WORKING SAIL
on were set forth recently by the executive director, John Mylod. "Through its staff, sloop branches and the active participation of its volunteers, Clearwater reaches easily into the community and responds realistically to the river's needs and the environmental concerns of those who live throughout its watershed," he says. The sloop herself, he notes, "is not an ordinary sailing vessel, but a beautiful replica of the sloops that plied the river a century ago. She is a symbol of environmental awareness and an education workboat. We conduct a formal education program each day and provide an outdoor learning experience for thousands of students and other individuals." Sailing in the Clearwater is not a vacation from work: "All sloop activities aboard require participation by all the crew." All hands turn to when the enormous mainsail is raised. And there are dozens of continuing jobs to be done. Some of the range of sloop tasks: "We need carpenters and shipwrights whose skilled hands can often do more than five times that of people unfamiliar with the work. We need people with a knowledge of Spanish. We need a song leader, someone who knows sea chanties and can get even a rain-soaked crowd to sing." And how does it work? "In spite of all the hard work and long hours, there are so many who want to crew each year that we have found it necessary to limit each volunteer strictly to one week." Perhaps this is because of the hard work and demanding program; perhaps people look for these things, and value them when they find them in Clearwater's sailing. South Street's Pioneer Launched in 1885 at Marcus Hook on the Delaware River, Pioneer began life as a cargo sloop. Soon she was converted to the easier-handling schooner rig. She lived on and on because of her stout iron hull-and because, when the old hull could be patched no more, in 1966. the ship was taken up and wholly rebuilt by the late Russell Grinnell, Jr. Grinnell ran a waterfront construction business in Gloucester, Mass. He restored the schooner to full sailing rig, and used her to shift timbers and pilings around to different jobs. She did this under sail; her small engine was called an "iron jib," good to help maneuver in harbor. Grinnel was making plans for a sailing cargo run to New York when he was tragically killed in a waterfront accident. His family gave Pioneer to the South Street Seaport Museum.
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Of her rebuilding, Russell Grinnell had written: "It was no small project, and was far more expensive than I had hoped at first. However, it would have been worse to have had to drop it.'' And in that spirit she has since been sailed by the Museum, at first with a wholly volunteer crew, later with captain, cook and deckhand. Early on, she began taking former drug abusers to sea, where they found new horizons and made a favorable impression in the many ports they called at, from Gloucester to southern New Jersey. The Museum took great pride in her sailing, and the Vincent Astor Foundation and others, including many volunteers, supported it. "Pioneer, " said one, "is a beautiful necessity of life.'' In 1972 a Pioneer Marine School was set up in the old ferry Hart, as an integral, working part of the Museum. Pioneer's sailing has since been linked to the program of the school. Lately, to help with economics and to meet the objective of getting Museum visitors out on the water under sail, she has also carried passengers from the East River pierhead on harbor excursions, as she will do this summer. She began her sailing early in April this year, as her skipper Mike Smith took a group of students to Mystic Seaport-what a good way to go, in a working schooner! Pioneer Chairman Dick Rath has observed, of Pioneer's sailing today: "It could well be the most useful work a coasting schooner has ever done.'' The Trade Wind
Built to John Alden's designs for the 1926 Bermuda Race, the graceful schooner Trade Wind carries the learning of the Gloucester fishing schooners in her lines. A fast, able type, much prized by sailing people today. Withal a type much influenced by yacht design as the characteristic Gloucesterman hull took shape toward the end of the last century. Trade Wind was acquired by a nonprofit membership group, Schooner, Inc. in 1975, and after refit she completed her first season's sailing last year. Her purpose: "to encourage learning and interest in the ecology and maritime history of Long island Sound, its rivers and harbors." "The basis of the learning is the field experience," says Jane Griffith, executive director. A good deal of work is done with school groups, and college and graduate groups also make use of the program. A day's outing may begin with sampl-
ing of water and bottom in the harbor. "Out in the Sound an otter trawl might be set off the stern, and be hauled in to reveal squid, jelly fish, sea robbins, horseshoe crabs, sponges, conches, spider crabs, etc.," reports Mrs. Griffith. "This assortment is handled and examined, and discussed by the biologist leading the trip. The organisms are returned to the Sound. Then a visit to an island might be on the agenda, or a visit to a gull breeding ground." Late in 1976, 10th grade biology students from Bassick High School in Bridgeport, Connecticut, boarded Trade Wind on a cold and windy day. They had raised the $200 required for the trip themselves. They helped handle lines on deck, under the watchful eye of skipper Alan Burnett, and they chopped wood for the stove in the cabin where they could warm their hands. They collected specimens of marine life for their lab. "We've gone to a museum," said one student, "but this is really special." "It was a terrific trip in terms of experience," said their teacher. "I don't think it will ever be duplicated. All of us will never get a chance like this again.'' Let us hope you are wrong, Mrs. Yacovacci. Let us hope that the value of this learning will be recognized, and acted on. And that Trade Wind will go from strength to strength, supported by a growing membership in Schooner, Inc., who understand the rich resources of the Sound, and want all to share in them.
Bluenose II, Mon Lei, Mary E., Tehani Petrel Bluenose II, built as a private yacht, is now owned by the Province of Nova Scotia. This great ship is a replica of the Canadian fishing schooner that carried undying fame in the Fishermen's Races of the 1920s and 30s. That Bluenose ended her days in trade in the West Indies. The new Bluenose sails today to promote the Province where she was born, ranging as far afield as New Orleans. There is nothing like her under sail today, and her tall spars dominate the ports she calls at. During the summers, she takes visitors on harbor cruises in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Chinese junk Mon Lei was salvaged from a sunken condition and lovingly restored by Alen Sands York, Commodore of the Antique Boat & Yacht Club, which now makes its headquarters with the National Maritime Historical Society in Brooklyn. Owned by the Chesapeake Bay and China Sea Towing Company, Ltd., she is used extensively for receptions and promotions