Morning Star of Revelation 1978 - 2019
In 1972 a physics teacher, Tim Millward, followed a call to build a boat that would take young people to sea to learn about themselves, Jesus and the world. This boat was Morning Star of Revelation. Tim was to find himself also forming a charity to operate the boat and its youth voyages: the Morning Star Trust.
Over the next 9 years, in evenings, weekends and holidays, Tim would build Morning Star by hand in an old warehouse in East London. The boat is built from ferro-cement, so consists of a complex frame of steel tubes and pipes which was then coated in cement. The boat was plastered in one ‘session’ in October 1975
Work began in the winter of 1972 involving "lofting the lines," a process of drawing out and making full size plywood templates from which the hull's steel frames could be shaped. As the hull skin was to be made of ferro-cement a complex frame of tubing, reinforced steel and wire mesh had to be constructed before the cement could be applied. This work was undertaken in an old warehouse by Beckton gasworks on the Thames in London and took 3 years to complete. Plastering of the hull finally started on 4th October 1975 and involved 80 volunteers as well as 12 professional plasterers and two mixer drivers.
A further 3 years passed when the bulkheads, deck, cockpit and engine were installed before the hull was finally moved from the warehouse and launched in September 1978. Morning Star's wooden masts were fashioned on the Isle of Wight, resulting in the hull having to be motored around to Cowes where the masts and rigging were finally fitted.
For over 40 years, Morning Star of Revelation has sailed almost continuously from March until November each year stopping only for maintenance work and the occasional lull between groups. Each year she carried approximately 400 people safely to sea under sail and travelled an average distance of 5000 miles. She is a strong and well proven vessel and is a credit to Tim, her builder.
In 2018 Morning Star was awarded as the MCA/ASTO Sail Training Vessel of the Year.
Morning Star was decommissioned in December 2019. At the time of her decommissioning she was the oldest purpose built sail-training vessel still operational in the UK sail training fleet.
The legacy of Morning Star is carried forward by the Morning Star Trust, which continues to sail with young people, now onboard its modern eleven metre yachts, Bright Star, Eastern Star and Guiding Star.
