A HISTORIC tall ship has landed in Whitehaven harbour. 

La Malouine is now stationed in the marina, members of the public are welcomed along to take photos of the boat and look around it if they wish to do so. 

Over the past few years, the ship has visited Whitehaven several times. However, it travels around the country and has recently been to places like Holland. 

The ship has a rich heritage dating back to the mid-1950s and has been kept in places like Russia and France over the years. 

Roy Kerr, the owner of the ship, said: "The boat has been held in Poland and France recently but it is now British-owned. 

"It's paid visits to places like Glasgow, Ayrshire, Cumbria, Wales, Gloucester, Falmouth, Holland, and Bristol amongst other places. 

"Officially the boat was built in Poland in 1968 but then we discovered that the boat was built by the Russians in 1955. 

"We're currently basing the boat in Whitehaven and are planning on regularly visiting the area over the next year or so. 

"If people are down at the harbour when the boat is docked and want to come and take a look around it then they will be more than welcome too. 

"We always try to operate an open house principal. I believe there is going to be a festival in April involving the boat but we are also hoping to keep La Malouine travelling around quite a bit. 

"Due to circumstances, we haven't been traveling around as much as we'd have liked to so we've been quite short on mileage recently. But we are the only tall ship that doesn't charge. 

"In many cases, it is only very rich people who can afford to look around tall ships but because we don't charge people find out about us through the various authorities up and down the country. 

"We've been in Whitehaven quite a few times, on our way back from Holland in 2022 we stopped off at the town."