When the Beagle was launched on the Thames in 1820, she was brig-rigged carrying only two masts with square-rigged sails. Because this design of ship sat low in the water and had a habit of turning-turtle if mishandled in heavy weather, it was sometimes referred to as a 'coffin ship'.
In 1825, however, she was re-rigged as a barque with the addition of a mizzen (third) mast fitted with fore and aft sails. This configuration made the ship more manoeuvrable.

When HMS Beagle was commissioned in 1831 to continue survey work in the Southern Ocean, she was again refitted under the direction of Robert FitzRoy, her captain, who ensured she benefited from the latest in nautical technology. For example, for the first time in a Royal Navy ship, lightening conductors were fitted to all the masts.
At 235 tons, the Beagle's masts and spars were extra strong, and chains had been used in place of ropes where possible.
It was under the command of skilled navigator and surveyor, Captain FitzRoy, the ship carried the young naturalist, Charles Darwin on the voyages which were to lead to his theory of evolution.

The vision of the Beagle Project Pembrokeshire is build a replica of the three masted barque which carried Darwin on his epic voyages (1831-1836). She will be "built of larch on oak frames, the hull will be copper sheathed and the boat will be fitted with modern propulsion, navigation, safety and communications equipment."
Like the 1830's vessel, she will be equipped with the latest technology, "to allow aspiring and practising scientists to use her as a platform from which to collect specimens and on which to store samples and stage experiments". She will be an inspiration to a new generation of scientists.
And on her first major voyage (2009) she will circumnavigate the globe, retracing the voyage the Beagle took in Darwin's day.

For further information on The Beagle Project go to the links below.
Photo (M. Muir - HMS Endeavour replica)

On Feb 5, 2007 I begin e-studies with the University of Exeter's Distance Learning program.

The subject of sailing ships relates mainly to the area of the SW coast of England, namely Cornwall and Devon.
It doesn't just cover the naval ships but the economy of the area and its merchant's fleets for a period of 100 years.
This was the heyday of sailing ships from ship's of war to sailing clippers.
I know I am going to enjoy it.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the DVD of the White Squall.
It's the true story of a tall ship adventure with a group of youths on a fully rigged sail training ship in the 1960s.
It brought back memories of my times on the STS Leeuwin and the voyages I took on the Indian Ocean a few years ago.
It also reminded me of the tropical low which the Star Clipper struck as it neared the West Indies near the end of my voyage across the Atlantic.
Quite a storm - but what an experience!
I've been looking at the voyages offered by Victory Cruises on the 'Europa' which sails out of Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego. It's voyages include the Antarctic Peninsula, Falkland Islands and across the South Atlantic to Cape Town.
Would love to go on that - but it will have to remain on the wish-list!

I was particularly struck by the final lines of dialogue in the movie.

"You can't run from the wind. You must face the music and keep going."

How true. Just like life!

The image, by Rod Thompson, appears on the website of www.victory-cruises.com organisers of tall ship sailings in Antarctic waters - including the vayages by the Europa.

What better day to read the final pages of Pockock's book, Trafalgar, than today - the 201st anniversay of that awful battle.
As the majority of his story is made up of letters written on board the British, French and Spanish ships immediatley prior to, or after the battle, the words are poignant - the descriptions of carnage of both men and vessel - unbelieveable.
Likewise, Nelson's last few hours spent below deck are reported in such a way one feels as though one is present at his passing.
And following the French defeat, Pockock writes of the gales which lashed the fleets for several few days, sinking many of the prizes and robbing the seaman of their hard earned rewards.
Ironically hundreds of those seamen and marines, who survived that most horrendous sea battle, died at the hands of the hurricane-force storm, uncerimoniuosly joining their mates in the deep.
I now wish I had read the book before visiting Victory this year.
I must go back one day.

