Marlinspike #4

Fall 2014

The Wreck of the Ocean Classroom

The Swift Returns Remembering the Maine

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Alix on OCF

MICHAEL RUTSTEIN

Alix Thorne, founder and longtime supporter of Ocean Classroom, got in touch just as we were going to press. A couple of the members of the OCF family that I interviewed for our cover story had suggested that I “leave Alix alone” and so I did. However, it’s only fitting that we make room for her comments, which (lightly edited for length) were as follows: “There were both high points and struggles along the way, but one thing never changed: the people I worked with during all those years are the best I have ever had the privilege to know. Bert Rogers and Captain J.B. Smith — that was my family in the first days, and their experience and belief in our mission inspired all who came in contact with them. Captain Chris Flansburg was another early and dedicated crew member. I knew Aly Graham as a student volunteering to cook when our cook quit mid-voyage — and she went on to designing our programs and recruiting students. Graham McKay was a ‘poster boy’ who grew from student to captain and made his career in the maritime world.

There are other captains, crew and teachers who are now spread throughout the fleet of educational vessels who ‘grew up’ on Ocean Classroom vessels and I am proud to know them.

“Ocean Classroom was built by people who truly believed that what we offered was the best possible experience for anyone willing to explore alternative education and accept challenges. I am proud of the standards that we set and the range of programs we provided. Wherever I go, I run into our students who still identify their time at sea with Ocean Classroom as ‘the hardest thing I ever did, but the best.’ Many have gotten in touch this summer to say how sorry they are to hear the news of our closing down.

“And whatever is said, I stand by the hard work and dedication of Greg Belanger and our current board, particularly Peter Neill, all of whom have worked tirelessly on behalf of the ships and the people of Ocean Classroom.

None of us wanted this ending.

“This has been my life for more than 30 years, and I will continue to believe in the mission and ideals of education at sea and the benefits which it provides to all of those involved — students, crew and teachers.”

Our OCF story begins on page 4; I look forward to continuing the discussion on our facebook page. — Michael Rutstein, Publisher

4 b Wreck of the Ocean Classroom 14 b The Swift Returns

Lessons from the demise of a sail-training icon

18 b Remember the Maine

LAMI is rebuilding their first boat in Chula Vista

22 b Log of the Picton Castle

A former museum vessel enjoys a brief second career Log entries from the ongoing circumnavigation

MARLINSPIKE MAGAZINE FALL 2014 • Vol. 1, No. 4

Michael Rutstein, Editor & Publisher

Advertising: (978) 561-3020 Marlinspike (ISSN, USPS pending) is published quarterly for $20 by Pennant Publications, Inc., 73 Middleton Road, Boxford, MA 01921.

Periodical postage paid at Boxford, MA, and additional entries.

Postmaster: Send address changes to: Marlinspike 73 Middleton Road, Boxford, MA 01921.

Copyright 2014 by Pennant Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Phone (978) 561-3020 E-Mail Marlinspike1812@gmail.com

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28 b Boatyards 30 b Calendar 33 b Sailing Opportunities 34 b Boats, Bars & Beaches 40 b Tools of the Trade 44 b Job Listings 47 b Jen Buttery

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The Wreck of the

Ocean Ocean Classroom Classroom

By Michael Rutstein Ocean Classroom Foundation suspended operations on August 31, after a long and successful career of providing semester-length sail training programs from the Caribbean to the Canadian Maritimes.

Successful, that is, until the last few years, when financial pressures forced Ocean Classroom to lay up two of its own boats and charter a succession of others in a vain attempt to escape a lee shore.

Given its long-term success and the iconic stature of its ships — Harvey Gamage, Spirit of Massachusetts and Westward — the failure of Ocean Classroom came as a shock to many in the industry. Not as a surprise, to those who were paying attention, but as a shock. Because if Ocean Classroom can’t make a go of sail training for high-school students, then who can?

Shocked people are apt to make accusations, and several people have jumped to the conclusion that malfeasance, or at least gross mismanagement, hastened Ocean Classroom’s demise. The purpose of this article is not necessarily to air those claims, or to assign blame, but rather to review the problems that Ocean Classroom faced, the decisions that were made in an attempt to address them, and the lessons that we, the sail-training community, can learn from the outcome.

x x x The Programs x x x Programming was not the problem at Ocean Classroom.

OCF delivered ambitious sail-training programs that were more than just safe and fun. They were, in many instances, life-changing. Ocean Classroom provided a true coming-ofage experience to thousands of young sailors — students and crew — over the years. Many in the sail-training community got their start on Ocean Classroom vessels.

“I love Ocean Classroom,” says former OCF captain Graham McKay. “I love the people I’ve had a chance to sail with, and the boats I’ve been fortunate enough to sail.

Everything I know I learned on those ships, and the time spent I wouldn’t give for anything in the world.”

Even in its last tumultuous few years, Ocean Classroom’s boats were full. While other sail-training organizations were running into trouble, Ocean Classroom enrollments, for both summer and semester programs, were on the upswing. Last spring, Ocean Classroom chartered Virginia because they had to run simultaneous semester programs.

“Sail training may be out of step with the current generation. Maybe there are too many boats on the water, espe4

cially with all the new ones that continue to appear,” says former OCF captain Chris Dimock.

“But I believe that Ocean Classroom ran programs that were so strong that they kept people coming in. There were enrollment challenges at times, for sure, but that never felt like the big challenge to me.”

“The programs are great,” echoes former OCF Executive Director Bert Rogers, now the head of Tall Ships America. “They’re successful in the marketplace and they will continue. That’s a good thing. Proctor Academy is still the affiliated institution and they have a place to send their students. Had Roseway not been available to carry Fall Term 2014, that could have killed the program.

“As long as the program keeps running, I believe the ships will find new owners at pennies on the dollar — cheap enough so that they can be purchased and renovated and carry on their mission.”

The nature of Ocean Classroom’s programs — farreaching blue-water programs, entailing weeks and months at sea — did create problems for the organization.

“It is apples to oranges to compare organizations that are operating coastal or inland ships that operate for four or five

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HARVEY GAMAGE (left) and SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS sail together in happier times months out of the year, to Ocean Classroom, who was operating ships in an ocean-going offshore capacity 11 months out of the year,” says Dimock.

“The sailing schedule was more aggressive than any other wooden ship schedule that I can think of, and more so than any other American sail training organization with the exception of SEA. The ships were maintained well, but they take such a beating all year that they require more serious work than any other wooden ships out there.

“For example, both of the wooden ships were hauled out every year to have four to six planks replaced — always with high quality white oak — and frame futtocks replaced. I’d say that the maintenance curve was maintained well, but the big restorations were never provided for.”

Maintenance was not the only issue raised by the aggressive, over-the-horizon programming. Ocean Classroom’s vessels were out of sight and out of mind, and that lack of visibility hindered OCF when it came to developing the corps of volunteers, the connection to a community, and above all the committed financial backers that are the backbone of successful sail-training organizations and maritime museums.

“One of the reasons Sultana, for example, has been so successful [see Marlinspike #2] is that she stays close to home, and she’s right there where her funders and her vol-

unteers are,” says former OCF captain Christopher Flansburg.

“A boat like the Gamage, wherever she might be based, she’s at sea for months at a time! Nobody sees her. There isn’t that’s sense of connectedness that can really help when it comes to building an organization and raising money.”

x x x The Ships x x x

The ships themselves were not the problem for Ocean Classroom. The age of those ships was.

Harvey Gamage has been a successful sail-training platform for four decades. Westward is an icon, “the boat people name their kids after,” according to Flansburg. And Spirit of Massachusetts earned rave reviews from OCF staffers.

“She was our most marketable ship, and made us the most money,” says longtime Ocean Classroom program director Alyson Graham, one of several staffers who professed a deep attachment for the schooner.

“She was less expensive to run, she didn’t require as much fuel as Westward, she was a big money-maker for us.

And she’s gorgeous! She worked her butt off for us, and this is what happened to her.”

None of the three vessels were new when they were acquired by Ocean Classroom. Gamage had been built in

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WESTWARD achieved iconic status with SEA but needed major work by the time she was acquired

by OCF

1973 and required a major yard not long after her acquisition. OCF rebuilt her almost completely, in several successive yard periods over 15 years or so. Westward was even older, having been built in 1961 and sailed for years as the flagship of SEA. At the time of her lay-up, OCF had rebuilt nearly three quarters of her hull, below the waterline.

Spirit of Massachusetts was built in 1984, expressly for sail training, but was not acquired by Ocean Classroom until 2000. As the newest and strongest of the OCF fleet, Spirit was often the one keeping the programs going when Gamage or Westward were in the yard.

It is a truism that boats fare better at sea than in harbor, but no matter how actively they are sailed, wooden boats need continual attention and maintenance. This is even truer for older boats. By 2014, the three Ocean Classroom boats had cumulative age of 124. Despite several major overhauls, Gamage was back at Rose’s Marine in Gloucester for another $100,000 yard when the axe fell this summer.

Spirit had already been laid up, out of commission, never having gotten the same kind of overhaul that Gamage and Westward had each received over the years. This spring, she sank at her dock in Portland; later, she was hauled and transported to Portland Yacht Services, where she remains.

“She’s basically a planter right now,” laments Graham.

“You can poke your hand right through her.”

Other OCF staffers dispute the “planter” label, but agree that unless Spirit receives $700,000 to $800,000 of work immediately, her sail-training days may be over. At press time she was reported to have been purchased as an attrac6

tion vessel.

And Westward, iconic Westward, was pretty far gone when Ocean Classroom acquired her in 2003.

“One of the first things we did was haul out up in Rockland,” recalls Capt. J. B. Smith, “and I remember somebody dropped a screwdriver and it went through the bottom! Whoops.”

Westward sailed on programs, alternating with periods in the shipyard, until 2008 when she was put in the yard for the final phase of her rebuild. Work on her continued on and off until 2011, when OCF ran out of funds to sustain it.

Westward was tied up at Portland Yacht Services as this issue went to press.

A sail-training program is only as strong as its ships; and Ocean Classroom’s ships were getting long in the tooth. Not so old that they could not still serve for many years to come, but if that were to happen, they needed not just the occasional yard, a coat of paint, and a new jib — they needed major overhauls.

Major overhauls of boats in this size range do not come cheap. And there’s the rub.

x x x Fundraising x x x

“Really it was the capital needs of the ships that killed OCF, and the inability of Ocean Classrooms under me and those who came after me, to develop a strong and successful base of philanthropy to cover the capital needs of the ships.” — Bert Rogers

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The programs were good ones. The office was filling the boats. The boats were well-suited to their work. But the aging boats needed expensive work, and the money was not there.

Ocean Classroom’s successful programming was able to pay for itself, but was not able to cover the major shipyards the boats needed.

“We were successful at running high-quality programs which turned a modest profit,” says Rogers, “but the capital needs of the ships were so great that our modest margin was not sufficient to pay for them, and that left commercial debt as the resource of last resort.”

Commercial debt was only resorted to, however, after Ocean Classroom had tried and failed for years to develop a broad and robust stable of financial supporters, a failure that everyone involved with Ocean Classroom readily admits.

“Towards the end,” says McKay, “Ocean Classroom relied heavily on a major donor to fill gaps year to year. This was an unsustainable financial model for at least two reasons.

“One, the donor could no longer sustain the giving and there began a shell game of shifting maintenance funds away from one boat to cover another, with all three deteriorating faster than they could be kept up.

“Two: the reliance on one donor never encouraged OCF higher-ups to seek alternate and varied sources of funding until it was too late.”

The donor was Alix Thorne, who had founded Ocean Classroom in 1996, and been devoted to its success through thick and thin for twenty years. As Graham describes it, Thorne never turned her back on the organization.

“Alix didn’t just walk away. Several years ago she warned us she would be stepping back, that she had other things she wanted to do, and there was a lot of discussion about it. She still donated money. She was still bailing us out with large checks so that a yard could go forward.”

But Ocean Classroom was never able to replace Thorne, or find other major donors.

In 2007, the organization moved its office to Boothbay, Maine, a decision based in part on the calculation that if the organization put down roots somewhere, it would have a better basis for fund-raising. Rogers declined to move with the organization to Maine, and left Ocean Classroom.

“By that time,” he recalls, “developing a philanthropic network had become the priority. My expertise had always been in operations and programming development. So, when I resigned as executive director, the intent was to hire someone who could take the institution to the next level, and raise serious money to cover the known needs of the ships.

“Peter Neill was coming onto the board at the time, and he had great experience at South Street Seaport. He had kept that money-hungry operation going for 15 years; that’s not nothing. But then everything just kind of stalled out.”

“We always were better at running boats and running programs than we were at funding them,” agrees Smith, “and that was the basic problem, as Bert or anyone else

could tell you.

“That was one of the major failings of this company, and I guess many people have had the same problem.

Fundraising is something that Ocean Classroom was never particularly good at. We tried! We tried several different times… We knew what it cost to rebuild those boats and to run them. We knew we could earn what it took to run them, but not to rebuild them.”

Neither Neill or a succession of executive directors, terminating with Greg Belanger, were able to jump-start fundraising. Soon, the stock market would crash, making the challenge even tougher.

“SEA does a great job of ‘reunionizing’,” says McKay, proposing one solution to the problem, “and from that comes money and program support. This shortfall was one of OCF’s largest.”

Dimock gives Belanger credit for continuing the effort to transform 20 years of past students into a community of supporters, advocates, and donors. But it was too little, too late.

