Recently we were lucky to find ourselves in a position where we were not only able to film the Blyth Tall Ship in port at Holyhead, but we were able to go on board (well Cerys did), and even interview one of the Skippers on camera.
It all started when a friend of ours noticed we were making a lot of videos about planes and ships, and let us know that the Blyth Tall Ship would be in Holyhead port in June. We thought it would be a good idea to put it in the calendar, and then find a way to message them closer to the time to see if they would consent to doing an interview with us, on camera.
When the time came, we messaged them and to our surprise they said yes. They were on a bit of a tight schedule as they were taking on crew for the fourth leg of their round Britain expedition (2022) up to Oban, but they agreed to give us some time.
On the day, the winds were not ideal. NNE if I remember rightly, with close on 30/40kt gusts. I was on the pontoon the day before looking at the ship (pictured), but there was no way I’d be able to do that again on the day of the interview. We actually found a spot directly shielding us from the wind, so I set my camera up, Cerys set the sound up, and she went ahead and conducted the interview. We kept it short due to the weather, and the crew’s time limits.
Cerys was then lucky enough to be able to board the ship, and have a good look around. The whole thing is a fantastic piece of history. It’s over a hundred years old. The Williams II was built in 1914, and is still the newer of the two Williams ships.
The ‘Williams II’ is a similar ship to the ‘Williams’, which was a ship captained by William Smith in the 1800s. While he is not officially recognised as discovering Antarctica, he did discover the first land ever sighted on the Antarctic continent (South Shetlands). So he technically discovered Antarctica first, and this ship ‘Blyth Tall Ship – Williams II’ is dedicated to the history of the man, William Smith, his ship, and that voyage.
We understand they are recruiting for crew to recreate that same journey down to the South Shetlands, and Antarctica sometime in the near future. It sounds incredible!
Our interview went live today, and can be seen at the video below.
Read more about it here: Blyth Tall Ship -Skipper Interview
Peace,
Emma