My experience of doing the BSL tour for Tall Ships Races 2025 in Aberdeen – by Colin Davidson, aka BSL Ninja!
My name is Colin Davidson, and I’m excited to share my journey with you! I was born deaf and use British Sign Language (BSL) as my first language. English is my second language, so please bear with me as I share my story!
I work part-time for a fantastic charity called We Too! Our dedicated team, affectionately known as “Ninjas,” wears iconic green hoodies and is always ready to provide advice and support to parents of children with additional support needs (ASN). We love organizing relaxed events and accessible sessions for kids with disabilities!
From research to recording
Recently, my Chief Ninja, Phionna (yes, it sounds like Fiona!), asked me to do some research on the Class A ships visiting Aberdeen for the Tall Ships 2025 event. My task was to translate that information into BSL and record it in a studio. Exciting, right?
On the day of recording at SMHU (Station House Media Unit) in Aberdeen, I had Doug, a wonderful colleague, as my chauffeur (no limos here!). Since Doug doesn’t use BSL, he cleverly brought a mini whiteboard for us to communicate. This is our usual method when I’m at HQ in the Trinity Centre or at Amicable House with other staff members.
Once we arrived, we met the recording team and went over the plan together. I had prepared a script packed with information about the Class A ships. Standing in front of bright lights that nearly blinded me at first was a bit overwhelming! But once I got used to them, I focused on the camera.
Remembering everything from my script was tricky—let’s just say I’ll blame it on old age! We tried using the mini whiteboard to help but realized it wasn’t big enough for me to see clearly. Thankfully, one staff member had a brilliant idea: using an iPad as an autocue! It worked well, but someone had to help scroll through it at just the right speed.
After some practice runs, I calmed down and signed descriptions of six Class A Tall Ships, sharing bits of their history. After finishing my first ship description, I peeked behind the camera and was pleasantly surprised at how well I did! Scene one was a success!
A new challenge: live tours
Before heading back to SMHU the week after for the last recording of the Tall Ships segment, Phionna had another great idea. She asked if I’d be comfortable leading an informal BSL tour of the Tall Ships! This was definitely outside my comfort zone as I had never done anything like this before. After thinking it over for a few days, I decided to give it a go!
We planned to do one tour each day over three days, from 12 PM to 1 PM, starting Saturday through Monday. This meant diving into extensive research about the Maritime Museum and the history of Regent Quay and its ships. Thankfully, I had internet access for my research; otherwise, I might have struggled with basic information!
Once we finished recording videos for the Tall Ships at SMHU (with Doug helping again!), it was back to Amicable House for more scriptwriting and planning for the BSL tours. Using Google Earth helped visualize the streets without leaving my desk!
As the event approached, Phionna ordered some awesome Hi-Vis vests that read “BSL TOUR NINJA” along with a symbol representing Deaf logo on the back—super stylish! Then came exciting news: tickets were selling out fast! Phionna asked if I wanted to add more tour slots. After giving it some thought, I happily agreed to add more tours!
My first tours
Now we had two tours each day from Saturday to Monday: one from 12 PM to 1 PM and another from 3 PM to 4 PM. To spread the word about these extra slots, I recorded a signed video in BSL letting everyone know! We shared this video on We Too!’s social media and the Aberdeen Deaf Club Facebook page.
As ships started arriving in Aberdeen, excitement filled the air! On Saturday morning at 8:30 AM, Ninjas, volunteers, and police cadets gathered at Ninja HQ in Trinity Centre. You could feel both stress and excitement buzzing around!
Let me tell you about Sofie—she’s not just a colleague; she’s become a good friend since I joined We Too! We often share laughs and good-natured banter. Her hard work organizing our team for Tall Ships was impressive! She assigned roles for Ninjas and volunteers at various venues.
While still at HQ, I shared my BSL Tour script with Phionna so she could review it. As someone who is deaf, I always seek guidance from my hearing colleagues when it comes to writing or typing since English isn’t my first language. When Phionna finished reading my script and grinned widely at me from the little kids’ drawing table, I knew she approved—it gave me such a boost!
I planned to do a walkthrough of the docks earlier in the week but got caught up in preparations for the event. Finally, once we reached the hub next door to Maritime Museum on tour day, I slipped out for a quick look around before starting my first tour at 12 PM.
The buzz from people arriving made Aberdeen feel alive! When it was time to don my BSL Tour vest for the first time—along with my folder holding my script—I felt both nervous and excited. Sofie assigned Jocelyn as a volunteer to help hold up my script while I read and signed simultaneously.
