Boulevard Nautical School

[David M Pike]

Michael - you must have been there same time as me (66-69). Nine years with Houlders followed by another nine with Esso.��

[Antony Blackburn]

Hi Ernest, Yep I attended the college 1955-57 and left when offered an apprentiship with Asiatic Steam Navigation Company whose HQ was in Calcutta. They were subsumed into P&O, but I had surrendered my apprenticeship by then. As for the college, unless its been knocked down in the last two years, the main building is still there and still being used as an educational establishment, though now for disadvantaged and troubled teenagers. I made many friends at the college and fortunately ran into one in much later life when we were both students at the Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh. His name was Eddie Carrison, a Hull lad. I do have a few photo's of the college as it is now, cause I blagged my way in a couple of years ago and I do have one of Starboard Watch when I was there. I don't know when Bob Edmondson retired from the Vice-Principals job, but he may have been there still when you were a student. I could go on,

Antony (Bennie) Blackburn

[Antony Blackburn]

Hi John, Just joined this excellent site and I found your post whilst trawling it. I was there from 1955 - 57 and like you I very much enjoyed my time there, even though Smethurst got me top dead centre with the board rubber on a couple of occasions. As for Ticker Tolson, he was our form master for whom I had the greatest respect, along with Bob Edmonson, Mr Jones et al.
Didn't last long at sea though, I apprenticed myself to Asiatic Steam Navigation Co., and spent the next twelve months carrying coal from Vishakapatnam to Colombo,Calcutta and Chittagong. Not what I'd expected at all and since that was all that would be on the horizon for the entire four years, I packed it in. Anyway now nearly eighty but I can say I've had a varied, though not always a pleasant life.

Regards

Antony (Bennie) Blackburn

[Doc Vernon]

Does anyone on this Thread perhaps have or can assist with this Members Query please
Thank for any help.
What did the Badge look like ? Description
Cheers

BNC Cap Badge Wanted (merchant-navy.net)

[Antony Blackburn]

Hi Ernest, Yes there's a couple of us still around. I was a student there from 1955-57 and I credit them with finding the one brain cell I possessed. (I was sitting on it). The BNS thread is a great resource for finding the lads you were there with. I'd just like to correct a common misconception that seems to be circulating and that is that the college building has been demolished.
Unless that's happened in the last two years, I don't think so, since in 2017 I visited Hull with the express intention of visiting the alma mater. I managed to blag my way inside and was shown around by the headmaster of a school for disadvantaged girls!!! who were continuing their education after pregnancy. None of the buildings remain that were in the playground at the front,they're long gone but the main building stands (as hopefully an attachment below will show). Like you I had very fond memories of the place,the teachers and my pals and until I cross the bar I'll hopefully retain the capacity to remember them all

Boulevard Nautical College - Main Building 2.jpg

Antony (Bennie) Blackburn

[j.sabourn]

Some of us are lucky to have attained a job in life that we enjoyed doing Tony, at least for a while, which always brings out the best if there is a best hiding somewhere. If I had stayed a butcher boy think I would have been the oldest butcher boy on the block ,and never reached the goal of being a proper one, the learning curve would have been too steep. The last verse of that 17 verse poem on site I always refer to...
And then one day, when I’m old and grey
And my life’s been used up, and it comes time to pay
As I lie in my bed on my face will be a smile
I’ll just be thinking it’s all been worthwhile.

Cheers JS

[Antony Blackburn]

Hi J.S.
Thanks for bringing a smile to my wizened old chops. Philosophy was never my strongest suit but hopefully this is alternative ditty might encapsulate my view of the past and the future
And then one day when its time to pay
and the bars not for drinking or sciving
Then I'll meet again those friends of mine then
who helped me to always keep smiling
Regards
The Old Lead swinger Antony

[j.sabourn]

#87.. Hi Tony the first verse of that piece of wishful thinking is...
I went to sea school when I was a lad
Where conditions were hard and the food was bad
But I walked through the gates as tall as a man
Off to my first ship bound for Japan.
As regards Skiving I was accused of that at 16 , as when cleaning out the deep tanks I managed to get a nail in the. Sole of my foot. It was agony Ivy, and was laid up for a number of days as the poison must have worked round my body. As I couldn’t walk they used to carry me onto the forecastle head to do all the night lookouts. Arriving Geraldton in WA much later there was hardly a pinprick showing but was sent to the hospital there , but by this time the pain was just an ache and as nothing showing the doctor told the old man I was skiving, and he believed them. Hurt my feelings something terrible , the trauma of which I still suffer from. So for any future mishaps I decided to hone up on my acting capabilities . Cheers JS.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
Would that have anything to do with this.
Sally said, when I grow up I want to travel to China and Japan and have a have a Baby.
To which Johnny replied when I grow up to be a man stuff China and Japan but if Sally but if Sally wants a baby I'm her man.
Des

[Antony Blackburn]

Hi J If you were only accused of skiving once, then your a lucky man macduff. After giving up on the sea, I opted for another uniform and spent the next 12 years in the Army where it I knew it as an art form! But being a bit of a short a..e I used to be able to swear at recruits in Hindi for at least ten minutes without repeating myself when, I caught them skiiving. On another tack I ploughed through all the past posts on the BNS thread and saw quite a few names that I knew. Trouble is some posts are over ten years old so I'm a bit wary of attempting to contact any of them,

StarboardWatchtheBoulevardMarch1954.jpg

in case they've already crossed the bar and already reached their final port of call. I've attached a photo of all of em all
Regards Antony