THIS week in Down Memory Lane I tell the sad story on the loss of life on the Grays-based training ship Goliath, destroyed in an accidental fire on December 22, 1875, with the loss of 23 lives.

From 1870-75, the Forest Gate School District operated the Goliath, moored in the Thames adjacent to Grays Town.

It provided boys from all London’s Poor Law authorities with training to help them enter the Navy.

The scheme proved highly successful and boys joined the ship from the age of 12. Their first task was to learn how to mend and wash their own clothes and keep their lockers and contents in good order.

As well as learning the skills of sailing, rowing, sail and rope-making, gunnery, and signaling, they continued their school work, and other physical activities such as swimming and gymnastics. The ship also had its own band.

The fire that completely destroyed the ship started in the lamp room, when a cadet accidentally dropped a lamp.

It caught light and soon the flames engulfed the room and within hours the whole ship. Some 600 boys were evacuated, including the two daughters of the Captain Supt, who lived on board with their parents.

Despite the heroic efforts of many Grays men, who on hearing the alarms from the ship rowed out to save as many as possible, 22 boys drowned in the waters along with schoolmaster Richard Wheeler.

A mass burial of the boys was undertaken at Grays Parish Church’s detached cemetery in Little Thurrock.

In 1877, a replacement vessel, the Exmouth, took over, managed by the Metropolitan Asylums Board.