Ahoy again shipmates for Shropshire sailor Kevin in 45-year reunion

Instead he replied to a newspaper advert on the lookout for crew on board a schooner which was completing a round-the-world trip and calling in to Cape Town before making its way to Australia.

Beating dozens of other applicants, he was soon aboard ship and running up the rigging on the little barquentine Regina Maris.

Forty five years on the former engineer from Hope, near Shrewsbury, travelled to the United States again to meet up with former deckhands and swap stories at a reunion held in Port Townsend, Washington state.

"It was great to catch up," said Mr Barlow, 71. "The boat has had such a colourful history and although there was only one other crew member from my time on board there were plenty of other people there to talk to and reminisce with about the ship.

"I had seen about the reunion on the internet and knew that I wanted to go and see what had happened to the ship since I had last seen it."

And much had happened to the boat.

Built in Denmark in 1908, the Regina Maris (the name means "Queen of the Seas") became a sail-training ship in the 1970s, emphasizing science education. It was broken up in 2002, but left a legacy of ocean conservation.

The boat was built to ply the Iceland-to-Baltic codfish trade. Until 1963, the ship sailed under Norwegian colours and was rigged as a three-masted topsail schooner. After a severe fire in 1963, it was converted to serve as the latter's a private yacht and was rebuilt with a very tall three-masted barquentine rig for this purpose. Between 1963 and 1984, it was used in many television and movie productions, conducted two global circuits and underwent stints as a cruise ship, sail training facility, and marine mammal research vessel.

In 1991, Hurricane Bob hit the east end of Long Island where the boat was moored and the ship's captain scuttled the vessel to save her from being destroyed by the storm.

The vessel was towed to Glen Cove, New York in 1998 as part of a plan to revitalize the city's waterfront. By this time the ship was chronically leaky and sank at the dock in 2002. Efforts to raise it the following year damaged it beyond repair. The masts were preserved to be displayed on the nearby esplanade.

"I had a fantastic time on board ship," said Mr Barlow. "I applied to be a crew member but then the ship's cook jumped ship in Cape Town and the call went out for a new cook. Eventually I said I would do it, as long as I got my chance to go in the rigging."

But it wasn't smooth sailing to Australia for the ship and its crew. A huge storm flared up and it got caught in the Roaring 40s, which blew it 500 miles of course.

"We landed in Albany where we had a civic reception and were each given a bath. Then we re-boarded ship and made it to Sydney where we had another civic reception at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

"At the time I just wanted to go around the world, but I didn't know what I was letting myself in for. It was a great experience."

After disembarking in Australia, Kevin then went on to New Zealand where he found passage on a ship back to the UK.