KENYA JACARANDA is the finest ship I have ever served on. In her day she was one of the fastest ships afloat as proven by her taking the King's Cup for sailing ships in 1936 from Sir Thomas Lipton with an average speed over four hours of almost 13kts.
This page and those following derive from an original website developed during my time as PRO of the Mayflower Sail Training Society which 'managed' the ship in the early 2000s as a sail trainer taking young people from the heart of London (originally Bermondsey) to the estuary and the sea.
K.J. normally sailed on deliveries with a complement of six plus the Captain whether sail was envisaged or not. At all times at night a minimum of three would be on watch vis. Skipper, Navigator, Helm while the other three slept. During training voyages, the maximum permissable souls on board was eighteen MCA law) which would include twelve rookies. The ship was capable of 200tonnes burthen a phrase you will rarely come across in the age of the internet so I will tell you that a ship's burden is the load she can carry. One of the many duties of a navigator might be to establish and distribute weights on a sailing boat.
Rookies learned for instance that on smaller boats the significant load was usually the crew. I was taught to allow one metric tonne for measuring a crew of twelve. Six would be half a tonne and three a quarter. A full complement would have no effect on KJ but we often got trainees to demonstrate this with a spirit-level or a plumb-line when in port. The serious side of this activity ws to ask them whether the ship's lifeboat could handle eighteen and if not why not. The emergency life-raft would then be shown and that might lead on to safety drills or mugs of tea and scary ghost stories before lights out.
Rookies learned for instance that on smaller boats the significant load was usually the crew. I was taught to allow one metric tonne for measuring a crew of twelve. Six would be half a tonne and three a quarter. A full complement would have no effect on KJ but we often got trainees to demonstrate this with a spirit-level or a plumb-line when in port. The serious side of this activity ws to ask them whether the ship's lifeboat could handle eighteen and if not why not. The emergency life-raft would then be shown and that might lead on to safety drills or mugs of tea and scary ghost stories before lights out.
HEADSCRATCHERS
These head-scratchers are for SAILORS who have time on their hands
but not quite so much time as to turn up and do some useful training.
Have fun and maybe we will see your butts on berth 35.
Tilbury Dock some day soon?
What do three black balls in a vertical line indicate at sea?
What does Admiralty Publication 5011 tell you?
What does the signal flag Romeo tell?
Where on KJ would you look for a horse?
What is the significance of Bravo Zulu?
In morse what COULD nine dots, a dash, and a dot mean?
(Hint! Put spaces in right places)
...
....
..
-
.
RY: Please pass me at slow speed. The baby is asleep
BZ: You did a good job there lads. Pat your own back
These head-scratchers are for SAILORS who have time on their hands
but not quite so much time as to turn up and do some useful training.
Have fun and maybe we will see your butts on berth 35.
Tilbury Dock some day soon?
What do three black balls in a vertical line indicate at sea?
What does Admiralty Publication 5011 tell you?
What does the signal flag Romeo tell?
Where on KJ would you look for a horse?
What is the significance of Bravo Zulu?
In morse what COULD nine dots, a dash, and a dot mean?
(Hint! Put spaces in right places)
...
....
..
-
.
RY: Please pass me at slow speed. The baby is asleep
BZ: You did a good job there lads. Pat your own back
