Clive Gunnell reports on Robert John Knight, the last apprenticed cooper of the Royal Navy’s Royal William Victualling Yard in the Cooperage Plymouth. A cooper makes staved vessels such as casks, barrels, tubs, churns, firkins, puncheons or butts aided by hoopers. The apprentice enters the unfinished barrel at the shout of trusso and exits as a qualified cooper. The Worshipful Company of Coopers exists as a trade association and guild since its 1501 Royal Charter.