Graham is more disparaging of Belanger’s fundraising efforts.

“Greg Belanger was presented as a capable fundraiser, and said he’d raise $250,000 in the first year. He also said we would begin running programs on the Irving Johnson, and that each member of the board promised to donate the equivalent of one student’s tuition. These things never happened.”

“OCF had become reliant on Alix Thorne and on a small group of board members for both contributions and at times loans, and a small group of affiliated donors,” counters Belanger.

“The problem was that it’s very hard to go to donors with a capital campaign when you’ve got more than $2 million in debt. Donors will give you money for boats and programs, but nobody is excited about donating money for debt service. Donors like to see something tangible as a result of their donation. And when your balance sheet is as out of whack as OCF’s was at the time, it’s a very difficult sell.”

John F. Millar said in Marlinspike #3 that non-profit board members must obey the Three Gs: GIVE Money, GET other people to give money, or GET OFF the board.

By that standard, Ocean Classroom’s board was a huge disappointment.

Chairman of the Board Peter Neill maintains that that fund-raising was adequate, and that it was the 2008 fiscal crisis that pushed OCF into the red. But he does admit the board was an issue.

“We could have expanded our board sooner. We had a working board, they were all working very hard, most of them, and we started to expand it… we were working to expand the board to expand our pedagogical power and range.”

Pedagogy aside, the money wasn’t raised. The badlyneeded overhauls did not happen. In desperation, Ocean Classroom began playing a shell game of deferring mainte-

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7

nance and chartering boats which were less-than-ideal sailtraining platforms.

x x x Management x x x

By 2013, Ocean Classroom’s situation was desperate.

Some companies survive tough times; others fold. The difference is often management.

Peter Neill, Chairman of the Board, and Greg Belanger, the new Executive Director, understood the problems they were facing. But their options were limited.

When he understood that the philanthropic support that Ocean Classroom needed was not forthcoming, Belanger threw himself into “protracted negotiations” with OCF’s creditors.

“What we wanted to do was restructure the debt somehow. We thought we could make a good argument, and we started by improving our top-line revenues. By chartering Virginia, and by the film deal with Amistad, we were able to show the bank some growth on the revenue side.

“There were many meetings over a long period of time during which I thought we might persuade the bank to help us by reducing our debt, lowering the principal and interest.

But in the end, the only way we could restructure that debt was to close down and to reorganize.”

“Working with our program banker,” Neill recalls, “we sat down and went through a complete analysis of our costs and revenues, looked forward at the opportunities that we had, and we built a pro forma which was to restructure our debt.

“You have to remember, our debt was 100% guaranteed, 20% by an individual and 80% by the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Authority. Their justification was that we were building jobs in areas of Maine that are depressed.

“We put this whole package together before the holidays in 2013, everybody went away, and then when we came back in January, all the faces at the table were different. We were dealing with new people at the bank who knew nothing about our business, and their answer to our financing proposal was no.”

Both Neill and Belanger profess surprise that their bankers were unwilling to extend further credit to OCF, which owed over $2 million and had no collateral apart from their aging, mostly inoperative fleet.

“My embarrassment and disappointment is that I couldn’t convince the bank that the best business decision they could have made was to restructure us,” says Neill. “They would have done it for a land-side business that they understood! Believe me, I tried, many different ways, directly and indirectly. But they had that guarantee, they didn’t understand the business, and so they made that decision.”

x x x The Decisions x x x

Peter Neill’s decision to hire Greg Belanger as Executive 8

Director, and the subsequent decision to charter the troubled schooner Amistad, have drawn considerable criticism.

Belanger, who was running the struggling Amistad America at the time, was told by Mystic Seaport in 2011 that it was time to find a new home for Amistad. The Seaport suggested he talk to Ocean Classroom, and the resulting discussions led not only to OCF taking on Amistad, but to Belanger leaving Amistad America to become ED at OCF. “Greg and I met when I gave the keynote at the ASTA Conference in Halifax seven or eight years ago,” recounts Neill. At the time, Neill was serving as OCF’s interim ED. “Greg came up to me afterward and we started talking. He wanted the job; we were looking for an ED; I offered him the job.

“Greg had been a board member [at Amistad America] who had been asked to be the ED at a difficult time, but he took that ship to Africa, to Cuba, he did some remarkable things. How many people have taken a ship to Africa?

Pretty formidable accomplishment, and it all gets forgotten.

So he came over.”

The hiring was not well received in the office or on the boats.

“We came in for a staff meeting one day and boom!

Greg Belanger was hired,” recounts Graham. “They didn’t interview anybody. We were suggesting people who wanted the job and were much more qualified than Greg Belanger.”

“We were all pretty upset,” remembers Flansburg, who was on Spirit at the time of Belanger’s hiring. “It appeared that there was no vetting of any other candidates for the job.

We all had our own ideas; we thought there were several candidates who would make great executive directors; and this guy who we’d never heard of came on.

“Now, I’ll give Greg credit, he came down and sailed in Spirit to the Dominican Republic and he listened to a lot of really harsh criticism from myself and other crew who had been with the company for a long time. And he seemed to take a lot out of that.”

Neill argues that he had been shopping the job around for some time.

“We offered that job to three people. We offered it to people who were Outward Bound types; we offered the job two or three times and we were turned down, always by people who surprised me by their aversion to risk.

“It was clear to me we needed a highly-skilled ED. We had done a search and we had interviewed all these people.

Greg interviewed with the board, and we hired the best guy in the world! I think he was the best guy available. By far.

“And if Aly [Graham] didn’t get the chance to say no, I’m very sorry. Maybe we didn’t do it as diplomatically or democratically as we could have. But you know, I had worked in that [OCF] office myself as ED. I knew the personalities, I had felt the same sea-anchor effects of antichange and office politics. I knew what was going on. I felt it myself. I knew, and I am convinced it was the right decision — that attitude had to be broken.”

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Ocean Classroom saved AMISTAD from rotting at the dock, but the management contract did little for OCF’s bottom line

SEAN D. ELLIOTT PHOTOJOURNALISM

Neill scoffs at the suggestions, which have appeared principally in The Day newspaper of New London, that Belanger was guilty of mismanagement, or worse, while at Amistad America.

“He will be exonerated on all of that,” insists Neill, who believes the newspaper’s claims are politically motivated.

“They’ve been all through our books. All of that will come out in the end, and he’ll be a creditor. They owe Greg six figures in back salary!

“Greg was a lightning rod because all of the other board members left. But he’ll tell you, ‘I’ve been through this now twice. The board members at Amistad fled the minute there was trouble.’ He said, ‘the board members at OCF have stayed with me until the bitter end and been a huge help.’

And I have said to him personally, I am here with you now, and maybe beyond, because I know what you’ve done here, at great personal cost, and maybe nobody beyond me really understands it.”

Graham sees it differently. The longtime OCF program director says that even as the wheels came off the cart, OCF was less than completely honest with itself and with its partners and customers.

“We continued to accept tuition payments for programs we knew we might not be able to run. They told us ‘We’re going to get the Irving Johnson.’ That fell through, but they were telling Camden National that we were going to have

the boat, and we went ahead signing contracts, until I just stopped doing it. Because I knew we weren’t going to have a ship for these people.”

OCF management also scheduled a yard for Gamage in Gloucester for which they could not pay.

“Greg Bailey, Chris Flansburg, and Chris Dimock spent all this time and energy getting the yard ready. We had made a down payment, they had all these deckhands ready to go, these young deckhands making $400 a month, everybody was there ready to work, the shipwright, everyone.

Greg Belanger comes down three hours late, the day before the yard is to begin, and says there’s no yard, because there’s no money.

“He had told them all a week earlier that Proctor Academy was going to pay for it. Heck, I knew they weren’t going to pay for it, and I didn’t even work there any more!

He’d known a month earlier that Proctor wasn’t going to pay for it.

“So there they are at the yard with no money, and out of the kindness of their hearts and their love for the ship they’re putting everything back on board Gamage until two weeks later, the credit card stopped working and they couldn’t even buy food. It’s just despicable.”

“I know there’s a lot of anger out there among some of our former employees,” Neill responds. “And although I have the greatest respect for their abilities, they may some-

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With SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS and WESTWARD laid up, OCF’s fleet was down to just the HARVEY GAMAGE (pictured). day be asked to do the rest of the job. The rest of the job is just as hard as sailing the boat safely and educating the kids on board. The rest of the job requires an entirely different set of skills, which also need to respected.

“I had the same problem at South Street. The waterfront was always grousing about the way things were being done. They leaked to the bureaucrats and the Building Department and the press and did everything they possibly could to subvert and sabotage the project! But we ended up with a very successful, very public restoration of Lettie Howard. I’m sensitive to all this stuff. But the proof is in the pudding.”

x x x Amistad x x x

According to Peter Neill, the suggestion that OCF take on Amistad came from Greg Belanger, who was being hired away by OCF but felt a sense of obligation to his former employers.

“He asked me, ‘What’s going to happen to Amistad?’

We sat down and talked about it. And we decided to propose a management agreement. Amistad needed somebody to manage the vessel while they got their act together and managed their own refinancing. They owed a bank quite a bit of money.”

“The two boards ended up getting together and working out a formal contract, which I think was concluded in the summer of 2012,” recalls Belanger. “That deal was 10

worked out by Peter Neill and Fredrica Gray, the respective board chairs. I recused myself from the negotiations, because I was still working for Amistad America, although Peter had told me he wanted me to come to OCF. I stepped aside, and the two boards worked out the terms.”

The deal was that OCF would get the beleaguered schooner up and running again, billing Amistad America for shipyard expenses; OCF would receive $5,000 a month for managing the vessel; and any profits from programs run would be shared equally. It was, seemingly, a win-win, but the arrangement only managed to anger people in both organizations.

In Connecticut, The Day asked why a vessel supported by taxpayers was spending so much time out of state, while Ocean Classroom’s staff wondered why so much time and money was being expended on Amistad — a challenging vessel to sail, and without enough berths to be profitable — when OCF’s own fleet was in distress.

“It was a [expletive] deal on our part,” states Graham.

“Amistad only has 12 student berths, for starters, and she’s a very difficult vessel to sail for kids. I never wanted anything to do with her.”

Bert Rogers agrees.

“I was mystified when I heard about this business with Amistad. I called them and asked what was going on. It never made sense to me.”

Capt. Flansburg joins the chorus.

“Any Baltimore Clipper — be it Californian, Pride of

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Baltimore II, Lynx or Amistad — those boats are not suited to sail training. As someone once said, they’re like riding a black horse through a forest in the night. They are challenging even to professionals. I’ve seen a lot of people hurt on Baltimore clippers that were really good sailors, and now you put kids on board…”

So why did Belanger want the boat? Had Amistad America remained his priority, even though he was being hired away to Ocean Classroom?

“I think we all speculated whether that might be the fact,” says Flansburg, “but nobody really knows except for Greg Belanger.”

“We’ve all speculated on that one,” echoes Smith. “I guess he felt beholden to the company that he left. I guess he thought we’d be able to use her more, to campaign her for Amistad America. They were in dire straits, they had nobody there, and the boat was essentially orphaned. And that was a shame!

“We’d had some success getting Virginia up and running again, after she was tied up for a couple of years. And she seemed to be off and running. So I guess Greg hoped that same thing could happen with Amistad.”

Who got the better of that deal?

“I don’t know where she’d be if Ocean Classroom hadn’t stepped in — probably still tied up in some boatyard someplace, just being neglected,” says Smith. “That’s where Amistad was headed. So it’s shortsighted for anyone in Connecticut to be pointing fingers at OCF. It didn’t do us a whole lot of good, but it did Amistad some good — she’s doing programs now. She’s still got issues, of course.

“Certainly a lot of time and energy went into Amistad, and maybe she was more of a distraction than anything else, in the long run. But Amistad put a fair amount back into OCF when we needed it, by doing the films and so forth.

It’s not as black and white as it appears.”

While Graham believes that “the money we spent on that boat could have saved the Spirit of Massachusetts,” Smith disagrees.

“I don’t think it made a difference, because Spirit needed more money — we estimated about $400,000 or $500,000 at that time — than we ever put into Amistad.

After just under two years of managing the vessel, OCF was out about $220,000 in uncompensated expenses. That’s not an inconsiderable sum, but nothing close to what would have saved Spirit of Massachusetts or Westward.”

“We knew what we were getting into,” insists Belanger.

“We needed to increase our revenues, and Amistad had an opportunity to make some film money down in the Dominican Republic, but for that to happen she needed to get up and running. So we decided to see if we could help both organizations by working together. It did work, to the extent that it improved our cash flow. Without the revenue from the filming, what you see happening now might have happened a year earlier.

“At the same time,” Belanger concedes, “we had to take care of another boat, a boat that’s not profitable from a sail-

training point of view. It’s more of an appearance-fee boat, and that’s not OCF’s core competency. But it bought us some time. Amistad had to leave Mystic, and OCF saved that boat, just like we had saved Virginia.”

This new Amistad incident — at best an expensive distraction, at worst a conflict of interest — was not the first time that Ocean Classroom’s fortunes had been rocked by the introduction of a new vessel. Back in 2003, with the organization filling boats and looking to expand, then-executive director Rogers had purchased Westward, a decision he freely admits can be second-guessed.

Westward turned out to need far more in capital improvements than estimated, “a gap in knowledge for which I blame myself and the surveyor we engaged to do the pre-purchase survey,” says Rogers. “That was a major failure on our part.”

