NAVY HISTORY - SAILORS

TRAINING


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By Greg Scott
TRAINING

By the end of the war HMCS Naden, the training base at Esquimalt had spent $1,474,374.42 on the construction and preparation of training facilities for those new recruits coming into the navy. The Seamanship training of the new recruits focused on the traditional indoctrination into the discipline and regimentation of the Royal Navy and RCN system. Time at sea on training vessels and other patrol ships was also required to induct the men into not only the elements of the sea but the jobs and duties that would be required of them when as they progressed towards becoming an Able Seaman.
These activities included jobs as simple as maintenance of the ship, cleaning and manual storing of the ships provisions and more advanced duties such as learning signals, mastering technical activities, learning terminology, tradition and muster. Once these items had been covered, they would be introduced to weapons, navigation, operational and other duties.
Depending upon the ship or vessel they were training on, they would also be introduced to the operation of the engines, maintenance of ship systems, keeping watch, potential helmsmen duties and of course, battle station positions and the procedures for boarding other ships and fighting.
They could then be sent on course to learn specialized duties which might take them to Toronto, Cornwallis, Halifax or in some case to the U.S. to learn about some of the vessels being produced there which the RCN was taking procession of. Naden and Cornwallis remained the primary training centres throughout the war. (Stacey and Nicholson 1956) Page 292


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Sources
  • CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum Joseph M. Lenarcik, Assistant Curator. Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada 
  • CFB Esquimalt Navay Museum. https://navalandmilitarymuseum.org/archives/articles/a-sailors-life/ 
  • Stacey, C. P. and G. W. Nicholson (1956). Six years of war; the army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific, by CP Stacey.-v. 2. The Canadians in Italy, 1943-1945, by GWL Nicholson.-v. 3. The victory campaign; the operations in north-west Europe, 1944-1945, by CP Stacey, Cloutier. Page 281


Cite Article : Reference: www.navyhistory/sections/Ships/Minesweepers/HMCS_Courtenay.html

Source: NA