A group of Pilgrim volunteers have been learning how to splice wire. Passing on specialist skills is vital to keeping Pilgrim is good order for the future. Today we were privileged to have retired local rigger Jacky Warren showing three of our volunteers how to eye-splice steel wire. It’s not for the feint-hearted, but
We don’t usually have visitors on board while volunteers undertake our winter refit work in Dartmouth. Typically, we’re in boiler suits and often doing all sorts of dirty jobs! However, today we were delighted to welcome Ellie and Emma from Ecclesiastical Insurance. They travelled down from Gloucester as part of a project they are working
Pilgrim is charity owned and operated and we rely on volunteers to sail the vessel and support our professional Skipper and Mate. We are now recruiting volunteer sailing crew for the 2019 season. Ideally our volunteers have some sailing experience but it is not essential. We provide training for suitable candidates. Candidates for volunteer crew
It’s only the privileged few who get to see Pilgrim down below. That’s usually reserved for volunteers, guests and for visitors on our periodic Open Days. We have twelve comfy guest berths spread over two cabins in our communal accommodation area together with a fully equipped galley and two heads with showers. That’s ‘toilets’ for
A Pilgrim photograph taken by a guest wins a ‘highly commended’ accolade. All of us in the Pilgrim Team are delighted to be able to congratulate Ian Kippax for his entry in the National Historic Ships Photography Competition 2018. Ian’s picture was taken on-board Pilgrim and called ‘The Lure of the Sea”. It was ‘Highly
Members of the Pilgrim Events Team have been meeting at the Berry Head Hotel in Brixham. Now our Open days and school visits for 2018 are complete the team has been ‘looking back to the future’ to plan our public and educational activities for next year. A key part of that is continuing our investigations
One of the volunteers who help run the heritage sailing trawler Pilgrim of Brixham BM45 has had a lucky win on the Torbay lottery. Keith Ward, who lives in Brixham and volunteers with Pilgrim, won £2000 in last week’s draw. The boat is 123 years old and is operated by the Pilgrim Heritage Sailing Foundation which
After a stunning summer and a hectic sailing season our skipper and volunteers have been derigging Pilgrim for winter maintenance over the last couple of days. We’ve been really lucky with the weather. De-rig involves taking down the working rigging and all the blocks so that everything can be checked, maintained and replaced as needed.
Sailing trawlers, like Pilgrim typically carried a crew of four or five. There was a skipper, a mate, an apprentice and a boy or ‘fisher lad’. Sometimes there was a third hand as well. In the mid-Victorian period the boy could be as young as ten but towards the end of the nineteenth century he
Pilgrim had a delightful encounter during the first weekend in June. On arrival in Dartmouth she was faced with ML1387 on the Town Pontoon. Although it may seem unlikely both vessels have quite a bit in common. They are both historic wooden vessels proud to feature in the National Historic Fleet. They have also both