We walked over to the Maritime Museum—just seconds away from our hub—which served as our meeting point for tours. Although only one person showed up initially (thankfully someone familiar), it eased my nerves!
The tour officially began! Starting with an overview of Maritime Museum history before heading towards Regent Quay felt surreal amidst all the bustling chaos around us.
We navigated through various points of interest along Regent Quay—first stopping at Harbour Offices before moving on to No. 33—a former bank for sailors—and then onto No. 35—the old Customs House that stood there from 1880 until 2006.
I had written in a good natured joke for my audience that I wouldn’t worry about going to every door on Regent Quay!
We then started to make our way towards the Docks and I used my pass to jump the queue alongside my helper and the lone tour audience and arrived at the Shabab Oman II ship which was berthed at the very bottom of Regent Quay. Once I finished explaining the facts of the mentioned ship, we walked further up the quay to the Polish ship Dar Mlodziezy. More facts were told before I could tell them about one of my favourite ships that could be associated with the colours of We Too! Alexander von Humboldt, a ship from the Netherlands, usually sails with green sails but to my disappointment, the sails were drawn down…that must be the norm when ships are docked. Otherwise the ships would have been rocking sideways if the sails were up whilst docked! That ship was docked at Blaikies Quay but we could see it directly across the water from Regent’s Quay.
We then walked around the corner onto Waterloo Quay until we were in front of the second world largest sailing ship, the BAP Union, a ship from Peru. You could feel their presence with their great length and width with their massive Peruvian flag swirling in the wind. Sadly the tour was coming to an end. Once I had uttered my final words from my script, I asked them that they were free to do whatever they wished to do but mostly importantly to leave me some feedback on how I did by leaving a comment on various social media platforms. I was then asked to take a couple of photos alongside my helper Jocelyn and the person who was on the tour.
Once we parted ways, we made our way back to the hub and it was a struggle waking up Shiprow especially with the road being uphill and my legs were aching. Are my legs telling me that I need to exercise more? Once we arrived at the hub, I just collapsed into a cube beanbag and rested my legs, I had 2 hours to spare before my next tour of the day.
Once I had recovered from my first tour, I was ready for the second tour. My mind was telling me that I’ve got this. There was another familiar face on the 2nd tour of the day, She brought her partner who had no knowledge of BSL but she had a good use of BSL as she was in training to become an sign language interpreter. It was handy for her so she could translate BSL into spoken English so her partner could understand what I was signing. We went through the same steps as I did in the 1st tour. That was my shift over and done with. I collected my bag and head off for the bus home. I thought it would be better to get the bus from Schoolhill than getting on at Union Street and I was proved correctly as once the bus came onto Union Streets, the bus stops were full of people queuing to get on the bus. The bus couldn’t let more people on as it was full. Once I got home, I just sat on the sofa thinking Phew! That was intense! Wondered if it was going to be the same for the next few days!
The highs and lows
An new day came around quickly! Once I opened the curtains, the weather was really depressing as it was very dark and raining very heavily like a monsoon! The bus stop near where I live didn’t have its first bus till 9am with it being a Sunday so I had to walk to the bus stop at the other end of the road as they had bus services that could get me into town before 0830. I opted to wear shorts with a thick jacket to protect myself from the heavy downpour. Not a nice look, I know! Once I stepped outside to start walking to the bus stop, I was drenched almost instantly. The rain was starting to get through my jacket as I arrived at the bus stop. Briefing at HQ was done and we were on our way to the hub. The rain had stopped while we were getting our briefing and the sun was coming out to play. I was then asked to accompany a Ninja at one of our sensory spaces on Upper Quay until it was time for me to start my BSL Tour.
This was a bigger group which had a family of parents and their 3 kids, one of them was in a wheelchair. One of the parents had a knowledge of BSL and Makaton as they used it as a method of communication with one of their children. A deaf man also joined the tour and he was known to me in the deaf community. It was a challenge for us all as the mother had to navigate the wheelchair through the crowd and finding suitable spots to do some signing. The mother sometimes didn’t understand some of the BSL signs but the helper who accompanied me stepped in and explained what was on the script. Once we had made our way to the end of the tour on Waterloo Quay, we said our goodbyes and they expressed their gratitude’s, we parted our ways and made our way back to the Hub. Once I had sat down for a well deserved break, I was issued with a meal voucher so I decided to go back down to the docks to one of the meal vendors and ordered a burger and a drink so I could refuel myself for the next tour.
