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Jesse Maupin || Alex Marts || Elizabeth Palmer || Heather Varner || Bethany Loudon || Domino Hawks
Lady Washington helps a drifting young man set a course for success
by Jesse Maupin
 The Lady Washington sailed into my life during a critically important transitional period, and by exposing me to a series of people and events, she ultimately set me on a new course, one that would take me further than I ever imagined.
In September of 2005, I was working as a dishwasher and prep-cook at a restaurant in my small western Washington hometown with no real plans for the future. I had finished high school, but had no aspirations to continue my education anytime soon. I knew that if I stayed where I was, I would fall back into the same habits that had gotten me into trouble in the past. In short, I needed to get out.
It just so happened that in less than a month, the Lady Washington was going to be in town and they had an empty bunk that I might fill. Before the Two Weeks Before the Mast training program was finished I knew that I wanted to come back and make this my life. And so I did. Shortly after the end of my two-week training period, she set her sails for San Francisco Bay, and, after hopping a train down the coast, I was on the dock to catch her mooring lines upon arrival, this time as a long-term topman and deck hand.
 The camaraderie that people feel when they’re living, working, eating, and breathing in the same space for an extended period of time is an indescribable experience, and one that I hope every person has the opportunity to enjoy in their lifetime. At eighteen, I had found IT. I had found life, love, and happiness all conveniently located within an 18th century sailing vessel!
I consider living on board the Lady to be my first year of college (more intimate than any dormitory). I learned and later mastered incredibly valuable skills that contributed to my personal growth and self-confidence. As an educator, I learned how to communicate with young people in an effective, informative manner that captured their attention and kept them focused. As a deck hand, I learned how to take orders from a commanding officer, but more importantly, how to work as an integral part of a team and to put the needs of the crew before my own. I also learned lessons in accounting and inventory while working as the ship’s storekeeper, and in woodworking, sail repair, and manual craftsmanship through working as bosun’s mate.
The greatest impression that I took away from my time on the Lady Washington was the realization that I am capable of more than I gave myself credit for. If there is something I want, I must strive to achieve it. If my will is strong and my conviction deep, there is no height to which I cannot climb.
I took this lesson to heart when at the coaxing of a beautiful co-deckhand turned girlfriend, I started attending The Evergreen State College in the fall of 2006, where I was interested in studying the history and economics of maritime trade in the Pacific Northwest. This soon gave way to the much larger, budding interest in biology and chemistry, and so at the end of four years time I graduated with a bachelor’s of arts and science in biochemistry.
My nine months aboard the Lady Washington served as the driving force for my success in college and undoubtedly provided me with the discipline and perseverance to carry through with the most difficult of work. I can remember many a rainy night sitting by the window while studying and thinking to myself, “Well, at least I’m warm, dry, and not puking my innards out over the side!” And somehow I would find the resolve to turn back to my textbook and carry on.
Five and a half years after my first night aboard the Lady Washington, I find myself doing what I love and still benefiting from the many lessons ingrained on me so thoroughly on the deck of my Lady Love. In the fall, I will begin my first year of medical school at the University of Washington and I can honestly say that I would not be in this position if not for the life-changing events that transpired aboard an 18th century tall ship—the Lady Washington.
Photos by Katie Karman
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"One of the most profound experiences of my life."
 When Alex Marts was a junior in high school, he was having a tough time. Like many kids today, Alex was having trouble learning “inside the box” of a traditional classroom environment. He was intelligent; he earned his GED at 16. But Alex was a tactile learner who thrived in a hands-on environment. And he loved to sail.
When the opportunity came to serve as the education officer aboard Hawaiian Chieftain, he jumped at the chance. He understood the importance of hands-on learning, how to connect classroom concepts to real-world activities and through his work, he was able to positively impact the lives of thousands of school children, and in the process his own life as well.
“I had probably one of the most profound experiences of my life,” he says. “It changed my life completely. I did a complete one-eighty.”
That was in 2007. Now 20 years old, Alex is pursuing a career on the water. He’s worked as a deck hand for a Seattle marine services company, and he has a goal of getting his 100-ton masters license.
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5,000 Hours Later, an Honor from President Barack Obama
 In 2007, like many young teens, Liz Palmer was searching for something to fire her imagination. On a visit to her grandmother’s home in Westport, Wash., she saw Lady Washington at the dock. Almost immediately, the high school student from Moses Lake, Wash., wanted to sign up as a shipboard volunteer.
Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, on July 9, 2007, she boarded Lady Washington, and her two-week commitment turned into a seven-month adventure. In January 2008, she resumed her high school classes. But Liz was eager to return to the ship, and tell the public about "her" ship and its history. In the following years, she's come back again and again, signing on as a topman and education coordinator, and she has sailed to all major ports of the west coast.
In June 2010, Liz graduated from high school, and she was honored with a prestigious President’s Volunteer Service Award for more than 5,000 hours of community service aboard Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain. Liz received a gold pin, a certificate of achievement, and a letter of congratulations signed by President Barack Obama. She also received a letter of congratulations from Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Today, Liz is a student at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock. She hopes to be a shipwright and a professional seafarer.
