The Barque Picton Castle's Bosun School: Learning the Traditional Skills of the Sailing Ship Seafarer by Captain Daniel D. Moreland
ailing to sea in ships is an amazing wrong. BST is established to have a basic This mariner would have mastered smallli fe experience and richly rewarding standard of what to do when things go boat handing as well. Today, these skills in countless ways. The sea is also an ex- wrong. Broad and deep seamanship skills are hard for young mariners to come by, tremely demanding environment, which is contribute mightily to things not going yet they are just as valuable as ever. There not particularly forgiving to the They need to have the ship and sea-going bug before they join the Bosun School. inept, unt rained, or ill-equipped. Seafarers have to perform wrong in the first place. BST is how to is nothing better than real sea time under a broad range of critical skills to get the job bandage a cut. Seamanship is not getting sail to gain experience and the skills of a done safely and with efficiency. It takes the cut. This is where Bosun School comes mariner. We are well into our second and third generation of traditional sailing-ship years at sea, working hard, learning at every in. In days gone by, a sailing ship mate or professionals since the second coming of turn, before one can call oneself a seasoned master (and certain ly a bosun) and even the Age of Sail, which began in earnest in pro. Recently, among flag state marine an AB (able-bodied seaman) would be a the 1970s. Since that time, the number of regulatory agencies, there has been a wel- pretty damn good rigger, sailmaker, and replica sh ips built and historic ships from come insistence on basic and advanced caulker, and could get a spar out as needed. the last days of working sail that have been safety and marine emergency training for professional mariners, resu lting in the United Nations International Maritime Organisation (IMO) mandated Standards ofTraining, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), Basic Safety Training (BST) and certification, plus training in firefighting, first aid, and the use and care of personal flotation devices (PFDs), immersion suits, life rafts, and more. This is all to the good and is to be applauded. It is important basic fami liarization with what a mariner is to do when things go wrong aboard a ship at sea. These trainings and skills, however, are quite a bit different from the broad seamanship training and skills a mariner needs to be both useful aboard a ship and also help reduce the likelihood of things going
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SEA HISTORY 157, WTNTER2016- 17