While Westward hosted OCF programs for several years, she soon needed to be laid up. Her purchase price, and the money poured into her since, appeared to have been a grave error.

“Our mortgage debt started to get a little out of balance, with our growing investments in Westward. We were still generating a profit, putting aside the capital needs of the ships, but [the work needed] was twice what we expected.”

Still, those who were with OCF in 2003 defended the purchase.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” says Smith.

“Once you get into [a major rebuild] you’re going to find things that the surveyor didn’t find, just poking around.”

Smith admits that Westward ’s acquisition hurt the organization.

“We got about three-quarters of the way through what we planned as a ten-year rebuild of Westward, and then the last three years she was just sitting, because we didn’t have the funds to complete it. We were overextended with older boats. While all three boats were running, they brought in enough to pay our expenses, even the annual shipyards, if they weren’t too big. But with just one boat running, that was no longer true. And when it came to major shipyards, well… that’s where it started go south.”

“The captains on the boats, we all had a certain amount of trepidation,” recalls Flansburg. “My thinking personally was that there was no way SEA would divest themselves of Westward unless she were in dire straits. Westward was the face of SEA! They wouldn’t have gotten rid of her if there was any way they could have kept her financially viable.

“When you get some experience with these things, you understand that some boats cost more than others to maintain and repair. As captains, we all saw that with Westward, and we saw it early on. As much as we all enjoyed driving her, for her security and her sailing ability, we all knew what was coming down the pike.

“I wouldn’t say Westward sunk Ocean Classroom, for sure, but she didn’t help.”

Interestingly, one person who differs strongly with that point of view is Peter Neill, who inherited Westward when

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he joined the board in 2005. It would certainly be undersailors and shipyards. The town welcomed Ocean standable if Neill tried to blame OCF’s financial woes on the Classroom with open arms, and the organization worked decision to purchase her, but Neill is having none of it. hard to reach out to the community.

“Westward was one of our strongest assets,” he insists.

“When we moved to Boothbay, there was a tremendous “The three-boat model, of which I am still a full advocate, amount of outreach from the company,” recalls Flansburg. allows you to increase the number of contributions to cash “We did free trips for the local Y, we did a lot of local stuff, flow. On the expense side, three boats allows you to prowe hired a local woman as the executive director. It didn’t rate your administrative help at all.” costs, all that back-office “Perhaps, in Newport, stuff. You’re expanding your we could have harnessed the revenues and saving on energy that is now going expenses at the same time. into the Oliver Hazard Perry And that was cooking! We project. We were being were building right up until courted by the same peo2008. ple,” sighs Rogers. “Life is “Everyone seems to forfull of what-ifs.” get what happened in 2008.

“I know they got a The world came to an end! warm welcome,” says Philanthropy stopped.

Belanger. “A lot of positive Discretionary income things were said in the comstopped. We were not the munity, but for whatever only not-for-profit that ran reason, it didn’t turn out to into a wall. Attendance be an effective fund-raising went down, private school tactic.”

SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS enrollments went down, In OCF’s final days, in April 2014 capital costs continued to go Neill and Belanger worked up, and philanthropy went to move the organization to south. The supporters were suddenly poor, and they were bigger, more dynamic Portland, where they hoped to bolster not interested. their fund-raising, partner with other sailing non-profits, “And so both our traditional revenue streams — and and build a long-term working relationship with Portland even subsidized programs had the same problems, because Yacht Services. municipalities were dealing with the same crunch as individuals and businesses — all of those things went critically x x x Conclusions x x x south. We had momentum by virtue of our future enrollments. We had a model that allowed us in 2009 and 2010 An aging fleet, the failure of fund-raising, questionable to keep going and meet our operating costs, but we could decisions. They all played a role in the demise of Ocean not meet the capital requirements of the vessels.

Classroom. But it’s not very helpful to advise the sail train“We certainly knew what the problem was! We had ers of tomorrow to avoid old boats, fund-raise like their budgets, plans, asks, campaigns on the philanthropic side, lives depend on it, and never make mistakes. but many of our friends stopped or reduced their contribu“You have to define what you’re all about,” stresses J.B. tions, and new contributions were not forthcoming no mat- Smith. “Look at Virginia, Spirit of South Carolina, Amistad… ter how hard we tried. And we weren’t alone in that.”

I think the source of their problems was that they weren’t clear on what their mission was, and how the boat they x x x Location, Location, Location x x x were building was going to fulfill that mission. By settling for a limited number of berths in those boats, they seriously As with the decision to acquire Westward, the OCF limited their ability to keep the ball rolling. board’s decision to move to Boothbay in 2007 was under“Look at Gamage, she berths 24 people; Virginia, she standable; it simply didn’t work out. berths 16, I think. That extra eight makes a lot of difference The argument was that Ocean Classroom could raise to your bottom line! money more effectively if it were identified with one a par“You’ve got to know what you want to do, and you’ve ticular location — “we meant nothing to anybody anyneed a business plan that’s founded on reality. You’ve got to where,” remembers Rogers — and the choice came down to have a solid idea of how you’re going keep those boats Newport, where Rogers was based, or Maine, which J.B. going. When the boats get older, you’ve got have the capacSmith and Alix Thorne and others called home. ity not just to cover your operating expenses but to pay for The board opted for the small mid-coast town of those big shipyards when it’s time.”

Greg Belanger, not surprisingly, emphasizes the need to Boothbay, a wealthy summer community in an area rich in 12

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develop multiple revenue streams.

“A lot of people are looking to blame somebody for the “It begins with the ship. The ship has to fit the mission, failure of Ocean Classroom, but I wouldn’t put it on any and the mission has to fit the ship. But no matter what your one person, or any five people. It was a chain of events. It business model, you need diversify your revenue stream was really a lot of things. within that mission.

“Ocean Classroom was doing really well before the “And that may mean you have to compromise a little. economy tanked, and we bought more boats than we could You may need to do shore-based programs that will serve as deal with in a bad economy. After 9/11 people didn’t want feeders to your at-sea program. You may need to accept to send their kids off to foreign countries so much… and we appearance fees even though you’d prefer to focus on educa- owned three vessels that were old and in need of a lot of tion. Sometimes it’s important to be a part of a tall ships money. We didn’t have the resources to maintain them, and event; you can make some money, you can thank your it finally caught up with us. donors, so you need to integrate that into your schedule.

“But we had a good run, man! We had twenty years of You have to think like a business. You have to create multi- really good programs. In spite of our financial difficulties, ple revenue streams and not rely on any one of them.

Ocean Classroom put out really good programs, with fan“When it comes to philanthropy, you can’t become tastic crews, and terrific results for 20 years. It’s amazing, dependent on a small group of donors. And you cannot you know? Amazing!” b count on government funding. As excited as a city or state might be at the beginning of a new enterprise, it’s just not a reliable source of funding.

You must have a diversified revenue stream.”

Peter Neill is loath to admit that mistakes were made. In his view, the acquisition of Westward was not a mistake. Moving to Boothbay might have been a misstep, but was hardly fatal.

Greg Belanger was the best man for the job. OCF’s fund-raising was adequate, at least until 2008. The arrangement with Amistad was not a mistake.

“There were two pieces to the problem,” Neill sums up. “One of them was 2008, which accelerated the capital problem. The other was 2014 when the bank said no to restructuring. At that point, we were out of Chris Richmond options.” crichmond@allenif.com Alyson Graham is convinced that Ocean Classroom’s business model is sound. In her opinion, good management could have saved the organization. Instead, bad management doomed it.

“The downfall was not listening to those who were qualified, chasing them away, not raising money, and not functioning like a non-profit — or any business for that matter — should function.

“In this case, there are people you Flagship Niagara can blame; there are people who were directly responsible for what happened.”

An employee-owned company with offices in Camden, Rockland, Belfast and Southwest Harbor, Maine.

Flansburg manages to strike the most optimistic note.

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2013

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13

The

Swift

Los Angeles Maritime Institute (LAMI) is working in Chula Vista to restore the 1938 square topsail schooner Swift of Ipswich. Built to the lines of a Revolutionary War privateer, Swift was originally a yacht, owned for a time by the actor James Cagney, before being acquired by LAMI as its first vessel for youth sail training.

Captain Michael Patterson gives us an update on the progress the crew is making.

Marlinspike: How long have you guys been working on this project?

Michael Patterson: The boat came out of the water back in 2008 for what was supposed to be a deck replacement. As sometimes happens, you find you have to do a lot more work than you planned. A local boatyard did an awesome job restoring the hull and the deck and the houses. The whole project went quiet for a year or so after a wonderful man, Chuck Heil, passed away before being able to finish the project. At any rate, the project team got a hollow boat.

We towed it down to Chula Vista, where we hauled it out at Marine Group and put it in our own little boatyard, just across the train tracks, which the city of Chula Vista has generously donated for this purpose. It’s a pretty epic gift, providing jobs and training for some of the local people as well.

I’ve been working on the boat now for nine months, and took over the project with Jeffery Woods.

MS: How much of the vessel is original, at this point?

MP: From the waterline down, it’s original planking, frames and keel. The original head rig and most recent set of sails are still in great shape. The scuttles and hatches were remanufactured, along with some of the iron that was restorable, like the hawse pipes and windlass. All the windlass-associated metals were re-restored and put back on.

We have a new tier III John Deere 6068 to replace the 14

Returns

old tank engine, which, by the way, still ran but didn’t meet AQMD code. We have a prop that, when I was working as a deckhand on the vessel back in 1986, was our spare. It’s an old landing craft prop; we still have it and we are re-using that. We had to get a new shaft, but yes, we are using a World War II landing craft prop that’s been in storage for thirty years!

We have the ship’s bell and now finally the ship’s original wheel. The wheel had been missing, in the containers of stuff brought down from the shipyard, and we were distraught! But while I was working on the Bill of Rights during Tall Ship Challenge, one of the LAMI volunteers, Dave Morgan, came up to me and said “Are you Mike Patterson? I have the wheel!”

He had taken it home for safe-keeping, and he has been restoring it for us, and only the project manager that had passed away knew! That was neat. We restored all of the steering gear and the worm drive; all that is original. A new rudder is being made in place. We were able to salvage the rudder post.

The skylights and decklights and the figurehead are original and have been restored. Other than that, I think that everything is new.

MS: What’s the sail plan going to look like when you have a rig?

MP: Exactly the same as it was before — well, almost.

There are issues with the original design’s ability to meet modern USCG stability regulations, so we are making hollow masts out of wood, and the topmast and the main gaff will also be hollow to save weight aloft.

All of our standing rigging is no longer cable, it’s Dyneema, an incredibly strong poly line that is all wormed, parceled, served and tarred to make it look old and to protect it, but it’s far lighter and far stronger. That has saved a lot of weight aloft.

The rigging work is almost all done. Our rigger, Jose Hernandez-Juviel, pre-built most of the rigging. It’s in a

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container that is also a fantastic rigger’s workshop and is waiting for us in LA. He’s been working on it with volunteers over the years and it is beautiful workmanship! It gave the whole build team a lot of renewed enthusiasm for the project, knowing that we just have to get the ship finished off, launched and up to him and his team in San Pedro.

MS: Is the goal to make her look the way she did when LAMI acquired her, or the way she looked when she was built in the 1930s?

MP: The way she was when LAMI bought her; but that’s close to what she was in the ‘30s.

Picking the hull colors has been a problem. Some say it’s too red, some say it’s too orange… it was an odd color to start with!

MS: What color was she originally?

MP: A very orangey-red, with a black stripe and some white stripes down the side. We are trying to mimic that as much as possible. I worked as a deckhand on the boat in the eighties, I have pictures from that era, and the LAMI archives are full of pictures from when they acquired the boat a few years later as well as from the ship’s early life.

We are trying to make it the same ship. The galley configuration remains largely the same.

There is one significant change in that the aft scuttle has been completely eliminated; we had to change that to obtain the required USCG stability standard and our new COI. With that off-center scuttle, we could not maintain the 60-degree downflooding requirement. This forced us to add a centerline hatch to the main hold, and to move the helm station rearward, creating a cockpit. The new layout is really very exciting and has been blessed by LAMI founders Jim Gladson and Alice Robinson.

MS: What’s the plan for the boat when she’s finished?

MP: LAMI has committed to the Los Angeles Harbor community that the vessel will focus on educational at-sea experiences for Wilmington middle schoolers as part of LAMI’s Topsail Youth Program.

Swift is not as big as Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson, but she’s a good size for upper elementary and middle school age children and easy for them to handle.

We are looking into the possibility of bringing her to California harbors without a tall ship for up to a month at a time. We still have more fundraising to do. For decades she called Santa Barbara home. We’re hoping to get her up there so the community can reconnect with her.

MS: What kind of COI will she have?

this point, and I am not sure of the numbers until the stability test is done and all of the calculations. It’s imprudent for me to even guess. I am hoping for more than 49, but that’s a big number. The boat will weigh about 120,000 pounds. She was formerly listed as 46 GRT. MS: And the boat is going to be in the water in five or six months?

MP: Yes. The caulking is almost nearly completed, and we are looking to launch the vessel in five or six months and then finish the interior back in LA, in Wilmington, where its permanent base will be.

MS: So what’s going on the boatyard right now?

MP: It’s a very pivotal moment in the ship’s reconstruction; all the bilge work is ready to be encapsulated in tar. Then we can start installing the tanks and systems that we’ve been dry-fitting and pulling back out.

