Shipwright Guilden Gilbert sailed off to England with 48 other apprentices on board the MV .

After some trouble being at sea during a hurricane, facing bad weather near Cork, they finally landed in Liverpool and were transported by train to London ending their journey in Portsmouth.

When he lived in Portsmouth, he lived in Gosport, which he knew nothing about.

?It is on the mainland and I had to go by ferry every day to Portsmouth,? he said.

Mr, Gilbert was a bright young fellow and he claims he was the youngest to ever enter the Apprenticeship Scheme at the Dockyard.

?I was not even 14 and I sat the exam when I was 13 and three months,? he said. ?But there was a law that was implemented that you could only enter if you were 14 by October 1 ? and that was my birthday!?

But when he got to Portsmouth, although he was a third year apprentice in Bermuda, he was put back into the first year.

?I didn?t really mind that because it taught me a great deal more ? a lot of the practical parts I learned in Bermuda, but a lot of the theory I learned there,? he said. ?As an apprentice in Portsmouth, we had trade lectures twice a week and attended school one full day and one evening at the Royal Naval Technical College and that was compulsory.

?I took my practical test and my theory test and passed it and I spent my last year there in what was called the ship shop.?

Mr. Gilbert took up the trade of becoming a shipwright and contrary to what everyone else has stated, he said: ?Shipwright was the senior trade in all Naval Dockyard and those electrical and fitters may not like the idea, but it was a senior trade.?

Unlike many of the young apprentices he always worked in the shop and never went afloat.

?I specialised in metal work,? he said. ?It was a large factory and they fabricated almost everything that went onto the ships.

?I received a broad knowledge of ship construction. I think that most of our guys were really quite successful.

?It was an adventure, an experience and something that I have never forgotten and never will. It was a great experience!?