Rowing ('Pulling') on the River

As you will know the word 'pulling' has other interpretations in the Navy - such as pulling members of the opposite sex (being successful with them to put it in acceptable terms!). There are others....

However, pulling in the context below, refers to what others in civilian life call 'rowing.'

Whilst in the Annexe we often marched down to the pier in sports gear to practice our pulling on the river in a 'cutter' - a rowing boat that is. We were taught how to 'ship oars' and how to pull (row) and kept in time by the instructor who basically shouted the words 'in' 'out' as we sped along the river, usually racing our class mates in another cutter.

As you will remember, 320 and 321 classes jouned up together in the main establishment and in the Annexe we were not all in the same mess. The photos below are from the lads that came from Tiger mess, which was the first mess on the left as you looked towards the galley at the top end.

What we remember, apart from pulling, in the Annexe, is getting our hair cut (one Scottish guy in our mess found this such an indignity that he left and went back home!), queuing up to get various jabs, polishing the brass cannons at the entrance to the small parade ground (usually at about 0600), learning how to iron, wash, clean the heads (toilets) and bathrooms, learning how to march and drill (our junior instructors taught us to do this), and how to wear and look after our uniforms. Learning how to dress in 'square rig' (sailor suits) was an art in itself as we had to learn how to wear our silks, lanyards, tie a bow that was horizontal and neat, press seven horizontal lines in our trousers, spit and polish our shoes etc.

Another thing we were required to do was to mark all pieces of our kit. To do this we were issued with a wooden name stamp which we then dipped in either white or black marker ink before pressing it onto our kit. Many boys then used red wool to sew over their names to avoid the effects of fading (of the original ink).

After all this bulling work and drilling we played sport or went on the river - see below:

Gathering on the pier

Back: Perry Atkins, Pete Slynn, ?, Jim Mason, Geoff LLoyd, ?, ?, ?.
Front: ?, John Nixon, ?, 'Jenny' Wren, ?, Instructor (?)

Getting ready to cast off