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WOULD you know how to tie a bowline? A clove hitch? A sheepshank? Or the difference between a gybe and a tack? No? Well that doesn't make you particularly unusual in this day and age when many teenagers spend a lot of their time playing console games or sending text messages on their extraordinarily expensive mobile phones rather than learning practical skills.
Indeed, there are relatively few places where those skills can be learned now but back in the day, many a youngster was taught how to do those things by joining the Sea Cadets - and learned a number of valuable life skills at the same time.
And one of the best - known Sea Cadet venues in our area was the island of Raven's Ait, just off Queen's Promenade on the Portsmouth Road.
These days, Raven's Ait is a conference and wedding venue but in the past, the island served as an important base for watersports and for helping to train youngsters in the arts of rowing, sailing, motor boat handling and naval discipline.
The island was leased for many years by the Navy League, the charity set up to encourage youngsters to join the Sea Cadet Corps and, later, the Girl's Nautical Training Corps.
Like dozens of other similar establishments around the UK, Training Ship Neptune, as Raven's Ait was known, acted as a feeder for youngsters who wanted to join the Navy and see the world - or who just wanted to have some fun while learning to stay safe on the water.
TS Nepture fulfilled the primary role for the Navy League of its main training establishment for sailing, canoeing and boating. It only ceased to have that role in 1971 when the Navy League decided to invest instead in the construction and operation of TS Royalist - a 34-metre sailing brig that provided berths for up to 24 sea cadets on regular training cruises around the UK coastline. A second ship of the same name went into service in 2014 as a replacement for the original.
Life for sea cadets - both boys and girls - on the island was pretty basic. The wooden clad buildings that provided accommodation were hardly luxurious and the strict naval discipline applied meant that it was a good idea not to step out of line.
Youngsters were taught the skills required to be a sailor - seamanship, the basics of navigation, and probably most importantly, how to work effectively as a member of a team.
The boats used at Neptune were nearly all ex-Royal Navy stock ranging at the top end from a 25-foot naval cutter with a twin cylinder diesel engine through a number of Viking open tenders, again powered by diesels, down to a pair of Admiralty Whalers - slim, clinker-built wooden craft which were used to teach cadets how to row. Although, at 28-feet in length, they required a lot of muscle power to get moving!
Raven's Ait also boasted a good selection of sailing dinghies which were used as sail trainers. These included ASCs (Admiralty Sailing Craft), GP14s, Bosuns, Fireballs and Puffin Pacers.
During its long service as a Sea Cadet base, Raven's Ait had a number of important visitors including, in 1958, the Duke of Edinburgh who was rowed out to the island by a crew of cadets and another, in 1969 when American Vice President Hubert Humphrey was the guest of honour.
TS Neptune is long gone and Raven's Ait is now a conference and wedding venue. But we think it's a shame that a wonderful training facility has been lost.
Other sea cadet bases still operate in our area and we just hope that more of our present-day youngsters will consider learning the skills the Navy has to offer.
For more information, visit www.sea-cadets.org.
