Young Crew of the POB2

Here’s the regular (as opposed to the guest) crew of the Pride of Baltimore II as we left Baltimore harbor in May of 2013:          

                  

This crew, except for the captain and cook (both 35 – 45+/-), were all in their 20s on this voyage to the Great Lakes in 2013. The oldest was Jill, the Chief Mate, who turned 27 on the first week of the trip.

Aside from nephews and nieces at weddings and reunions, I hadn’t spent much time with young people. (Offspring don’t count.) I lived aboard the POB2 with these 20+ers for 6+ weeks. By the second or third day of the trip I started to see general characteristics of the crew emerge.

First I noticed that they were willing and eager to share their knowledge of how to manage boat operations – from how many time to wrap a line around a winch, to which line is the jib sheet (a sheet is a line is a rope), to which line is to the topgallant brace. The did this without emotion or hesitation (considering our age difference) and with the clear eyes of teachers who want their students to actually learn something.

They were adventurous, funny and hard working. When there was a call for “All hands on deck”, they came running. When there was a heavy line to tug, they did it with enthusiasm, and humor – often singing out with sea chants or silly ditties that is a part of tall ship heritage. Thorough in their work and proud of it, they were professionals. All were in decent physical shape, some in extraordinary shape.

I didn’t hear any back-biting or gossiping while aboard the POB2. Nor any complaining. Even when a crewmember had galley duty (doing the dishes, scrubbing the floor and cleaning the heads, the toilets) they did it in the same manner as when they were on deck controlling the helm.

They were a family, in the best sense of the word. They looked out for each other and Captain Trost looked out for them all. He took them to the port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, just because it was a cool, interesting port. He got tickets to a Toronto Blue Jays (baseball) game and took a bunch of crew with him.

I asked Jill if most tall ship sailors were like this crew? Yes, mostly. And why were they like this? Because they loved what they were doing, and what they were doing was exciting, useful and adventurous. Because they were mostly free spirited and relatively unafraid of life.

These people don’t become sailors for the money. Jill said if someone wanted more material things in life than a cell phone, a computer and a little beer money then sailing tall ships wasn’t for them.

Tall ship sailors take their job seriously because it is a serious job. Safety and even life hangs in the balance. The ocean is neither benevolent nor malevolent – it can swallow someone with as much indifference as when we inadvertently step on an ant while walking down the sidewalk.

These tall ship sailors were/are exceptional. It was a pleasure to experience the ocean with this little sub-culture of young people.