Picton Castle (ship)

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Picton Castle is a barque employed in sail training. The ship is a completely refitted barque that observes the rigorous standards of Germanischer Lloyds for steel-hulled Cape Horners. She is 179 feet (55 m) overall, with riveted steel hull, clear oiled-pine decks, steel masts, and wooden and steel yards. She carries 12,450 square feet (1160 m²) of canvas sail. The ship also has a powerful 690 hp (515 kW) Burmeister & Wain alpha diesel engine for occasions when sailing is not feasible. The galley is on deck, and its 1893 cook stove is similar to those used on commercial sailing ships 100 years ago. The Picton Castle is a true working tall ship.

1 History
2 "Picton Castle" in print and film
3 Activities
4 Facilities
5 Training program
6 Incidents
- 6.1 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The Picton Castle was built in 1928 as a Swansea fishing trawler (motorized) and for years operated out of Wales. She was one of five trawlers built at that time for the same company all named after castles. The original Picton Castle is located in Pembrokeshire in Wales and was built in the 13th century.

At the start of World War II she was conscripted into the Royal Navy and became HMS Picton Castle, a minesweeper. According to Tom Gamble, the radio operator who served aboard her during that time, "The minesweeper service lost more ships than any other branch of the Royal Navy as sweeping mines was very dangerous work. In fact, one day while on patrol a mine exploded under the ship and lifted her clean out of the water — all 300 tons of her. Fortunately, no real damage occurred."

Soon afterwards, while sweeping mines in Norwegian waters, HMS Picton Castle developed a problem and it was determined that she would have to put into the nearest port: Bergen. The Germans had just decided to abandon Norway rather than fight and so decamped. The next day HMS Picton Castle appeared in the harbour flying the Union Jack and has since been hailed by the Norwegian people as the "Liberator of Norway".

After the war she eventually began hauling freight in the North and Baltic Seas. She underwent a name change and for a while was known as the Dolmar. In 1992 and 1993, Captain Daniel Moreland was scouring various ports looking for a ship that could be converted into a square-rigger. He found the Picton Castle in a fjord in Norway. He and a small crew cleaned her, got the big 700 HP Burmeister and Wain diesel engine running, and took her across the Atlantic to New York City where she was berthed at the South Street Seaport Museum. In 1996, she was taken to Lunenburg in Nova Scotia, Canada, to begin a two-million-dollar refit. A clipper bow was welded in place, three masts added, and slowly – like a caterpillar undergoing metamorphosis – she became a square-rigged barque.

The Picton Castle displaces 300 tons. The crew works ten storeys above-deck when aloft to master 175 different lines.

During UNESCO's "Year of the Ocean" in 1998, the Picton Castle served as flagship for the OCEAN98 organization. She distributed school supplies provided by NOAA and the EPA throughout the South Pacific. Later, she entered into a joint venture with SPREP (South Pacific Region Environment Program — which serves as a planning arm to 22 island nations) to deliver a variety of environmental course materials to schools in the area. In certain remote locations, such as Pitcairn Island (where the descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers still live) and Palmerston Island, her doctors went ashore and set up medical clinics, working until all the islands' inhabitants had been examined. Later, while in the Indian Ocean, Kate Menser and three other educators came aboard and sent educational programming back to some 2,000 schools in North America and around the world.

Picton Castle has evolved from trawler, to minesweeper, to freighter, to barque, and to school room.

[edit] "Picton Castle" in print and film

The Tallship Chronicles, a 2001 TV series, followed the Picton Castle on her second voyage around the World.
Fair Wind and Plenty of It is Rigel Crockett's first-person narrative nonfiction account of the Picton Castle's genesis, her first circumnavigation, and what it means to be a modern-day traditional seaman. Published by Knopf Canada 2004, Rodale Press 2005.
Slow Dance with the Planet is Todd Jarrell's collection of audio essays, originally broadcast on Nashville Public Radio.
Five Hundred Days Before the Mast is John Vaillant's article for National Geographic Adventure that appeared in summer 1999.
Captain Moreland and the Picton Castle is William Gilkerson's article for Maritime Life and Traditions that appeared in summer 2001

[edit] Activities

The Picton Castle undertakes 18 month long round the world voyages. She is registered in the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, and is owned and operated by the Windward Isles Sailing Ship Company, Ltd. The ship's mission is deep-ocean sail training and long-distance education. Also, she carries supplies and educational materials to far-flung islands in the South Pacific. Her North American homeport is Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Shorter stretches are available.

[edit] Facilities

There are berths for 40 sail trainees and 12 professional crew members (half the training berths usually are reserved for men and half for women.) Sleeping accommodations are bunkroom style, in two tiers of pilot bunks. Bunks have curtains for privacy and individual reading lights. There is no running hot water.

[edit] Training program

Sail trainees participate fully in the ship's operation: handling sails, scrubbing the deck, taking a turn at the wheel, raising anchor, hauling on lines, helping in the galley, going aloft (optional), and keeping lookout. There are training classes in seamanship and navigation, plenty of opportunities to learn square-rig sailing and, on the world voyages, to explore exotic tropical ports and islands.

The crew learns knots, sail making, celestial navigation, oceanography, meteorology and are responsible for all facets of maintenance. During her first world voyage (1997-1999), the ship was completely scraped and repainted four times and certain parts varnished ten times in 19 months.

The Picton Castle set sail from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in late November 2006, bound for the Caribbean for the winter.

[edit] Incidents

This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

On the night of Friday, December 8, 2006, while making its way down the east coast of North America, the ship encountered bad weather; in winds up to 55 knots, a rogue wave swamped the stern of the ship, sweeping one sailor overboard. The sailor was later identified as lead seaman Laura Gainey, daughter of Bob Gainey, an experienced sailor, and a veteran sailor of four round-the-world voyages. The incident took place about 1000km east of Cape Cod, a three-day voyage from the vessel's home port of Lunenburg.

Gainey had time to call out as she was being swept off the ship, and the crew threw floatation devices and radar-reflecting buoys into the water, to help her stay afloat and to mark her position. She was not wearing a life jacket or a survival suit, but due to the warm water temperatures (22•C), her age, and excellent level of fitness, she was expected to survive for up to 36 hours. The search, involving the Picton Castle, United States Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard Hercules aircraft, and merchant vessels, went on until 6:00pm ET on Monday, December 12 before being called off; the Picton Castle continued to search for another full day before ending its efforts. The 'debris field' created by objects thrown off the Picton Castle at the time of the incident was the focus of the most intense search effort. The search was extended over its initial expected length due to intervention by Canadian Minister of Defense Bill Graham, at the request of Member of Parliament Ken Dryden, a Gainey family friend and former teammate of Bob Gainey.

Captain Dan Mooreland, the ship's senior captain, stated that it is not at all unusual or unsafe to be on deck in severe weather; he said:

"It's quite different than a small yacht where you wouldn't step on deck without being hooked in. It's a large vessel with very high rails that almost never gets water on deck."

Other tall ship experts have stated that the Picton Castle is a safe ship with an excellent record; Captain Dan Parrot, an instructor at the Maine Maritime Academy with more than 20 years experience in tall ships, said:

"The [ship] has certainly proven herself with four circumnavigations. It's a much better oceangoing vessel than most,"

Douglas Prothero, head of the Canadian Sail Training Association, called the incident "a terrible tragedy" but said tall ships are "generally very safe."

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will investigate the incident.