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| Sea Crest joins a sea crew By Mark Noack [ mark@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 10:42 AM PST It’s 1906, and San Francisco is reeling from the ravages of earthquake and subsequent fire that leveled California’s crown-jewel port city. Docked at the Hyde Street Pier, the captain of the “Balclutha” trading ship knows there’s big profit to be made hauling construction lumber down from Oregon, but his crew all deserted in the catastrophe. So he asks his first mate to run out and quickly grab a team of 12 able sailors. His first mate goofs, however, and returns with a team of preteens — 34 of them, all from Half Moon Bay’s Sea Crest School. On Monday, Sea Crest’s class of fifth-graders joined the swashbuckling life of a turn-of-the-century merchant ship. Students participated in the “Age of Sail” educational program, a two-day activity bringing students onto the Balclutha and teaching them to cooperate as a sailing team: cooking meals, tying lines, swabbing the deck and guarding the vessel. The Balclutha won’t leave dock during the 19-hour imaginary voyage, but students will learn and perform chores as if they were on the high seas. The immersive program is designed to teach students about teamwork, creativity, management and the maritime history of San Francisco, said Seth Muir, spokesman for the Age of Sail program. “It’s a living history to supplement the curriculum they’re learning about California history,” Muir said. “It allows them to see in practice what they’re learning in school.” For the students, Muir and his shipmates all go into character, using the garments, language and mannerisms of a 1900s crew. Boarding the ship, students probably won’t know what a bitt, coxswain, dory, davit, tag line or fall line are, Muir said, but with some help from the crew and a lot of pointing, the students soon get immersed in the sailing life. Of course, while the students will be living like sailors, they won’t be learning about the shanghai tunnels, bordellos or booze that went hand in hand with sea life in bawdy San Francisco. The annual program for the fifth-graders has become among the most popular field trips for the private school. “It was really fun, and we learned a lot,” recalled Tony, a sixth-grade deckhand who remembered his experience last year. “But it was frustrating. I remember getting waken up at 5 a.m. by someone saying, ‘Wake up, you scurvy dogs!’” “The beds were really uncomfortable and hard,” remembered Eliza, a ship’s cook. Few students get a wink of sleep over the adventure, said fifth-grade teacher Debra Christian. That’s partially due to the stiff wooden beds, she said, but also because they have to take shifts standing guard on the deck throughout the whole night. “They’re exhausted, but everyone smiles about it,” Christian said. “I’ve been teaching for 15 years, and this is the best field trip I’ve ever experienced.” Christian and her class of fifth-graders were preparing for their voyage last week, reviewing their boat vocabulary and dividing the students into teams for specific tasks. Fifth-grader McKenzie was thrilled to be leading the rigger crew, her first managerial position. “It’s probably going to go to my head,” she joked. “That means that I have to wake up everyone in the middle of the night.” “She’s good at bossing people around,” her classmate Devon added. |