Tall Ships Races

It was a retired solicitor from London, Bernard Morgan, who first dreamed up the idea of bringing young cadets and seamen under training together from around the world to participate in a friendly competition.

The Portuguese Ambassador to the UK, Pedro Teotónio Pereira, was a big supporter of this original idea and believed that such a race would bring together the youth of the world's seafaring peoples.

The race was from Torquay, Devon to Lisbon, and was meant to be a last farewell to the era of the great sailing ships.

Public interest was so intense, however, that race organizers founded the Sail Training International association to direct the planning of future events.

In the 2013 race, the Norwegian vessel Wyvern was shipwrecked between the Swedish islands of Gotland and Öland in the Baltic Sea.