MS: You’re pouring tar on top of the ballast?

MP: Yes. The ballast is all in, held in by brackets.

What we have done is copy the way the San Salvador and the Maritime Museum of San Diego has done their build, seeing as they are here locally. They’re have been very generous with their expertise and extra materials. They’re like our mentors, because we are a few months behind their construction, and the Coast Guard has already approved these techniques over there. The Coast Guard has been very good with us in our process, and that’s been very helpful.

MS: Tell us more about encapsulating the ballast in tar.

MP: There are brackets that go in, supported by the frames, to keep the weight of the ballast away from the planks. The ballast is in the form of ingots that weight 68 pounds each. We can put four to six in each bay, and that’s throughout the ship.

What we’re pouring is basically a similar product to roofing tar. We have a kettle truck that comes up and pumps it into buckets. We wear hot suits. The main goal of the procedure is to pour the tar is such a way that any water in the boat flows back to the sump and bilge pumps just forward of the engine.

MS: Interesting! All the boats I’m familiar with used concrete.

MP: Yes, both of the brigantines have cement-encased bilges. It’s exactly the same thought process, but a lot hotter and stickier. Concrete retains moisture in that it’s porous, and so the new standard is to use this tar method. b

MP: It will be near coastal Subchapter “T” and “R” at 16

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Remember the

Maine

By Harold Burnham

When I launched the schooner Isabella in 2006, a few offer and if he had a Coast Guard bill of sale ready to sign, friends who were skilled in public relations persuaded the and permission from the board to sign it, I would drive to Associated Press, television stations, and newspapers to Bath on my Sunday off and look at the vessel. cover the event. The story, thanks to some amazing photoI suggested that we negotiate price on the spot, and if we graphs of that little schooner — the photos made her look came to an agreement, I’d return in two weeks to take the much bigger than she was — was picked up by newspapers boat away. He called back the next day; the board agreed to all over the country on what must have been a very un-news- my terms. worthy weekend. One paper even listed the launch as a topSaturday afternoon, I drove up to have a look at the boat ten world news item! before we started negotiations.

Afterward, inquiries of all At that point, I had owned and kinds came from everywhere. loved my 1910 Friendship sloop Most of them — given that we Chrissy for nearly fourteen years were working hard to finish the and sailed her all over the coast newly-launched boat — were with my young family. I always just annoying and weird. One of thought Chrissy would be my last the weirdest came from the boat, but a lot had changed for Maine Maritime Museum. As it me in the previous year, and turned out, they had seen the with the changes I was facing in story in the Portland Press my life it did seem that changing Herald, and they wanted to sell boats might be in order. me their pinky schooner.

Furthermore, it seemed in the Although I had heard a few progression of vessels I had stories about the Maine, I didn’t owned — starting with a dory, know much about her and had then a peapod, several catboats, a never even seen her — surprisMuscongus Bay sloop, and finaling, as I had designed and built ly a Friendship sloop — it did two pinkies at that point. seem that a pinky would be a And I was no stranger to the natural next step!

Museum. As a boy I entertained When I first saw her, the the idea of attending the school Maine had been hauled to have there and had gotten a few her bottom cleaned at brochures. As a historian, boatRobinhood Marine and was up builder, and member of the on stands. Well, it was love at Friendship Sloop Society, I had first sight. I looked the outside visited on many occasions. I over and there were only a few Burnham aboard the MAINE always found their library to be spots where she was rotten circa 2006 excellent, the exhibits interestthrough, so I quickly climbed on ing, the grounds clean, and the deck. buildings looking good. On the other hand, I know how difFor the most part, things were fine there, except that the ficult it is for a museum to own and maintain first-class veswindlass and pawl post were completely rotten. I often wonsels, and I also knew well the predicament the Museum like- der if the fact that there was no place to attach a mooring ly faced with the Maine, if they were offering her to me. wasn’t part of the reason that the museum was so eager to Had I not been trying to finish up Isabella, I would have get rid of her! If so, the rotten pawl post may have been all likely been more polite, but what I told the man who called that saved her. I’ll never forget pulling the hatches open that me was that I was very busy and had no time to deal with hot August afternoon and having steam come out. The his board at that point. I did say that I was intrigued by the mushrooms growing rampant down below would have been 18

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The pinky schooner MAINE, sailing in the Gloucester Schooner Festival disconcerting to some people, but I figured they would be a good negotiating tool should I need one.

During a quick survey with a mallet and a chain saw, I removed a bit of the ceiling in the hold, where the mushrooms were thickest, revealing the source of the problem.

The boat had been built with salt stops at every frame, but had apparently never been salted. Further complicating things was the fact that the stanchions were continuations of the frames, which allowed the water to leak in on the end grain of the futtocks below and to eventually just sit on the salt stops and rot.

Still, crawling through the boat, I could not help but notice her massive scantlings and enormous deck frame with lodging knees everywhere. I was thinking that this vessel could rot for a long time before it caught up to her.

The negotiations were brief. I believe the Museum was basing their price on the value of the engine; the lead ballast was all I needed to justify my investment. In any case I never had to bring up the mushrooms, and the Museum never mentioned the hole I cut in the ceiling. We both knew that there was a very short list of people who could save this schooner before those mushrooms sucked every last ounce of life out of that hull. Afterwards, I often said that although we might drown on the Maine, we would never starve, as we could eat the mushrooms.

During the next two weeks, while I finished up Isabella, I made a few phone calls and learned as much as I could about my new old boat. Like so many other fine vessels, the Maine was the brainchild of Lance Lee, founder of the Apprentice Shop, and in fact the largest vessel they had built. When the Maine was almost finished, there was a divergence and the Apprentice Shop moved from Bath to Rockport, leaving her at the Museum. Five years and several builders later, the Maine eventually launched. Afterward she did travel around for a few years, but when I purchased her she was suffering from everything but overuse. In fact what the Maine needed more than anything at that point was salt water.

When I went back to Robinhood Marine to get her, I installed a vented loop that discharged about a third of the cooling water through a hose onto the deck. Later I redirected the bilge pump to discharge on deck, and installed a rawwater washdown pump which I often used to soak down below decks. Above deck, I soaked down with buckets — and occasionally with water that came through the scuppers and over the rails.

Of course you can’t put water on a boat like this up on shore; you have to sail her, and we did a lot of that.

Amazingly, the salt water did take care of most of the mushroom problem. It really tightened things up, and I believe more than anything else I did, helped preserve the hull for

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the next five years.

Over the next few years, the work and sailing continued.

We did do more than just sail the Maine. The first order The Maine continued to get better and better. As time went of business after we brought her back to Essex was to replace on, the decks got tighter, we fixed up the interior and the pawl post, windlass and foremast. Luckily I had all of installed a head, fresh water, an electrical system and gave that in stock. The pawl post was a locust log quickly cut to her a lot of love. fit, the windlass was a beautiful iron one I had bought from Nevertheless, there was writing on the wall that I could a passerby several years earlier that seemed to perfectly suit not ignore. It was obvious that at some point we were going the vessel, and the foremast was the mast from an original to have to do some serious work, and secondly it was also Friendship sloop I had bought for her fittings. Within a few obvious that my boat-building business was slowly failing. In weeks, my family and I were off in the Maine on the first of down times I rebuilt my railway to haul the Maine and I cut many cruises along the coast. an enormous amount of timber Some might ask, given how to either rebuild the Maine easy and fun it was for me to with or to use should anyone get the Maine sailing again, want to have a boat built. why the didn’t the Museum do Although I had a yard, equipit themselves? To those I ment and materials at my diswould say, had I charged the posal, I frankly wondered how Museum for what I did, it long I could hold onto them. I would have been work, and it figured I really should make the would have been expensive. very most of them, and soon — Further, there would have been and I wondered if rebuilding no end to the work or expense the Maine was really my best as long as they kept her. option.

Really, I admire the Museum In the spring of 2009, while for having the good sense to I had the vessel careened on a put the Maine into the hands beach and was cleaning the of someone they knew would bottom for painting, I saw sail it, and I was proud to fly something that did not look their flag as long as it lasted. I right on one of the planks. I was always proud that the turned my broom around and Maine had been built at Bath. gave it a rap. The back of the At the end of 2006 I hauled broom went straight through! the boat (the only time I ever Although I cut a patch for did so) and in my spare time the plank and sailed the boat over that winter wooded and for another two seasons, that refaired the hull, rebuilt the was the deciding moment. pinky stern,and repaired the What I decided was to build a places she had rotted through. new boat, larger than the I made a new mainmast, and Maine, more seaworthy, and in trade for an old car, my Coast Guard-certified so its Burnham shows two Coasties friend Aaron Snider built me income could augment what I around the MAINE, some nice booby hatches over was not making building boats. which is getting new cabin hatches the cargo holds. By June of To keep the expenses down 2007 we had changed our busion my new pinky, Ardelle, I ness model from two-hour charters in Chrissy to all-day trips would use everything I could salvage from the Maine: the aboard the Maine, and she paid for herself the first season. spars, standing rigging, running rigging, hatches, head, That summer, on a family cruise down east, we met up engine, batteries, windlass, anchors, cables, controls, mast with Lance Lee in Rockland. He joined us and about 20 boots, tanks, bunks, ballast, everything. other people on a beautiful sunset light-air ghost out to But then what of the Maine? Her parts were worth more Monroe Island and back. than the whole, and her hull would be left a hulk. Later that Lance had never been aboard the Maine before, but there summer I saw Lance and broached my ideas for the Maine’s was drinking and music and fun. As we approached the future with him. Honestly, he seemed excited by the dock that evening with hardly a breath of air in the sails, I prospect of letting her rot in the marsh. He mentioned the think a lot of us, for a number of reasons, felt we had been lines from his pinky came from one rotting in a marsh and through something full circle that night. I believe Lance was seemed to feel nothing could be more natural. proud of his little vessel and the role he played in that trip.

In October of 2010, with the Ardelle half framed in my 20

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“In the five years we sailed the MAINE, we more than doubled the hours put on the engine in the previous twenty.”

yard, some friends and I took the Maine on her final cruise.

It was an awful blowy week, so we kept pretty close to shore around Cape Ann and Salem Sound, but we did drive her hard a few times and she performed wonderfully. On the last sail from Annisquam we beat her into 35-knot head winds, taking waves over her bow and filling her waist so deep that only the lifelines kept the deck boxes from floating over the rail. Once we turned the corner, the old girl was in her glory

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and we hit 9.2 knots crossing over the Essex River bar.

Forty-five minutes later we tied her up in the creek and it was over.

I would be a liar if I said I have never had my doubts about what we did to the Maine. I know there are others that might have sailed her a lot longer. On the other hand, building the Ardelle turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done for my family, my friends, and myself, and there’s no way I could have done it without the gear salvaged from the Maine.

So what remains of the Maine for me is the memories. In the five years my family, friends, and paying guests sailed the Maine, we more than doubled the hours put on the engine in the previous twenty; we made her our second home; we represented the Apprentice Shop, the Maine Maritime Museum, and Burnham Boatbuilding at maritime events and all over the coast; and we loved her as best we could. In return, she brought us a great deal of joy and always carried us home safely.

That’s what made her a good boat, and that in the end is the best way a boat can be remembered. b When Harold Burmham is not building traditional sailing vessels at his yard in Essex, he is sailing the pinky schooner Ardelle, which he launched in 2012, from the Maritime Heritage Center in Gloucester.

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From the logbook of the

Pentecost Island

By Capt. Daniel Moreland

It is just after dawn and the day comes in fair and clear. The sole shut off the forward anchor lantern in the gaining morning light. A ashore in the small thatched-roof village are doing their early AM Bwatnapne Bay is broad and palm-fringed with a coral beach un hills. The waters of this cove are smooth and still and reflect the b the clouds passing overhead. An easy swell turns into a small rollin beach, enough to be heard from the ship as a gentle white noise.

e anchor watch has A few roosters job. nder high green blue of the sky and ng surf on the

Continued on page 26

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Eastern Shipbuilding of Panama City, Florida, launched the first of two COLUMBIA replicas in August. The schooner underwent sea trials in September.

The original COLUMBIA was a Gloucester fisherman built in 1923. Designed by Starling Burgess, she competed in the International Fishermen’s Races against Canada’s BLUENOSE. COLUMBIA was lost with all hands off Cape Sable in 1927.

Covey Island Boatworks of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia provided the spars, standing and running rigging, mast hoops and rig metalwork.

On deck, COLUMBIA mixes the traditional and the modern. Below is a stunning, traditional schooner-yacht interior with modern amenities.

Eastern owner Brian D’Isernia plans to have her classed by Lloyd’s and to bring the finished schooner to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in October, where he will promote the schooners to the luxury charter market.

A dugong nearby breaks the surface with a fin or tail.

Odd gentle creatures. A turtle pokes his head up for breath of air leaving a set of circles to mark the spot ever so briefly.

Even small pods of dolphin make their lolling hobby-horse way into the bay from time to time.

In the golden early-morning light a lone dugout canoe is paddling slowly a few ship lengths off, perhaps fishing.

The Picton Castle is anchored on her heavy port hook with two shots of chain out in this open roadstead on the west side of Pentecost Island, a simple indentation along a high jungle cliff wall. To the east and windward, the land rises sharply and becomes dense jungle right away. Overhead is what looks like a fresh easterly tradewind as the low puffy clouds cross the mountains at a good clip. We feel only the gentlest breeze down here in the lee of the hills.

