Blyth Tall Ship Williams Gansey project

Phase 1

The Blyth Tall Ship Williams Gansey Project was established in 2016 as a subgroup of The Blyth Tall Ship Project Blyth Tall Ship.

The Blyth Tall Ship Project is planning an expedition to Antarctica 2019 to recreate the voyage of William Smith, a Blyth sea captain who discovered Antarctica in 1819 in his Brig The Williams. The expedition will be in four legs with 18-20 crew on each leg.

Money was raised to buy a ship similar to that sailed by William Smith. For the past two years, the ship (now The Williams II) has been undergoing refurbishment ready for the expedition.

The aim of the Gansey Project was to design a bespoke Gansey (traditional seaman's jumper) as a 'uniform' for the crews sailing to Antarctica and those taking part in the Round Britian Trials from which the final crews will be selected. The project leaders (experienced knitters but never having knitted a Gansey) set out to design a Gansey, raise the necessary funds for the project and to recruit volunteer knitters to knit the Ganseys for the crew.

We were surprised, but delighted when just short of 600 offers to knit a Gansey came from all over the world. We involved as many knitters as possible and designed a Watch Hat pattern so that some of those who were not selected to knit a Gansey could still be part of the project.

The first phase of this project is almost complete with many of the knitted Ganseys now returned and waiting to be matched with a crew member.

Phase 2

We would like your help with the next phase of the Gansey Project. We want to raise £3000 to buy materials etc, to knit a further 50 Ganseys (in grey) for the shore-based crew.

The shore-based crew includes people who have been involved in refurbishing the Williams II but are not going on the expedition and those who will be communicating with the ship during the 10 months of her voyage. This will also allow other knitters who were not selected for the first phase to get involved.

During the project, we have invited knitters to send photographs of themselves knitting or with their completed Ganseys. We have also asked them to send us their stories - why they got involved and what they've got out of it. We have received some lovely photographs and some inspiring stories.

We want to raise a further £4000 to pull all this material together into some sort of publication so that we can share the stories of our amazing knitters with a wider audience.

We hope you will help us with raising our target of £7000 so that we can continue with the Williams Gansey project and allow many more people to get involved.