HMS Arethusa was launched in 1849 and saw action in the Crimean War. She was the last British ship to go into battle under sail. In 1873 at the end of her useful life, the Royal Navy sold her to be converted into Training Ship for boys and she was moored in the Thames at Greenhithe (between Dartford and Gravesend) alongside HMS Chichster, another Boys Training Ship run by the Lord Shaftesbury charity.

The ship took in young boys from the poorer parts of London. Life on board was tough and the disciplne harsh. But they were fed and clothed and taught the basic skills and discipline required to be a sailor either in the Royal or the Merchant Navy. In this tough environment Albert McKenzie excelled at boxing.

Arethusa was finally sent to the breakers yard in 1933 but at least one of her cabins was salvaged . When Sir Clough Williams-Ellis created Portmeirion village (location for the TV series 'The Prisoner') he used the timbers from Arethusa in the Cockpit Bar (below) in the Portmeirion Hotel. The bar was lost in a fire in 1981.