Photo (M Muir): The Royal barge of Charles 11 (built 1670) carried Nelson's coffin along the River Thames. (Royal Navel dockyard museum, Portmouth)

In July 2006 I stood on the deck of HMS Victory and gazed down at the plaque which marked the spot where Nelson fell.
So immense was the impact of the great ship, I had to wipe the tears from my eyes.
I can honestly say I have never been so awed by a tall ship in my life.
The sheer size of Victory is amazing. The length of its decks, the number and size of its guns.
And below decks the area where the everyday life of the ship was conducted: the quarters, the cabins, the sickbay, the huge staterooms - one Admiral Lord Nelson, another other for the Captain Hardy; the furnishings, including the original round table used by Nelson in his day cabin; and a replica of his hanging cot with its delicately hand-embroidered drapes.
Launched from the Chatham dockyard in Kent on 7th May 1765, it is said that Victory was then more ornate than she is today.
That is hard to believe!
She carried a crew of 850 and a complement of 104 guns including two 68 pounder carronades, and remained in service until 1812.
At 3500 tons, this formidable fighting machine could sail at a speed of 11 knots under a spread of 37 sails.
What a sight she would have been!
Victory was brought to her present berth at Portsmouth's Royal Naval Dockyard in1922 where she stands proudly as the centre piece of a remarkable collection of true nautical heritage.
To one side she is flanked by the HMS Warrior - Britain's first and last iron hulled warships (1860) - on the other, the remains of King Henry V111's ship, the Mary Rose (1510).
I will write more on these in a later entry.
If I had seen nothing else on my visit to England, I would have been satisfied in having visited this magnificent ship.
Over 33 million visitors have trodden Victory's decks before me and I am sure most will have left with feelings similar to my own.
If you love tall ships or history, a visit to the naval dockyards at Portsmouth is a must.

More pics at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/throughglasseyes
(see intro above for active link)

This extraordinary ship was designed 1839 in an era when square rigged shipped sailed the seas, and when Admiral Lord Nelson and Trafalgar where still imprinted on men's memories.
Prince Albert Launched the SS Great Britain at Bristol in 1843, the same year Charles Dickens published, 'A Christmas Carol'.
This monster ship was the brainchild of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and its construction was set to change the history of shipping.
Here was an enormous iron hulled ship which not only had a powerful 1000 horsepower engine and propeller, but she was rigged as a schooner with six huge masts and was the first of the great ocean-going passenger liners.
Her first crossing from Liverpool to New York was in 1845 took 14 days.
In 1852 she began carrying emigrants to Australia. The passage took 60 days.
The SS Great Britain even carried the first England cricket team down under, in 1861, and between 1856 and 1857 she carried troops and horses to the Crimea.
In 1881, the ship was sold. Her engine was removed along with two of her masts and she was turned into a sailing ship, a Windjammer - three masts carrying square rigged sails and staysails.
She battled the Horn numerous times on her way to San Francisco and circumnavigated the globe 32 times in her career.
But by the outbreak of WW1, this once magnificent ship was being used as a coal supply ship. Soon after the war she was scuttled and left to rust away in The Falkland Islands. There she stayed for over thirty years.
The plan to salvage her, to bring her back to Bristol and restore to something of her former glory was a bold mission. The man responsible was Ewan Corlett, a naval architect.
After towing the hull home over 8000 miles of treacherous seas, the SS Great Britain returned to the dockyard where she was built exactly 127 years before.
At last, in 2005, after years of painstaking reconstruction work, this remarkable ship was 're-launched'.
Stepping aboard the SS Great Britain, dubbed 'one of the most important historic ships in the world', is like stepping back in history.
You can walk through the first class saloons, see the bunks of the steerage passengers, even see the heads (inside toilets) and the gaol.
Perhaps one of the most amazing sights is the main yard which carried just one of its billowing square sails. This single yard (which sat horizontally across the main mast), is 100 feet long and weighs 7 tons.

