MEMBERS of TS Liverpool Cadet Corps received the 35ft cabin cruiser, Odin, in a handing-over ceremony held at the Queens Dock over the weekend.

The boat was formerly used to teach young people seamanship skills at the Phoenix adult education centre in Dingle, and has now been donated to the cadet corps.

The ceremony was attended by representatives from the Royal Navy and Liverpool City Council.

The Phoenix was established by a former Merseyside headmistress and nun, Sister Hilary Barber, OBE, who dedicated her life to the people of Toxteth and who died in 2000, at the age of 93.

Margaret Putt, who helped organise the event, said: “There was one course that she really wanted, and that was a seamanship course so that young people from the area could learn the skills that their fathers and grandfathers had learnt when Liverpool was a thriving port and most young men either joined the Merchant Navy or worked on the docks. Over the years, there have been many who have dipped in and out of the course, and taken part in the Mersey River Festival, and other events.

“Now it is time for a new chapter in the life of the Odin.”