The Young America at NMHS pier, East River, on July 4. Crowds come down to see and board the brigantine, just in from a week's sail
training with 22 young New Yorkers. Across the way is South Street Seaport Museum and skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan. The NY Times used this photograph on itsfront page to illustrate Independence Day across the nation. Photo by William E. Sauro, Š NYTimes.
Wildlife and Windjammers By Naomi Person Education Coordinator, NMHS
During the Tall Ships gathering held in Boston during the celebrations of that city's 350th birthday this summer, one of the ships's crews stood out: a group of twenty-four eager teenage Girl Scouts, whose uniforms were blue jeans and a "Wildlife and Windjammers" T-shirt. The scouts, from troops in Massachusetts and New Jersey, would be spending the next week aboard the Young America -learning the ropes and how to haul on them together. Wildlife and Windjammers is supervised by two Girl Scouts staff members: Marine Education Program Specialist Nancy Richardson and Eliot Wildlife Project Director Caroline Kennedy. Twenty-four Scouts sailed with Captain Peter Vanadia from Norfolk, Virginia to Boston, Massachustts on one of the legs of the Tall Ships Race; and twenty-four sailed the following week from Boston to New Bedford, via Cape Cod. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this program as a watch leader during the latter voyage; an experience that reinforced in my heart and mind how vital and unique sail training is. Boarding the ship to relieve the previous week's trainees, we found the deck thronged with girls yarning about their experiences: stories of whale watching,
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climbing the rigging, of critters found and identified in plankton tows, how to stay dry on lookout and steady on the helm . After stowing our gear below, we mustered on deck and organized the ship's routine for the week. The ship's permanent crew instructed the Scouts in the handling of lines, navigation, helmsmanship, seamanship, and safety (a boom is harder than a head!) . Dianne Glemboski, our marine science advisor, set up a thorough program of hands-on biology, oceanography, and pollution studies with instruments to measure water clarity, PH, salinity, and dissolved oxygen, a bottom sampler, otter trawls, plankton tow, and keys for identifying algae and marine organisms. In addition, the staff collectively put together a fine reference library for the Scouts to use in pursuing their areas of interest. Starting off next day with the Tall Ships racing to Kristiansand, we sloped across Cape Cod Bay and anchored for the night off Provincetown, at the tip of the Cape, where America's whale fishery was born. Next day we set out to look for whales. While we searched I gave a lesson in whaling history-the ships, the people who fitted them out and sailed them, the life of
those who waited on shore and the downfall of the industry with the advent of kerosene. Discussing the ecology of the fishing grounds, we were interrupted by a cry from aloft: "Thar she blows! Two points off the starboard bow!'' Following the whales for a few hours, we see could them spouting all along the horizon, finbacks diving right under the bows, humpbacks breaching. History zooms into the here and now, and biology comes alive. From this we go to visit the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, on the south side of the Cape, sail through rain and fog in Buzzards Bay, sing chanties, examine sealife hauls, dash about in bathing suits with fresh discoveries, and prepare an onboard exhibit for public viewing in New Bedford. And in that old whaling port we leave the ship. Gathered on the foredeck it all seems very familiar, the faces, the roll of the ship, the smell and feel of salt air. Every element we've interacted with has taught us something new. Duffie bags get tossed onto the pier and their owners follow, to make room for a new group of sail trainees. .t. Note: A similar sail training program for Scouts is run by the schooner Adventuress
SEA HISTORY, FALL 1980