Hello Rodney I think you can probably say lots......from the RN's Royal Hospital for Seamen, the school which taught boys whose fathers had died in service or, if there was room, lads with both parents alive, including sons of officers and ratings. And then there was the school like the Conway, off Anglesey IIRC, and several others around the coast, plus a number of ships which took boys who had been getting into trouble, but who the magistrates thought might turn over a new leaf if properly supervised.....whilst the organisers of these schools wanted their charges to go so sea, they don't appear to have any preference regarding which service, taking into account, I would guess, the fact that the Admiralty were usually providing the accommodation in the form of old hulks. There was the college on the Upper Thames at Pangbourne, but am not sure when this started. And seem to remember that in addition to Greenwich, the Marine Society was also one the earliest innovators of this form of education. There used to be a website which detailed them all at one time, but haven't looked lately. Haven't seen this one before, but looks interesting : http://www.rakaia.co.uk/downloads/sea-schools/sea-schools.pdf Paul On Tue, 14 Jul 2015 10:00:55 +0100, Rodney Hall via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: >Was there a training college/ship for merchant seamen in the 1800's? >-- >Rodney M H Hall >Suaviter sed fortiter > Gently but firmly >~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html