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Doesn’t look much, does it? A touch sad, maybe..? Not a bit of it! This is the modest building where ISWAN – the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network – reaches out to seafarers all round the world whenever they ask for help. On an upper floor, in a very small and far from luxurious suite of offices (ISWAN spends money for those it helps, not on itself), SeafarerHelp’s multilingual support goes on 24/7. When business is busy, a world of languages can be heard – Chinese, Spanish and Russian, etc., ringing out across the open plan space where other work goes forward, including research into health at sea and support for seafarers and families who’ve been hit by the scourge of modern piracy. And all just a step away from Sainsbury’s in downtown Croydon. Go to www.maritimefilmsuk.tv/films to see our take on them.

DON’T say ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep * – do say ‘Safer Seas’. That’s the film we’ve made for CHIRP – the ‘Confidential Hazardous Incident Reporting Programme’ – about the maritime version of the long-standing system in aviation, where anyone can report dangerous incidents (including ones they may have caused) in complete confidence, so that the facts can be circulated and all learn from dangerous mistakes. The new(er) guy on the block is the maritime version, led by Captain John Rose (picture.) It’s called ‘Maritime Feedback’, published quarterly. John’s a live wire, on this for 2 years plus now, producing some pretty hair-raising reports: near misses at sea, dangerous practices like driving RIBS (rigid inflatable boats) much too fast, and even a crew member going ship to ship on the end of a crane hook. Yikes!!

* 1970 pop hit. YouTube if you dare…

Reminder is also unusual among Thames barges because she has overnight accommodation – cabins, heads (loos), a messdeck and a kitchen fitted into what was her gigantic hold. So she accommodates groups like the SHTP trainees over a number of days, hosting extended courses – this one run by the Sea Change Sailing Trust. Meanwhile Sea Change’s Richard Titchener (at the helm) puts the SHTP team through their paces. In the eyes of those who used to crew such barges, mind you, Reminder would look overstaffed: in the heyday of the Thames barge, a skipper and a boy did everything – with the boy often standing on the great bales of hay for London’s horses that was a regular barge cargo, shouting to the skipper (who couldn’t see over the cargo from the stern), which way to head the ship!

Under full rig, the Thames barge Reminder on which the SHTP trainees are having their group sail. Departing Maldon in Essex not long after 6 in the morning (oww), we make our way out onto the estuary of the Blackwater and head for the River Colne. Why Reminder? Well, when she was built in 1929 her owner – who’d had a good few barges on his books – wanted to “remind” one and all that his barges were the quickest on the water! And big though she is, once she gets the wind in her magnificent great red spritsail, Reminder fairly lives up to her name and cracks along the water, with her crew handling her completely handraulically – not a power winch in sight. Big and solid as she is, she takes wing like a swan of the seas…

The Shipshape Heritage Training Partnership… oh let’s call it SHTP, like they do! – is already scoring successes getting trainees into full-time work. Just one example is Catherine Holt (picture) who gave us an interview, she’s now working at The Historic Dockyard Chatham. She’d had a very tough time trying to get heritage and museum work, despite having excellent qualifications. Then she went through the SHTP (relief!) training, and now finds herself working on the Invincible at Chatham. Home to the Royal Navy across the centuries, Chatham has plenty on for Cat. It’s a great place for a maritime conservator to work, with a centuries-old naval history, and three star exhibits: a classic Victorian sail and steam gunboat (a big one called Gannet), a WWII-era destroyer (HMS Cavalier), and the last RN ship built at Chatham – Cold War-era submarine HMS Ocelot.

…is our home as we watch the five trainees on the ‘Shipshape Heritage Training Partnership’ put through their paces in the scheme’s annual ‘group sail’. The partnership bit indicates how the training works: a link-up with maritime training and study centre partners across the UK, from Anstruther in Scotland to Brixham in Devon. Reminder is operated under hire by the Sea Change Sailing Trust, and has the unique advantage of providing full accommodation in what was the giant hold of the barge, for all who come out in her. Two of us are on board to film: me, Rob White, and Production Assistant and soundie (Sound Operator) Steve Crouch. He’s invaluable as he can quickly catch sound, interviews etc., “on the fly” – essential in a working environment, and enabling the use of a directional microphone that cuts down background noise.