There has long been a rumour that Henry V111's ship, the Mary Rose sank on her maiden voyage.
This is not true.
She was launched in Portsmouth in 1511 and from 1512 to 1514 fought the French in the English Channel off Brest and Cherbourg.
In 1513 she was fighting the Scots off Newcastle
During the second French Wars, 1522 to 1525, she was again engaged at sea, and it was when she was about to sail, once more against the French, in 1545 she sank not more than two kilometres from Portsmouth harbour.
There she sat for well over 400 years, her keel and starboard side encased in a protective layer of Solent silt.
The Mary Rose was lifted to the surface in 1982 from which time restoration work has been ongoing.

To visit to the Royal Naval Dockyards at Portsmouth and hope to take in the sheer magic and majesty of the three vessels housed there (The Victory, The Warrior and the Mary Rose), and ingest all the information available, is wishful thinking.
I left the Mary Rose to last, I suppose because the shed she is housed in is not as inspiring as a tall ship sitting in a dock in front of you.
Now I wish I had had more time.

Consider the age of the Mary Rose, built almost entirely of oak.
Consider a purpose built warship.
Consider life on board in the early 1500s - much of which the artefacts brought up with the ship have revealed.
Consider the men who sailed her - the mariners who earned 6s 8d a month (1545).
Consider the perilous tides and currents of the Solent which can toy with today's vessels, vessels equipped with the latest in navigational equipment.
For any ship to sail in and out of these waters was a feat all of its own.
When The Mary Rose went down, for as yet unknown causes (though several have been postulated), she took most of her crew of 385 (at least) with her.
The remains of 200 of these men were uncovered within the wreck, the majority being healthy young men in their late teens or early twenties.

Note on photograph: Though I tried to photography the ship though the Perspex walls and treatments mists of its sealed environment, my attempts were unsuccessful for reproduction here. I have therefore taken the liberty of photographing the ship from the Mary Rose, Museum and Ship Hall book, which I purchased during my visit.

It's quite possible that when HMS Warrior was launched at Blackwell in 1860, the event may have been witnessed by an old seadog who had served under Nelson on the Victory.
Imagine his amazement at the changes which had taken place in ship design and construction in only 50 years.
From wooden hulled fighting ships like HMS Victory to an iron framed, armour plated warship equipped with both sail and steam and driven by a propeller. The Warrior could sail before the wind under her 48,400 sq foot of sail or head into the wind, its 10 boilers and four furnaces operating at searing temperatures to power its huge engine.
Its two massive funnels were telescopic and could be cranked down when steam was not required.
Its four 5.6 ton anchors at both bow and stern, each needed 100 men on a capstan to raise them.
It's 4 wheeled helm (as in the picture) which at times needed 16 men to hold the ship on course.
A speed of 13 knots under sail and 14.5 in steam.
A crew of 700 men now dressed in the uniform of the Royal Navy.
But perhaps most of all to its fighting power:
Twenty six 68 pounder muzzle loading guns
And ten breech loading 110 pounders.

Stepping on the Warrior's deck, and wandering through the massive ship, is like taking a step back in time.
Having the opportunity to do that is thanks to the Warrior Preservations Trust and the men who rescued her from the scrap yard on more than one occasion in her life.

Sadly, HMS Warrior's days of glory were few.
By 1870 masts and yards had become obsolescent.
She had served as Britain's finest warship for only 10 years.
For the next 100 years she found service only at the bottom end of the maritime ladder.
But in 1979, with her hull still intact, she was taken to Hartlepool for restoration. Eight years later, surrounded by a flotilla of small ships, the newly restored warship was towed to the Royal Naval dockyards at Portsmouth, where she stands today - a tribute to the shipbuilders of the mid 1800s.
Photo: M. Muir - The Warrior's mighty helm

Taking the helm - mid Atlantic - on a 3000 tonne clipper ship - is quite a buzz.
Today's ships sail for much of the voyage on automatic pilot (like a plane) but this can be switched off at any time, such as in a storm situation or if a rookie like me wants to try their hand at the job.
I was pleased to say that after an hour, the officer of the watch announced me I had maintained the same speed as the automatic pilot - and I didn't leave a zig-zag train in my wake.
I was delighted.
Note: I have now made a Squidoo lens on Cruising the North Atlantic - see links above.

