CARDIFFREMEMBERED ‘Decaying hulk’ was home to 80 homeless children in city’s docklands

IN 1860 the HMS Havannah, one of the ships that had accompanied Napoleon to St Helena in 1815, sailed into Cardiff East Bute Dock.

The intention was to fit her up as a training ship but the Admiralty declined to supply the rigging and other equipment and the idea was abandoned.

Later transferred to a more permanent berth on the side of Penarth Road, near Penarth Bridge, the 42-gun frigate was converted to an industrial school known as the Cardiff Ragged School.

Some 143ft long and 36ft wide, the Havannah, which had been built in 1811 at a cost of £18,259, was the home for 80 or so destitute and homeless children who slept in hammocks and wore uniforms of white round caps, blue blouses and white trousers.

On leaving the school, many of the children were found employment in domestic service, shops, warehouses, foundries and collieries, while others joined the army or navy.

The Medical Officer of Health declared in 1888 that the old ship had become “a decaying hulk” and that “age and weather have rendered her topsides too rotten to be made watertight by caulking”.

In 1905, the Havannah was sold to Henry Norris, of Cowbridge Road, Cardiff, for £1,030 and broken up.

Mr Norris kindly presented Cardiff Corporation with two of her cannons which were placed in Roath Park.

The ship’s bell went to the vicar of St Sampson’s Church in upper Grangetown where the Havannah pupils had sung in the choir.

During World War I, the cannons were melted down as scrap metal but I believe the ship’s bell still exists.

Another old ship that was destined for Cardiff Docks was the frigate HMS Thisbe which had taken four years to build at Pembroke Dock, where it was launched in 1824.

Some 151ft in length and 40ft in breadth, she had a tonnage of 1,083 tons.

Rated fifth in the naval service, she was in commission for 19 years and was stationed at Devonport.

At the request of the Marquess of Bute, the Thisbe was loaned by the Admiralty for the purpose of a mission church to seamen on August 13, 1863.

Positioned first in the East Bute Dock and later at the entrance of the West Dock, her gun deck was fitted out as an institute and church for the seafaring community.

In the reading room below deck, seamen could read the local and national newspapers and were also provided with stationery.

There was a resident chaplain aboard and regular church services were held as well as magic lantern shows and concerts.

When the more permanent Seamen’s Church and Institute in the West Dock was built in 1892, the Thisbe was sold by tender to Mr WH Caple for £1,000, who broke her up near the old Cardiff low water pier.

Sometime afterwards, the town clerk of Cardiff, Mr JL Wheatley, presented to the Cardiff Corporation the figurehead of the Thisbe and it was placed in Roath Park.

Meanwhile, Echo reader Howard Williams writes: “A little while ago there was an article in the Echo referring to the ‘Skid Kids’ back in the 1950s.

“This brought back some great memories as, when I was a kid myself, our Saturday night treat was to be taken down to the track on Ely Racecourse, just off Heol Ebwy, to watch the racing.