T.S Royalist - an adventure of a lifetime by Joey in Year 9

T.S Royalist is a sailing brig which means that it is a tall ship with two masts. There are many sails aboard that we had to learn the names of.  Royalist is crewed and operated by a maximum of 9 members of staff and 24 sea cadets or marine cadets for each voyage. It is a regular entrant in the Tall Ships Race and is frequently seen in the Solent and also in London.

The history behind T.S Royalist

T.S Royalist was built between 2014 and 2015 replacing an older version which was built in 1971. T.S Royalist is the flagship (the best ship) of the Sea Cadet Corps.

A typical day onboard.

You usually get up at 6:30am or 07:00am for breakfast. Once you have eaten you then go up on deck for a daily briefing (what you are going to do for the day). Once you have done this it is on to the sailing task.

You leave the dock using the engines but once at sea put up the sails using the halyards (ropes to pull the sails up). It is hard work but you go very fast when you are sailing.

A sailing day is typically 8 hours long with the journey normally between two ports. It is great fun and made more enjoyable by the food. Most of us could not wait for lunch. Once anchored we put the sails away and had dinner.

One of the best parts about the voyage was going ashore (going into the town). We were allowed to take some money with us so we could buy some souvenirs.

One of the not so good parts is being a duty messman (someone who cleans the plates and serves everyone), everyone has to do it for 1 day so you stay behind after dinner, even this was not so bad.

I learnt a lot on this voyage such as navigation and chart work, how to steer the ship, controlling the engines and bow thruster, pulling ropes and teamwork.

You can make some good friends onboard so I really recommend it if anyone wants an adventure.

My thanks go to Mr Liley and the staff of TAS for allowing me go on this adventure of a lifetime.