Tall Ships Review

[jenSails]

Hello! I've recently been offered a position working as a deckhand aboard a tall ship based out of Boston. Have any of you or someone you know worked on tall ships? Can you share your experience or general advice/suggestions?

Thanks,

Jen

[jenSails]

Hello! I've recently been offered a position working as a deckhand aboard a tall ship based out of Boston. Have any of you or someone you know worked on tall ships? Can you share your experience or general advice/suggestions?

Thanks,

Jen

[hugosalt]

Contact Mystic Seaport, there is a very nice knowledgeable woman (and others) who has spent time in and around tall ships. (forget her name) Maybe they will put you in touch
with her or other...and welcome to CF

[Snowpetrel]

I spent a couple of enjoyable years as Deckhand then 1st Mate on a Brigantine sailing around the south pacific many years ago. And I still occasionally work as mate on a few square riggers.

Its a great life in many ways. Pay is normally lousy, accomdation cramped, time off rare, and the work hard, dirty and physical. BUT, there is not much that beats the feeling of being aloft on a tall ship under a press of sail in a fair breeze. So much so that it makes up for all of the downsides, as long as you are on a good ship with a good crew.

I still vividly remember my first night aloft on the 100 foot Brigantine Soren Larsen, sailing between two coral islands on a bright moonlight night. Stowing the Topgallant while the ship rolled deeply in the warm trade winds. Part terror being so high on a rolling ship, and part elation at the view and environment. I dont know if its possible to feel more alive. I also remember a nasty blow, trying to tuck the third reef into the big main with all hands in 45-50 knots. Then fighting to tooth and nail to clew up the Course, with four big guys on the clewline hardly making any ground while the sail flogged badly. Lots of good memories...

A lot will depend on the ship, her way of paying her way, eg short daysails vs longer trips. Almost all tall ships pay there way these days with passengers, this can be a delight or a nightmare depending on your personality and the individuals onboard. If you dont like dealing with people it just wont work. Got to be nice to the passengers/voyage crew, and thats much easier if you genuinely enjoy dealing with people. I find most people have an interesting story to tell and its amazing the diversity of experiances and great stories you can get from even the most annoying passenger. And most passengers that want to go on a tall ship are adventurous at heart.

The crew is often a motley bunch, usually very nice but the environment will always lead to the odd issue. This is normal, generally the fact that you all rely on each other makes small problems go away, as long as you dont have to thin a skin. I am still good friends with many of the crew I sailes with 20 years ago. Drinking ashore may be a problem (or a bonus) depending on the crowd.

Again a lot will depend on the ship, and also the skipper and mate. You get good ones and bad ones. Dont suffer bad ones. If they don't treat the crew with respect, and don't do their best to teach and train every crew they aren't doing the job right. Then again they will (and should) make you work, and work hard, probably harder than you would work in many other jobs, quite likely at times harder than they should, but they should be working just as hard themselves and making sure crew are rotated through the dirty jobs fairly, and there are lots of dirty jobs, such as chipping and painting metal parts, sanding and painting wooden bits, cleaning and painting interiors. Crawing through bilges cleaning and painting. Up the mast tarring and painting. Or under the boat scraping and painting...

Just make sure the ship actually sails and has an income stream. The most important person for any tall ship these days is the finance manager... Some tallships spend almost all of the time at the dock, getting a rolling bunch of idealistic volunteer or backpacker crews to try and fix them up for a big 'voyage'. Ships and men rot in port, and these ships seldom make it off the wharf. Make sure the ship you join is active. There will still be large chuncks of time doing maintenance, but don't get trapped into a perpetual refit ship.

Also avoid the sloppy ship, it might be fun, but you will learn bad habits and often be in danger, even though you wont know you until gain more experience. Tall ships are inherently dangerous. The risks can be minimised to a sensible level only by very good management and maintenance. The ship should have a clear command and discipline structure, and a good safety management system of that is understood and followed by everyone. On signing on you should be inducted into the ship properly, with some sort of induction checklist and quickly trained in the safe proceedures for high risk tasks like going aloft. Then carefully supervised until you are deemed competant. If they don't have good harnesses, jacklines and rescue systems for work aloft they are playing a casino game with your life. Pretty early in the piece the ship should do a bunch of drills to consolidate the inductions for all the new crew. Drills such as fire, flood, manoverboard and abandonment should be done regularly in varied and challenging ways. Some crew will likely grumble about the safety rules. Don't join in with them, and remember with any good safety management system you should have the right to discuss and hopefully improve any safety issues you notice.

A happy crew is a happy ship. If it's not a basically a happy crew. Its not likey to be much fun, and since the pay is typically lousy (or nonexistent!) All you've got is fun, learning and memories as a reward.

Many crews (the whole crew)fall into the trap of becoming very elitest. Some tight nit and otherwise very good crews can get a bit too tight nit and start excluding new crew or passengers. This is often a management issue, but it is common. When you first join there will be often be small issues around this. Try to avoid falling into the same trap.

Even in the crew there will be a hierachy of sorts both formal amd informal. Respect this, and try to learn from the more experienced crew, (and you will have a lot to learn!). Make it a challenge to learn every rope by function, name, place and sight in the first week or so, and by feel and counting pins in the dark in the second week. Spend spare time aloft understanding the leads of every line. Take ownership of some simple but dirty job, and do it well. Respect and involve the passengers/voyage crew. Ultimately they are what enable the ship to sail.

It is a wonderful lifestyle, if the ship is sound, the crew and officers friendly and competant and your attitude is good you are likely to gain some incredible experiences and some good skills.

Finally know when to leave. Tall ships take a toll, its usually hard work and close living quarters. At some point you will get jaded. Or you will become too elitest, or you will start to think the ship needs you, and you (and only you)know best how things should be done, and nobody else does it right. Around this time its best to leave on good terms. That way you will be welcome back when you have gained some perspective. So have an exit plan. Often the ship will be loath to loose an experienced hand. Don't leave them in the lurch, give them plenty of warning, but you got to go when you've got to go. A year is probably enough for a voyaging ship, though a ship based in one area with more time off may be different.

Best of luck, and let us know how things work out.

[psk125]

Keep your eyes and ears open so you learn as much as you can as quickly as possible. Take heavy-duty WARM clothes for night watches, even in summer. Be nice to everyone on board. They (and you) will have a better time.

[Don C L]

Take it! When you say "tall ship" which is it? Gloucester schooner by chance?

[jenSails]

This was better than I could've hoped for! Thanks for the review!