HMS Boscawen

HMS Boscawen in 1904

Boscawen, I, II, III

The training ship HMS Boscawen  arrived in Portland  in  1862. She was a three decked sailing ship of the line, launched in 1844 but reduced to a hulk in 1862 and converted into a training ship.

The original Boscawen at Portland left in 1873 and was replaced by HMS Trafalgar, which took  the name Boscawen and remained at Portland until she was sold in 1906. As the Royal Navy grew in size towards the end of the 19th century, so additional accommodation was required for boys' training. To meet the demand for additional capacity, two old  ironclad warships were put into service, the Minotaur in 1898 and by Agincourt in 1904. or so some report.  (see below) They were known as Boscawen II and Boscawen III respectively.  

The interest in this case is that Charles John Strudwick, after joining HMS St. Vincent in Feb 1900 at the age of 14 as a Boy 2nd Class, went on to Minotaur (Boscawen) in Jan 1901, then  Agincourt (Boscawen) in July 1901, again moving on shortly after, in August. 

On his service record  it seems that the captains who completed the entries used the names of the individual ships rather than  Boscawen I, II, III.

As far as we can tell at the moment he moved to HMS Trafalgar, (not the same one mentioned above)  which at this time was a pre-dreadnaught battleship (see Battleship information)

The note above, says that Agincourt did not arrive until 1904,  however the document clearly records Charles going to Agincourt in 1901!

link to Battleship Information