TS Indefatigable

Until the middle of the nineteenth century the British Merchant Navy had no recognized training schools for boys entering the service.

[1] Beginning in the mid- nineteenth century various forms of navigational and seamanship schools were created to remedy the problem Two schools were established in Liverpool, HMS Conway, to prepare boys to go to sea as apprentice officers, and the TS Indefatigable to prepare boys for life at sea as a member of the deck crew.

Clint had helped found the Liverpool Shipowners' Association in 1839, the Pilots' Commission, the Dock and Harbour Company, the Liverpool Sailors' Home, the Northern Hospital, but most importantly Clint had been the prime mover in establishing HMS Conway and the Akbar, a reformatory school for boys.

The Indefatigable was moored at the Sloyne, off Rock Ferry on the River Mersey, alongside HMS Conway and two reformatory ships Akbar and Clarence.

The original Indefatigable remained off Rock Ferry until 5 January 1914, [5] and was then towed to the West Float at Birkenhead and sold for scrap on 26 March.

However, the decision was made to make the TS Indefatigable a land-based school in the future and the ship was sold for scrap.

[2] Temporary accommodation was initially found at a disused holiday camp at Clwydd Newydd, Ruthin, North Wales, before moving to Plas Llanfair in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll on the Menai Strait between Gwynedd and Anglesey in 1944.

[2] The school was purchased by the Ministry of Defence in 1996 and renamed The Joint Service Mountain Training Centre Indefatigable.