PeterA
New Member
Training Ketch \'TECTONA\'
Greetings, all. I recently made contact with a fellow ex-cadet, and member of this forum, from the RNC Plymouth (mid 1970's, in our case) and we were reminiscing about the times we spent sailing in Tectona, and wondering what became of her. There is a rumour she was wrecked. In July last year, a Mr.Martin Kenny posted on the S.W.Maritime Hist. Soc. website:
Martin Kenny - Whatever happened to Tectona after Roscoff?
There were no responses, however.Was she wrecked at Roscoff?
Sadly there is hardly information on the web about her, and what there is, is very difficult to find. Searching for 'tectona' gets you 160 thousand hits, 150 thousand of which are about trees. Searching deeper you end up with maybe a half dozen passing references, of which Mr. Kenny's is one, and that's about it.
As my correspondent remarked, if she was indeed wrecked, it would be a sad end for a vessel which took so many 'penguins' to sea, many for the first time.
I am minded therefore, to try and collate as much information as possible about her with a view to giving the old girl a website of her own. I suspect that there are many more former cadets who have searched the web for news of her, without success.
To that end, I have opened an e-mail account to start the collection process(hopefully!). The address is:
tectona(dot)info(at)gmail(dot)com
Or here on this forum, of course. Or both! Any memories, anecdotes, bits of her history, whatever. Photographs would be *very* welcome if you would care to share them.
There are two paintings of her, incidentally, at Gordon Frickers' website:
http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/tectona_bolt_head.html
http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/tectona_moyana_eddystone.html
As far as I know, they are the only images of her on the web. Please help us to change that, should you have a bit of spare time.
Here is one of the first 'recorded' anecdotes in what will hopefully become a large file:
"Back in mid 70's when I was cadet on Tectona - I was helmsman and we were swinging compass of a rock on SW coast .... skipper then - can't remember name - but he remarked that the potholes and blisters you could see on the rock - BIG rock - were from firings by RN etc. He assured us that there was to be no firing that day................. Whoosh KRUMP ! We sort of went about and skedaddled as fast as we could get the old tub going .... " (Thanks to Small_boat_champ for this.)
I bet there was some elegant seamanship displayed as she went about that day....*grin*
The bare bones of the story seem to be that she was built on a beach in India by an Army Colonel (we believe in the 1890's) who subsequently sailed her back to the U.K. His widow bequeathed her to Plymouth Council who passed her to the RNC in 1965. My correspondent and I were cadets in her mid '70's and after I left Plymouth, I heard nothing of her.
I am contacting the archive departments of the august bodies involved but it is you, gentle readers,
who can contribute much to this project.
Thank you for wading through this lengthy post; I hope I will hear from some of you in due course.
Regards to you all,
Peter.
Greetings, all. I recently made contact with a fellow ex-cadet, and member of this forum, from the RNC Plymouth (mid 1970's, in our case) and we were reminiscing about the times we spent sailing in Tectona, and wondering what became of her. There is a rumour she was wrecked. In July last year, a Mr.Martin Kenny posted on the S.W.Maritime Hist. Soc. website:
Martin Kenny - Whatever happened to Tectona after Roscoff?
There were no responses, however.Was she wrecked at Roscoff?
Sadly there is hardly information on the web about her, and what there is, is very difficult to find. Searching for 'tectona' gets you 160 thousand hits, 150 thousand of which are about trees. Searching deeper you end up with maybe a half dozen passing references, of which Mr. Kenny's is one, and that's about it.
As my correspondent remarked, if she was indeed wrecked, it would be a sad end for a vessel which took so many 'penguins' to sea, many for the first time.
I am minded therefore, to try and collate as much information as possible about her with a view to giving the old girl a website of her own. I suspect that there are many more former cadets who have searched the web for news of her, without success.
To that end, I have opened an e-mail account to start the collection process(hopefully!). The address is:
tectona(dot)info(at)gmail(dot)com
Or here on this forum, of course. Or both! Any memories, anecdotes, bits of her history, whatever. Photographs would be *very* welcome if you would care to share them.
There are two paintings of her, incidentally, at Gordon Frickers' website:
http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/tectona_bolt_head.html
http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/tectona_moyana_eddystone.html
As far as I know, they are the only images of her on the web. Please help us to change that, should you have a bit of spare time.
Here is one of the first 'recorded' anecdotes in what will hopefully become a large file:
"Back in mid 70's when I was cadet on Tectona - I was helmsman and we were swinging compass of a rock on SW coast .... skipper then - can't remember name - but he remarked that the potholes and blisters you could see on the rock - BIG rock - were from firings by RN etc. He assured us that there was to be no firing that day................. Whoosh KRUMP ! We sort of went about and skedaddled as fast as we could get the old tub going .... " (Thanks to Small_boat_champ for this.)
I bet there was some elegant seamanship displayed as she went about that day....*grin*
The bare bones of the story seem to be that she was built on a beach in India by an Army Colonel (we believe in the 1890's) who subsequently sailed her back to the U.K. His widow bequeathed her to Plymouth Council who passed her to the RNC in 1965. My correspondent and I were cadets in her mid '70's and after I left Plymouth, I heard nothing of her.
I am contacting the archive departments of the august bodies involved but it is you, gentle readers,
who can contribute much to this project.
Thank you for wading through this lengthy post; I hope I will hear from some of you in due course.
Regards to you all,
Peter.