Tales of tall ships and early explorers excite the imagination. Pictures of square sails and yardarms bent to the sea, evoke images of the past. But the days of the fully rigged ships are gone and stories of the men who sailed in them live only in the pages of a book.
Twice a year a modern clipper sails across the Atlantic providing its passengers with the opportunity to step back in time. A chance to taste the salt. To experience the power of nature. To hear the ship's own music: the thrum of wind through rigging and the beat of the bow as it pounds relentlessly into the swell. The ship is the Star Clipper. I join her in Spain.

You can read the full story on my website.
Here's how it ends:
The first storm hits around 11 pm. It arrives stealthily out of the night and takes everyone by surprise. The ship heels and for fifteen minutes the wind speed reaches force 9 on the Beaufort scale. The sound of the gale ripping through the rigging is thunderous. What we experience is a tropical low. Fortunately it does not intensify into a hurricane.

The following day with the West Indies almost in sight, another storm looms on the radar. On deck all eyes are fixed on the gathering clouds. At first they flank the ship. Rolling. Moving rapidly. Spawning smaller storms which quickly close in. The automatic pilot is switched off. The helm is manned. Sails are furled and the cat and mouse game of storm evasion begins.

From the deck I see the rain approaching. As it gets closer, the surface of the sea bubbles. The storm hits. It lasts for twenty minutes.
Standing on the leeward side, the sea and sky meld enveloping the ship in an eerie aura of strange aqua light. The rain blows horizontally. The sea boils and the gunnels lean down to meet it. In the dining room, plates and glasses crash to the floor. Passengers grapple to remain upright - but throughout the storm they thrill to the excitement. This is sailing at its best!

The following day we sight land, La Diserade and Guadeloupe, and head north toward the Netherlands Antilles and the tiny island of St Maarten.

After twenty-three days of 360 degree horizons, my mind is full of sunrises and sails, of dolphins and flying fish, and of waiting on deck each night for the elusive green flash as the sun sets on an endless sea.

I have sailed in the wake of the adventurers and have glimpsed a bygone era

The Sail Training Ship Leeuwin 2's home port is Fremantle in Western Australia.

Though its aims are mainly geared toward building courage and confidence in young people, the Leeuwin Foundation does not exclude oldies like me.

Embarking on one of the voyages is challenging in many respects, but the principle is that it is challenge by choice. No one is forced to do anything they do not wish to do but if you want to go beyond your normal comford zone then the opportunity is there.

I hate heights - even getting to the forecourse yard (the lowest yardarm) was difficult and for most of the twelve day voyage I prefered to work the sheets or braces with my feet firmly places on the deck.

However, I challenged myself that before the end of the voyage I would climb to the top of the main mast and read the plaque which is fixed on the top.

I don't know to this day how I managed it but I did!
Sheer determination, I think.
Don't know that I could do it again, but it's amazing what you can achieve if you set your mind to it!

Photo: Preparing to sail - STS Leeuwin 2 (Bunbury WA, I think)- M.Muir

I photoed this tall ship from a cruise liner when I was touring the Mediterranean this year.
I don't know it's name though someone on board said it was an Italian naval training ship.
I photographed it (July 2006)- in Livorno, the Italian port of Florence and Pisa.
If you know it please add a comment on the guestbook below.

From Speddie: "It's the Amerigo Vespucci".

Thanks for that. Having Googled for more info, I find that it is indeed the training vessel for Italian naval academy.
It is a fully rigged ship of 4,100 tons and was built in Castellamare di Stabia in 1930.
It was named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Florence born navigator who the Americas are named after.
It was Vespucci who recognised that North and South America were seperate from Asia - a belief Columbus held until his death.

