logisticians in a number of disciplines – logistics officer, supply chain specialist, chef, steward and writer; Royal Navy Submarine School: This group provides training to officers and ratings specialising in weapon engineering and warfare operations, ranging from
initial professional training to specialised career courses; Royal Navy School of Seamanship: Career training for seaman specialists and seamanship safety training for all new-entry recruits – the school has a classroom complex, an on-shore replenishment-at-sea training rig and a waterfront training centre; Military Training Unit: The lead school for all military training in the Royal Navy, providing weapons training for sailors at all levels; Board and Search Training School: This team stages an
intensive three-week training course, teaching individual skills and the roles and responsibilities of the team, based on realistic scenarios; School of Maritime Survival: Teaches firefighting, damage control and first aid skills – all sailors undergo this training before taking up a sea appointment. Beyond the Royal Navy – new recruits and specialists – Raleigh also has courses for members of the Maritime Reserve, Royal Marines and RFA, and also trains personnel from allied nations. To support the wide range of
courses offered Raleigh has a fleet of seven Pacific 24 RIBs, three Pacific 22s and eight smaller MIBs – military inflatable boats – along with former Sandown-class minehunter HMS Brecon, now Raleigh’s training ship. Raleigh is also home to the National Sea Cadet Training Centre, which provides 19 courses for 6,500 youngsters a year. All of this training requires an effective support infrastructure such as accommodation and catering – the establishment serves up approximately 2,500 meals on a normal day.
Five ships and a stone frigate
THE first ship named after Elizabethan explorer Sir Walter Raleigh appeared in 1778 when a captured American 32-gun vessel of 677 tons was renamed. A second, a 382-ton 16-gun brig sloop, was active within 30 years of her forebear, while her successor was a considerable step up – a 50-gun vessel of almost 2,000 tons, launched at Chatham in 1845. She took part in the second China War in 1857; she struck an uncharted rock entering the harbour at Macao and foundered. She was followed by a 22-gun iron screw frigate, displacing 4,720 tons, again built at Chatham Dockyard and launched in 1873. In 1878 the ship took part in the occupation of Cyprus, and in 1894 she was in action off the west coast of Africa. She was sold in 1905. Her successor did not enjoy such a successful
career – the 9,750-ton light cruiser joined the North America and West Indies station in 1922, but within four months ran aground in the Strait of Belle Isle. A dozen sailors died in the incident, and she was abandoned. The name Raleigh moved ashore when the establishment at Torpoint came into being for the Naval training of men called up under the Military Training Act of 1938. Commissioned on January 9, 1940, the new establishment accepted new entries direct from shore at a rate of 300 men per week, for 11-week courses. In 1944 American forces took over the entire establishment as an embarkation point for the Normandy campaign, but Raleigh was returned to the RN at the end of July 1944, and training of new entry seamen resumed. In 1958 the Seamen and Marine Engineers
elements were integrated during Part 1 training, and a year later Raleigh became the RN’s New Entry/Part 1 training establishment. The estate was modernised between 1971 and 1978, and in September 1981, following the closure of Dauntless, WRNS Part 1 training also moved to Torpoint. By then the RN Supply School, previously based at HMS Pembroke, had also been added to the site (September 1983), at the same time as new entry training of Artificer Apprentices, previously at HMS Fisgard. The decade from 1991 saw more additions to the site – the RN School of Seamanship (April 1991), the RN Cookery School (November 1994), the RN Submarine School (from HMS Dolphin, Gosport, January 2000) and finally the Lead Military Training School (from HMS Cambridge, March 2001).
The SeamleSS TranSfer from regular To mariTime reServeS You could apply to transfer from regular to maritime reserves by using ProJeCT fireflY’s ‘Seamless Transfer Scheme’ for more information: call 02392 628 677 or e-mail navypers-resfftpa@mod.uk further details can also be found in 2014Din 01 - 130
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