Ship History
The Warrior was built in 1912 as a naval pinnace and she is a handsome, roomy vessel - a real ship in miniature, so unlike a modern pleasure yacht. Her hull is constructed durably in double-diagonal teak on oak. Her own early records, including her Dunkirk log, were destroyed when an incendiary bomb struck her while she lay, still under naval command, on the river Thames at Greenwich, after Dunkirk. At that time Warrior served as a coastal defence vessel and was used by Commander C.A. Lund to instruct naval officers in navigation and seamanship at H.M.S King Alfred in 1942. After the war, Warrior has had five owners. Stanley Crabtree had her entirely refitted at Dickie's Yard, Bangor, Wales, in the late 1960s. In earlier days she had a fine figurehead of an Indian warrior which was maintained faithfully in its original colours even when Warrior was painted in battleship grey. Sadly, she lost this figurehead during her restoration. John and Mary Hornshaw purchased Warrior in 1972 from Stanley Crabtree at Glasson Dock, Lancaster, and in May 1973 John and his son Michael and a professional skipper sailed Warrior through the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar. John and Mary lived on Warrior in the Mediterranean, exploring from Palma de Mallorca to the Greek Islands, and Malta, and the Spanish mainland coast. In 1985 they brought Warrior back across the Bay of Biscay on their own and lived on-board in Torquay until Warrior was sold in May 1989.