Liz is a different person today than she was in 2007. “Living in such close quarters, you learn a lot of people skills,” she says. “You can’t hold a grudge. You have to open up and be straight with people. You share a lot of things you wouldn’t normally.”
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A First-Time Feeling of Belonging
by Heather Varner
 I participated in the Two Weeks Before the Mast program back in August of 2009. Before the program, I was shy and kind of a loner, but being on the Hawaiian Chieftain really brought me out of my shell. for the first time in years, I felt like I belonged somewhere. Being on the Chieftain, even for that short amount of time, has given me memories for the rest of my life. Now when I'm in a bad mood I think of my time spent on board and it always cheers me up. I really hope to get back to the boats some day.
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Aloft in the New Age of Sail
by Bethany Loudon
 When I first stepped aboard the Lady Washington in 2003, I, much like everyone else who had never been up in her rigging, could only associate the ship with her role as the HMS Interceptor in the wildly popular Disney film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
My whole view of square-rigged sailing changed entirely when I joined the crew a couple of years later. I had signed up for the Lady Washington's "Two Weeks Before the Mast" volunteer program, only to discover that the life of the true "square rig" sailor was not at all what I imagined, and certainly nothing like Hollywood portrayed it.
I was really excited about the novelty of climbing the rigging, but my first time up aloft was the most terrifying thing I had ever done in my life. I had also romanticized the idea of sailing off into the unknown, but when I found myself on deck in the midst of the afternoon Adventure Sails, I was totally confused and had absolutely no idea how to be useful on deck.
I felt as though I had violently hurled myself far from my Bellingham existence and had fallen somewhere very foreign amidst playful brethren of brawling, rollicky, sea-shanty singing, tar-stained sailors.
Two weeks later I was one of them.
I came back to Bellingham for a grand total of three days before I did the one thing in the world I never thought I would do. I ditched every single one of my responsibilities on the home front and high-tailed it back to the ship for the adventure of a lifetime: the annual ocean transit to San Francisco Bay.
| I was really excited about the novelty of climbing the rigging, but my first time up aloft was the most terrifying thing I had ever done in my life. |
After almost a month of grueling boat maintenance in Aberdeen and a week on when we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge. We were dirty and exhausted, having battled seasickness and twenty-foot swells off the Oregon coast. We were also completely awash in our crew camaraderie, and success of our journey.
I knew my life on land would never be the same again, and when I got on the plane back home, I fought back tears through the whole entire flight. At that point I would have given just about anything to do it again.
I'm not the only one, either.
During the time I've spent aboard over the last couple of years I've watched two-week volunteers come and go and then come back again having happily abandoning respectable employment to live the unpaid life of a tall ship sailor.
If you ever find yourself on a sail or dockside tour of the Lady Washington, please don't ask the sailors where Johnny Depp stood during the filming of the movie or what parts of the ship Orlando Bloom touched when he was on board. Instead, ask them how they ended up as part of the crew or just take a seat on the main hold hatch and gaze up into the rigging. With any luck, you might find yourself up there some day.
Bethany's essay first appeared in Currents, the Historical Seaport's newsletter. Photo by Tom Hyde.
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Skeptical in Seattle No More: Lady Washington Woos and Wins Writer
By Domino K. Hawks
 We made for the acoustically favorable underside of the Aurora (old Highway 99) Bridge to enhance the already earth-shaking report of the ship’s cannons and swivel guns. Any lingering standoffishness I may have felt towards Lady Washington was banished by both hearing and feeling the blast in my solar plexus, followed by the rolling booms echoing from the underside of the bridge, and smelling the black powder smoke. People lining the shore screamed. I imagine that the residents of the surrounding neighborhood of Fremont would be cleaning up after their startled indoor pets – probably after removing them from the ceiling.
As we traveled back to our starting place in the darkness, I became conscious of the sounds of the ship – the flap of the canvas sails and the booming sound they make as they fill, the buzz of rope traveling through wooden blocks, and the creaking of the yards. The skyline of Seattle drew closer and became harder to ignore.
I simply did not want to go back to the dock. When we arrived and tied off, I did not want to disembark. When I did, dragging my feet the whole way, I was so wired and exhilarated that I could not go home, could not go to sleep. I began to have my own ambitions that some might question – to be a “splat” … to wear silly pants (the required historic garb), to earn some calluses … to become a square rig sailor.
Okay, maybe not the silly pants so much.
| If you confess this secret ambition to friends or family members, be prepared to be looked at as if you had just divulged your desire to become an Elvis impersonator. |
And trust me on this … if you confess this secret ambition to friends or family members, be prepared to be looked at as if you had just divulged your desire to become an Elvis impersonator. “Ah, yes…” they say, while edging towards the door. But if they don’t do that, they will surely try to make you talk like a pirate.
Since that time, I have sailed on the brig six times, the last three as a sail trainee. The first time, I simply belayed (the act of literally herding line — on a square rigger, an endless pursuit). On each subsequent sail, I learned additional duties such as taking slack off a line while setting sail, and hauling and trimming spanker sails. Although by themselves minute, in the world of the Lady Washington, each task is a crucial part of the bigger picture. You truly feel a part of this primitive and thrilling machine.
Excerpted with permission from The Fyddeye Guide to America's Maritime History, published by Fyddeye Media.
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