Apprentice Deckhands Welcomed Aboard, Roseway Docks, More Volunteers tackle more projects.

First on the Agenda ; an official Welcome aboard to our crew of Apprentice Deckhands.  Six high school senior students from the Berkelely County School District came on board, (actually last Saturday-a week ago for the first time) committed to 120 hours of training in deckhand skills, and some other disciplines.  They are on deck in the same capacity as all of us;  Volunteers, with the same objectives of deckhand skill building, and taking care of the ship.  More specifically, the disciplines involved, safety and handling of tools, both manual and power, the the proper techniques for woodworking and coatings.  You can expect to have them join you on Volunteer Days, and sometimes more often, not only on various maintenance projects, but also deckhand skillbuilding. Some of you may be requested to help Charlie and I in coaching them through some of the tasks and skill areas' they are committed to practicing and learning.   

Y'know, it's probably just as well that no one remembered to take any photographs of the activities going on the deck this Saturday.  All you would see in the shot would be blurs of activity.  I swear  there was that much going on. I counted around 9 separate projects being swarmed, starting with uprigging the massive awning under the foresail boom at 0900, and the simultaneous arrival of our Apprentice Deckhands.   11 Volunteers came aboard to start on the maintenance punchlist, and later roll into some dock line handling skills with the Apprentices.   Calvin Milam and John Whitsitt launched into a cap rail scarf with bad UC damage down to the wood, requiring a total scraping down, 4-stages of sanding and first coats of D-1 oil. Other volunteers,, Dave Brennon,  Layne Carver, and Joe Gorman broke off into groups with Apprentices to rehearse skills, commands , and procedures to execute taking in  and securing of docklines, then resetting them, tossing heaving lines, and sending over dock lines to resecure them to pilings.  By late morning, Chief Mate, Charlie arrived, and volunteers Rob and Jake Harrington and an apprentice   broke off to rig 3 bosuns chairs and  D1 oil containers and brushes for going up the mainmast.  The frenzy was broken up by the welcome aroma and call to lunch, as Hunter passed up from the galley a huge stewpots of rice and Curried Chicken, and brownies for dessert.  After seconds were called and digestion began, Motivation to drive on into the afternoon now became understandably tougher, but the crew stood to, completing the main mast project. Two apprentices took on the project of scraping, prepping and repainting the trash pump locker hatch cover.  A third apprentice grabbed the canvas repair kit, hiked back around, down to the  floating dock and Dory, where the new cover needed significant additional stitching to secure velcro stripping that was pulling out.  

As projects began closing down and volunteers (including apprentices) secured tools and materials, plans were already in the works for continuation, as anticipation showed for the eventual time when the schooner would actually be ready to cast off. .   Look for our Apprentice Deckhand shipmates to be regular participants over the next few months as they work toward their 120 hour goals of acquiring new skills and discipline, which lots of you will be sharing with them.  By the way,, that will get them the rating of Foremast Volunteer- surpassing 100 hours!.   Who want's to join em?

First Volunteer, Andrew Shook reports in from Alaska

 That would be Seaman (Cutterman)Andrew Shook USCG to you.   

A fresh set of books for the ship's forecastle library arrived yesterday, donated by Andrew marking the Final Patrol of his Cutter,  USCGC Douglas Munro, out of Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Alaska.  The titles are appropriate given his line of work.  When on board you might want to take a browse;  they look like real page turners. 

Mate, Charlie checks Andrew's harness
 before hauling him aloft
to scrape the main mast.

Back in late 2018, Before Volunteers, Before the Volunteer Log and Volunteer Days, There was Andrew Shook.  Andrew was the first deckhand volunteer to come on board since 2015.  Still in High School, and  no doubt armed with advice from his uncle, past skipper,  Capt Ben Hall, Andrew signed on to do anything that needed to be done. 