The two kittens from Fiji play on the spanker boom in a manner that does not bode well for their seagoing longevity. In the galley we begin to hear the knocking together of tin pots and that clang-slush of the hand water pump filling a kettle. Smoke from a cook fire ashore drifts aboard and give a pleasant accent to the growing day. And the coffee is good this morning.

After an easy day-sail of 46 miles from Malekula we dropped anchor in five fathoms, sandy bottom, here in Bwatnapne. It was later in the day and I did not wish to disturb the villagers on such short notice, so we waited for the morning to launch the skiff and pay our respects to folks

ashore. Once we did, however, we were made to feel completely welcome and were offered the run of the bay with a couple areas pointed out as being ‘tabu’, meaning, to be avoided. But we were told that we could pretty much go where we wanted and to do what we wished, that the river was open for swimming or bathing. We could swim on the beach and dive on the coral, even fish if we liked.

Of great interest was whether we had brought any goods to trade? Yes, we had. So young Frederick Bule, friend and son of the former chief Alan Bule, passed the word up the hills to the other villages that there would be some trading to be had in Bwatnapne Bay tomorrow at two o’clock in the afternoon.

Trading is pretty popular in these islands. It is difficult and extremely expensive for the outer islanders to get even the simplest material goods. Machetes, knives, soap, pots and pans, cloth, clothes, shoes are all wildly expensive within their economy. A t-shirt costs $10-$12, a cooking pot might cost $40, and this is after taking the truck ($5) to a shop in the main village, or spending $60 to take the ferry to the main port of Santo and being gone for several days, all in a nation where $1 represents a day’s wage. So trading a basket, a carving, or maybe a stalk of banana for a t-shirt or two (or a few bars of soap, a knife, a machete) or for trousers, a foul-weather jacket or a used-but-good kettle becomes a very attractive exchange for someone in these outer islands.

Marlinspike #2’s cover artist was James Williamson

www.jamesrwilliamson.com

Readers can find over 400 artwork images at:

FineArtAmerica.com Artist: James Williamson Artwork available on paper, stretched canvas, acrylic and metal — also available as greeting cards Enter discount code BTCBVM for a 15% Discount on all James Williamson prints from Fine Art America 26

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And it is good fun, a big social occasion for all concerned. When the crew arrive with their various goods for trade, some bought in Fiji or Vila, some scrounged from their sea chests, many islanders, mostly ladies, have set up their wares on pandanus leaf mats in the shade of a large tree near the shore. Our gang soon arrives off the skiff and spreads out some tarps and pareaus and lay out their wares as well, and the fun begins!

We have had a decent fresh ride for a couple days, making good speed under small canvas. Now the winds and seas are laying down, or so it seems. 12 to 15 footers before.

The freeing ports have stopped clanging and the seas have taken on a more steady form. Light rain squalls have been passing over us; just a little spitting rain, not much.

Just reset the t’gallants and endfor-ended the lee foresail sheet that was looking thin. We bent on the main t’gallant staysail and royals too in Santo. Next we will bend the mainsail on the main yard, flying jib after that. Maybe the gaff topsail.

Bend ‘em as we learn ‘em. But right now it is early evening, warm and balmy, rolling along just fine, making good time, headed for the Torres Strait and onwards towards Bali. b

September 8th, 2014 At 14-26 S / 159-04 E Sun has set. Could not properly observe this phenomena, as it is overcast, although the western sky became curiously pink through the clouds for a spell. We are almost 500 miles west of our anchorage at Luganville, Santo.

It’s about 960 miles to Bligh’s Picton Castle’s circumnavigation Entrance to the Torres Strait between PICTON CASTLE continues as she returns to Lunenburg by Papua New Guinea and Cape York, way of Bali, Reunion, Madagascar, Australia. And there we will kiss the Mozambique, South Africa, St. Helena, Senegal, Cape Verde, South Pacific goodbye and sail westward to meet the Far and the islands of the Eastern Caribbean. For more, visit East. William Bligh got around for a young guy, only 36 at www.picton-castle.com the time. Lots of ‘Bligh’ this and that hereabouts.

BURNHAM BOATBUILDING

Photo: Mikael Carstanjen P. O. Box 541 / Essex MA 01929 (978) 290-7168 * haburnham@gmail.com

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The foremast of the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY was stepped on September 5

PHOTO: TRIXIE WADSON

At press time, the foremast of the 200-foot SSV Oliver Hazard Perry had been stepped, and the main and mizzen were expected to be in by early October. There is still, however, a good amount of work to be done on the vessel’s interior.

This spring, even as work shifted into overdrive on the Perry, it became apparent the Rhode Island-based tall ship would not be ready in time for the summer season. OHPRI chartered the three-masted schooner Mystic, and she served as the stand-in for the Perry this summer.

Jessica Wurzbacher of OHPRI says the Perry should be finished this winter, but will still need to go through crew training and Coast Guard certification before she can begin running programs.

The ship, when it is completed, will be the first oceangoing, full-rigged ship to be built in the US in 110 years and the largest civilian sail training vessel in America.

H The San Diego Maritime Museum’s full-scale replica of Spanish conquistador Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s galleon San Salvador is now expected to be launched in January. An exact date has not been announced, but the Museum hosted a “Pre-Launch Fandango” on September 27; the $300 ticket price includes admission to the launch.

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Construction of the 200-ton galleon began at Spanish Landing Park near the San Diego airport in February 2011.

The $6.2 million vessel — built almost entirely by hundreds of volunteers — is behind schedule but within its budget, according to museum officials.

San Salvador will serve as a floating classroom. Groups of students will sail daily, conducting science experiments along the way.

During construction, the shipyard at Spanish Landing

VIRGINIA

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Park is open daily from 11-4.

H Jake Stevens of Eastern Shipbuilding in Florida, reports that the first of the company’s two Columbia replicas was launched in August and underwent her first sea trials in September.

Brian D’Isernia, the firm’s owner, “had this dream of building a replica of Columbia,” according to Stevens, and found the lines for her at the Essex (MA) Shipbuilding Museum. He had Jack Gilbert convert the lines into plans for a steel hull.

A second hull is being built to the same specs. The sections of the second hull were supposed be joined as soon as the first Columbia hit the water.

On deck, Columbia mixes the traditional and the modern. Below, photos show a stunning, traditional schooneryacht interior with modern amenities. The schooner will have both staterooms and a traditional focsle capable of sleeping 12. There will be 27 berths overall.

D’Isernia plans to have the vessel classed by Lloyd’s and to bring the finished schooner to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in October, where he will promote the schooners to the luxury charter market. He plans to eventually sell one or the other of the two hulls. First, however, he may spend some time cruising the initial Columbia hull himself.

H Work continues on the traditionally-built reproduction of Maine’s First Ship, the pinnace Virginia.

Virginia, the first ship built in North America by English colonists, was constructed in 1607-1608 at the mouth of the Kennebec River. During her lifetime, Virginia crossed the Atlantic at least twice.

The 51-foot replica of Virginia will be built to USCG Subchapter T standards. When the pinnace is complete, middle school and high school students will participate in

SAN SALVADOR MATTHEW TURNER

COLUMBIA

programs that teach operating and maintaining a traditionally-rigged sailing vessel.

For more info, visit www.mfship.org.

H The Sausalito-based nonprofit Educational Tall Ship continues to make progress on their sail-training brigantine, Matthew Turner. Judging from the photos, most of the frames are up.

For a live feed from the boatshed, be sure to check out www.educationaltallship.org. There is also an edifying discussion of the project’s processes and materials (with photos) on the WoodenBoat forum. b Got an update for us? E-mail us at marlinspike1812@gmail.com MarlinspikeMagazine.com

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To be included in future editions of our calendar, e-mail your event information to marlinspike1812@gmail.com.

WEST & SOUTH Maritime Museum of San Diego, San Diego, CA (619) 234-9153 * SDMaritime.org The Museum’s full-sized, historically accurate replica of Cabrillo’s flagship, San Salvador, is nearing completion. The boatyard at Spanish Landing is open from 11-4 daily.

Texas Maritime Museum, Rockport, TX (361) 729-1271 * TexasMaritimeMuseum.org December will see the 19th La Belle Ball, a black-tie gala to benefit the Museum.

GREAT LAKES Inland Seas Education Assoc., Suttons Bay, MI 231-271-3077 * www.schoolship.org ISEA's Schoolship program is a half-day science learning adventure aboard ISEA's 77' schooner Inland Seas or the chartered 112' schooner Manitou. Students from 4th to 12th grade collect and analyze samples from the bay. Spring programs run from early May–mid June and the Fall programs run from early September–early October.

Erie Maritime Museum, Erie, PA (814) 452-2744 * FlagshipNiagara.org October 17 – November 22. Rigging and Advanced Topics in Seamanship. Free pilot program. Five-week program emphasizing marlinspike seamanship, and practical experience working in Niagara’s rig shop. Topics include basic ship’s carpentry, fundamentals of navigation, and vessel management best practices. Lodging provided; full kitchen facility available.

Michigan Maritime Museum, South Haven, MI (269) 637-8078 * MichiganMaritimeMuseum.org September 25 marks 10 years exactly since the Museum’s sloop Friends Good Will arrived from Albany. Join us as we gather to welcome her home once again, and join us in celebration for an anniversary party on the MMM Campus from 5:00- 7:00 PM. Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Manitowoc, WI (866) 724-2356 * WisconsinMaritime.org This fall, spend a night on the USS Cobia! Unscramble enemy codes, man your battle stations, learn how to fire a torpedo, and more!

EAST COAST Annapolis Maritime Museum, Annapolis, MD (410) 295-0104 * AMaritime.org 30

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse Tours depart on Saturdays this fall at 9:00 and 11:30 am. All money collected helps support the preservation of the lighthouse.

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD 410-745-2916 * CBMM.org October 3-5. The 32nd Annual Mid-Atlantic Small Craft brings a collection of small craft to the museum’s Miles River waterfront, along with live music, scenic river cruises, food, beverages, and more. Sailing skiffs, rowing shells, kayaks, canoes, paddleboats, prams and other one-of-a-kind boats will be in the water and on land throughout the weekend. Many will be accompanied by owners, sharing their boating knowledge and experiences with festival-goers.

Sultana Downrigging Weekend, Chestertown, MD SultanaEducation.org Oct 31-Nov. 2. Now in its 14th year, this is one of the largest annual Tall Ship and wooden boat festivals on the East Coast.

A waterfront packed with ships, schooners, and wooden boats; performances by world-class musicians; lectures by nationally recognized authors and filmmakers; opportunities to go sailing as part of a fleet of Tall Ships.

Downrigging Weekend, Salem, MA (978) 729-7600 * SchoonerFame.com November 1-2. Day sails on the Essex-built schooners Thomas Lannon, Ardelle, and Fame; downrigging demonstrations on the three-masted Friendship; an evening of rum-tasting & chanteys at Finz. In conjunction with Salem Maritime National Historic Site and supported by the Essex National Heritage Commission.

Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, RI (401) 253-5000 * Herreshoff.org The Museum is offering free admission on October 25 with tours, kids’ activities, knot-tying, sailboat art, hot cider & snacks, and more.

Historic Ships in Baltimore, Baltimore, MD (410) 539-1797 * HistoricShips.org October 11th: USS Constellation Cup Regatta & Pier Party!

Join us for a fun-filled day on the water. The day kicks off with the Annual USS Constellation Cup Sailboat Regatta in Baltimore Harbor and culminates in the Historic Ships’ postrace fundraiser from 6 PM – 9 PM. Reservations required, additional fee.

Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, PA (215) 413-8630 * PhillySeaport.org October 10-12. Old City Seaport Festival, a weekend-long

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event featuring Tall Ships, antique and classic wood boats, ship models, sea chanties, vendors, face painting, moon bounce and activities along the waterfront. The Festival also features great Philly food trucks and an outdoor beer garden with live music.

Don't miss the Parade of Sail on Friday at 5:00 pm!

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, VT (802) 475-2022 * LCMM.org October 11. In 1876, the crew of a canal schooner was stranded atop the breakwater in Burlington, VT, after their boat sank during a terrible winter storm. They were rescued by James Wakefield and his son, who rowed out to save them. Every year, the Champlain Longboats program commemorates this heroic event with a youth rowing race in Burlington; over one hundred participants! Races begin at 9:30 am.

Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville, NY (631) HISTORY * limaritime.org Public sails aboard the restored 1888 Oyster Sloop Priscilla, a National Historic Landmark, continue through October 26.

Lowell’s Boat Shop, Amesbury, MA (978) 834-0050 * LowellsBoatShop.com The Fall Boatbuilding Class begins Sept. 29 with instructor Jeff Lane. Build a 15’ outboard skiff. Class meets Sept. 29-Nov. 5 on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 5-9 pm. $750 pp.

Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME (207) 443-1316 * MaineMaritimeMuseum.org Through November 2. “Eye Sweet & Fair: Naval Architecture, Lofting and Modeling” traces the evolution of naval architecture from mould loft floors to computer desk.

Coming in 2015: a significant redesign and renovation of one of the Museum's major exhibitions: Lobstering & the Maine Coast.

The exhibit will be a thematic expansion and upgrade of the existing exhibit installed in 1985 in its own 6,200 square foot, two-story building, just steps from the Kennebec River.

The Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, VA (757) 596-2222 * MarinersMuseum.org Opening October 25, 2014: The Paintings of James Edward Buttersworth. This collection of Buttersworth paintings will feature a number of recent donations to the collection.

Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT (860) 572-0711 * MysticSeaport.org September 28 - December 31. 35th annual International Marine Art exhibition and sale. America’s and the world’s maritime history continues to be retold in paintings, sculpture, ship models, and scrimshaw by a select group of gifted marine artists represented in this show. Subject matter includes majestic ships from racing yachts to fighting sail, coastal scenes, marine wildlife, and the working boats and people whose lives and fortunes depend on the sea.

New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA (508) 997-0046 * WhalingMuseum.org October 16 & 30, November 13 & 18. The Old Dartmouth Lyceum is the region’s oldest public forum for “the advancement of popular education.” This year’s lecture series focuses on major upcoming projects at the Whaling Museum. Each evening begins with a 6 pm reception, followed by a 7 pm lecture.

Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, MA (978) 542-1609 * PEM.org In August, the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum announced the completion of a major digitization project that dramatically improves access to the library's online records. More than 250,000 new catalog records, nearly 50,000 of which reference one-of-a-kind items unique to the Phillips Library, have been created. The records are available worldwide via the library website (pem.org/library) and through OCLC/Worldcat.

Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport, ME (207) 548-0334 * PenobscotMarineMuseum.org October 9 at 7 pm. The Maine Boatbuilding Forum: Boat Builders of East Penobscot Bay. October 19. Museum campus closes for the season. Museum Shop and Museum Framer remain open year-round.

Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth, NH (603) 433-1100 * StrawberyBanke.org October 24th & 25th, 6:00-8:00 pm. Ghosts on the Banke.

Come and meet the Ghosts on the Banke at Strawbery Banke’s famous Halloween celebration. Long-dead sea captains, 17th century shopkeepers and wayward pirates haunt the streets of Portsmouth’s oldest neighborhood as you trick or treat safely from house to historic house. $8 pp, children one year or younger, free.

US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, MD (410) 293-5275 * USNA.edu/Museum The Rogers Ship Model Collection is the largest collection of 17th- and 18th-century ship models on public display in North America. More than 70 models illustrate 200 years of developments in warship design. The adjoining Beverley R. Robinson Collection features an exceptional collection of prints illustrating famous ships and naval scenes from the last 500 years.

USS Constitution Museum, Charlestown, MA (617) 426-1812 * USSConstitutionMuseum.org Some online exhibits for you to explore: In the Zenith of His Glory: Pardon Mawney Whipple, USN: In 2006, Mrs. Norma Adams Price generously donated an earlynineteenth century letterbook to the USS Constitution Museum.

The tall vellum-bound volume is the copy book of Midshipman Pardon Mawney Whipple, who served from 1813-1815.

National Cruise Scrapbooks, 1931-1934: On July 2, 1931, USS Constitution and a crew of 81 sailors, officers, and Marines set off on a three-year, three-coast tour around the United States.

This National Cruise was a public “thank you” to the men, women, and children who, from 1925-1930, helped raise over $985,000 to completely restore the ailing ship. b

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Oliver Hazard Perry, Newport, RI (401) 841-0080 * www.ohpri.org Week-long summer teen camps; educational programming for studetns all ages; sail-training cruises for adults and families.

A select list of sailing programs, summer camps, and passage opportunities open to the public.

WEST COAST Grays Harbor Historic Seaport, Aberdeen, WA (800) 200-5239 * HistoricalSeaport.org Passages and port visits with the brig Lady Washington and the ketch Hawaiian Chieftain.

Los Angeles Maritime Institute, Los Angeles, CA (310) 883-6055 * LAMITopSail.org Sail-training for school and youth groups.

Schooner A. J. Meerwald, Bivalve, NJ (856) 785-2060 * BayShoreCenter.org “Sailor for a Day” programs in summer; overnight Maritime Camp programs for children 13-17.

Schooner Alliance, Yorktown, VA (757) 639-1233 * SailYorktown.com Windjammer-style Caribbean cruises during winter months.

Schooner Adventuress, Port Townsend, WA (360) 379-0438 * SoundExp.com Overnight programs for teens, adults, seniors, and families.

Schooner Zodiac, Bellingham, WA (206) 719-7622 * SchoonerZodiac.com Windjammer cruises in the San Juan Islands, April-October.

Schooners North, Friday Harbor, WA (360) 378-2224 * SanJuanSailCharter.com Cruises from the San Juan Islands to Alaska aboard the schooner Spike Africa.

GREAT LAKES Schooners Appledore IV and Appledore V, Bay City, MI (989) 895-5193 * BaySailBayCity.org Overnight programs for teens and adults.

Brigantine St. Lawrence II, Kingston, ON (613) 544-5175 * Brigantine.ca Sail-training programs on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario.

US Brig Niagara, Erie, PA (814) 452-2744 ext. 214 * FlagshipNiagara.org Live-aboard sail training on an authentic wooden square-rigger. Now accepting applications for the 2015 season.

NIAGARA Boot Camp: The full 19th-century sailing experience crammed into one weekend. September 27-28 and October 4-5.

Schooner Ardelle, Gloucester, MA (978) 281-0470 * SchoonerArdelle.com Educational programs in conjunction with the Maritime Heritage Center.

Schooner Fame, Salem, MA (978) 729-7600 * SchoonerFame.com Schooner Camp. Week-long summer day camp sessions for children ages 8-14.

Schooner Mystic Whaler, Mystic, CT (800) 697-8420 * MysticWhalerCruises.com Single-day education programs for youth, overnight cruises for adults.

Schooner Pride of Baltimore II, Baltimore, MD (410) 539-1151 * Pride2.org Passages ranging from two to 46 nights.

Schooner Roseway, Boston, MA 340-626-7877 * www.worldoceanschool.org Single and multi-day education programs for youth, and offshore voyages for adults.

Schooner Sultana (410) 778-5954 * SultanaProjects.org Weeklong “Chesapeake Adventures” programs for ages 11-14.

Schooner Wendameen, Portland, ME (207) 766-2500 * PortlandSchooner.com Overnight trips for up to 14 passengers on Casco Bay.

EAST COAST Barque Picton Castle, Lunenburg, NS (902) 634-9984 * Picton-Castle.com Ongoing world voyage, divided into passages, open to all.

Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships, Boston, MA (617) 742-0333 * LibertyFleet.com Windjammer-style Caribbean cruises during winter months.

Maine Windjammer Association, Midcoast Maine (800) 807-WIND * SailMaineCoast.com Eight vessels offering windjammer cruises on the Maine coast from mid-May through early October.

SEA Semester, Woods Hole, MA (508) 540-3954* Sea.edu Accredited semester-at-sea programs for college students.

Sea/mester, Sarasota, FL (941) 924-2900 * Seamester.com Accredited semester-at-sea and gap-year programs for college students aboard SSV Argo and SSV Ocean Star. b

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b

b

VIRGINIA cut short her summer programs and returned home to Norfolk in August.

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In August, just two months after being featured on the cover of Marlinspike #3, the schooner Virginia cut short her summer sailing programs and returned to Hampton Roads to be laid up and sold.

Her Board of Directors announced that “revenue from current operations and other sources has proven inadequate to support her current operating model and the resources required to sail the vessel appear unsustainable over the long term.

“Accordingly, the sale of the vessel appears the most prudent decision at this time.”

Virginia is a reproduction of the last all-sail vessel built for the Virginia Pilot Association. The original ship sailed for the pilots from 1917-1926, training apprentice pilots in seamanship and navigation.

The reproduction, built in Norfolk between 2002-2004, was designed as an educational platform.

Virginia had returned to active sailing in 2012 after a short hiatus.

“The Foundation owes a large debt of gratitude to a faithful corps of volunteers who performed routine maintenance and inspections during her period of inactivity, and to the City of Norfolk, Nauticus, FestEvents, and the Virginia Ship Repair Association, several of whose members provided in-kind support and maintenance that were crucial to her re-activation in 2012 for OpSail 2012,” said Tom Ackiss, chairman of the board, in a prepared statement.

Virginia had not been listed for sale as of mid-September.

H The financially-troubled schooner Spirit of South Carolina will be staying in Charleston. Two local businessmen, Tommy Baker and Michael Bennett, bought her at auction in June for $440,000, outbidding as many as two dozen potential suitors.

According to Bo Petersen in the Charleston Post and Gazette, Baker is the owner of Baker Motor Co., a luxury car dealer. Bennett, of Bennett Hofford Construction Co., is a local real estate investor.

The businessmen plan to keep the boat in Charleston, but would not say what plans they have for it, only that they were still working them out.

The Spirit was built in 2007 for an estimated $4 million and enjoyed a short career in sail training before running into financial difficulties. Exacerbating those difficulties was a lighting strike off Block Island in 2008. When the vessel was hauled to check for damage, her bottom was found to have been attacked by worms, and as much as a third of her planking needed to be replaced.

The work was completed, but within a few years the vessel was deep in debt and out of commission. She had spent the last two years sitting at the Charleston Maritime Center.

Troy LeBoeuf, who has lived aboard as its caretaker, told the Post and Gazette that the new owners asked him to stay on for at least the transition. LeBoeuf expected the ship to be used for a mix of educational and tourism programs, he said. He hoped to remain with it if it continues to be used for educational purposes.

"They (the new owners) want me to stay. No matter what, they need someone who knows the boat. I’ll do what I can to help," he said.

H Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, which operates the tall ships Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain, has announced the first half of the ships’ 2015 schedule.

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Built in 1989, the wooden-hulled Lady Washington is the official ship of Washington state. The vessel has appeared in numerous film and TV productions. Hawaiian Chieftain, a steel-hulled topsail ketch, was launched in 1988.

For more information, visit www.historicalseaport.org or call 800-200-5239.

H With two major donations and a pledge of state money, Ernestina is in a Jan. 1-12: Long Beach, CA. fair way to sailing again in the not-tooJan. 13 - Feb. 4: Ventura, CA. distant future.

Feb. 5-16: Oceanside, CA. (Hawaiian The schooner was built in Essex in Chieftain only) 1894 as the Effie M. Morrissey and Feb. 5-16: Oxnard, CA. (Lady enjoyed a long career as a fishing Washington only) schooner, Arctic explorer, and packet Feb. 20 - March 4: Oakland, CA. vessel between the Cape Verdes and the March 5-11: San Francisc, CA US. She was refitted and returned to March 12-30: Sausalito, CA. the Commonwealth of Massachusetts March 31 - April 13: Redwood City, in 1982 as a gift from the people of the CA. ERNESTINA Cape Verde islands.

April 17-22: Eureka, CA. Ernestina spent the next four years undergoing a rebuild April 23-27: Crescent City, CA. April 30 - May 12: Coos Bay, OR. that earned the vessel and Captain Dan Moreland an award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

May 14-26: Newport, OR. After receiving her Coast Guard certification in 1987, May 29 - June 1: Ilwaco, WA. Ernestina worked as a sail training ship, living history museJune 2-15: Astoria, OR. um, and goodwill ambassador. In 2005, however, she lost June 17-21: Westport, WA. her COI due to her deteriorated stem, stern, and transom.

June 22 - July 5: Aberdeen, WA. The fiscal crisis of 2008 hampered efforts to raise funds for a People interested in adventure travel experiences may rebuild, and the schooner languished for nearly a decade. purchase tickets for some port-to-port transits of Lady This summer, however, Bob Hildreth, one of the Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain. founders of the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association The vessels will visit 15 ports in California, Oregon, and Washington before returning to Seaport Landing in Aberdeen, WA. At each stop, Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain will offer public tours, public sailing excursions, and hands-on living history educational programs for K-12 students. Here is the list of ports and dates:

Pete’s Pub, Little Harbor, the Abacos. We had heard about this place and wanted to see it. So sailing on Avanyu, a 41’ Choey Lee, we departed from Elbow Key and sailed south to Little Harbor, Great Abaco. It is indeed a little harbor, and you’ll want to call ahead for a vacant mooring ball. A nice dinghy dock and a short walk, past the bronze foundry and the Gallery. The Pub is a little farther on through the coconut palms. There are sure to be other boaters there, since it’s the only spot for food and drink. Had a rum punch and a fish dinner — very good! — and took a short walk to the Atlantic side. You’ll need mosquito spray once the sun starts going down. A great place to get away!

— Mike Albertson 36

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(SEMA), and Gerry Lenfest, who has had an interest in the ship since childhood, have committed a total of $2.8 million to her refit. SEMA is committed to raise $1 million, and the Commonwealth has pledged $2.5 million.

“As Effie M. Morrissey , she was hard on the rocks off the coast of Greenland and she sailed again,” stated a SEMA press release. “She was sunk to the bottom of New York Harbor and she sailed again. As Ernestina she was dismasted in the Atlantic Ocean and she sailed again.

People of vision saw this ship’s worth, and worked together.

By working together now, we can see that Ernestina sails again and serves the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as she has in the past.”

The work went out to bid in September.

H The nonprofit organization Amistad America, which manages the Amistad, was placed in receivership in August by the state of Connecticut.

New Haven attorney Katharine B. Sacks, who has acted as a receiver in other such cases, will act as Amistad America’s chief executive officer, but responsible to the court rather than the Amistad America board.

The move will allow Amistad to continue to operate while the organization reshapes itself.

“We will seek to continue the receivership until the public can be assured that its money is being AMISTAD properly used and accounted for,” stated Attorney General George Jepsen, “and that a plan exists for the organization to responsibly carry out its mission into the future.”

