courtesy jenny villone
Roseway
137-foot historic schooner, has spent the last twelve winters in St. Croix, USVI, working with hundreds of public school students each season as part of the World Ocean School’s mission-driven programming. This year, the island is struggling to recover from back-to-back devastating
hurricanes. Eight of the public schools on the island were condemned after the storms passed. As a result, students rotate through the remaining buildings for only four hours of school each day. Before this season, Roseway was serving as a floating classroom for local students. This winter, its role is more important than ever, allowing the island’s educational system to extend the school day by sending students to the ship, providing opportunity and inspiration in a season of heartache and devastation. Students on board learn math, science, history and literature through the experience of working the sails and rig, being on the water, and learning about the ship itself. Physics, navigation, marine biology, wind and weather, poetry of the sea, and maritime history are brought to life through hands-on work and lessons aboard the ship. A climb up the rig allows students to see their island home from a new perspective—as well as themselves— as they conquer fear in the feat itself. In St. Croix, this 93-year-old former fishing schooner and harbor pilot vessel has
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world ocean school
Despite hurricanes Irma and Maria ripping through the Virgin Islands in September, the schooner Roseway committed to another winter season in St. Croix, and brought hope for the recovering island along with her. Roseway, a
St. Croix school children learning math and science in navigation class. become much more than her wood and sails. She is a classroom and a refuge, and a point of pride for locals. World Ocean School and the schooner Roseway are happy to be back in the Caribbean, inspiring children and adults any way they can while the island recovers from the devastating hurricanes of 2017.—Eden Leonard, executive director, World Ocean School aboard Roseway (www.worldoceanschool. org) ... As the bicentennial period for the Erie Canal enters its second year, the New York State Canal Corporation has announced it is waiving fees for recreational boaters for the 2018 season. While this sounds like great news, many who use the waterways are distressed because the Canal Corporation also reduced the duration of the recreational boating season, down from 201 days in 2016 to just 145 days in 2017 and 2018. The Canal Corporation oversees the NYS Canal System, which includes the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca canals. Spanning 524 miles, the waterways link the Hudson River with the Great Lakes, the Finger Lakes, and Lake Champlain. In 2017, the Canal Corporation celebrated the 200th anniversary of the groundbreaking for the Erie Canal, which occurred in Rome, NY, on 4 July 1817. Completed in 1825, the canal links the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean, passing through New York Harbor. An engineering marvel when it was built, the canal is considered by some to be the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Within 15 years of the canal’s opening, New York City had become the busiest port in America, and the growth and development of many upstate New York towns and cities can be linked directly to the trade and transportation network created by SEA HISTORY 162, SPRING 2018