H.M.S. Excellent (Gunnery Training School)
From The Dreadnought Project
H.M.S. Excellent, also known as Portsmouth Gunnery School or Whale Island was the British Royal Navy's main gunnery training establishment for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
History
A gunnery training school was founded in H.M.S. Excellent (formerly the Boyne)[1] 1830 at Portsmouth under Commander George Smith. The school was permanently established there in 1832, under Captain Thomas Hastings who remained in command until 1845, when he was succeeded by Captain Henry Ducie Chads.[2]