Schooner Adventuress sails into her 100th year By Robin Dudley In a town full of beautiful boats, the 101’ schooner Adventuress stands out. She’s not the only ship in the City of Dreams with elegant lines and impeccable varnish, stopping hearts with her gentle motion under a cloud of sail. But the schooner Adventuress, 100 years old this year, is also a classroom. Upon her decks and within her spacious cabins, thousands of visiting sailors are brought face-to-face with the realities of ocean acidification and other urgent issues belied by the sparkling blue waters. She also brings people together, rallying volunteers and support from diverse communities. Owned by the nonprofit Sound Experience of Port Townsend, an environmental and youth leadership organization, Adventuress sails Puget Sound and the Salish Sea with a mission to educate, inspire and empower an inclusive community to make a difference for the future of the marine environment. MAINE TO SEATTLE Launched in East Boothbay, Maine in 1913, Adventuress was built for John Borden II, founder of the Yellow Cab Co. in Chicago. After an expedition to the Arctic, the schooner was sold to the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association in 1914, valued for her speed and state-of-the-art auxiliary engine. For three decades, with a reduced rig for safety in rough seas, Adventuress plied the waters of the Pacific, just outside San Francisco Bay. Her task was to deliver pilots who were experts in navigating that treacherous area to ships entering the Golden Gate. In 1952, a Seattle chandlery owner brought her up the coast, and after changing hands several more times, she was bought by Monty Morton, who started Youth Adventure, a nonprofit youth sail-training organization with the motto “Busier youth build better citizens.” In 1963, Ernestine Bennett brought her Girl Scouts aboard; Bennett later became director of the organization and enlisted a wide circle of volunteers to restore the ship to her original lines. In the late 1980s, she chose Sound Experience to continue the ship’s career as a platform for environmental stewardship. CENTENNIAL RESTORATION Adventuress was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. An extensive rebuilding and restoration 10 • 2013 Wooden Boat FestivaL
The 101’schooner Adventuress celebrates her 100th year in 2013. Owned by the nonprofit Sound Experience, the schooner sails to educate, inspire and empower an inclusive community to make a difference for the future of the marine environment. Photo by Elizabeth Becker
project began in 2010 to help preserve this icon of living maritime history, aided by thousands of volunteer hours and numerous grants. Most of the restoration work was done at Haven Boatworks at the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven. Led by instructors, students from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding worked on rebuilding some interior joinery and making new sails for the ship. Phase 1 of the Centennial Restoration Project involved new forward port topside frames and planks, a new stem, new bunks, and a new anchor configuration and headrig. The following phases saw the completion of topside reframing in the starboard bow area, followed by a strengthening of the counter stern, which involved replacing the transom, and rim timber, the aft section of the horn timber, the starboard quarter fashion piece, associated planking and covering boards, and the rudder. Next came an overhaul of the propeller shaft, including replacing the floor timber it goes through while replacing the stuffing box. Last winter, the schooner embarked on the most extensive phase to date, completing the port side framing and planking and a new mainmast. “We’re currently raising funds for the
final phase, to be anticipated for winter 2013-2014,” said Catherine Collins, executive director of Sound Experience. The ship is going to get new lower frames on the starboard side, completing the hull rebuild. Collins added that access to the skilled marine tradespeople in Port Townsend is one of the reasons Adventuress is doing so well, and they are also glad to bring work to many shipwrights in town. On Feb. 3, 2013, her 100th birthday was celebrated with a sea shanty singalong, and in mid-March, she embarked on another summer season filled with beautiful sailing, excessive goofiness, loud singing and laughter, as well as some seriously effective education. WALK THE TALK Not only does Adventuress teach about the value of sustainable practices and ecological awareness, she walks the talk. Meals served aboard are all-vegetarian, made with locally sourced, organic produce. Participants learn to take part in resource conservation of onboard resources, such as fresh water, and how to be sensitive to the delicate marine environment. Use of electronics is kept to a minimum. The emphasis on Adventuress is experiencing being aboard, and observ-
ing the marine environment, which the articulate and friendly crew brings to light for participants. There’s an ondeck aquarium with crab, shrimp, sea stars and other critters. There is also a plankton net, which strains seawater for microscopic plants and animals that are then displayed via a laptop computer hooked up to a microscope. Sound Experience is also working with the University of Washington’s Sea Grant program and the ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s in a project aimed at raising awareness of microplastics in seawater. Microscopic plastic particles from many sources, including products like toothpaste and facial scrub, get into watersheds and then the ocean, explained Capt. Daniel Evans. Marine animals mistake the microplastics for plankton, and eat them; the plastic gets into the food chain. The small plastic bits attract contaminants, which are then concentrated in the marine animals. Mollusks are especially affected. Evans and other Sound Experience members are optimistic that by raising awareness of the phenomenon, change can happen. “Even on a three-hour sail someone can have a transformational experience,” Evans said. Not only do the schooner’s broad decks serve as a literal platform for environmental education, this season the 101’ vessel is also testing an eco-friendly copper-free bottom paint as it looks to become a model for sustainable systems and products. The project is part of Capt. Joshua Berger’s “Where Blue Meets Green” initiative to bring marine leaders and stakeholders into a conversation about sustainable trends in the industry. Adventuress’ port side was painted with a copper-free antifouling paint, while regular copper bottom paint was applied to the starboard side. The goal, said Berger, is to compare the performance of the two kinds of paint; this information may prove useful for similar large wooden vessels choosing antifouling paints. All in all, this is one lovely schooner – easy on the eyes and inspirational, bringing hope for the next hundred years. For more information, visit soundexp.org. (Port Townsend resident Robin Dudley has served as cook, deckhand and educator aboard 12 different tall ships, starting as a volunteer aboard Adventuress in 1997.) Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader