MANY years ago, a young boy sailed in and out of Liverpool aboard the Elder Dempster liners, Apapa and Accra, on the West Africa run.

Now a 48-year-old captain, yesterday he brought the biggest cruise liner ever seen on the Mersey into the same berth used by those long-lost Liverpool favourites.

Capt Nick Nash recalls: “My father was an engineer who worked for Cable & Wireless, so we sailed from Liverpool to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

“We used the night train from Penzance, where we lived, to Lime Street and I remember being on the last voyage to Liverpool of the Accra in 1967.”

Capt Nash started his career, aged 17, with Atlantic Container Line, in Liverpool, and was last here in 1986.

He sailed with the late Capt North on the Atlantic Conveyor – both master and ship were later lost in the Falklands War.

“We carried Triumph TR7s and Jaguar cars as exports

“We picked up our pilot, Chris Meadows, in Dublin and had an easy run into Liverpool.

“It’s a spectacular arrival, comparable with New York, and I love the wonderful old Pier Head buildings.

“Plenty of our American guests were up and watching the arrival as so many of their families came from Ireland and emigrated from Liverpool. This is a great berth at the good end of town.

“Southampton’s like an industrial park in contrast.

“The Mersey has a huge tidal range, and at low water in the afternoon there’s only 1.2m under the stern, so we can’t move then.”