Children's Express editor Chris McCartney recalls an exhilarating week aboard the Tall Ship Prince William.
| I was a little worried about climbing up the mast but, after a little encouragement from Peter, I went up the highest yard on the ship. |
I climbed…I sailed…I threw up…I had the best time of my life! When I first arrived and saw that beautiful ship, I knew it was going to be great!
I got off the train and met Sail Training Association's Youth Manager, Chas Cowell and within a few minutes I was meeting my new shipmates.
The atmosphere was friendlier than I had expected and everyone got along great because everyone was just as nervous as I was about meeting new people.
The first day was mainly our tour of the ship, where we discovered that every rope had a name (and there were hundreds of them). By the fifth day we were still questioning if we were tugging the right rope.
We went from Southampton to Portsmouth, stopping of in our Captain Liam Keating's hometown of Waterford.
 Plain Sailing: the expedition fostered a real sense of teamwork | |
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This expedition was a real test of teamwork. We all relied on each during a watch - while the ship's safety relied on each watch. Thanks to this, we all developed a great friendship and you come out of it feeling like you've known all your new friends your whole life.
The egg drop was a contest we held just before shore leave in Waterford. In our spare time all three watches tried to come up with a contraption which would protect an egg from smashing when thrown from the mast.
Our watch decided to have a laugh and simply took a box, chucked the egg in and taped it up (while pretending it was a very technical piece of equipment).
After the other two watches succeeded in their task ours was thrown off the mast and miraculously the egg did not break and it was proved that it was not hard boiled!
One of the most amazing things on the ship was "the fever". This basically was when a certain Watch Leader started singing a few lines of a song and by the afternoon everyone on the ship was singing it.
 Ship Mates: Christopher McCartney with one of his new-found friends | |
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With the way the ship always rocked with the waves we all found it easy to get rest - being rocked to sleep.
I'm told that there's always one person who seems to be the heart of the crew, ours was Peter Houlihan - a real cheery guy who was always up for a challenge and never too busy to cheer me up when I was feeling down.
It's hard to believe but it didn't take long to get over my fears - while on route to Waterford I took a good long look at that endless expanse of water and fear just didn't seem to matter anymore.
I was a little worried about climbing up the mast but, after a little encouragement from Peter, I decided to go for it and as we were coming into Portsmouth I volunteered and went up to The Royal - the highest yard on the ship.
I certainly won't be forgetting this adventure…my hat is off to Captain David Bromley-Martin who unfortunately passed away just three weeks ago.
He's the man who started The Sail Training Association. It's thanks to him that we all had the best time of our lives.
About the team
This story was produced by Christopher McCartney, 16, and published in the News Letter in Northern Ireland.
