PORT TOWNSEND — A group of third-graders had their first experience working and learning on the schooner Adventuress on Thursday.
About 60 students split into smaller groups to learn about marine life, navigation and boat operation.
“It’s a good thing anytime that you can get kids out of a classroom and give them an opportunity to correlate what they learn in the classroom with real things,” said Caitlin Harrison, former Port Townsend Education Foundation president and a chaperone on the field trip.
“It’s one thing to see a picture of a bird in a book. It’s another to watch them catch a fish,” she said.
Program partnership
The field trip was part of a partnership between the Port Townsend School District and the Adventuress through the Maritime Discovery Initiative, which is in its second year.
“This is an incredible opportunity for the kids to get out on the water and experience a 100-year-old schooner, which most kids never get to do,” said Kelley Watson, the maritime studies teacher at Port Townsend High School.
“This can change their lives and get them working in maritime careers.”
The Maritime Discovery Initiative is a place-based learning program designed to incorporate Port Townsend’s maritime heritage into all levels of public education.
The maritime initiative began as a partnership between the school district and the Northwest Maritime Center and has since recruited other partners, such as Sound Experience, which owns the Adventuress.
“With a group of kids learning how the ship operates, they can use it as an example of a community and a town, to understand how a community works,” said Sarah Rubenstein, Maritime Discovery Initiative director.
Last year, Watson applied for a grant from the Port Townsend Education Foundation, which approved $3,100 to support programs in the third, fifth and 11th grades.
The Adventuress is moored in Point Hudson with its deck covered by a white tarp that allows instruction to take place during times of inclement weather.
Some maintenance will take place during the next few months, with Watson’s class learning how to build and repair systems in the high school shop.
Winter instruction
More than 300 students will benefit from the winter instruction, Watson said.
Onboard classes will continue until the beginning of the year’s sailing season in March.
The Adventuress is 103 years old. It was launched in 1913 after it was built in East Boothbay, Maine.
After several decades of service with the San Francisco Bar Pilots, the ship traveled north to Seattle in 1952. The nonprofit Sound Experience, based in Port Townsend, has operated it since 1989.
The National Historic Landmark was renovated in a $1.2 million project to mark its centennial.
For more information about the school district’s maritime program, go to www.maritimediscovery.org.
For information about Sound Experience programs, phone 360-379-0438 or visit www.soundexp.org.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
