Ship Shape - shelter for Tyneside waifs
Extract from Tough Times and Grisly Crimes
Boys who were deemed to be at risk of being drawn into a life of crime were selected for a unique form of training in the 19th Century. The young lads were sent to live on a 50-gun sailing ship moored off North Shields from 1868 to 1914.
The training ship Wellesley was the brainchild of a philanthropist called James Hall, who believed that tough military training was the best way to keep children out of trouble. The Wellesley Nautical School was home to 300 boys aged 12 to 16.
The vast majority had not been convicted of any criminal offences. However, one boy called Charlton Todd, from South Shields, was sent to the training ship for five years just for stealing a watch belonging to his uncle. Others were selected by the authorities because they were poor and lived on the fringes of the criminal underworld. Records reveal how the ship was designed to “provide shelter for Tyneside waifs and train young men for service in both Royal and Merchant Navies”.
