TWO North-East student engineers have overcome the worst the North Sea can throw at them.

Ian Simpson, 22, from Darlington, and Rory Edwards, 20, from Barnard Castle, County Durham, have been on a short voyage on the square-rigged sail training ship Prince William.

It has paved the way for many of their colleagues at shower enclosure manufacturer Roman Limited to follow. They sailed from Yarmouth to Newcastle over seven days in rough seas, rigging sails high above towering waves.

The pair were the first in a scheme from Roman to develop their character under extreme conditions and reinforce teamwork, as a trial extension to a three-year educational training course.

Roman has already decided to send more students.

Operations director John Wright said: "The trip celebrated the successful completion of their day-release studies for Higher National Certificates at Darlington College of Technology under our scholarship scheme and has already proved to be a huge success.

"When the pair arrived back today, they had come straight from a shift which began at 3.30am, so we quickly sent them home, but before they left, they spoke of the sheer elation of completing the journey and an experience to remember for their entire lives.

"All their colleagues are incredibly jealous, even me, although we got a little more apprehensive when they said that a 'happy hour' included the luxury of a cold shower. We only make warm ones here, so that's a bit of a shock.

"Now all their colleagues are applying, so we plan to get some away next year."