17/09/2019   |   Andy Sherman

At the start of the 19th century concern grew in government that officers in the British Merchant Navy were poorly educated and badly dsicplined.  While reports from British Consuls around the world seemed to support this worry.  As a result several laws were passed including The Mercantile Marine Act of 1850, which required all foreign going Merchant Navy officers to be certified.  (Later legislation would require all British Merchant Navy personnell to be licensed.)  As a result two colleges were formed to train new officers on the Thames and the Mersey, housed in Royal Navy sailing ships.  Moored in the Mersey off Rock Ferry from 1859, three vessels would go on to take the name HMS Conway.

The first ship to hold the name HMS Conway was a 28 gun corvette laid down in 1829 and commissioned into service in 1832.  While in the service of the Royal Navy Conway sailed to South America, Australia and New Zealand as well as seeing action off the coast of China.  In 1859 she was lent to the Mercantile Marine Association of Liverpool to house their college.  In 1861 Conway was replacesd by a larger vessel, HMS Winchester, the two ships switched names and the college continued.  In 1875 a third ship took over the name and duties of HMS Conway.  This final ship, HMS Nile was the largest vessel to hold the name, with a length of almost 63m.  As a second-rate ship of the line she saw action in the Crimean War and served off the coast of North America, during the American Civil War.  

The former HMS Nile served as the Mersey's marine training college for 78 years, longer then both previsous ship's service combined.  Although only a portion of that time was spent moored off Rock Ferry.

Collisions with HMS Conway are said to have been a constant hazard; in June 1918 she was hit by the steamship Bhamo and her figure head was destroyed.  In October 1940 she was hit by the steamship Hektoria, a 13,000 ton whaling factory ship, forcing HMS Conway to be dry docked in Birkenhead for repairs.  Then in 1941 at the height of the Liverpool air raids it was decided to move her to the Menai Straits that seperate Anglesey from the North Wales mainland. 

Their HMS Conway waited out the rest of the war in relevative safety.  In 1953 Conway was in need of a refit and it was decided to move her back to Liverpool.  On the 14th April two tugs began to tow her through the dangerous swellies, the area of the Straits between the Menai Suspension Bridge and the Britannia Bridge.  Her clearence when travelling under the Menai Suspension Bridge was said to be only three feet, or less if the tide ran high!  Sadly HMS Conway never made it as far as the suspension bridge being over run by a strong tide and forced a ground in the Swellies.  Trapped against the shore and only half floating Conway's timbers cracked and twisted as the tide went out forcing her seems open.  When the tide turned water flooded into her hold and by the following day it was decided that she could not be refloated and was abandoned.  Three years later the remains of the ship caught fire and HMS Conway was burnt to the waterline.    

Although she never returned to the Mersey HMS Conway is strongly commemorated in Liverpool and Birkenhead, as well as further afield.  One of her anchors can be found outside of Liverpool's Maritime Museum at Albert Docks.

Her mast can still be seen rising above the Great Float in Birkenhead and there is a glourious memorial window to all the incarnations of HMS Conway in the Scriptorium at Birkenhead Priory.  Where the Friends of HMS Conway curate a wonderfull museum.  The figurehead from the final ship to carry the name Conway, HMS Nile, can also be vsisted by appointment at HMS Nelson, Her Majesty's Naval Base in Portsmouth.