Training Ship Indefatigable
 by Martin Grieve, 22 September 2003
TS Indefatigable was established by John Clint in 1865 to provide a home and 
nauticaltraining for destitute and orphan boys from Liverpool. Financial 
assistance was provided by James Bibby, owner of the Bibby Line shipping 
company. The ship, built in 1848, wasone of the last wooden frigates of the 
Royal Navy. She was moored at Rock Ferry on the Birkenhead side of the Mersey, 
in the same area as two other training ships, Akbar and Conway. Another training 
ship, Clarence, was later moored nearby at New Ferry.

The old frigate was scrapped in 1914 and replaced by the masted cruiser Phaeton, 
renamed Indefatigable. She had been one of the last Royal Navy ships fitted with 
sails and engines. The school moved ashore in 1940, found a permanent site at 
Plas Llanfair, Anglesey, in 1944, and remained there until the school closed in 
1995.

An Admiralty Warrant for a Blue Ensign defaced with a Liver Bird was issued 31 
December 1927. The only information about the appearance of the badge was the 
description, 'a Liver Bird, with an ivy leaf in its beak, standing on a red and 
white torse'. Martin's image is derived from the badge of the Royal Mersey Yacht 
Club's
Blue Ensign which is a Liver Bird surmounted by a royal crown.
David Prothero, 22 September 2003
nenshop Flaggenshop