Photos: Tour the Life of a Sailor Aboard the Tall Ships

The Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain sailed into the Port of Redwood City on Thursday for a temporary two-week stop to showcase tours and “battle sails.” Residents can walk through the cabin, galley and library of the two ships and experience life aboard a historic tall ship, just two of 200 in the country.

Redwood City is only deep-water port on the Peninsula that can handle the enormous ships: the Lady Washington at 90 tons and 112 feet, and the Hawaiian Chieftain at 65 tons and 105 feet, and has welcomed the ships for years.

“They’re living, working, breathing ships that sail up and down the west coast,” said spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen.

A 6-person crew from Aberdeen, Washington, plus a 6-person volunteer crew man the two ships, keeping the decks, the hulls and the inner galleys in tip-top shape.

“It’s such an incredible experience,” said deckhand Cori Pepper.

But she added, “We’re not pirates! The movies glamorize our jobs.”

The “real” pirates of the 17^th and 18^th centuries were those who were losing in the war and had to pillage the winning side’s loot.

This crew, in contrast, is a hard-working staff that keeps each other accountable.

“We live in a small box within a small box,” Pepper said of the hull, their living quarters which contains room for 12 bunks. “So we all have to get along.”

And that doesn’t mean they don’t hit the occasional wave of seasickness.

“You just deal with it,” Pepper said. “My first time was actually anti-climactic.”

She said she woke up in the middle of the night, felt nauseated, leaned over then vomited. Then back to bed for her.

The crew has become accustomed to their routine, waking up around 7 a.m., a quick breakfast in the galley, then the lengthy list of chores that comes with living on a ship. Tasks need to be completed, from oiling the blocks to cetol-ing-- or varnishing the wood to keep water out.

“Everything’s always breaking, so everything always needs fixing,” Pepper said.

They all have specific roles and know exactly what to do in the event of an emergency, such as sinking.

“There’s a chain of command like in the military,” she said.

Washington History in Redwood City

The Lady Washington was originally built to celebrate Washington state’s 100^th birthday and is a replica of the first Lady Washington from the 1780s.

The original Lady was used as a trade ship and acted as a middleman between China and the Native Americans. It bartered the Native American’s pelts of fur for other metals and then tea from China. It was the first to sail around Cape Horn in South America and the first to fly the US flag.

The commute time? A total of three years, living off hard tack, a type of rock-solid biscuit, and salt junk, overly salty beef jerky. The salt junk was so salty that sailors would put the meat in a bag then drag it through the ocean water because the sea was less salty.

Pepper explained that sailing was still an appealing profession because many families who had multiple children couldn’t feed all those mouths. Thus, they had to send some of the sons off on sailing trips to earn some extra money.

Sailors became savvy and didn’t ask for their pay in coins, rather a brick of tea so they could sell it on the markets.

Enjoy a Taste of Sea Life

But the Lady Washington and her brother ship, the Hawaiian Chieftain have come a long way from harboring sailors trying to support their families.

Local Redwood City schools will be taking field trips on the schools, and the ship crew offers a “Two Weeks Before the Mast” program that will transform any novice into a full-on sailor in two weeks. People learn to lift heavy parts of the ship and even climb atop the masts.

The crew even turns their “living room,” or cabin, into a mini-store to sell merchandise. 

The two replicas of 18th century tall ships will be hosting three-hour "battle sails" and "adventure sails" for visitors seeking the experience of sailing, living and fighting at sea hundreds of years ago.

Tickets cost $3 for dockside walk-on tours and between $35 and $60 per person for the sailing packages. Tickets are available online at www.historicalseaport.org or by calling (800) 200-5239.

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