Schooner Malcolm Miller

St Malo and the trumpet

Caiman,

your track charts have reminded me that we in MM came into St Malo in July 1982 where SWC was already berthed (with you onboard) and we would have manned the yards with me in the Crow's Nest playing the trumpet then.

So I think we 'got' you at least three times (St Malo, off St Ives and off Lundy). Morale was very high on that trip!

I was the Cook's Mate on that voyage and that was the hardest work I ever did onboard (given the sea-sickness that went with it). Still, the show had to go on! - and it did.
 
Does anybody know if either the SWC or MM ever took on serious transocean work?

Not for one moment to suggest that Biscay or the North Sea, or even the Western Approaches, aren't able to test crews and ships severely. But I'm wondering, what was the greatest distance the Sail Training Association used these vessels for?
 
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Eureka

I have finaly found the pics of the St Ives 'Fly Past'.My memory nearly served me correctly.The pics with all the fore and aft sails set ,are I think the same cruise somewhere off Lundy.The pics 'beating', are I think taken on the SWC,same cruise.
I hope that you can get some detail.These pics are nearly 30 years old.I don't even remember what camera I used.I found loads of other STA pics.A couple with different shots of people aloft entering St Malo,but I can't confirm which cruise they are.
Cheers

Sorry if this has posted twice.
 
Was on Malcom Miller for 2 weeks in about 1973 or 4. Being a young RN apprentice at the time I was very, very impressed with a visit to Amsterdam.

A vigorous learning curve involving wine, women and song!
 
Fantastic photos, Caiman! I hope Malcolm Miller's present owner sees them. They really show how fine these schooners were/are/will be again, all being well.


Any word of activity, down there on the Fal, anybody?
 
So sad seeing MM in the state she is. I sailed on her and SWC.Many memories of great times.I really hope she is preserved and refitted.Would be great to see her returned to her former self.
 
Greetings to all lost Schooner addicts

Ahoy
Video available on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dhl3_zfSqM
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VexedIllologist said:
Well, Caiman,

really delighted to read your dit, which has made my day! I was on the other end of your tale. As a matter of record, I was playing my 'kin trumpet that day (rather than a 'kin bugle!). Unusually I was on the bridge, rather than in my more 'normal' spot in the Crow's Nest on the foremast (excellent for entering and leaving harbour etc with the yards and rigging fully 'manned'). After all, it was the tail end of a SE-ly gale, as you mention! As we passed you it was the low end of F8 having been a solid F9 overnight in the Channel. We were romping along!

Although I can't imagine you could have heard very much of it despite our 'close pass' to leeward of your choppy anchorage, you were 'greeted' with a medley of 'General Salute' (as we approached) 'Early One Morning' as we passed and 'Rule Britannia!' as we stomped onwards - great fun with the excellent morale onboard MM at the time, of course.

From the Master downwards we in MM were absolutely determined to 'show off' to SWC as we passed her and it seems that we did a good job. Captain Chris Blake was a great leader and keen on my musical efforts for the ship - he was later well-known with the replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour and went on to Spirit of Bermuda etc.

I sailed with SWC and MM over several years in the 1980s (Trainee, Watch Leader, Bosun's Mate, the toughest job onboard - Cook's Mate, and Supernumerary) and had many memorable moments. I was even signed on once as 'Official Trumpeter' (this voyage included being at St Malo for the start of the trans-Atlantic Tall Ships Race in 1984 of which more below).

Without any references close to hand, memory is a bit rusty, but I think you were probably off St Ives in SWC either in Summer 1982 (when I think we did have a film crew onboard the the schooners sailed around each other for footage) or in the Spring of 1984... [Later edit - memory returning - it must have been 1982]

If it was 1984, I think we in MM had been at St Malo to see off the competitors in the trans-Atlantic Tall Ships Race. I may be getting my voyages mixed up together, though, as the trumpet always sailed with me. [Later edit - think I am mixing up separate voyages in 1982 and 1984 below - sorry!].

At St Malo we had 'saluted' the other ships as they arrived (i.e. braced outboard and fully manned the yards and rigging) with 'General Salute' followed by the relevant national anthems from the Crow's Nest. This proved a particular hit with the largest competitor - 'Darn My Jersey' (Dar Młodzieży), the Polish Merchant Marine Academy ship - then only a couple of years old and on the 'other side' in the Cold War.

Dar Młodzieży (DM) was too big to enter the basin and manoeuvre under her own power and so was handled by two tugs at a stately pace. Consequently her cadets were in their best uniforms and lining the ship's rail from stem to stern - a most impressive sight.

The Poles may have slightly bristled when 'General Salute' was blown from MM and all in the rigging stood tall; perhaps they were thinking 'what the hell is going on here' in Polish? As I continued with 'La Marseillaise' and 'God Save the Queen' they may have got the idea, but the reaction when I played the Polish National Anthem was most impressive; they gave us a resounding cheer and threw their caps all over the place!