Connecticut provided much of the funding for the schooner’s construction and operation, but legislators have become increasingly frustrated in recent years by the poor performance and shoddy bookkeeping of Amistad America.

“There remain substantial challenges ahead for the Amistad — not least of which are designing an appropriate governing structure for the organization and identifying consistent and adequate sources for its operational funding,” Jepsen said.

“Success is not guaranteed, but today’s action is a necessary first step and one that can give the state the confidence needed to continue expending funds allocated for the ship’s operations.”

H The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race (GCBSR) was founded to promote public awareness of the Chesapeake Bay’s maritime heritage and encourage the preservation and improvement of the Chesapeake’s natural resources. The

The Coow-Woow (pronounced “Coo-Woo”) has been a familiar drink to me from the time I was about eight years old and began accompanying my mother and aunt on lunches to the historic Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The drink, a mixture of white rum and ginger brandy, is considered by some to be America’s first mixed cocktail.

I wasn’t able to experience the special and potent drink myself until I reached the age of majority. As a Revolutionary War buff, I am always happy to try anything that might help me understand the time period. Although research suggests that the CoowWoow might not be sourced to an actual colonial recipe, the ingredients are at least ones that were readily available in the 18th century. — K. A. Whitworth

Coow-Woow

2 parts white rum 1 part ginger brandy Pour over crushed ice Stir, strain, and serve

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proceeds of the race are donated to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an organization working to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. To date, $167,624 has been donated to support the children’s education programs of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The race begins in Baltimore, Maryland, and ends 127 nautical miles down the Chesapeake Bay in Portsmouth, Virginia. Entry is open to all schooner-rigged vessels. This year’s event is scheduled for the week of October 13-19.

Perennial contender Pride of Baltimore II is sold out for the race, but at press time there were guest berths available on several other schooners. The course record of 11:18:53

was set by Virginia in 2007.

H In July, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a 2015 budget which includes $2 million for the restoration of Mayflower II. The iconic ship is a centerpiece exhibit of Plimoth Plantation and one of the Commonwealth’s leading tourism attractions, drawing millions of people from around the world. The significant restoration of the 57-year-old wooden ship is scheduled for completion by 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival.

Funding will be used to complete an extensive round of

for Schooner VICTORY CHIMES Three-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 1900, oak on oak. Located Camden, ME. COI for 50.

Asking $1,200,000.

Schooner TIMBERWIND Engineless two-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 1931, oak on oak. Located Camden, ME. COI for 20.

Asking $410,000.

AMERICAN EAGLE

Schooner HIGHLANDER SEA Two-masted schooner, formerly a yacht and a sail-training vessel.

1924, oak on oak. Located Gloucester, MA. Asking $2,000,000.

Schooner AMERICAN EAGLE Bald-headed schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 1930, oak on oak. Located Rockland, ME. COI for 56 daysails, 28 overnight. Asking $750,000.

Schooner UNICORN Topsail schooner, currently a sail-training ship. 1947, steel. Located Lunenburg, NS. COI 12 daysails, 6 overnight.

Asking $495,000.

Sloop PROVIDENCE Replica of Revolutionary War sloop, travels to tall-ship events and appears in films. 1976, fiberglass. Located Newport, RI. 59 GRT. COI for 40 daysails, 6 overnight. Asking $780,000.

Schooner PIRATES LADY Bald-headed two-masted schooner running sunset sails and Boy Scout trips. 1984, steel. Located Marathon, FL. 40 GRT. COI for 28 daysails. Asking $249,999.

Schooner HERITAGE Three-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade. 1983, oak on oak. Located Rockland, ME. COI for 30 overnight. Asking $995,000.

Schooner VIRGINIA Two-masted schooner built for sail training. Laminated white oak frames with wana planking. 98 GRT. Located Norfolk, VA. No price listed yet.

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A beach without rocks is like a sunset without clouds — ho hum. Midcoast Maine has a lot of rocks, and a lot of beaches. This particular beach is a spit of land between Job Island and Middle Island in Penobscot Bay. On a gorgeous evening in mid-September we were landed here by the crew of the windjammer Isaac H. Evans for a lobster bake that was one of the highlights of a very relaxing four-day cruise.

The Evans was built in 1886 for oystering and was rebuilt in the 1970s at the old Percy and Small Shipyard — now part of the Maine Maritime Museum — to carry passengers. She’s a beamy, heavily-masted schooner with such delightful touches as a rocking chair at the wheel and a double-wide hammock hanging from the stern davits.

As Captain Brenda Thomas says, “We don't claim to be the Oldest, the Newest, or the Fastest windjammer; we are simply a comfortable, homey schooner from the Golden Era of sail.”

I’ll be writing more about my cruise on the Evans in the winter issue of Marlinspike. In the meantime, I’ll be badgering my wife to re-create Capt. Thomas’s apple rose tarts and chocolate schooners, and trying to figure out a way to get back to Penobscot Bay in 2015. — MR Post a photo of your favorite beach to our facebook page, or e-mail it to us at marlinspike1812@gmail.com

repairs and restoration including replacing several planks, frames, and knees sourced from white oak. Further plans are to rebuild the topside half-deck, repair the transom, poop deck, and starboard half-deck. Gangway improvements, hemp-line rigging, sail replacement, and new paint are also planned.

Mayflower II was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of England in appreciation of America’s assistance during World War II. The ship set sail from Plymouth, England on April 20, 1957 with a crew of 33 men. Arriving in Plymouth, Massachusetts 55 days later, she was greeted by large crowds and celebrations. Since then, the ship has been a beloved fixture on Plymouth’s historic waterfront, and an anchor for the region’s robust tourism economy.

H Every summer since 1977, the Maine Windjammer Association has hosted the Great Schooner Race, providing an opportunity for captains, crews and passengers aboard traditional vessels from all over the Eastern Seaboard to rendezvous for a fun day of racing.

Hailed as “the largest annual gathering of traditional schooners in America,” some twenty schooners are expected to participate in the 39th Annual Great Schooner Race scheduled to take place next July in Penobscot Bay. Prices start at just $740 per person, including all meals, accommodations, activities and participation in the race.

For more info, visit sailmainecoast.com or the race website at www.greatschoonerrace.com b

MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Wyoming, the largest wooden U.S. sailing ship, contained 30 tons of iron and steel. Why?

Find out August 16 when the Kenneth D. Kramer Blacksmith shop opens at MMM. Free admission, blacksmithing demos and other shipbuilding demos will be featured.

Also new this summer: 䡵 The BIW Story trolley tour 䡵 historic Bath architecture tour 䡵 Naval architecture exhibit 䡵 historic boat collection tour 䡵 Maine wooden surfboard exhibit Visit MaineMaritimeMuseum.org to explore all the interesting things going on at MMM this summer!

 Washington Street • Bath, Maine • -- www.MaineMaritimeMuseum.org

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of the Readers have written and e-mailed us with a raft of questions about rigging photos from our first three issues, mostly “What the heck are they DOING there?”

Here, John Newman of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site walks us through a relatively simple operation: stropping and seizing a small double block. John’s seizings can be seen on FRIENDSHIP, LADY WASHINGTON, CHARLES W. MORGAN, and ADVENTURE. Marlinspike: John, tell us about this little project you’re doing.

John Newman: I’m taking a light double block and stropping it with a 14 mm line. We didn’t serve the strop area, because its light-duty block. We did a standard three tucks and taper eye splice, leaving extra length on the two legs of the eye to do a seizing to tighten up the eye around the block so it won’t rotate in its eye.

The line we’re using to do the seizing is nylon seine twine, with a little tar or some kind of finish on it. This is #72 seine twine; typically it comes from Mexico. It comes in about a dozen different diameters, and #72 is pretty standard. We cut a fathom and a half just to be on the safe side, although as it turned out we probably could have gotten by with one fathom.

MS: The first thing you did was take the spliced eye and the block and put them into the vise.

JN: Yes, and after I used the vise to tighten the eye splice around the block, I used spun yarn, which is a very soft dacron yarn, to lock the eye onto the block and keep enough tension on the block so we can move it off the vise and work on it. Then I put it on a regular machinist’s vise — with some protective leather sleeves so we don’t chew up the block — and we proceeded to do a double seizing, meaning that there are two layers of seizing. The second layer provides extra friction and extra chafe protection.

I’d say it took about 20 minutes. It resulted in a stropped block that won’t rotate in its eye, the seizing is 40

nice and tight, and you can’t see any daylight on the cheeks.

MS: Seven or eight turns on each layer of the seizing?

JN: Eight on the first layer and seven on the second layer, in this case. The object is to make the seizing equal in length to the diameter of the two legs of line that you are grabbing.

MS: Tell us about your theory as to the correct number of turns.

JN: The correct number is defined as: not 13. 13 is an unlucky number, And you’d be surprised at how many seizings look really good at 13 round turns! I am superstitious, and I’m becoming increasingly superstitious over time. If I see someone making up a seizing with 13 turns, I always say, don’t make it 13! And they laugh, but they don’t make it 13. That’s why we have a lucky ship.

MS: So, we’d find blocks you’ve seized on Friendship, Lady Washington, Adventure, the Charles W. Morgan…

JN: I didn’t seize any blocks on the Morgan. I wish I had. I did some box seizings for the ratlines on the Morgan.

And for the ratboards on Adventure. Those are for attaching the ratboards or ratlines to the shrouds so that sailors can climb aloft more easily. It’s another form of seizing but

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Continued on page 42

Clockwise from preceding page: the splice; John places the block into the vise; tightening the vise; spun yarn clinches the eye around the block; and below, the first turns of the first layer of seizing.

Authentic Tarred Hemp Marline

American Rope & Tar 8115 River Front Ln. Fair Oaks, CA 95628 877 965 1800

www.tarsmell.com MarlinspikeMagazine.com

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Continued from page 40 you’re grabbing a line and a flat piece of wood, instead of a block and two pieces of line. Or you’re seizing a vertical line to a horizontal line.

MS: Just at a guess, how many man-hours does it take to rig a three-masted square-rigger like Friendship?

JN: Ah… this will be a wild guess…

MS: 10,000 hours?

JN: Oh, easily. More than that, in fact. From the beginning? I wouldn’t hesitate to say 50,000 hours.

MS: Is that more or less time than it took them in 1797 when they rigged the original Friendship?

JN: On the one hand, less, because we have the benefit of electricity and synthetic fibers… but on the other hand, more, because we don’t have as many skilled people! The highly-skilled people available to us were really four — myself, Jeremy Bumagin, Dave Mullins, and one or two volunteers who came religiously. Maybe five highly-skilled riggers.

MS: So you get 10,000 hours out of each of them, and there you are! That’s only, let’s see, 250 40-hour weeks, or about five years.

JN: [Laughs] It basically took us two years. I think 50,000 is about right; I could go back and look at my records. [Laughs again] I’d probably be shocked! b

Clockwise from above right: using a heaver to produce tight, even turns; starting the frapping turns; John with the finished product; below, a well-seized block

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ATTN SAILORS & JACK TARS!!

O DOWNRIGG ING W EEKEND O November 1-2, 2014 in Salem, Mass

SAIL aboard Essex-built schooners Thomas Lannon * Fame * Ardelle & HARKEN to the wisdom of the Wizard of Essex, Harold A. Burnham

DAY SAILS * SAIL-HANDLING & DOWNRIG DEMOS Tour the three-masted Friendship, a replica of a 1797 East Indiaman

Join us for local rum, tasty appetizers, tall tales & schooner wisdom

Saturday evening November 1 at 7 PM at Finz

COME ONE O COME ALL ‘TIS THE L A S T D Y I N G G A S P OF THE SAILING SEASON!!

CAPTAIN / RELIEF CAPTAIN CAPTAIN Lady Washington / Hawaiian Chieftain www.historicalseaport.org This position requires a 100-ton Near Coastal Masters license with a sail or auxiliary sail endorsement. Experience on traditional vessels preferred. The Master is responsible for the safety of crew, passengers, and the vessel at all times, and working with the Mate to maintain a positive and professional experience for all aboard.

All positions require a positive attitude, teamwork, strong work ethic, comfort working aloft, and the ability to respond calmly and safely in all situations. Crews live aboard and participate in daily housekeeping, routine maintenance, sailing in all conditions, teaching education programs, safety drills, and cross-crew training. Excellent passenger interaction skills are a must. We offer a monthly stipend, health insurance after 90 days, room and board, as well as the adventure of a lifetime.

To apply, e-mail a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to: Roxie Underwood, runderwood@historicalseaport.org CAPTAIN Salish Sea Expeditions salish.org/GetInvolved/progemploymentopportunities The Captain works as one member of a 5-7 person team, in coordination with a fellow Captain, and independently. Trips range from 3 to 5 day expeditions with students where each night the vessel is either docked or anchored, to transits between ports and short 24 hour promotional sails. Must have 50-ton Inland Masters license with sail endorsement. $1900-2200 per month based on experience, plus shared room & partial board.

To apply, e-mail a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to kristen@salish.org RELIEF CAPTAIN / FIRST MATE S/V Denis Sullivan www.schoonerdenissullivan.org First Mate who can be a Relief Captain for day sails. This position is seasonal from April to November. This position serves as Chief Mate handling day-to-day shipboard operations, maintenance planning & implementation, crew training & scheduling. Qualified candidates must have: extensive knowledge base on traditional sailing ships and experience as a Watch Officer and hold a 100-ton Mate or Masters Inland (Near Coastal preferred) MMC with sail endorsement. Also, a desire to teach and learn and a positive, friendly nature is required. Send cover letter, resume and list of references to: tkrihwan@discoveryworld.org

MATE / BOSUN / ENGINEER ENGINEER Lady Washington / Hawaiian Chieftain www.historicalseaport.org This position requires knowledge of diesel engines, generators, electrical, hydraulic, and shipboard systems required. An Engineers license is not required.