Once I had something to eat and drink, I was ready and eager to do my next tour. The next group were a couple of familiar faces who were also my old school friends. One of them is a BSL Tutor so I had to make sure my BSL was up to her standards! She is a massive Celtic fan and I couldn’t resist rubbing it in about Aberdeen’s recent Scottish Cup victory over Celtic in May as I’m a massive Dons fan! When we got to Regent’s Quay, she mentioned to be that the Regent’s Bar was a Celtic pub much to my reaction of saying “Really”?! You always learn something new everyday don’t you? We did the tour like we normally would have done. We left the pair to roam around and enjoy the sights and take photos when we walked back to the Hub. I then got a message from one of them who was on tour that she wanted to take a couple of photos of me and I gladly agreed. I stepped outside and met them and took a couple of photos. We said our goodbyes.
That was Sunday over and done for me as I walked up Broad Street to my bus stop on Schoolhill. The street was closed due to the parade of members from every ship that they were representing. It looked a bit like the opening ceremony of the Olympics with every country holding their flag with a sign name of their countries. Once I had got to my bus stop, I knew the bus routes would be diverted due to the closure of Schoolhill till 4.30pm beforehand. The parade was finished before 4.30pm and I assumed the bus routes would be open again and resume their way on Schoolhill. Think again! The bus queue was growing and growing as the minutes ticked by! As I was waiting, I was met by another old school chum and her partner. Funnily enough, they were going on the BSL Tour the next day! I’d not seen them for a few years as they normally live in London but my school chum comes up to Aberdeen now and then to visit her elderly mother. We caught up for a while…something better to do while waiting for the bus! They left me and I was wondering when the bus would have turned up. It eventually turned up just after 6.30pm!! I would have walked home instead of waiting that long for the bus but I couldn’t walk anymore after doing a lot of walking while doing my shift. I was feeling really annoyed by the lack of urgency by the First Bus as there were a lot of people wanting to get home. Once the bus got to Union Street, I could see massive queues of people waiting to get on the bus from where I was sitting. The bus couldn’t take on more people and had to keep going unless people were getting off the bus. I had finally got home and was eager to put on something to eat. After eating, I was really worn out and fell asleep on the sofa for a few hours till I woke up and decided to jump into bed!
The final day
The final day of BSL Tours had arrived! Weather was definitely looking a lot better compared to the day before as I headed down to HQ for briefing. I realised that there was a Class A ship that was berthed next to the Polish ship Dar Mlodziezy that wasn’t included in the script so I decided to alter my script to include that ship. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t include that earlier. I’ll just put that down to a rookie mistake on my part. Once I had finished altering my script, I looked up and everyone was gone! I messaged the co-ordinator (Sofie) to see where I was supposed to go. As I was waiting for a reply, I decided to make my own way to the Hub and met Sofie and I asked her why she didn’t tap me on the shoulder to let me know where everyone was going. She said she didn’t want to disturb me as she thought I looked busy writing my script which she probably was right! I was then assigned to help at the Hub front desk. As the minutes were ticking till my 1st BSL Tour of the day, Sofie was sitting across from me on the cube beanbag looking a bit tired and stressed out and I was sitting in a comfortable office chair and decided to tell Sofie to swap seats as she looked like she needed it more than I did….Good deed done for the day for me!
The couple who I met the day before at the bus stop were my first clients of the day so more well known faces again! One of my old school friend was familiar with the harbour area as her father used to work down at the harbour in the fishing trade. She shared some interesting information about the harbour area that I didn’t know about. Once we got to Waterloo quay, we bumped into a deaf couple who were also visiting the ships. We chatted to each other for about 20 minutes. I felt a bit sorry for one of the Ninjas who was helping me as she was left out of the conversations as she had no knowledge of BSL as we were all signing to each other. I apologised to her after we had finished and carried on with our tour. Thankfully she was so understanding as the deaf community is really very small in a hearing world as the hearing outnumbers the deaf people. Once the tour was finished, we had agreed to meet up for drinks with more deaf people the next time she was back up in Aberdeen. As I was walking back to the Hub, the helper who was called Rosie and she was encouraged to learn sign language and she told me this by typing on her phone. I told her that North East Scotland College (NESCOL) does BSL Night classes with one of the tutors that was on the tour yesterday which Rosie accompanied me. Back to the hub we went until the las tour of the Tall Ships 2025.
