Marius among first RN recruits to complete newly-enhanced training course at HMS Raleigh

A Royal Navy recruit from Sidmouth has completed 10 weeks of intensive training and is a step closer to a career at sea, writes Charlie Lister.

Trainee engineering technician Marius Greetham is among the first to finish the newly-enhanced training course at HMS Raleigh in Cornwall.

Originally from South Africa, Marius moved to the UK in 2001 and worked as a porter at the Royal York and Faulkner Hotel before joining the navy.

Now 30, Marius said: “I joined the Royal Navy for a career which was more than the normal nine to five job. “I also wanted to travel and see new places. The best bits of training for me were learning to fire the SA80 rifle and the training on Dartmoor.”

The Royal Navy’s new initial naval training course was introduced in May and is underpinned by nine core maritime skills that are the foundations of naval life.

Marius and his colleagues are taught navigation and orienteering, combat and survival skills, and undergo rigorous fitness training programmes.

He added: “Now that I have completed training I feel immensely proud.

“Everyone here at HMS Raleigh has given me great advice and I can’t wait to join my first ship.”

Marius’s next port of call is HMS Collingwood in Hampshire.

There he will learn the skills required to maintain the Royal Navy’s sophisticated electronic weapons and defence systems.