Arrived on her mooring in the Mersey. This was off Rock Ferry Pier (between Rock Ferry and New Ferry). The pier and landing stage at Rock Ferry was built in 1899 and in the same year Birkenhead Corporation operated the ferry service at Rock Ferry and New Ferry. The ferry service at Rock Ferry closed in 1939.

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Official opening of the HMS Conway school ship, interestingly the band of HMS Nile played at the opening ceremony as the Nile was in Liverpool at the time on a recruiting visit.

The ship was fitted to accommodate 120 cadets but opened with just 17.

Numbers were limited to 50 for the first six months. Average numbers of cadets built up to around a hundred. Initially many cadets stayed for only a couple of terms - getting the feel of naval life.

It was quickly realized that the ship was too small for the numbers eventually planned. The Admiralty was petitioned again and offered to replace the first HMS Conway with a new vessel - HMS Winchester.

The second ship (ex Winchester)  also proved too small and so the Admiralty were approached and they offerred a third ship - HMS Nile as a replacement. The date of her arrival in the Mersey is not clear. Conway 2 (ex Winchester) was taken away to Devonport early in July retaining the HMS Conway name for the time being . The officers and cadets relocated to the Nile.

Permission was eventually granted for the name change from HMS Nile to HMS Conway and on 24th July 1876 Nile was moved to the Great Float (the West Float) Liverpool and formally exchanged names with the second HMS Conway - the school ship's third vessel to bear the name.

After the ceremony she returned to her mooring off Rock Ferry Pier, Cadets lived onboard but used sports facilities ashore. Rock   Ferry playing fields were on Knowlsey Road off New Chester Road. They have now been built over.

The cooking ranges from the Great Eastern, Brunel's famous ship which had been broken up nearby, were installed in the Conway.

There was a common entrance exam in 1937.

In 1937 it was decided that the ship should have a new figurehead to replace the original one (a bust of Lord Horatio Nelson) which had been carried away on 4 June 1918 by the SS Bhamo. A design consisting of a full figure of Lord Horatio Nelson was chosen. The design and construction were undertaken by Mr. Carter Pearson. He took great pains to ensure authenticity, studying Nelson's actual uniform to match colours and various portraits, including Nelson's death mask, to obtain a true likeness. The figurehead was made from teak as this was considered a more long lasting wood than the yellow pine normally used for ships' figureheads. A sound decision as the figurehead still survives although now at HMS Nelson in Porstmouth (the RN's Courts Martial Centre!). It was not possible to obtain a single block of wood large enough so 3 inch planks were used. It weighs 3.5 tons and stands 13.5 feet high.

Click image to enlarge

Heating and hot water was provided from a coal fired boiler. Hot water was limited to the galley and a weekly bath. If you were a senior it was hot. Coaling party (punishment) had to be second or third user of bath by then usually tepid. New chums cleaned the grime line in the baths. The heating pipes never seemed to be more than warm. Heads were really primitive until the 1938 refit. The galley was also improved in this refit and converted to coke fired. Food was also greatly improved. Teaser was freely wielded. What the politically correct would think now I leave to your imagination.

The ship was moved to Cammell Lairds shipyard, Liverpool for a refit under the sponsorship of Mr L Holt and Alfred Holt & Co. The work was undertaken by Mr Dickie. The total cost was £20,000.

We used the Chart House for seamanship lessons, but not frequently. A cadet whilst descending to the deck via the backstay fell on the roof, and was fatally injured some time in the early war years I believe. It was said a broken wire strand pierced his hand and he lost his hold.

In my time there was no nursery table for new chums or any tables on that deck and the Port and Starboard fo'csles had their hammocks stowed in their parts of ship in what from memory we called hammock nettings. No hammocks were stowed in the hold, but there was a stowage in the hold   for our gladstone bags and fresh laundry bags were used for pillows viewing cinema in the hold.

Indefatigable cadets came aboard during the summer holidays. They painted out the ships white gun strakes, painted the upper deck battleship gray, fitted concrete bomb protectors to all hatches and skylights, covered the upper deck with sand bags and fitted black out screens to all 130 windows.

The 12 oared cutter, also called the heavy weather cutter was used when the Mersey was too rough for the motor boats.

Considerable damage was caused to the ship by the SS Hektoria, a 13,000 ton whaling factory ship which had dragged her moorings. Conway was moved into Vittoria Dock, Birkenhead for repairs where, at start of the next term, the cadets all rejoined ship.

There were, at this time, 250 cadets and problems arose. The ConwayÕs sewage disposal was direct from the ship into the river, or dock, where she was moored. To discharge sewage into a fast tidal river was one thing but to discharge the effluent from 250+ people into a dock with no tidal flow is another. Cadets were sent home early!

It has been said that there was no heating in the ship but there was a primitive form of piped hot water central heating. Indeed, such was my executive promise that in my 6th term I became the Working Hand in charge of the Boiler; a position of great power with possibilities for profit. Apart from stoking the thing I could toast (bake, actually) slices of bread by resting them on the inside of the fire door, closing it for a moment, and then opening again - to reveal a golden brown piece of toast (usually smudged with coal dust, but no matter) I charged one old penny per slice! It sys much for the system that I progressed quite rapidly to the higher echelons after that term!

During the Liverpool blitz the situation became extremely unsafe, particularly when the Germans began dropping parachute mines into the Mersey. Small incendiary bombs landed on the ship most nights - the cadets scooped them up with shovels and tossed them into the river! Bombing became more intense and one night a mine was thought to have settled under the ship. The cadets were evacuated ashore and spent the night in Conway House (Sick Bay), the Royal Mersey Yacht Club and Royal Rock Hotel. They then spent two nights at the Mostyn School before being sent home.

Two nights later two mines narrowly missed the ship, one exploded under and sank a nearby vessel, the S.S. Tacoma City. The only people on board the ship were Capt. Goddard, Lt John Brooke Smith, No.1 motor boat's crew, and a steward. Lt Brooke Smith took away No.1 motor boat (Jim Thompson was bowman) and they picked up everyone from the Tacoma City (45 survivors in total). They then proceeded down the river where larger craft which had come off from shore took the survivors off them. The second magnetic mine drifted well up river where it was exploded by a minesweeper after the ship had been completely evacuated.

It was decided to move the ship to a safer anchorage on the Menai Straits.