Which he did, including becoming the first volunteer to go aloft to scrape the mainmast.  If there had been any other volunteers aboard, he would've been the example setter. In addition to the maintenance work we all have done,  he taught himself the knots, fashioned his own fid, learned the schooner's history and was usually first to greet visiting tourists at the dock and tell them all about her.  

USCGC Douglas Munro departing
 Dutch Harbor on Final Patrol.
Tiny figure on the flybridge
is Andrew standing lookout.

But time passes, and after graduation, Andrew enlisted in the Coast Guard, with first assignment in a spot as about as opposite from the low country as you could get,  Kodiak, Alaska. For the past two years, Andrew has been on patrol aboard  the USCGC Douglas Munro, one of the larger cutters in the fleet, with a very interesting story line,  which Andrew will relate to you further below.

At my request, he sent a few photos, which I've included. 

Andrew (back row, partially hidden)
 with his shipmates on Deck Force

Steering the ship on the bridge
 of Douglas Munro

I also asked Andrew to send something about his experience.  Below is some good background on his cutter, which, as we speak is in the process of decommissioning., and some insight into the perspectives of a young sailor waayy out there.

Andrew Shook	1:12 AM (20 hours ago)
to me

Dear Bryan,

Thank you very much for your email. Amongst our Dutch Harbor port calls and shenanigans, I knew I couldn't leave this place without bringing something back for the Spirit. That and my parents were getting tired of me always sending back boat books, so I'm very glad my contributions to her forecastle library helped from afar. I'm sorry to hear about Captain Dan leaving and the lightning strike (Uncle Ben had mentioned it beforehand, but I didn't want to ask anything of it until I saw the blog post.). Even after a year here, I miss home greatly, and Spirit along with my city. Congrats on working out y'all's arrangement with Gamage. The blog, to see y'all's passionate updates, means a great deal to me. 

Here's an update/ something for the blog/ bit of background if you'd like...please note; the views expressed herein are explicitly my own and in no way represent the official positions of the Coast Guard. 

Although he was born in Vancouver, Canada, before becoming the sole US Coast Guardsman to earn the Medal of Honor, the service Douglas Albert Munro enlisted into was far different than the one today. Instead of even reporting for basic training, after a brief TDY period at Base Los Angeles, Munro reported straight to his ship, USCGC Spencer (who's equally historic sister ship, the Ingham was once moored across the Cooper river from Spirit at Patriot's Point.) and quickly struck (shadowing into rate.) Signalman. This was on the eve of American entry into WW2, and shortly after war was declared he transferred an attack transport, and took on the duties of Coxswain for the small boats/ landing craft Tragically, Munro's life was cut short on Guadalcanal, 27 September 1942. When serving as Coxswain/ OIC of a group of 8 Higgins boats in charge of rescuing Marines trapped behind Japanese lines, he signaled and maneuvered his craft into the line of fire and provided cover. Up to 500+ were saved, and as he lay dying from the bullet in his neck, his last words were "Did we get them off?". 

This was basically the run down of Douglas Munro that a paper thin, threadbare and worn book of paintings originally published for the bicentennial belonging to my grandfather, Moments in History offered. Mentioning that, at the time one of the Coast Guard's new cutters being built to replace the 327's such as the Ingham and Spencer, would soon be named for this hero. In reading and re-reading that little yellowed book over the years to come, first as child when I didn't even know how to read only admire the paintings of treacherous seas, white caps, wooden ships, iron men and eventually steam engines that didn't explode, to the eve of my enlistment and the night before I shipped out for basic, I never, not in years and even the slightest background knowledge that this class of ships was on its way out, having been slowly reduced in both arms and compliment since the end of the Cold War (when these ships originally carried a 5in gun, Active sonar, Air-surface search radar, CIWS systems that worked post late 80s FRAM, depth charge racks, torpedo tubes, a towed sonar array, and even at one harpoon missiles.) imagined that would be my first boat. (Actually, for a while I did call second, but then the BMs yelled at me for that.). 

