Former cadets of one of Britain’s leading training ships have launched a sponsorship programme that will see a new stream of merchant marine cadets being trained under the name of their college, HMS Worcester.
The programme will initially sponsor and support a small number of Merchant Navy officer cadets for the whole of their three to four-year training, including statutory sea time, to the required standard for sitting for their 1/11 Officer of the Watch certificate and a suitable degree.
The Worcester Merchant Navy Cadetship Scheme (WMNCS) is being launched in partnership with Trinity House of London, the UK’s leading maritime charity.
Major sponsors of WMNCS are expected to include former Worcester cadets, as well as shipping industry and maritime sector leaders. Trinity House, which will be managing the cadets’ training for WMNCS, is matching the funding for each cadet raised by the scheme.
Known as the Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College, HMS Worcester trained thousands of merchant marine cadets – later officers – during more than 100 years of service. The college’s alumni group, Association of Old Worcesters (AOW), many of whom have had full-term maritime industry careers, has agreed to inaugurate the scheme, which is designed with the potential to always have at least one new ‘Worcester’ cadet in training.
Speaking at the scheme’s launch, Peter Melson, ex-Worcester cadet and former Royal Navy Commodore, said: “The current world situation, with its gradual withdrawal from globalisation, has led to an urgent requirement to onshore our training and manning requirements. This training scheme meets the government requirements in this respect and we hope it will attract wide support.”
HMS Worcester was founded in 1862 and trained cadets in a series of four ships, which included the Cutty Sark tea and wool clipper, until the college was integrated into a successor college in 1968.
