# Golden Valley (Ketch)



## alanem65 (Sep 22, 2011)

July 1960 I spent a month at Aberdovey Outward Bound School where we had 5 days sailing around Cardigan Bay on board The Golden Valley,a Ketch, as part of the Course.Can anyone remember the vessel or has any photos or information about her history.Also,where you there on that course then?
regards
Alanem65.


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## bob nightingale (Mar 18, 2007)

Hi Alan,
was at Aberdovey May 1957 course 169.
Enjoyed sailing on Golden Valley.
Seeing the photo brought back good memories.
would like to copy if it,s ok by you ?.

Regards


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

I was at Aberdovey for the Course August/September 1959 during glorious weather. Save for tramping up Plynlimon and Cader Idris in the heat, all else was the greatest pleasure - particularly the sailing in Golden Valley. We delivered stores to the lighthouse keeper at Bardsey (at 0600 on a perfect summer morning) and were given a guided tour of the lighthouse and the Abbey.

We then called into Aberdaron where we anchored for a few hours, during the still-golden day. The experience was the start of a life-long love affair with Aberdaron. No year is complete without a visit.

We then sailed on to Pwllheli, with the radio blaring out "Only Sixteen". Magic!

It was described as a toughening-up course. It was more accurately described as a buckshee holiday per courtesy of A Holt Esq. I remain very grateful!


ABERDARON

Come with me to Aberdaron,
Come with me to see the light,
Let the tides become your timepiece,
Let the peace be your delight.

Drop you down into the village,
Past the bake-house, Tyn-Islyn,
Drop you out of all that’s humdrum.
Let your peace of mind begin.

Hear the voices of Ty Newydd:
Men of Harlech, take the strain!
Stir my Celtic blood as ever!
Wilt thou have me back again?

Join the chatter on the foreshore,
Watch the fishermen prepare.
Watch them, as they time their launchings,
Through the surf with utmost care.

See the seals upon the Gull Rocks,
Hear the race in Bardsey Sound.
Cross the water to the Island:
Stand you on the Holy Ground.

Envy you the Lighthouse-keeper,
Sending beams to those at sea,
While tending beans within his garden:
Wish I were him and he were me.

BY

2002


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

I was chief mate in her sometime in late Autumn 1953. Got a dressing-down from Freddie Fuller for crossing the Bar too early on the flood. A very bouncy boat was the Golden Valley!

(I love the poem, Barrie-expresses the romance of the sea so well but only to be enjoyed once safely returned to dry land).


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

Many thanks, Hugh.

Hilaire Belloc (in The Cruise of the Nona) gives a graphic account of the passage through Bardsey Sound north to south if you get the timing wrong! He lived to tell the tale.

I remember reading somewhere that his friends said of Belloc that to sail with him was particularly exciting because of his belief that rope is everlasting.


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## Peter Trodden (Dec 3, 2009)

I was at Aberdovey Feb,1955. Course 146. Rodney Watch. Mr Nelson. Barrie, mine was a very different experience than yours on the G/Valley.As Hugh said,She was a lively little craft and as soon as we crossed the Bar and She started Ducking and Diving we were all sick as Dogs. I can not remember much of that trip,only that it was Hell for us Townies whose only Sea-time was a Ferry 'cross the Mersey. I dont know how to move photos around yet(Sad) but I've posted one of me on the G/Vally at Aberdovey Quayside just after that unmemorable Trip. Its on page 112. Ports,Docks & Harbours.
ttfn.Peter.(Thumb)


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

Hi, Peter,

Your observations prompted a trawl of other comments re OBSS in SN. Most seem to agree with you that the experience was less than pleasant. It was obviously not intended to be pleasant and clearly was intended as pre-sea training for all of us who had not previously been to sea. The weather necessarily was a crucial factor in whether the course was easy or whether it was tough; and for those of us who were there in pleasant weather it would be quite improper to pretend otherwise. In all the postings in other threads, the only one which has jarred is that from a reader who wished to join Blue Flue as a deck boy and then reported to Odyssey Works that he had found Aberdovey to be like a holiday camp; and for his honesty had been rejected.

My own further reflections are that, even in the worst of weather, life at OBSS could not be even half as challenging as life in the real world - particularly in the real maritime world. We were all surprised when two chaps decided to pack it up and go home after one week. The motto "To serve, to strive and not to yield" is of course a most valuable one; but I don't believe that it adds anything to a man's character.

As to teaching, OBSS was excellent for teaching basic seamanship and also for teaching some other survival skill which most of us might otherwise not have learned. I confess to having promised myself (at the end of the course) never to walk up another mountain for the rest of my life, if I could possibly avoid it.

