TS Royalist Tallship Sailing June 2005
It
all started on a Saturday with Cameron
and, me Tom Oakley.
After a very slow drive down to Gosport
we arrived on the ship and were immediately
set to work polishing the brass on TS Royalist,
a 29.5m twin masted square rigger. There
were people from as far away as Northampton
and Wales, and I was surprised
to see familiar faces from the same district
as us.
Then we had to scale halfway up the mast.
This was a daunting task as it involved
climbing 12 metres up including having
to climb out on an overhang and haul ourselves
up to the tiny platform. This
was made worse by some of the more nervous cadets
losing their nerve halfway up meaning some
cadets were left 
holding on to the wooden
ladder for around half an hour. Once you
were on the platform there was no time
to enjoy the view as you immediately had
to jump across the mast to the other side
and climb down. With the whole rigging
being held up by just a few pieces of rope,
I began to feel like a fly caught in a
giant spider’s web.
Sunday started with what some people considered to be an early start of 7 o’clock, little did they know that worse was to come. The 4 yardsmen had the scary task of climbing up to the very top to undo the gaskets on the sails. I was in the after port division, which meant all the ropes and sails it was my responsibility to deal with were on the rear end of the ship, on the left side. We left Gosport, put in a good days sailing around the Isle of Wight and returned to Portsmouth in the evening. There was a reasonable wind and the sea was pretty calm. For most of the day I was on mess duty, which involved setting up the meals, clearing up and then washing up afterwards.
The
next day we had an earlier start of 4:30am and after roughly 5 hours sleep
most of us were not our usual happy selves.
We ventured westwards to Poole. The wind
was slightly stronger than it had been
the previous day and the sea was starting
to feel a bit lumpy. A few people took
the opportunity to have awful bouts of
seasickness. Someone managed to vomit over
the side seven times. As a crew we lived
in constant fear of one of the instructors
shouting “Bracing Stations!” at
us cadets. This meant we had to rush to
our own specific ropes which we would either
let go of or pull in with all our strength
depending on what way we wanted to tack
the ship. When we got to Poole we amazed
crowds by nearly all of us climbing the
mast to roll in the sails. We looked like
a really organised crew, not showing how new to it we were.
After
that we had a session of “Porkey”.
Porkey was a small china pig that would
confiscate kit that was not stowed away
properly and then sell it back to the owner
at 10p an item. Of course this meant if
your wash kit was found lying around you
had to pay a hefty sum. We were then granted
shore leave which meant we had the chance
to waste all our money in the arcades and
have our first shower of the week.
On Tuesday there was yet another early start and at 4:30 the whole ship’s company was woken up by the coxswain playing YMCA at full volume. We then set off for Weymouth. The weather was sunny with a cooling sea breeze. We stopped in a bay along the way to see a historic village. When we got to Weymouth we were moored alongside The Lord Nelson, another large tall ship making a very impressive sight. Some of us decided it would be a fun idea to go for a swim in the inviting shallow water on Weymouth beach. The sun had fooled us, the water was icy cold. I was soon beginning to regret my decision to go for a swim but managed to stay in the freezing cold water for a good 10 minutes.
Wednesday
morning seemed like a lie-in with us having to rouse ourselves as late
as 7:30. For the second time in the week
we were made to peel off our socks and
shoes and scrub the decks. This was partly
because almost the whole ships company
came in covered in sand after having spent
the previous evening hanging out on the
beach. For the first time in the week the
weather was truly horrible with a grey
sky and rain spitting onto us. The sailing
was good as there was a lot of wind and
some big waves. We went to Cowes where
there were lovely clean showers and we
then treated ourselves to a portion of
chips after supper.
The next morning we were granted more shore leave and we had a chance to run about and try on souvenir hats and shoot each other with water pistols. The weather was once again very grey for the duration of the day, but it stopped raining fairly early on. On the way into the harbour we passed HMS Lancaster, which meant we had to all stand at attention holding out our white caps and shout “Hurrah!”
When
we arrived back in Gosport we had the chance
of once again climbing the mast to fold
away the sails. We were then granted shore
leave so we had a last chance to all go
out on the town and sing loudly. This caused
a bit of trouble as when we got back to
HMS Dolphin - the shore establishment that
Royalist was berthed at - one of the guards
thought we were all drunk!
The following morning we said our good-byes and exchange numbers with our new friends, and had fun singing together as we waited to be taken home. I really enjoyed my week on TS Royalist and will definitely do it again, and would recommend it to all other cadets.
Tom Oakley June 2005