Sea cadet dies after falling from ship in Solent

[C2 RIBS]

Awful news, I was only taking pictures of all these Cadets up the mast in Gunwharf on Saturday on TS Royalist. They must have left the port Sunday and then this happens.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...re/8657813.stm

Whilst all these Cadets were up the mast other team members were carrying out man overboard proceedures alongside for the public to see. I have attached an image cropped so all the Cadets are not shown up the mast but it shows the vessel and also the rescue rib they had to use.

[Lets go boating]

sad news, thoughts go the the family

[Knot Yet]

Awful and very sad news for everyone concerned, especially his family.

[stafs]

Aggree with all the above thoughts go out to the family and all those onboard at the time. Was out today and saw the police manning the gangway. Lets hope this does not stop the great work they do.

[Hightower]

Yeh, really sad news!

[Steve_B]

Tragic that this should happen, it is a great experience for youngsters to get involved in.

I was talking to a PO from the cadets this afternoon and his fear was that the ship will now be scrapped early.

[neilda]

We were at Gunwharf Keys on Sunday and watched the Sea Cadets in the rigging - really dreadful news......

My family watched them set off.

Terrible loss for his family, I can't imagine what they're all going through.

[Cookee]

Incredibly sad news - I was lucky enough to sail on Royalist in 1975, and the crew then were fantastic as I'm sure they are now.

[treerat]

Originally Posted by Cookee

Incredibly sad news - I was lucky enough to sail on Royalist in 1975, and the crew then were fantastic as I'm sure they are now.

Used the boat on a number of occasions as a base - hopefuuly this won't put a stop to teh work they do.

Thoughts to the Voluntry Rescue crews involved as well - trying to resus anyone isn't great, youngsters are really hard work to get through, for a long time.

[Shaz]

Terrible news. We're normally very good at keeping them safe, think this is the first recorded Sea Cadet fatality (was having a discussion with a Scout leader about it only a few weeks ago).

Thoughts to the family & friends.

[Neil Harvey]

as a volunteer watchleader on another brig, this sends shivers down my spine.
thoughts are not only with the family, but also the watchleader and permanent crew into whose care he had been entrusted, and must be feeling awful at the moment, even though in all likelihood it is just one of those devastating accidents with no-one to blame.

[neilda]

Do any cadets wear harnesses when in the rigging?

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by neilda

Do any cadets wear harnesses when in the rigging?

Yes,along with a 3 clip safety line ie clip on before you clip off. Lets not try and apportion blame though (not that you were) as anything could have happened. It wouldn't be fair to start speculating.
It's an awful thing to have happened.

[Cookee]

In my day it was a belt with a length of rope and a clip at the end - you could really only clip on once aloft as it would take all day to get up there otherwise - but that was quite a few years ago now!

[ChasTheBoat]

Ladies and Gentleman

I would like to thank you on behalf of the cadets family, friends and the crew of the royalist for all the kind words of support in this terrible time.

I am sure within due course the results of the investigation shall be published and I am sure many of you will read the MAIB report with interest.

For those of you that wish to follow this a bit more closely can I please directyou to the press releases made by the Marine Society and Sea Cadets at http://www.ms-sc.org/Corporate-Infor...Press-Releases

Many Thanks once again, if you have any message you would like passed on to the crew I shall be happy to do so for you

PPO (SCC) J W Thompson
Waltham Forest Sea Cadets