Volume Two - The Era of Optimism, Investment & Development - The demise of H.M.S. Exmouth at Penarth Dock - 1905 . . .

The Training Ship "Exmouth" - by Dr. Ch. H. Leibbrand - Illustrated from Photographs taken under the direction by A. and G. Taylor, Photographers to the Queen.

Reader, have you been to Grays, the station next to historical Purfleet, on the London and Tibury line to Southend? If not, let me tell you that it is not a large place. Still, this struggling township on the Thames is worth visiting. Almost within the shadow of its tiny red brick houses lies one of the finest institutions in England for the making of sailors, and soldiers, and citizens - for the making of men.

Proceeding a short distance along the main street towards the river the traveler will be brought face to face with the civilising centre. He will see a huge, bold, sturdy vessel riding proudly upon the ebbing and flowing tide, moored about a hundred yards off the shore. This splendid three-decker of 3,106 tons displacement and with a measurement of 220ft. by 50ft., is London's training ship Exmouth.

The 'Exmouth' - a huge, bold, sturdy vessel riding proudly upon the ebbing and flowing tide, moored about a hundred yards off the shore at Grays, Essex.

The vessel's ninety-one portholes still proclaim its original character - that is a man-of-war : even though its armament consists now of but two field pieces, instead of the ninety-one guns which should be mounted there. Its complement of 600 lads, its Captain-Superintendent, and staff of officers still more eloquently testify to its intimate connection with the defences of the country - with the Navy and the Army, with the development of patriotism and citizenship. For, from this training ship have gone forth about 5,700 youths, well equipped for the struggle of existence, and not less well trained to battle with winds and waves and the treachery of oceans deep. Indeed, of these 5,700 no fewer than 2,106 went to swell the ranks of the Royal Navy ; 446 shipped as ordinary seamen ; 1,385 as deck and cabin boys ; 150 as apprentices, and 300 as assistant cooks and stewards.