The original was a brig launched in 1971 and owned and operated as a sail training ship by the Marine Society & Sea Cadets of the United Kingdom.

Royalist took part in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in June 2012, and Brest International Festival of the Sea the following month.

Royalist was decommissioned at Portsmouth in November 2014, pending arrival of a replacement of the same name in Spring 2015.

Many different parts of the UK & France are visited, sailing from her home berth in Gosport to Southampton, Poole, Cherbourg, St Helier, Brest and the Isle of Wight.

There are 8 permanent members of crew who instruct the embarked cadets on a weekly basis and also carry out the maintenance/winter refit.

[1] On the evening of 2 May 2010 a 14-year-old male Sea Cadet was fatally injured, following a fall from the rigging whilst furling sails when the ship was anchored in Stokes Bay, in the Solent.

[8] Trips are also taken abroad regularly, such as to the Channel Islands and to France, Belgium and in some cases, the Netherlands and Germany.

Voyages aboard the Royalist, Vigilant and City Liveryman can count towards RYA qualifications such as day skippers.

The replacement - also called TS Royalist[9] was launched on 19 December 2014, and entered service in the spring of 2015.