Take Me To The Main PageFrom July 19th to the 26th, my freind and I were onboard the sail training vessel St Lawrence II, a brigantine based in Kingston, Ontartio. The eight day trip took us from Kingston to Aubrey Island, Cape Vincent, Sackets Harbour, Sodus Bay, Oswego, and Main Duck Island. It was great adventure to me, and gave me a valuable collection of information: life under sail. For those who have not experienced this, I have recorded the details.
The Crew
The ship had a number of people onboard, most of which were under the age of 20. I was a trainee, as 15 other crew members were. There was also petty officers (PO's), watch officers, and senior officers. PO's included the bosun, John Godan, the cook, Andria, and assistant watch officers such as Fiona Weber, Crytal Kehoe, and Jeff Bond. The Watch officers included Evan Collier, Miss Ballentyne, and Miss Stacey. Senior officers were the Executive Officer (XO), Paul Denoble, and the Captain. The trainees sailed and maintained the ship while the officers supervised and guided.
Watches
The crew of 16 trainees were divided into three watches: Red, White, and Blue. Peter, my freind who came with me, and I ended up together in blue watch. Each watch rotated ship's duties and the watch changed every four hours. Night watch was divided into three times: 8-12, 12-4 (grave yard), and 4-8. Our watch managed to avoid grave yard, as both times we were suppose to have it, we were in port and the captain ordered no watches.
Duties
On board, duties rarely ceased to appear. at 6:30 am, everyone was awaken from their much needed sleep. Everybody got up and deck scrub and brasso began. This entailed poring water on the decks, scrubbing them with soap, washing them off, and polishing brass. For some strange reason I was on bucket duty all the time, where I filled buckets over the side and brought them back on board. When that was done, breakfast had to be prepared by the cook, and the trainees had to ready the mess for eating. After eating, the watch with 4-8 am duty went below, ate and cleaned up.
Cleaning below involved many jobs: Cleaning the angle irons, washing dishes, cleaning the head (toilet), draining the bilge, and sweeping/moping the deck. I managed to avoid bilge and head duties because I had so many cuts on my hands and I did not want to get them infected, especially after reading so much about life in the old navy, about quick infections and amputations afterwards.
Durning the day, sails had to be set and doused, tacking was constant, luch eating and cleanup was also present, along with dinner prep and clean up. When tacking, you had to let go or haul depending if you were windward or leeward. Then you had to make fast the line and then coil it. We did so much coiling that Peter remarked "When I get home, I am going into my garage and throwing a bunch of lines on the ground and leaving them uncoild. I will then stare at them and laugh!".
Activities
On deck, there was not much to do other than work and lounge. It was rather dull. In port, we got shore leave. The best part about that was buying food. At Aubrey Island, the captain gave us a phoney treasure map and we went looking for it, but did not find anything. In Sackets Harbour, Peter and I got some ice cream after we docked, and in the morning our watch walked around and saw some 1812 historical sites. At Sodus Point, Peter and I bout some food from the locals, and saw a historical lighthouse converted into a museum. I bought a book and a caravel-in-a-bottle. We then ended up at Oswego. There was a harbour fest there. There were fireworks, a carnival, and a sail-by past the fort. Best of all, we got free showers at the Best Western Hotel! That was great after only having lake water to bathe in. Eventually, Peter and I ran out of money, therefor out of food when we ate it all. It was back to ship's food.
Sunset Ceremony
At sunset, the St Lawrence II carries a tradition. Each watch would create a sound off, each watch member would say one word that together, would create a sentance. The Captain would then inspect the trainees, and show us how far we have sailed that day on his chart. To end, a song to say farewell to the day was sung.. It goes like this:
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood evening sailor!
Sing the song to end the day!
Good evening sailor! If today does'nt kill you then tomorrow must!
Good evening sailor!
Sing the song to end the....
Sing the song to end the....
Sing the song to end the daaaaaaaay!
Good evening what ever island or point we were near.
It was an odd song.
Ship's Concert
On the final night of the cruise, we were beached on shoals off Main Duck Island, but the ship's tradition was not ignored. Each watch had to perform a skit or song for the rest of the crew. One watch created and sang a song, another sounded off a number of insults that trainees had given and received from others, and our watch did a skit steriotyping modern teenage female culture. Then the PO's were challenged by Mr. Collier to eat a cube of peanut butter enclosed by some crackers. This was funny to see. PO Weber won the contest. No one else even finished their cube off!
Food
As a picky eater, I spent a great deal of time complaining about the food. Peter ate half of my rations over the eight days.
Sleeping
The junior officers and crew slept below decks. there were three teirs of bunks in three sets. As mentioned before, the crew slept, ate, and cleaned in watches. Some nights the captain allowed all the watches to sleep through the entire night, so below decks got very croweded. This is when we slept on deck for a night. One night it rained, so all had to sleep below. I was lucky enough to find myself on a bunk. Peter was unfortunate, though. He ended up sleeping on the galley deck!
© Copyright 2000, By Ryan Moore. All Rights Reserved.