The Company's new Cadet Training Establishment at Aigburth, near Liverpool was completed last year at a cost of approximately £165.000 and was officially opened on 18th September 1963 by Mrs. Lawrence Holt. Appropriately named Aulis, the building is situated at the end of Riversdale Road, in nine acres of the Company's playing fields, and overlooks the River Mersey.  The new building, which is a three-storey structure, stands on the site of the old Midshipmen's Hostel which, for more than forty years served us well. Today however, with the need for improved facilities for shore-based training, a much larger establishment was deemed necessary, and Aulis has been designed and built to meet this need.

The building can accommodate 110 midshipmen and engineer cadets and there are at present equal numbers of each at the hostel.  Their length of stay at Aulis varies from six months, in the case of midshipmen, to two years for engineer cadets.  Both categories are trained primarily as Blue Funnel Officers and only secondarily as specialists. They have the same discipline, sport, hobbies and social activities and, after equal shares in the responsibilities of the house, they will share the same accommodation, when they go to sea, as cadets. (Plan of Building)

The residents are accommodated in dormitories, each furnished with six beds but it is in the dayrooms (which include a large assembly room which can be used for recreation, dancing, cinema, assembly or as a lecture hall, a large well equipped Library; three studies, one furnished for chart work and engineering drawing; two common rooms; two workshops equipped for metalwork, woodwork and handicrafts; a photographic darkroom) that they find their opportunities for study and recreation.  The dining room seats 120 and is supplied by a fine modern kitchen.  The house stands among lawns and trees and is adjacent to the Company's playing fields where football cricket and tennis are the main activities.  Across the road is the Riversdale Technical College where many of the residents receive their technical education.

Speaking at the opening, Mr. G. P. Holt said that the British Shipping Industry was fully alive to its duty to train and in that sphere, probably carried a bigger burden, not only of responsibility but also of expense than most of its overseas rivals.  There was also the growing realisation that the training of midshipmen was a joint enterprise in which the State, the City and the Company were partners.

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(Publication- January 1964)