NAUTICAL TRAINING CORPS
Training Ship Unity
Emsworth
17th Division
Hampshire Region
TS Unity
First Officer Steve
Webb, Commanding Officer, reviews 2005/06
TS Unity has had a busy year to date, with many things happening.
We have done our annual St Patrick’s Day Parade in Birmingham, accompanied by members of TS Explorer who kindly help out every year. The parade is one of the biggest in England and has bands from all over the country and Ireland. It has a great atmosphere and everyone has a great time, although this year it was very cold and even started to snow at one stage.
We have also done many other fetes and parades within the local area as well, including the Emsworth Summer Fete, school fetes, days at Southsea Castle Field and the Remembrance Day parade in Emsworth. The band entered a Traditional Youth Marching Bands Association (TYMBA) competition in Rubery, near Birmingham, the first one we have entered for four years. We entered for the novice class but elected to move up a class because there were no other bands in that class. Unfortunately we won no trophies but we were happy with the comments and marks we received from the judges, considering that we were in a class higher than we should have been.
The ship has been low on numbers for a while, with around 16 regular cadets, although this number does fluctuate. We have attended both boating fun days and plan to do more boating in 2007. We also had our annual camp in the New Forest in August, where everyone had a great time. The cadets were kept entertained all week with numerous activities on site and off, including our very own makeshift golf course, dry ski bobbing and ringos, tournaments including darts, connect 4, croquet and beetle drives. The ship has already booked Summer Camp for 2007, and also plans to do a few weekend survivor camps as well.
The ship had a new First Lieutenant at the beginning of the year, 2/0 Craig Bailey. Craig has been with the ship for more than 10 years and has taken to hiss new position very well.
Anyone interested in joining TS Unity or wanting more information: we meet every Tuesday between 1900 and 2100 at St James Church Hall.