Age of Sail Field Trip

I was lucky enough to "win the lottery" and go with Aubrey on the much-anticipated

 fifth grade field trip to "Age of Sail" in San Francisco.  The Age of Sail program takes place aboard the 1886 Balclutha, a 300 foot ship that is a National Historic Landmark Vessel.  It no longer sails and is permanently berthed on the Hyde Street Pier in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. 
This program is really fantastic.  It was developed to engage students through a challenging and memorable encounter with history.  By living the life of a sailor, aboard the last surviving examples we have of the working sail vessels of California, the kids develop an understanding of local and state history, and also the concept of historical empathy.  This is critical to a meaningful understanding and evaluation of the past and frankly not something that is always available for us as parents.  The goal is in immediate and tangible ways to teach the students the value of critical thinking, active listening, problem solving, self-reliance, and leadership.

It went so smoothly, except for one little hiccup on the way to the city.  Our bus had a small problem.  It began with the smell of radiator fluid and then soon the bus floor was flooded as it began gushing on the inside of the bus.  Yes, the inside...I don't know much about cars or buses, but even I knew that couldn't be good!  We ended up having our lunch at a little park while we waited for a new bus to arrive.  It worked out great, we were still on time to our program.

Here is the entire class before our adventure begins, they still look clean, happy, and well rested.
  That is our home for the next 18 hours, the Balclutha behind us.

The kids have been preparing for this for a few weeks.  They learn sea chantey's and about life in the early 1900's on board.  The kids were divided into five different crews, the rigger, boat, galley, bosun, and deckhand crew.  They are assigned one "tall sailor" (parent) who is not allowed any direct communicate with them at all.  They are only there as an extra set of eyes for safety.  As the adults stay silent and in the background, the kids soon forget their presence, and just as the educators hope for, begin to take ownership and responsibility.  I was a "tall sailor" as the historian, (a really great job as it was so fun to go and take photographs, but I didn't have the responsibility of kids- including taking them to the bathroom in the middle of the night after their night watch) and had a wonderful time.  I took almost 650 photos, but since most of them are of 33 strangers...here are the few I am sharing.
They began by meeting the crew.  The first mate is a firm, but fair character.  He scared them with his booming voice and serious mannerisms.  He complained about their age and lack of experience, but finally agreed to take them on the trip up the coast to Oregon... IF they were hard workers. 

They immediately began their tasks of getting the boat ready to set sail.  Some of their tasks included reeving a block and tackle, riding a Bosun's chair, rowing a longboat, cooking on a wood-burning stove, railing the sails, and scrubbing the decks.

Here was my view, looking back at the city.
Oh what a gorgeous city, especially on that rare clear day!!

And Alcatraz.

At one of our "head calls" (trips to the bathroom, which is not aboard the ship, but on the pier) I grabbed this cute red-headed lad from the deck crew.  She's one of my favorites!!

I got to go out on a longboat with two of the crews, it was a gorgeous ride!

That evening they got to go under the deck, hear some stories and each received a letter from their parents. Tyler did an awesome job talking as if in 1906, but yet still got in his feelings for our current President!  :)

This experience truly is an example of this proverb:
I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I understand.

Many of the talk on the way home was how excited they were for a hot shower, how much they missed their comfortable beds, what those who lived in that time period would have thought of  phones, and how grateful they are to live in 2012!!