As MM was not a competitor in the race across the Atlantic, it may have surprised some of the other ships at St Malo that the smallest ship there (MM) and the largest (DM) suddenly became 'best pals'. A number of interesting inter-ship competitions developed including a very memorable, but somewhat unevenly-matched 'tug of war' on the main deck of the DM. I was privileged, being quite a young chap at the time, to spend a lot of vodka-lubricated time onboard DM with MM's Master. Being invited by DM's Captain to climb to the top of her mainmast and 'blow my own trumpet' was quite something. I can't remember how high that is, but it must be about 160' or so and is quite a climb, but what a view!

Anyway, hope this recollection jogs some other happy memories - and I haven't even scratched the surface. Does anybody else remember the aftermath of the Blackwall Engineering non-'floating' drydock near disaster in December 1984 at Canary Wharf - as it used to be? Yes, I did a bit of volunteer 'shipkeeping' too. We had to get a 'scratch crew' together to motor her down to Shoreham and dock her there. The New Year came off the South Coast on the way, so we 'rang out the old and rang in the new' in the old-fashioned manner.

I will try to PM you after posting this, as I would love to get copies of your pictures.

As for MM now, well, she doesn't look too bad at all in the recent pictures; let us hope she gets back to sea before too long. They were beautiful ships and superb sailing vessels.

My, this is rather long, but what fun those days were!
Click to expand...
 
The present owner of the MM appreciates these pictures and vouches that she will sail again in her ( almost ) former glory soon enough .
 
Eas said:
The present owner of the MM appreciates these pictures and vouches that she will sail again in her ( almost ) former glory soon enough .
Click to expand...

That's a tantalising first post, Eas...welcome to this forum...may we ask how you know about the former Malcolm Miller?
 
Malcolm Miller

caiman said:
Eas- please keep us posted,I would love to sail on her again.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Hopefully she should be ready for sea trials end of 2013 , if not Spring 2014 . Everybody commented how good she still looked in her last pictures in Falmouth , unfortunately she was not and it meant almost a complete reconstruction , when I muster how to send pictures on this site I will include some relevant ones
Cheers
 
Eas said:
Everybody commented how good she still looked in her last pictures in Falmouth , unfortunately she was not and it meant almost a complete reconstruction , when I muster how to send pictures on this site I will include some relevant ones
Cheers
Click to expand...

Eas, you may be sure the readers here will be glued to any recent pictures/news/details of the restoration; it's very heartening to hear that the Malcolm Miller's revival is on track - I was afraid that she'd just sit on a mooring, mouldering for a few years, then disappear quietly to a scrapyard.

So...the very impressive, glamorous photographs of her in Helena C guise, hid trouble in her underlying construction? I suppose then, the fire in the summer of 2008, was a blessing in disguise?

Well done, for restoring her original name. Thank you for joining the forum, best of luck with the work!
 
Dancrane , appearances can be missleading as we all know . I guess she was converted to a yacht standard with disregard to shipbuilding practices and I believe this led to her new owner to abandon the Helena C conversion to a private yacht for a cruise around the world. ( it could have not been done unless starting from gutting the vessel and starting on a sound platform ). From what I have seen the fire in 2008 had damaged the upper deck cabins , galley etc. " a blessing in disguise ?" maybe that was the last drop that made the glass overfill .......There are a lot of rumors circulating .the fact remains that the vessel is there and is being worked on .
if you do send me your e mail address I will send you some relevant pictures and then you can post them . I confess I am not good with modern day gadgets .....
 
Hello Eas.
I have the most up to date contact list of schooner folk. It fell upon me to organise last year's reunion in Portsmouth last September.
There is a facebookpage with lots of old photos.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/30680956784/
my email address is wingninchan@yahoo.com. If can you send me any photos, then I will be very happy to post them on facebook, where the many old schooner folk will be overjoyed with gossip.
And thanks for rescuing her.
If you want to know anything about the hidden moldy bits of the ship, then I am always in contact with nearly all the old bosuns, engineers, chief officers, captains,and hard core old volunteers. We have, together, over hundreds of thousands of days living and working on the Miller and the Churchill. In my youth, I personally spent over 400 days on both, especially when I should have been at university.
I sincerely hope you get to read this post
 
Pikeyboy if you read back you would have had the confirmation that indeed she was towed to Gdansk Poland , where she still lies being worked on . That happened in January 2012 .
She is progressing well , maybe not as well as I would have hopped , but nevertheless a lot of work went into the hull so far, I can at least say that her steel works are almost completed and the hull was sandblasted from top to bottom , all rivets checked and sand blasting is taking place as I am writing now in her interior .
Unfortunately as she is covered it makes no sense to photograph her ( and that is for the benefit of the rest of the team wanting to know what is happening ) . However by the end of June she should come out of her canvas tent and moved in a hall to be vacated for her next winter while working on her decks and interior . When she will be moved I will be able to take pictures of what she looks like in her new disguise ........
 
Eas,

Many thanks for the update. I have sailed many times on MM and SWC. SO,so glad she is not being scrapped.I look forward to seeing any photos as and when they become available.I have such fond memories of her.
 
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