Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Sea Breezes Article 1989 - 'Boyhood Days on the Bristol Channel' . . .

My month in the vessel took up the better part of my first summer's leave from the training ship 'Mercury', in Hampshire, where I was enrolled for pre-sea training. The 'Ravenswood' had just berthed when I joined her and was lying at the landing stage, down the end of Bute Road in the heart of dockland Cardiff.

Having gone on board I reported to the smartly uniformed mate who sent me to the fo'c'sle where my bunk was pointed out to me. It was the lower one of the aftermost tier on the port side. The upper bunk belonged to my fellow OS (Ordinary Seaman) and since they were right next to the companionway ladder our berths were the noisiest in the ship. In all, there were 12 bunks in the fo'c'sle, six to port for the deck crowd and six to starboard for the firemen. Abaft of each row of bunks were a couple of diminutive mess tables and a gear locker for each man. We also had the use of a bathroom containing a salt-water shower and toilet, these facilities being located amidships.

All crew and passenger spaces were fitted with electric lighting but once the generator had been shut down for the night, oil lamps provided illumination. These were known as "paraffin dynamoes" and as far as young eyes were concerned they gave a good enough light for reading, but they had to kept properly trimmed.

Unless the ship was being steamed to the port from which the next day's sailings were to start, the nights were spent alongside, usually at Cardiff but occasionally at Newport. No matter how late we finished, the ordinary seamen were called by the shore watchman at 0600. A quick "cuppa" and a bite to eat started our day and from then until sailing time the pair of us were usually on the bridge shining brass. And what a swag of it there was - an engine-room and docking telegraph on each bridge wing, two compass binnacles, standard and steering, and a brass steering wheel and telemotor. The bridge was completely open and so the brasswork took plenty of polishing.

A glance at the steering compass showed that it not possess any degree markings, just points, and so I had to learn to box the compass in half and quarter points before being allowed to start my steering tuition. A colleague recently asked how a paddle steamer steered and the answer, in the 'Ravenswood's' case, must be an emphatic "very well". Her good steering qualities were attributable to the fact that she particularly fine in her run, this constructional feature tending to give an uninterrupted flow of water to the large, single-plate rudder.