A very wise man once said, "war is mostly waiting.". And although the days of the 378s setting sail for Vietnam (where they were allegedly prefered over other Naval vessels for gunfire support, due to their shallower draft allowing in closer access and movement, resulting in greater accuracy.) and the Persian gulf (where this ship at one point set sail for.) up here, that's only half true. In looking at the charts in the QMOW (quartermaster of the watch.) corner or even in CIC on occasion, one can see spots marked "unexploded ordnance", left over from the brutal Aluetian campaign of WW2 when the Japanese occupied the nearby islands of Attu and Kiska (Unalaska's port of Dutch Harbor was bombed, and despite the increased military presence on island, our homeport Kodiak saw no action). Old quonset huts and bunkers line the side of Ballyhoo take sight almost as soon as we pull in. There's a small history museum just by the airport (since closed due to COVID during all of our port calls.). The other up here 24/7, it's a war against the cold, on look out late at night and into the early morning hours. The wind in your face when you're scraping rust to try and prep for a good paint job whenever it gets warm enough to paint...eventually (although a steel cutter and a replica pilot schooner are worlds apart, somethings still never change.) or just trying to light a cigarette on the fantail, and fatigue from. Against the failures of equipment and machinery dating back to the Cold War. A sharp eye out on all vessels, Russians getting too close to the maritime boundary (they're out there, we just haven't seen any yet.) or domestic fishing boats, anything from small trawlers and longliners, to factory processing vessels for the season from Seattle. Neither The Guardian nor Deadliest Catch (or as some grizzled personnel on the ship refer to it, "enemy propaganda".). Since the early 2000's, when Mark Bayne was meeting with friends over beer to discuss building a tall ship, Douglas Munro, in keeping with her tradition of excellence coming on close to 50 years, beginning ocean station patrols out Boston during the early 70s, stood the watch up here, leaving the presumably more temperate climates of EASTPAC counter drug & migrant interdiction patrols behind for a presence out on the last frontier (as all the license plates put it.). These past two patrols I've been on, much to the ire of the OS's...thankfully nothing's happened. Although a framed newspaper clipping from 2007 posted just outside the XO's stateroom provides a stark reminder of the last time something did. The case of the FV Alaska Ranger, in which coordinating with various helicopter assets and at flank speed, the Munro (when it was still just the Munro before the new National Security Cutters, one of which they just commissioned in Charleston, took our name and forced us to rename the ship to Douglas Munro.) helped save 42 out of the 47 personnel. 

In keeping with the sometimes boring routine life underway, the only real personal updates I can give are that I mess cooked up forward (wiping down tables and setting up plates, silverware, food and condiments for the wardroom and chief's mess.), at one point broke in for helo tie-down (wound up changing my mind though but still.), and made temporary Cutterman (award for six months of sea time and completing necessary qualifications.). We pulled in about 10 days ago, and after a short week of stand down, this dockside promises to be busy. Right now, we're in the process of painting the ship in preparation for the 24 April decommissioning ceremony, to which the Commandant, the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard, both Alaska state senators as well family of Douglas Munro will be the principal guests of honor. Shortly after that, we get "underway" if you can even call it that with our status for Seattle, with an ammo/ SAR pyrotechnics offload along the way. The original plan was for the People's Republic of Sri Lanka to purchase the ship and several crew members stay for training phases, but due to political reasons concerning their standing with the Chinese Government, that's no longer happening and is currently making a lot of people's PCSing quite difficult. 

