Pelican arrives in Bermuda

A unique sail training ship has berthed in Bermuda on its way back to the UK after a Caribbean cruise.

The TS Pelican, owned by a charity based in Dorset, England, is moored off Ordnance Island in St George’s.

The crew plan to refuel and take on stores before heading to the Azores en route for the UK.

The ship – originally an Arctic fishing trawler built in France in 1948 - was converted into a tall ship, based on Barbary Coast pirate vessels, by former Royal Navy Commander Graham Neilson, who bought the vessel in 1995.

Cmdr Neilson had already undertaken a similar project with the TS Astrid.

Neilson and his team spent 12 years stripping back the former trawler and rebuilding her as a main mast barquentine.

Pelican is operated as a sail training vessel for young people by the charity Adventure Under Sail, but it on the market for about GBP2.5 million.