Redwood City hosts tall ships

The wooden-hulled Lady Washington has appeared in numerous TV programs and movies, including the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” film. It’s an almost exact replica of the first American ship to make landfall on the West Coast of North America in 1788 and the Hawaiian Chieftain’s design is based on packet ships used to ferry cargo in the mid-1800s.

Owned and operated by Washington-based nonprofit Grays Harbor Historical Seaport, both ships visit more than 30 West Coast communities each year.

Over the next two-plus weeks, schools can reserve educational field trips aboard the ships on weekdays and during weekends, the vessels will be open to the public for free tours — a $5 donation is suggested — as well as ticketed voyages, including mock battles and sunset excursions.

“We have great support in the San Francisco Bay Area. We look for opportunities to visit anytime we can and Redwood City has been a steady and reliable port for us,” said Zachary Stocks, program development officer for the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport. “We want people to learn about the maritime heritage of the U.S., how people were able to move across huge expanses without any visible landmarks, using just instruments, knowledge and expertise, and we carry on those traditions to appreciate the talents and extraordinary knowledge of the people who came before us. And have fun.”

The original Lady Washington was used in the fur trade and ultimately sunk in 1797 in a storm near the Philippines. At the time, the ship was manned by about 40 sailors, while the replica today has a crew of about a dozen.

One of those sailors is third mate Erich von Hasseln, who has sailed on numerous replicas of historic vessels over the years and does it for a living full time.

“Once you fall into the world it’s a very niche industry, everyone knows everyone and you make connections and a lot of sailors go boat to boat,” he said. “We’re all in kind of the same family.”

The crew lives aboard the ships for months at a time as they tour from port to port — there are bunk beds below deck and a cook staffs each ship. When they’re not educating students, taking visitors on tours or enjoying a day off, crewmembers adhere to a rigid maintenance schedule, said Emmorey Leonard, a sailor aboard the Hawaiian Chieftain.

“We clean the boat top to bottom every morning,” she said. “You’re always learning on the tall ships. I’ve learned a lot about how to maintain boats, how to do the knot and rope work involved in the rigging and that’s something you can only learn by doing. It’s a cool environment and you meet a lot of fun people.”

Crewmembers begin as volunteers and can eventually land paid jobs aboard the ships. And they come from all over the world. Erika Mcdowell traveled from Germany to join Lady Washington’s crew.

“I spend most of the year on boats,” she said. “I really like not doing the same thing every day and meeting a lot of new people.”

Her crewmate, Cafferty Frattarelli, enjoys life aboard tall ships for similar reasons.

“I was working a desk job before this for a year and was like ‘this is boring,” she said. “[Sailing on tall ships] is not boring. It’s a lot of fun.”

Both ships rely on engines when they travel between ports, but on tours, the boats are powered the old-fashioned way: by wind. The Hawaiian Chieftain, for example, features 14 sails and on tours, one can watch the crew climb up and down the masts to unfurl them.

“[Our tours] are a great way to get the family on the water and see the city from the water, which people don’t often get to do,” Stocks said. “People will get to understand how this area was first charted by mariners and see a similar view.”

Visit historicalseaport.org for tickets.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102