And amidst the flurry of Ospho and white paint (PSX700 to be exact.), that's where I'm at, and rather frustrated. I've been here for a little more than a year, and still haven't the faintest idea of what I want to do. Last summer, when I was TDY after I broke my foot, and the Chief asked me which rates I'd be interested in shadowing so as to get out of the office, it was easier to pick what I didn't want to do (not aviation, nor BM, nor support rate.) than what I did. Right now, despite the bravado we in deck department give them, I've been really thinking about the engineering side of things, particularly EM or MK (machinery technician.) After spending a while in deck, it's time for me to do something different. The thing is either one would be a shot in the dark, and they're both subjects where I've little background. A top that, I've already got orders to my next ship for after deccomm, USCGC Anacapa. She's 110 foot island class patrol boat out of Petersburg (a destination highly recommended by Uncle Ben and others aboard the ship.), and was the one that sank that Japanese squid jigger that had drifted abandoned across the Pacific for a year after that one earthquake & tsunami. My sort of "plan" (truth be told I'm making this up as I go along.) is to coast (pun intended.) through decomm, Seattle, and through to Petersburg before trying to get slowly more engrained in the engineering side of this things, which ideally would go smoother than on here since she's a smaller ship. 

Beyond that and COVID, that's pretty much it.

I know that was more that a brief update, but I hope that answers your questions. Thanks as always for your time reading this. 

Talk soon, and say hi to everyone back on Spirit for me!  

-A. Shook

Spirit of South Carolina 102

 Okay, show of hands.. Anyone given much thought to our schooner's provenance,, anyone, anyone?  I mean more than the fact that she was built here in Charleston, by volunteers, across the street in the park, of native timber, etc.   That's what I would call "Spirit of South Carolina 101",   

What I'm talking about now, is "Spirit of South Carolina 102", a little deeper dive, with richer reward.

What does she really represent? 

Why does her rig look like that? 

With  the answers to those questions, and a little reflection,, and a bit of imagination, you will stand on the dock, or walk her decks and look at her in a wholly new light. 

So, if you feel a challenge, I've got three sources for you to explore. Two are available on this Volunteer Blog;  the third is onboard in the Ship's salon library. 

• on the right side column of this Blog:  History of Piloting in South Carolina
• After that, open your copy, or download the link to the Crew Manual  Same column higher up, and open to pages 71-74.
• And finally, give yourself 15 minutes or more, to find the two fat white binders on the bookshelf above the crew table in the ship's salon.  Titled: Historical Artifacts,, Volume I and II.  (Everything that's in newsprint that has told her story)

Once you're done there, I'm pretty confident, that you'll find yourself talking about her at a new level, even with a little bit of passion.   I'd like to hear what you think.

Fair Winds and many Thanks to the crew of Harvey Gamage

 Sunday morning, after taking on 11 students, the day before, the Maine Schooner, Harvey Gamage cast off her lines and sailed out into the harbor.  She spent the rest of the day crisscrossing  the harbor under sail, no doubt exercising her new student crew in sail handling, emergency drills, and ship-board life.  As of this writing, she remains in the harbor at anchor, waiting the passing of the heavy weather front  passing over Charleston, before striking out the the south, bound for ports unknown,  a 10-week passage with a full curriculum of studies, and adventures to complete before she must return home to Portland Maine.

During her 3-weeks at dock, the Gamager's volunteered entire days of their free time to assist our volunteers in some of the more intensive maintenance projects..  They could be seen aloft both masts.. John, their Engineer explored the dark spaces below decks, troubleshooting and solving a number of plumbing and electrical issues.  Of course at least one or two joined in the ever-present varnish project.

From their head office, Sailing Ship's Maine Director, Alex Agnew invited Spirit of South Carolina to participate in joint publicity tours by Ashley Hall Students and  Big Brother/Big Sisters of Charleston, with intent to foster interest in organizing cruising programs next year. 

Their visit was a productive one,, for both vessels, and there's hope the effort may grow into an even more productive alliance that will sustain both vessels.  

Bon Voyage, Harvey Gamage

Good Weather enables some more interesting projects with new skills to be learned.