The final tour of the Tall Ships 2025 was with a couple, one of them was a BSL interpreter that knew one of my friends who normally does the BSL Tour of Pittodrie Stadium, the home of Aberdeen Football Club. The unseen connections between mutual friends over the tours were amazing! We all went through the usual process of the tour (also bumping into more deaf people I knew)! Once I had signed my final words at Waterloo Quay, I quietly knew that this experience was coming to an end but in other words, I was glad to finish my tours as It has been a hard few days making sure everything ran smoothly.
When we got back to the hub, I said to Sofie that I was willing to do one more day just to help out the Ninjas cover all aspects of what we needed to do as Sofie needed staff and I was happy to oblige. i was homebound on the bus without having to experience the debacle of waiting for such a long time for the bus to turn up the day before!
Tuesday had arrived. I was feeling a bit of sadness as I knew this was the final day of the Tall Ships 2025 in Aberdeen. The usual briefings at HQ was done and we made our way to the hub to get our final assignments. I was instructed to accompany Gillian who is another Ninja colleague at the sensory space that we call Chillville with a table with sensory toys that were laid across the table. We both sat at the table greeting visitors who came to the table to look at the sensory items. At the same time, the ships were leaving the docks for their next destination in Kristiansand in Norway. I felt a bit emotional when I saw the BAP Union ship sailing away knowing that the event was coming to an end. There weren’t a lot of people on the docks as there were previously over the past few days. We all got an almighty fright when one of the ship let off a couple of bangers! They were just letting everyone know that they were leaving Aberdeen! Yes, you certainly caught our attention despite being deaf but their bangers were very loud! The day passed seamlessly.
The time came to pack everything up and take it back to the hub next to the Maritime Museum. Gillian was lugging along a case that held the framework of the banners and other stuff across the dock. I then asked to take over the pulling of the case uphill along Shiprow to the hub where we stored everything so they could be picked up at a later time.
Celebrating success
Once all the staff had gathered outside, Phionna had suggested we go to The Ivy round the corner from the Maritime Museum for drinks to celebrate all of our hard work over the event. Once we had got there, unfortunately The Ivy was shut and wouldn’t be opening for a few hours, we decided to go to Brewdog. I was absolutely looking forward to sipping a pint of beer as I usually like a few pints at the weekend but I opted not to touch anything alcoholic during the event so i could keep a clear head. That was a really hard challenge for myself personally but I managed to overcome it! Once everyone had their drinks in our hands, we all raised our glasses and clinked them. I took a great gulp of beer and let out a long aaaahhhhh! I bloody needed it! I decided to stay behind in Brewdog after everyone had left so I could have something to eat and yes more beers of course! I then texted my good friend Gavin who’s also profoundly deaf to see if he wanted to join me for a few drinks and thankfully he agreed to come out. Once he arrived, we had a drink before moving onto another pub. More drinks were drunk before I decided it was time to head home. I was a bit tipsy at that point when we stepped outside into the rain which was coming down fairly heavily. We both made our way to the bus stop. Gavin decided to get off at another pub along the bus route but I just wanted to get home as there was a live football match on the tv that I wanted to watch.
Here I was in my comfort zone, just chilling on the sofa watching the football until the full time whistle went, then it was lights out as I zonked out on the sofa! Who can complain really after working exhaustively over the past 4 days.
We were all given the whole week to recover from the strenuously schedule during the event which we all badly needed! Once I woke up in the morning (yes I did move from the sofa to my bed during the night) and I messaged Phionna to ask what to do with my Hi-Vis vest and other things I used for the Tour. She then messaged back saying that it was really up to me what I decided to do with them. She also said that Sofie and her slept for 14 hours (FOURTEEN)!! Much to my astonishment but understandably considering they both worked 18 hours each day of the event!
Gratitude
This was an great experience which I learnt a lot about myself and my own capabilities of what I can do whilst being out of my comfort zone. This gave me extra confidence and a bit of an extra oomph to my step. The whole network ranging from Ninjas, police cadets, clients who was on the BSL Tour and mostly important the people of Aberdeen…..You absolutely smashed it!
Before I end my story, special mentions has to go to Phionna albeit known as the Chief Ninja and Sofie who were essentially the main cogs of the whole framework to make this event more accessible than every before. People who don’t know about We Too will never understand or see all the hard work those two women has put their hours into making this event an successful one! I’ve written this story to the best of my ability when using English.
Let’s hope it’s not too long before the Tall Ships returns to Aberdeen again in the future!
I hope you enjoy reading my story! This is me signing out!
That’s me signing out!
– Colin Davidson
