The TS ROYALIST

 


This stylish sail training ship, the TS ROYALIST, was designed by well-known naval architect, Colin Mudie as a brig, which is a type of sailing vessel defined by it's rig - in this case, two masts which are square-rigged.

She was built by Groves & Guttridge in East Cowes, the Isle of Wight, and was launched on 3rd August 1971 by Princess Anne. She was operated by the Marine Society & Sea Cadets of the UK, and had a dedicated crew of 8, and accommodated up to 24 trainees on each voyage. She visited many ports around the UK, France, and several Irish ports.



Because of her age, she was decommissioned in November of 2014 to make way for a newer brig-rigged vessel of the same name, which was built in Spain. Looking back on her 43 years of service, up to 30,000 cadets benefited from great offshore voyage experiences, which is an incredible legacy.

Wicklow was one of the privileged Irish ports that the TS ROYALIST visited on several occasions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As I was quite familiar with our own ASGARD II visiting on a regular basis, it was really nice to see another stylish tall ship berthing at the East Pier.

On her first visit to the port in the late 1990s, the crew and trainees alike were amazed at the few murals that graced the pier at that time, so I promised them that their ship would be featured. I'm not so sure what year I painted her onto the wall, but it was possibly 2005! On her next visit to the port, several years later, her crew along with the sea cadets were delighted to see the mural of their ship there.

When I see happy faces like that, it motivates me to carry on creating new murals and to regularly touch up my existing ones.




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