Boarding school traditionally brings to mind a combination of dormitories, prep and prefects on the prowl – but the Navy’s boarding school is more about guns, batons and fast boats as the immortal cry “The Navy’s here!” once more reverberates around the Fleet.

In a modest brick building close to the water’s edge at HMS Raleigh in Cornwall, the legendary tradition of HMS Cossack is taught to today’s sailors.

More than 60 years after the crew of Cossack stormed aboard the German surface raider Altmark to rescue prisoners captured by the pocket battleship Graf Spee, hollering that famous cry, the memory lives on in the Navy’s boarding school.

Today it is mv not HMS Cossack which provides the backdrop for passing boarding skills on to 21st Century sailors.

But the same courage and expertise demonstrated in a Norwegian fjord in 1940 is needed more than ever now.

In the aftermath of September 11, few areas of front-line training are busier – or more relevant and important – than the Naval Military Training school at Torpoint.

Each week 150 to 200 sailors pass through the centre, housed in the Cambridge block at HMS Raleigh – the name is homage to the old gunnery school – as the Navy trains to defend itself at home and in foreign waters from the threat of terrorist attack.

Since the deadly terrorist attack on the USS Cole there has been a fundamental shift in the way the RN protects the Fleet at sea and in harbour, not least because the atrocity exposed shortcomings in the defence of vessels against small craft zipping around on the surface.

In some cases it has meant bolstering the firepower, such as providing extra machine-guns and, as Navy News revealed, plans to adapt the Phalanx and Goalkeeper systems to direct their devastating fire against surface targets as well as incoming shells and missiles are being considered.

But any weapon is only as good as the person using it, which is where the NMT comes in.

“A lot of people think of us down here as a small backwater training establishment,” said the NMT’s Commanding Officer, Maj Willie Hannah. “We are the front-line support for counter-terrorism and force protection. It’s a massive growth industry.

“The Cole incident made many navies sit up and take notice. For the Royal Navy, ship protection is aimed at countering the terror threat in the UK, but chiefly abroad.”

Any visitor to naval bases in the past three years or witness to RN vessels passing through constricted waters such as the Suez Canal or Straits of Gibraltar cannot have failed to notice the extra vigilance of armed crew patrolling the upper decks and manning the guns.

All of which stems from the training given at the NMT, and Maj Hannah realises that the training places great demands on the RN’s men and women.

“Ship protection requires a high turnover of personnel – it’s tiring; it demands a lot of concentration. We are empowering young people with a heavy responsibility,” he said.

“But what we are seeing is a core of expertise running through the surface fleet now which is being passed on.”

Whatever the scenario – drug runners, smugglers, terror suspects – it’s a major test of ability for the search teams, and above all for the boarding officer.

“Boardings can be tense and intimidating. You don’t know how the merchant ship’s crew is going to react,” explained RN board and searching training officer Lt Jim Heyworth.

“Leadership is the key. The boarding officer needs to grasp the situation from the outset. It’s a bit like an infantry officer commanding his men without the help of the normal chain of command.”

For some boarding party sailors there is one more danger – or thrill – in the search experience: fast roping.

Only volunteers train to abseil 60ft out of a Lynx on to a ship’s deck – simulated at the NMT with a 50ft high tower. It should take about 25 seconds to slither down the line.

But it’s not a question of showing off – it’s a necessity when the weather’s too bad to launch a ship’s rigid inflatable boat (RIB).

It’s time-consuming too – a boarding requiring two RIBs can take four or five trips in a Lynx to offload a boarding party.

The art of boarding is a long-standing RN tradition and continues into the 21st Century with anti-smuggling operations in the Gulf and Caribbean, mainly searching for oil and drugs respectively.

Board and search training never went out of fashion; it just never had a facility quite as impressive as Cossack.

Sailors are not expected to secure suspect vessels; that remains the preserve of the Royal Marines.

But the arduous task of scouring a vessel for contraband, arms and explosives – or even people – is the task of a ship’s crew, and is anything but straightforward.

“Boarding is a means to an end,” said Lt Heyworth. “The search is the most important part.”

Trainees clamber out of the RIB (anchored firmly on dry land at Cossack) then clamber up a ladder on to Cossack’s ‘deck’ before beginning their search.

The ‘ship’ is equipped with a bridge, crew’s cabins and engine and lower deck compartments to make the training as authentic as possible.

Smell adds to the authenticity. ‘Smell generators’ even throw out odours foul enough to make boarding parties throw up. But if it sounds grim, it’s because it’s like that in real life.

Smugglers don’t especially want you to find their booty. So ‘mv Cossack’ is kitted out with hidden compartments to test the skill of a boarding party, from secret panels and goods hidden in chart cases, to items tucked away among pipes.

Then add the human factor – sailors from Raleigh, dressed up as merchant sailors and told to be awkward or compliant, depending on the scenario.

One new piece of kit which gives today’s boarding party the edge – besides Royal Navy sailors, of course – then it is the new communications system being introduced to the front line.

Carried in two waterproof, watertight cases by the boarding officer, and also fitted to a RIB, Xeres provides unparalleled links between a search team and their mother ship.

GPS satellite tracking fitted to the RIB and computer mapping means the team can be directed to the correct ship if there are many vessels close together.

But the real wizardry is reserved for the boarding officer’s baggage.

The Xeres kit he or she carries includes a secure video phone linking with the parent ship – radio communications are all well and good, but pictures are worth a thousand words.

A crewman pretending to be the merchantman’s captain could be put in front of the video link, so the warship’s CO can certify or disprove who he is.

And documents can be transmitted over the airwaves after being scanned in for instant assessment, rather than laboriously ferried back by RIB or helicopter to the warship.

Another addition to a ship’s arsenal is a non-lethal weapon – the baton, similar to those used by police forces.

Batons will be used chiefly by sentry teams guarding ships in port. One sentry, if he or she feels threatened, can use a baton on a suspicious character, while a second sailor will have a rifle at the ready, just in case the suspect becomes more threatening.

It’s an asset sailors have not had before, and they have welcomed it.

“You cannot just shoot someone because they are acting suspiciously – there are strictly defined rules of engagement, and the baton provides an extra, non-lethal option,” Maj Hannah explained.