 Marlinespike skills and Maintenance projects conjoined more this past Saturday to enrich Volunteers with experience in going aloft,  turning in an eye splice and working some challenging canvas repair.  When Volunteers, Rob and Jake Harrington, Danny and Laura Johnson, Calvin Milam, Mikell Evatt, and John Whitsitt mustered, Chief Mate Charlie laid before them three challenges;  The main mast needed a coat of D.1 oil, which required 3 hands hauled aloft in bosun's seats.  The huge sunbrella awning suspended from the foreboom suffered several tears and blown out grommets, and needed to be dropped and repaired. And finally, some of the head rig eye-splicings had been stretched to the point of losing their thimbles.  

Jake and Rob Harrington hit the final stretch
 on the Main mast after spending
two hours aloft.

That set up the day.  Charlie, Calvin, and the Harringtons rigged up harnesses, bosun's seats and set up a station for D.1 oils, rags, and other tools.  

Bryan Oliver, Mikell Evatt and John Whitsitt broke out the bosun's bag with sailor palms, needles an rolls of patching canvas. 

And we all set to work.   Meanwhile, Danny Johnson in best form as usual, had just recruited another trio and brought them aboard, Eric Labarca, and sons.  Together, Danny led them thru the ship's orientation and a deck tour. 

Meanwhile Hunter was below baking up tons of Mac & Cheese for lunch.  

Charlie, assisted by head knot-tie'er Joe Gorman
, coaches Jake and Rob Harrington
 on tapering their splice.

As lunch was complete and secured, the mast oiling was left to absorb. and bosun's gear was secured.  Charlie then gathered the now idle group around the foremast to "flash" the jumbo", the drill of preparing and raising the jumbo sail off the bowsprit.  Next, the group moved to a spot around the line locker and began a master class in turning in an eye splice. John, Mike, and Bryan returned to repairing/ patching the rents in the awning. 

By 1530, the weather was chilling and the splicing practicum came to a close, all was secured on deck, except the awning, where Mike and Bryan determined to get in one last line of stitching before stopping.   

So what happened today?

Three volunteer hands aloft applied two coats of D1 Preservative/sealant to the Mainmast while tended by Danny, Laura on deck.  The main deck awning was downrigged inspected, and four rips hand darned with herringbone stitching, followed by flat stitching on oceanis canvas patching (the sewing machine remained sketchy and recalcitrant.).  And three volunteers learned how to turn in an eye splice.  

A pretty good day.

Spirit of South Carolina gains more visibility as two organizations come aboard.

  For the first time in several months, Spirit of South Carolina felt the feet of visitors coming aboard to marvel at South Carolina's own  Tall Ship, get a tour, and hopefully build anticipation for actually sailing aboard her in 2022.  

Thanks to Harvey Gamage's Ocean Passage's Director, who organized the tours, Spirit of South Carolina partnered with the Maine Schooner Harvey Gamage in hosting Ashley Hall students and their parents on Friday, and then a group of 20 Big Brothers and Big Sisters members on Saturday for, not only a tour, but some hands-on deckhand activities.

It began Friday when 20 young women from Ashley Hall School's  Offshore Leadership Program accompanied by Coordinator Roscoe Davis and parents, arrived at the Charleston Maritime Center at the invitation of Ocean Passages Director Alex Agnew.  They were met by Harvey Gamage's Program Director/deckhand "Shel" Mauchline, and Spirit of South Carolina's Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver, and divided into two groups. The groups were led to separate schooners for a 1/2-hour orientation and tour, before switching to the other schooner for a similar agenda. At each schooner, the visitors were treated to a short orientation of the vessel, and "a day in the life " of sailing aboard as a student/deckhand trainee. 

After a week of maintenance, Harvey Gamage had just shifted into a self-quarantine status in order to be ready for boarding a new group of students on 13 March for a 10-week semester at sea .  As a result,  visitors could not go aboard on Friday, but instead received a dock-side orientation and question and answer session. Even so, these student visitors were likely already familiar with the Maine Schooner, as she had recently disembarked 20 Ashley Hall Students after a cruise from Brunswick Georgia to Charleston.  They'd already heard stories from those other classmates, who inevitably had tales to share.     

