The sail training Ship El-Mellah (meaning sailor in Arabic) owned by the Algerian Navy was in Portsmouth the other evening just as I happened to be going over to Gosport with the Jolly Boys (Beer Chapter) for a few beers at the Fallen Acorn brewery..
...for me, a bit too much superstructure to be considered truly lovely, but she still looked a fine site... Polish-built, 110 meters long and 14.5 meters wide, the masts are 54 meters above water line, with a crew of 126 sailors and 84 trainees (for this trip), and this is her maiden voyage.. in the background are the (lower) masts of a considerably older square rigger..
...and there you go.. three square riggers in one shot albeit the Gosport ferry was doing it's level best to block the view of Warrior..
A great square rigger story is Eric Newbys 'The Last Grain Race' - A true story and a real cracker.
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