When Captain Cook's bark Endeavour visited Fremantle I had to go for a day sail.
I wanted to experiece the feel of a ship which sailed in 1768.
I also wanted to see what a Whitby collier (converted) looked like.
Can't say it was fast sail or that she cut through the water with her blunt bow, but just being on board was great for someone who writes about the sea and sailing ships.

The 60 ton Lady Nelson (replica) is a sail training ship which can be found in Success Harbour in Hobart, Tasmania.

The original Lady Nelson was built in 1798 and, though built for use on the Thames, was selected as an exploration ship to sail to the Australian continent.

The Lady Nelson was used as a convict carrier and also established the first European settlement in Tasmania.
In 1825 the ship was found pillaged and burnt off Timor.

Photo: M Muir (2005)

Back in Buenos Aires after cruising to Antarctica, I wandered around the restored wharfside and came across two retired sailing ships. Visitors are allowed on board the Pte. Sarmiento, a frigate whose first trip was as a school ship in 1899.

In its chequered history the Sarmiento has sailed around the world and around the Horn many times. Besides its complement of sail it was also equipped with steam power.

In 1961 it became a museum vessel of the Argentine navy. Its equipment including the medium reach cannons and a torpedo.

Restored vessels like England's Cutty Sark, are magnificent, but to me are too squeaky clean. For anyone wishing to see a true survivor of the sea then the Pte. Sarmiento Frigate is a must.

A Mariner of England.
It's a warts-and-all story (first published in 1908) written by William Richardson, a seaman who served on both merchant and naval ships around the time of the Battle of Trafalgar.
Richardson saw active service - mainly as warrant officer/Gunner (23 years)- in the Channel, West Indies, Calcutta, Flushing and off Portugal.
The detailed picture he paints so eloquently provides an amazing insight into life on the sea 200 years ago.
Reading between the lines it's not hard to spot the differences between the two services, eg: pay scales and punishments.
Interestingly, both merchantmen and naval ratings were regularly duped over money - payment of wages or prize money.
The degree of severe and regular punishments on naval vessels was directly related to the calibre of the Captain (mainly) and officers. For example on one ship Richardson says that two seamen would not dare be seen even talking together on deck - on another the first lieutenant gave him a roll of cloth to make himself some clothes.
One thing that amazed me was the number of ships which sailed together in convoys - naval vessels escorting merchantmen - sometimes there were several hundred sail (400 on one voyage) and it's not surprising that occasionally they got themselves tanlged up together.
William Richardon's autobiographical story is well told and very readable.
It certainly transported me back to the late 1700s and early 1800s and put me in the mood for writing in that era.
If you are interested in the sea or history, or just want an interesting read, I would thoroughly recommend it.
Available on Amazon

My first novel, Sea Dust, was published in hardback by Hale in London in Dec 2005 with the dust cover as shown.
This quickly sold out (though Amazon are still displaying it on their listings).
To date, it has not been reprinted by Hale.

However if you want to buy a copy you can purchase the large print version, shown below (via Amazon UK but remember to insert the words - Sea Dust Ulverscroft large print series).

Alternatively, if you would like to read it, Sea Dust is available through UK libraries though not held in every branch.

My first novel Sea Dust was first published in Dec 2005.
In September 2006 it was reprinted by Thorpe in the Large Print edition.
At the moment this is the only edition available from Amazon (UK)
To find it you must enter SEA DUST (ULVESCROFT LARGE PRINT) as currently the original version is still posted as available even though it has sold out.

Published in August 2006, my second historical novel is not a sea story, I did however manage to squeeze a round the world passage on a steam ship into its pages!

The Twisting Vine is a saga set in times of peace and war in the north of England.

I'm at 50,000 words in my latest novel.
It's a naval adventure set a few years prior to the battle of Trafalgar.
I'm very much enjoying writing it.
Marg