sea cadet has died.

[mollykins]

A sea cadet (aged only 14, a male i think) died when they fell off of the rigging of the tall ship, TS Royalist!!!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk...hampshire/8657813.stm

Someone from my unit, who also goes to my school got picked to go on Royalist for free last summer. He said that climbing up the rigging was precarious and would be frightening if you're scared of heights.

[mollykins]

oh my questions are;

What do you make of this, how would you feel if it was your 14 year old son and would you still let your child (must be 13 and a half years old at least to go offshore) go on royalist and other similar ships?

[boxtops]

Molly, I saw that on the news earlier and I wondered if you'd seen it. They said a full investigation was taking place and I'm sure it will be very thorough since a young person was involved, in a supervised activity - you may find out about the result before we do. It seems he wasn't doing anything unusual, routine exercise in the rigging.

[boxtops]

In answer to your second post, it sounds like a tragic accident, and sadly these things happen, we don't know why as yet. Youngsters have died before on adventure holidays - the young people only a few weeks ago were caught in a very dangerous situation underground. There are usually recommendations made for tightening up on Health & Safety procedures afterwards, until we know what happened here we can't really say. Poor lad's family, we can only sympathise.

[askyourgran]

Thats really awful Mollykins the poor boy. Those ships really are tall, I wouldn't climb up the rigging if you paid me and yet sailors used run up and down it without much thought.

[mollykins]

The instructors might say something tonight.

I saw that one of my cadet friends had posted soemthign about it on facebook a few minutes before i posted this.

It'll be a routine thing thats done every day that he was doing, plus its more than a one person job so there would have been others who were in the rigging at the time.

[mollykins]

ask you gran, we have to pay to run up the rigging.

Unless you get sponsership because of getting a prestigious award like cadet of the year, or doing yur own funraising, you would have to pay . . . . £255 for a week onboard royalist.

[boxtops]

The article says how seriously the charity takes cadet safety and it's the first such accident since 1971 which is a exceptionally good record. Everyone at Cadets must be devastated. We have a Sea Cadet hut down the road from us, they have just massed a bagpipe band so we know when they are meeting, we can hear them! The meetings will be sad affairs tonight.

[boxtops]

Stupid me, the one down the road is the Air Training Corps not Sea Cadets. Sorry.

[mollykins]

in the town near me, there is sea, air and army cadets, but no marine cadets.

[marval]

That is very sad, my thoughts are with his family. Would I let a a son go on the ship? yes if he wanted to. It is the first accident since 1971, that says something about the safety.

[boxtops]

It's on the headline news on BBC1 now, just going to watch.

[mollykins]

Its pretty safe though, think of all the thousands of cadets that have climbed that rigging before. I might not have a chance to go on it, but i'm doign my offshore power in august, that should be fun.

[vulcan]

Molly, they used to hold the button boy ceremony, on land of course,
do they still do it or has that tradition succumbed to health & safety as well ?
I was sorry to read about the young lad, a sad occasion.

[claire]

what is the name of the sea cadet?

[BillyBB]

Just to clarify. I read it as the ship was commissioned in 1971 and this was the only fatality ever on this ship.

[mollykins]

vulcan, i've never heard of that ceremony.

claire, i don't know, i think his first name might have been Johnathan.

billy, i haven't heard of any other serious accidents onboard any of the ships the scc own or regularly use.

We lowered the ensign to half mast last night, in recognition and respect.

[mollykins]

I still don't know his last name but cadet Johnathan was from ts churchill, in ashford, kent.