Not so with Spirit of South Carolina. Spirit was more of an unknown, having last hosted a class of Ashley Hall Students in 2012, before she was laid-up and taken out of commission for the next 3 years. And so these visitors were being introduced to their own State's tall ship for the first time. They were met at the gangway by Chief Mate and Acting Captain Charlie Porzelt who took them aboard for a similar orientation, but with additional experience of actually touring the schooner below decks, to check our her berths, the salon, to see and touch the environment where they might find themselves a year from now. 

As the students and parents disembarked, the sensing was of success. All around, the comments hinted at anticipation for the next year and an opportunity for a tall ship adventure.

The next morning,  Saturday dawned cold and wet as Volunteers mustered at the normal 0900 to prep the deck for an 1100 arrival of the Big's and Little's, as they're affectionately nicknamed; the younger  youth paired with their "big brother/big sister", and a few organization staff.  Two groups would arrive, on the hour, starting at 1100.  They would be split into two groups, one at each schooner, after a 1/2 hour, the groups would switch to the other schooner for a continuum of activities. Since Harvey Gamage, was quarantined(no visitors allowed on deck), their activities were limited to what could be performed on the dock.  It fell to Spirit of South Carolina to provide a more hands-on experience and up-close-and-personal with the living accommodations, and practical exposure to some deckhand skills.

  Volunteers, Mike Evatt and Dave Brennan diverted off to work on the finishing touches of the ship's dory's new canvas cover.  Danny Johnson, Dan Maurin, Joe Gorman and New Volunteer Richard Behler gathered around Bryan Oliver to organize the planned activities.  For the first 10 minutes, of the 1/2hour, Dan Maurin and Joe Gorman would lead separate subgroups on a deck and below-deck tour. 

While Dan Maurin observes,
Harvey Gamager, Shel Mauchline
 coaches a little brother on the Jumbo Downhaul
, while shipmate Asher watches another
 "big brother" tending the Jumbo sheet.

For the remaining 20 minutes, the groups would converge on the head rig, where deckhands from Harvey Gamage  would join in to lead the young ones thru the drill of setting, and then dousing the jumbo. 

And so volunteers executed the drill four times over the next two hours, and yes, from the dock it must've looked fairly frenzied, but no one could've possibly been bored.  As each group disembarked, we had a good feeling that most would be looking forward to another experience aboard.  

Bryan Oliver joins a Big Brother
 to sweat the Jumbo halyard
 the last six inches while
a Little Brother tails.

It was the goal for both schooners to share cruise programming next year with the Ashley Hall School, providing added capacity and more flexibility to sailing schedules. 

It was an additional goal to introduce the traditional tall ship sailing experience to the Big Brothers' and Big Sisters mentoring organization in Charleston to showcase it's potential value to the youth which the organization was serving. 

A Busy Week-End Started on Thursday for Spirit of South Carolina and her Volunteers.

Volunteers got an early start this week - on Thursday when Laura Johnson and Dad, Danny, and  John Whitsitt donated a few afternoon hours to the continuing project to finish restoring the yawl boat Charles Sneed, currently  shedded at the Lowcountry Maritime School in Mount Pleasant.  

Laura Johnson and John Whitsitt
taking a break while scuffing the hull
 of Charles Sneed in prep
for her coats of white.

You'll recall from previous blog entries, that Charles Sneed was built beside, and concurrently with Spirit of South Carolina by the same shipwrights and volunteers, but was only launched once or twice for rowing before being mothballed. 
 Now, thanks to participation of Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers, the yawl boat is finally in the home stretches towards the goal of being launched later this spring, complete with 3 banks of oars, and a two-masted lugsail rig. 

Volunteers interested in helping with two hours of their time on Thursdays 1630-1830, should contact Bryan Oliver at bryan@spiritofsc.org