But as to character-building or character-development, my own view is that a leopard cannot change his spots and we are all born either with or without certain characteristics and are likely to comply with those traits for life, for better or for worse. No poetry was taught at OBSS as far as I can remember, save the motto quoted; and we all know men who have served, striven and not yielded without knowing anything of either classical poetry or Aberdovey. Kipling's "If" might usefully have been added to the syllabus.

All in all it was an excellent experience, greatly enjoyed and with treasured memories.

Very best,

BY


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

I believe it was life-saving! Despite having lost half of its fleet the fatal casualty rate for Blue Funnel was all but a half of the general rate.
It is accepted that the loss rate for British seamen was about 17.5%: for Blue Funnel the losses were about 9%. 
No doubt there were other factors, such as the Holt Class build but survival in the lifeboats was a vital element and there were many of them.


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

Hi, Hugh,

I accept all of that and agree that it was a most valuable course in basic seamanship and survival. 

Best,

BY


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## Peter Trodden (Dec 3, 2009)

*Obss.*

Yes, it certainly was an experience never to be forgotten,but at the time doing cross country treks,up and Down mountains in knee deep snow,I did ask myself,Whats this got to do with pre-sea training? But most of us were tough kids from the Dock areas of B-head and L-pool and got thru,no prob's. I think the Odyssey was a better idea for a pre-sea training school. It would have suited me as I lived near by and the Bosun was a mate of my Dads (Mick Brab's pre,O'B) I still have my log book and lapel badge,(compass on the front and the motto on back) Barrie,I didn't hear any poetry there but still remember some of the Sea Shanties Stan Huggell sang to us.
Some names I remember from that course, Mr Nelson,Mr Fuller,Mr Ford,Mr Glegg,Mr Warden,Mr Albert and Capt' Barry..RM.
ttfn.Peter.(Thumb)


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

Yes, Stan was still there in 1959. Two other names I remember particularly were Captain Fuller and Sam Hayler.

A thing I also remember is a large and splendid painting of a four-masted barque hanging in, I think, the main hall (?). From memory she was shown under full sail and bowling along in the sunlight with the wind on her quarter in the Bay of Biscay. Had Stan sailed in her? Was she the Garthpool?

Can anybody remember more detail?

I remember Mike Brabander, too, as Bosun of Memnon in June-October 1960. 

V best,

BY


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxFF40xPV7E&feature=related I remember singing the chorus of this with Stan in 1953.


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

Stan was the shantyman aboard the Garthpool when she was wrecked on a Cape Verde Is.. That was when he sang the last shanty ever to be sung aboard a deep-water British commercial sailing ship.
This was his obituary in the Daily Telegraph.


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

Many thanks, Hugh!


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## Peter Trodden (Dec 3, 2009)

Hugh,
Thanks for that.


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

Click HERE for Outward Bound course photo showing some of above named instructors:-  6th;7th;8th and 13th from left , front row, are as follows:-
Keith Ford; Nelson; Ferguson; Albert (Shell deck officer)


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## Trader (Jul 1, 2005)

*Outward Bound*



Hugh Ferguson said:


> Click HERE for Outward Bound course photo showing some of above named instructors:- 6th;7th;8th and 13th from left , front row, are as follows:-
> Keith Ford; Nelson; Ferguson; Albert (Shell deck officer)


Here is a photo of Outward Bound course 114 March 1952 which I was on. On front row the chap with 2nd. mates rings was from Shell, the chap next to him, with the cap, was later a Thames pilot. I came across him when I was on the wheel of the Cyprian Prince docking in Wet India dock. Stan Hugill is 6th. from left.
I am 4th. from left 2nd. row from top. I still have my log book somewhere of our mountain climbing trip and other entries like "went down to quay to pump out the "Garibaldi". She was the former training ship but was just lying there waiting to be sold I believe. The training ship in my days was the "Warspite", a lovely vessel and I thoroughly enjoyed our "mini-cruise" in her around Cardigan Bay. I remember putting one of our boys ashore at Pwthelli (sp) with severe sea sickness.

Alec.


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## Trader (Jul 1, 2005)

Does any one know what became of the training ships "Garibaldi" and "Warspite" mentioned in my above post.?

Alec.


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

80 ton ketch GARIBALDI at Aberdovey-early days.


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

Trader said:


> Does any one know what became of the training ships "Garibaldi" and "Warspite" mentioned in my above post.?
> 
> Alec.


 See HERE


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## Trader (Jul 1, 2005)

Thanks for the link and photograph Hugh.

Alec.


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