TV historian Dan charts the inspirational journey that shaped his life
Dan Snow on saving the cash-strapped charity helping troubled teenagers change course
WHEN TV historian Dan Snow, then just out of school, met the young Glaswegians he was about to spend the next fortnight of his life with at sea, they were so far apart on the social divide they couldn’t even understand what the other was saying.
“They didn’t take the mickey out of my accent because they didn’t know what my accent was,” says St Paul’s-educated, Westminster-born Dan.
“I might as well have been speaking Finnish because they had never heard anything like it in their lives – I got ribbed more in London for my posh voice. But it was great because I was able to go under the radar and as we started crewing together it didn’t matter any more and it is an experience I will take with me all my life.”
That was 22 years ago and as testimony to how sailing a Tall Ship together bridges the social gap between teenagers, Dan, 41, is still friends with many of the crew.
“Two weeks later when we docked in Dundee, they had to literally drag us off the boat – we didn’t want to leave and we have remained in touch ever since.”
At the time, Dan had finished his A-levels and was casting around for something to do.
“I took a year out before uni and knew that I wanted to do something to do with a maritime career one way or another and I got the opportunity to sail for two weeks on a Tall Ship. I flew to Glasgow and turned up to board the Malcolm Miller in Greenock and every other kid was from a socially deprived background, kids on different sides of the community in Glasgow.We didn’t trust each other at all but the leaders knew the best way to overcome that was to sail us out into the north Atlantic – all seasick and freezing cold – through the night and make us get on with it.And that’s what we did.”
The result, says Dan, was a camaraderie that he had never expected and has only experienced a few times since.
“It had a transformative effect on us all, which is why I continue to fund-raise for the Tall Ships charity to give the opportunity that I had to future generations.
“I had come from a school where big lads who played rugby would be the ones you’d expect to go up a mast in a gale in the middle of the night.
“But not so on a Tall Ship. It was often the smallest guy or girl who would be the bravest, who’d haul in a rope in crashing waves and howling winds while battling sleep deprivation. It was an amazing experience no matter your gender, strength or sporting ability.
“The hero of our watch was a slight girl and she was the only one who could climb out on the yard and furl in the sail in a gale.
“She was a total hero. Her personality changed completely as a result. She said that she used to be anonymous in a crowd but by the end she became a leader. I will never forget the transformation.”
The Tall Ships charity has helped thousands
‘This slight girl, the only one who could furl the sail in a gale, was a total hero and became a leader’
of young people turn their lives around over the past 64 years. The Covid-19 pandemic means it is unable to sail its vessels again until August – at a time when lockdown has put young people under unprecedented levels of stress. As a result, the charity is facing an existential threat and is trying to raise £100,000 to ensure its survival.
After a turbulent year in 2017 in which the charity faced closure, it had recovered to go into the black for the first time last year.
Now Rear Admiral Richard Leaman OBE, who is the CEO of Tall Ships Youth Trust, is warning about the dire impact lockdown will have on the charity and the young people it supports. He is appealing to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to treat charities helping the vulnerable most favourably.
“The minister has said he can’t save all charities and I understand many will need
To donate to the Calmer Waters go to: tallships. org/appeal/ calmerwaters
help after this pandemic but he does need to think about what he wants left when this is over. At the moment charities are dropping like flies.
“For the youth of this country it is really bad. A further 640,000 young people are predicted to become unemployed – a huge increase from the current figure of 800,000 – and already more than three million are reporting mental health difficulties.
“The young people we work with were in a bad situation before this and, in specific cases, the very worst place for them to be is stuck at home where they are abused or have parents who are drug users or are using them to supply ‘county lines’.”
Richard works with Pupil Referral Units and Youth Offending Teams – who in normal times refer youngsters to him to participate in Tall Ships voyages – and is extremely concerned about what he is being told. “Around the country the consensus is that for these young people the situation is dramatically worse and they are not in a good place.
“I want to make sure Tall Ships is around in August to take these young people out to sea, to give them the adrenalin boost of selfconfidence and self-belief they need. We have a huge mountain to climb.”
Dan has been speaking to some youngsters on the programme who live in deprived parts of Portsmouth – where the charity’s five 72ft Challenger vessels are currently moored – and Southampton, close to the home he shares with his wife and three children in the New Forest.
“I think of them trapped in those highrise buildings for three months, the poor things, it is really scary and I think sailing is the best antidote imaginable. I want to make sure this charity survives – it’s needed more than ever.”
Tall Ships has continued the tradition enjoyed by Dan of introducing youngsters from across the social divide with a programme where, for example, Harrow School pupils sail with Harrow Young Offenders.
“Preconceptions they had about public school boys are dispelled and vice-versa,” says Richard. “We deliberately mix kids who are in trouble with those living a pretty good life. There’s huge value to both parties.
“As a nation, we have known for hundreds of years that taking young people to sea turns them into adults, and this is exactly what we do in Tall Ships; 97 percent of our disadvantaged and broken young people go into education, employment or training afterwards.” Crew member Alfie was 14 when he went on his first voyage, on the recommendation of his granddad.
“I was in with the wrong crowd, I was getting into a lot of trouble at school and I got expelled,” he says. “Sailing on the Tall Ships taught me new skills, resilience and hard work. I fell in love with the sea and enlisted in the Royal Navy – and the determination got me selected.”
DAN says that Tall Ships are uniquely challenging. “They are rigged in such a way that you still have to work in large teams like in Nelson’s day when 50 people pulled up the anchor. It teaches you teamwork and dexterity because if one person doesn’t furl the sail properly, you can’t put it up. You are only as strong as the weakest link.
“For some of the kids I sailed with around the north coast of Scotland, it was the first time they had seen the beauty of their own country. It changed the bounds of their world and their life choices. They saw the world was a bigger place and opportunities existed and they were capable of taking them. “It’s the best money you could ever spend. If you gave me unlimited funds, I would buy unlimited tall ships because we are an island nation with a tradition of merchants, trawlermen and sailors and we have never needed the big skies and freedom of the sea more than we do now for our most deprived youngsters.”