Let ยงo and '1-(auLJ Lessons to 'fake '1-Come from the 'Bria Niagara by Captain Walter Rybka ailing from the Erie Maritime Museum in Erie, Pennsylvania, US Brig Niagara has been serving the dual roles of museum ship in port and training ship underway since 1991. A long article could be written on the history she represents, and another on the various re-buildings undergone over the years, culminating in
sailed with sixteen professional crew and up to twenry-four volunteers who needed to be trained. We have been permitted to charge tuition the last three seasons, but we have been teaching people to be useful members of a square rigger crew since 1991. As a museum ship, Niagara interprets the naval history of the War of 1812 and particularly the Battle of Lake Erie, fought
Sailing in through the Erie channel, north pier light immediately astern, at the end of a tenday passage from Chicago. On this occasion the crew had been together long enough and the wind just right, so Captain Wes Heerssen sailed her into her slip. Melbourne Smith designing and, through subcontracting Bill Elliott of Bay Ship & Yacht, building the present version of the ship in 1988, but those stories will have to wait. This article wi ll focus on the sailing operation of the ship. Until 2005 Niagara sailed as an uninspected vessel, earning revenue only as an attraction vessel in port. After modifications, such as watertight bulkheads, partial re-wiring, and numerous additions to safery equipment, Niagara obtained a Certificate of Inspection from the USCG to operate as a Sailing School Vessel (SSV). We have been sailing as an SSV for the last three years, but in all the years prior Niagara
on 10 September 1813. Two of the bestknown phrases in US naval history are "Don't Give Up The Ship" and "We have
met the enemy and they are ours," both associated with this battle. The interpretation also includes the technology of the wooden square rigged sailing ship, and this is a much larger story spanning hundreds of years . As a sailing school vessel, we teach the naval history, but far more emphasis is put on that larger story of learning the seafaring craft, and the more important personal lessons that are not so much taught by us but grow out of the trainees' experience. Sailing ships were the original space stations, isolated communities beyond reach of the rest of humaniry, engaged on missions to learn of distant places. Erie was founded as a port ciry and remains one to this day. The shoreline that is seen as the barrier to travel by the land-bo und is but the starting point for those who see the whole world as connected by the sea. The Great Lakes are the "Inland Seas," the route from the world's oceans into the heartland of North America. The seas have always been a place of sublime beaury and dire peril, a shifting stage whereon endurance, toil, skill, and courage, are the prerequisites for any chance of success. Despite our nation's maritime roots and continued dependence upon maritime trades, our maritime heritage is barely visible, especially the lessons we can draw from it to improve our future. We preserve only what we appreciate, appreciate only what we understand, and that understanding is incomplete without
(right) Hauling out a topsail reef earring. Niagara is one of the very Jew vessels where tucking a reef into a square topsail is a regular occurrence. It's the single most difficult job routinely done but very necessary.
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SEA HISTORY 126, SPRING 2009