HMS Sultan welcomed some of the brightest youngsters in the country recently, as they learnt all about Nuclear Marine Engineering within the Royal Navy, as part of a course with the Smallpeice Trust.
The Nuclear Marine Engineering course, which was hosted by HMS Sultan and HMS Excellent, saw a total of 48 children from across the UK spend 4 days within the Portsmouth area.
Throughout the course, youngsters learnt all about life in the Royal Navy taking in a number of interactive tours and activities within establishments, also visiting local attractions including Action Station within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. In addition the students got to spend several nights living on board HMS Bristol.
During their time within HMS Sultan, the children took in tours of the Establishment’s Marine and Air Engineering facilities, and also completed a challenging build activity which involved wiring up and soldering a speaker and amplifier kit in to a cereal packet.
Amongst those taking part was 14 year old Jake Longhurst, from Dr Challoner’s Grammar School, Amersham, he said: “I decided to come on the course as it looked really interesting and it looked like a way to expand my knowledge.
"I find Nuclear Physics aspect of engineering particularly interesting so I decided that to come would be a really good thing to do. Bringing the Navy into it has been really good as it shows you a practical aspect.”
“Not many people think of the Royal Navy when they think of Nuclear Engineering, they think of working in a power plant. Working with the Royal Navy is quite different, it’s much more active and you get to go to lots of different places while you’re in it and so I think it’s quite an interesting way of learning about it.”
“The practical activities have been really engaging, they have been giving us not only something that we can do, but also something which we can take home. It’s really good fun.”
Royal Navy course co-ordinator, Lieutenant Paul Mulroy said: “The kids on the course are very receptive and intelligent and it’s been a pleasure to have them with us for the week.”
“They have been living on board Bristol for the week and the course gives is a great opportunity for them to be immersed in the RN way of life and also affords them vision of what we get up to as engineers.”
