In the years 2000-2002 I occasionally sailed as deckhand on the topsail-schooner AMPHITRITE, which was built 1887 in Gosport, UK. In the winter I volunteered in the maintenance & repair works at the MISSISSIPPI – the floating dock house of the Clipper-DJS organisation – which was like a short-term apprenticeship. Here I learnt many aspects of ship-maintenance: hammering rust, painting, repairing pulley-blocks, treatment of the staying rigging with a tar-tallow mixture…being pulled up to the topmast in the bosun’s chair. But here I also experienced the great sociability within the tall ship’s community, as the work was always interrupted by coffee & cake breaks.