All positions require a positive attitude, teamwork, strong work ethic, comfort working aloft, and the ability to respond calmly and safely in all situations. Crews live aboard and participate in daily

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housekeeping, routine maintenance, sailing in all conditions, teaching education programs, safety drills, and cross-crew training. Excellent passenger interaction skills are a must. We offer a monthly stipend, health insurance after 90 days, room and board, as well as the adventure of a lifetime.

To apply, e-mail a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to: Roxie Underwood, runderwood@historicalseaport.org ENGINEER S/V Denis Sullivan www.schoonerdenissullivan.org A full-time position handling logistical planning and ongoing maintenance for shipboard mechanical, electrical, plumbing and propulsion systems. Qualified candidates must have: extensive knowledge base on ships systems, traditional sailing ship experience, a desire to teach and learn and a positive, friendly nature. Competitive compensation, health benefits, vision and dental care plans, 401K and an annual educational reimbursement for qualification for the position.

Send cover letter, resume and list of references to: tkrihwan@discoveryworld.org MATE S/V Denis Sullivan www.schoonerdenissullivan.org Duties include ensuring that all deck operations are carried out in a safe and orderly manner, instructing and overseeing students in proper vessel operation, and presenting nautical science topics both in the classroom and on the vessel. Must have 50-ton Inland Mate license. Experience teaching students. First aid/CPR required. $1400-1600 per month, depending on experience, plus shared room and partial board. To apply, see below.

MATE Lady Washington / Hawaiian Chieftain www.historicalseaport.org This position requires a 100-ton near coastal Masters license with a sail or auxiliary sail endorsement. Experience on traditional vessels preferred. The Mate is responsible for carrying out the Master’s orders safely, maintaining a well-trained crew, and working with the Master to maintain a positive and professional experience for all aboard.

All positions require a positive attitude, teamwork, strong work ethic, comfort working aloft, and the ability to respond calmly and safely in all situations. Crews live aboard and participate in daily housekeeping, routine maintenance, sailing in all conditions, teaching education programs, safety drills, and cross-crew training. Excellent passenger interaction skills are a must. We offer a monthly stipend, health insurance after 90 days, room and board, as well as the adventure of a lifetime.

To apply, e-mail a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to: Roxie Underwood, runderwood@historicalseaport.org 2ND MATE / EDUCATOR Schooner AJ Meerwald Bayshorecenter.org Help coordinate shipboard maintenance and vessel operations as well as participate in the on board education program. Previous experience operating and maintaining a traditionally rigged wooden

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sailing vessel is required. 100-ton mate license with sail endorsement is preferred. Applicable experience will be considered. Diesel engine maintenance skill and previous education experience a plus.

Position available immediately and runs through October, 2014.

Contact: jbriggs@bayshorecenter.org BOSUN / EDUCATOR, STEWARD Lady Washington / Hawaiian Chieftain www.historicalseaport.org Knowledge of traditional and modern vessel maintenance required.

Ability to track multiple projects, organize and train work crews is essential.

All positions require a positive attitude, teamwork, strong work ethic, comfort working aloft, and the ability to respond calmly and safely in all situations. Crews live aboard and participate in daily housekeeping, routine maintenance, sailing in all conditions, teaching education programs, safety drills, and cross-crew training. Excellent passenger interaction skills are a must. We offer a monthly stipend, health insurance after 90 days, room, and board, as well as the adventure of a lifetime.

To apply, e-mail a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to: Roxie Underwood, runderwood@historicalseaport.org

DECKHAND DECKHAND / INTERN / ORDINARY SEAMAN U.S. Brig Niagara Currently accepting applicants for the 2015 sailing season.

Successful applicants will possess entry-level or higher Merchant Mariner’s Credentials and prior experience on traditional rigged sailing vessels. Compensation above industry standard.

Apply by resume and cover letter to Captain William Sabatini: captain@flagshipniagara.org ABLE SEAMAN U.S. Brig Niagara Currently accepting applicants for the 2015 sailing season.

Successful applicants will possess AB-Sail or higher Merchant Mariner’s Credentials and significant prior experience on traditional rigged sailing vessels. Compensation above industry standard.

Apply by resume and cover letter to Captain William Sabatini: captain@flagshipniagara.org

OTHER POSITIONS ON-BOARD PROGRAM DIRECTOR Duties include working with students in their classroom to design a marine research project, and the creation of a communication piece. Aboard the vessel, the Program Coordinator is directly responsible for overseeing onboard program operations. BA/BS in science, education, marine science, or related field , or 3+ years experience. Current first aid/CPR/WFR certification. $15001600/month, depending on experience, plus shared room and partial board. To apply, see below.

MARINE SCIENTIST EDUCATOR Duties include working with students in their classroom to design a marine research project, and the creation of a communication piece. Aboard the vessel, the Marine Scientists supervise students who are creating a sampling plan and itinerary, deploying equipment, collecting and analyzing data. BA/BS in science and/or education with experience in marine science, demonstrated inquiry teaching ability and current first aid/CPR/WFR certification $14001600 per month, depending on experience, plus shared room and partial board. To apply, see below.

LOGISTICS COORDINATOR Duties include coordinating pre-trip and day-to-day food and supply details for 2-5 day science education programs plus a few day programs aboard a 61’ sailboat. This position will be split approximately half-time onshore and half-time onboard.

For all Salish Sea positions, e-mail a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to kristen@salish.org b Got a job opportunity you’d like us to include in our next issue? E-mail us at marlinspike1812@gmail.com

SAIL SALEM SOUND!

COOK COOK U.S. Brig Niagara Currently accepting applicants for the 2015 sailing season.

Successful applicants will prior experience in menu planning and provisioning for 30-40 persons. Compensation above industry standard. Apply by resume and cover letter to Captain William Sabatini: captain@flagshipniagara.org.

COOK Lady Washington / Hawaiian Chieftain www.historicalseaport.org Knowledge of vessel maintenance required. Ability to track multiple projects, organize and train work crews is essential.

To apply, e-mail a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three references to: Roxie Underwood, runderwood@historicalseaport.org

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Set sail on a full-scale replica of the 1812 privateer Fame.

We sail several times daily from Pickering Wharf Marina in downtown Salem.

Beer, wine, soft drinks & snacks available $35 * $25 * $15

978.729.7600 SchoonerFame.com 45

Maybe not as nautical as some. No swallow, no stars, no ship. It's a copy of a Japanese screen painting of Musashi killing a whale with a sword. From the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It represents the thing everyone says is impossible — but you manage to accomplish.

The artist is a man named Josh at Atlantic Tattoo in Rockland, Maine.

— Captain Christopher Flansburg

‘

My family is from inside the Arctic Circle in Norway and so I got this tattoo as a celebration of our heritage. I worked with a tattoo artist in Houston for several months, and used the Gokstad ship as a model. [The Gokstad ship was a Viking ship found in a burial mound in Norway back in 1880.] Tracey Lambert, who specializes in traditional nautical art, was the tattoo artist.

I grew up sailing in the Peconic on Long Island, NY, then in Galveston Bay in Texas on my 30’ Cape Dory until I lost her in Hurricane Ike, after which I crewed for a year on the Elissa in Galveston, which was just an amazing experience. I moved back to New York, bought a 37 Island Trader on Cape Cod and delivered her to Port Washington, where I sailed for a couple years, and am now looking for another traditional boat. — Kent Martin

‘

This spike is very old. I have been trying to trace its history with no luck. It was given to me over 40 years ago by my father-in-law; he told me it was given to him in 1941 by an old salt he was working with on a ship in the Pacific, and it was very old then.

It has lettering stamped on it that I believe is a place name. The letters have been worn over the years so that first letters can’t be made out, but the last ones can. The last ones are BURG, but the first ones could be BATS, CATS, BRATS but my best guess is BADSBURG. I have tried following up on that with no luck. Could be HATSBURG. Any ideas? The spike is made of good metal and is heavy. It has withstood the years well and is still a very good tool.

— Jim Davy, STAR OF INDIA crew 46

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JEN BUTTERY

The Sanest Life

A year ago, I was tearing myself away from the green volcanoes of the gorgeous, friendly Azores. Sailing the final third of the way across the Atlantic, I had gained a pup, an Ocean Cruising Club burgee, and a new perspective.

This year, the pup sits next to me not in a palm-shaded island cafe but on the creaky floor of the only dog-friendly establishment in, probably, all of Michigan.

Have we abandoned the sea? Many beloved boats and organizations are certainly losing their battles to keep afloat and afight for those lost souls out there, and for the souls that need some losing. Not all, though. Not us. And hopefully not for long.

Jan de Hartog said in his hilariously endearing account A Sailor’s Life that people, and worried parents especially, should realize, “that life at sea is about the sanest life a man can lead under present-day circumstances.”

It doesn’t always seem that way here in Michigan. My job as relief captain/mate of the Michigan Maritime Museum’s topsail sloop Friends Good Will involves wearing “funnies” — 1810 “period” clothing, bought from the local Amish store — and shooing passengers out of the main sheet.

That said, de Hartog was actually right. To be warned away from the water is to be insulated from the world too much — to be warned away from life. The Museum’s volunteer sail-training program may give its participants only a glimpse of a different time and world, but didn’t it take just a glimpse to hook most of us?

A flash of hope, that we don’t have to “catch the 9:15 train three hundred times each year” after all? Instead, we can lay our own tracks and do something very different. We can be like W.A. Robinson before his 1928 circumnavigation in a tiny boat, as he “one day, saw a great light, and... let the 9:15 steam off without him. He refused to make that journey any more. Instead he made another.”

Hopefully, these journeys take us to new places: out of balance, out of our comfort zone, and into difficulty. Mine, this summer, certainly has.

Some days, for example, I find myself being a bit too vehement, when explaining to my crew the importance of proper linehandling (PALM THAT LINE, OR BY GOD I SWEAR I WILL TAKE IT AWAY FROM YOU) or timely repetition of commands (FOR GOD’S SAKE, TIMMY, LOUDER) and just when a C-turn is appropriate

(NO, NOT ON THAT CLEAT).

My intention becomes clear, sure, but then, as I follow up later with an anecdote about a time I saw someone (well, myself) get their finger degloved or nose broken, I realize I may be overselling the point a bit. The wide-eyed stares from under the flat-brimmed straw hats of my daysail crew reinforce the reality that, lucky for them, these are not the kind of experiences they’ve had.

We do pretty much sail within a three-mile radius.

Not that the fickle weather of Lake Michigan strikes less fear into my relief-captain heart than the weeks of strain and ocean-sized swells on longer offshore transits. A thunderhead, hint of fog, or cross-swell in the channel here inspires in me more sweat and teeth-gritting than rounding Hatteras solo at night on the last leg of my Atlantic Circle. When I heard some local boaters refer to a “crossing” and mean the trip from South Haven to Chicago — 80 miles — I merely nodded. It’s a crossing — their crossing.

Whether day-sailing or taking a schooner full of kids on their first long passage, the boats carry us to the edge of our own dark oceans and towards unimagined bright mornings.

Stowing a jib or a topsail before a squall, fixing something unfixable, finally being the first to the correct brace at the right time, knowing what words to say to a shipmate when they need it, steering a tall ship almost alone on deck, hearing the captain read from Youth... the boats allow us not only to awaken our inner selves, but to see them mirrored and humbled in the vastness all around.

Some of you remember what Conrad called “the heat of life in a handful of dust.” Some of you remember “...when we were young at sea, young and had nothing, on the sea that gives nothing, except hard knocks — and sometimes a chance to feel your strength — that only...”

Even if some of us keep remembering, that memory may become just that — something remembered with a nostalgic tear. Let’s not let that happen. Let’s not let action and the sea stay out of reach. Even if we have to put on funny clothes for a while, make shit money, and do a lot of sighing, let’s not let the ships sail without us. b Jen loves horses, sailing, music, her Toyota pickup, languages, having beverages with friends and family, and travelling. She hopes to keep working on educational tall ships and to one day have a berry farm.

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Tall Ships America is the hub for tall ships activity, expertise, and information in North America, and is commended by the United States Congress as the national sail training organization representing the United States. Founded in 1973, Tall Ships America is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to enriching youth education through character building and leadership programs aboard tall ships.

Tall Ships America supports the people, ships and programs of sail training through professional development grants, sail training scholarships, conferences, education, publications, regulatory and licensing information, public events and advocacy.

Tall Ships America organizes the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® annual series of Tall Ships® races and maritime port festivals celebrating our rich maritime heritage and traditions, and informing the general public about the transformative power of Adventure and Education Under Sail®.

• Over $700,000 in scholarships and grants awarded by Tall Ships America since 2000.

• 80,000 crew have worked on Tall Ships America member vessels since 1980.

• 5.7 million trainees have participated in Tall Ships America member programs since 1980.

• Since 2001, 87 TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® events have been held in 54 cities across North America.

• More than 20 million people have visited our TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® events since 2001.

Sign on and be a part of the adventure! Become a Tall Ships America member today and receive a complimentary subscription to Marlinspike as a benefit of your membership. For more information about member benefits and to join, visit our website at www.tallshipsamerica.org

TAL CHA