Famous ship returns to her roots

LUXENBURG – She’s circled the globe four times, delivering much-needed supplies to remote island schools, conducting impromptu medical clinics, trading with the islanders and introducing nearly 1,000 people to the challenges and rewards of sailing a square rigger.

She’s the Barque Picton Castle and next spring she’s setting out on an all-new epic adventure, one that will see her crossing the North Atlantic bound for the ports where her storied life began; places like Swansea and Milford Haven, from which she worked as a North Seas fishing trawler, or Bergen, where she was hailed the “Liberator of Norway” for her arrival as Nazi forces withdrew.

It was also in Norway that Picton Castle’s current captain, Daniel Moreland, found the vessel more a decade ago, sailing her back across the Atlantic for conversion to a Class A tall ship. Since then, the 179-foot ship has been making a name for herself in the world of sail training. In fact, the American Sail Training Association awarded her its 2006 Sail Training Program of the Year.

On each new voyage, the ship takes up to 40 trainees – people who often have no previous sailing experience – and teaches them to be square-rig sailors. Once aboard, trainees participate in all shipboard duties: hauling lines, handling sails, hoisting the anchor and swabbing the decks. They take their turn at the wheel, as well as in the galley – all under the tutelage of the vessel's professional crew.

It's hard work by times, says Capt. Moreland. However, it's broken up with such amazing sights and experiences, such intense personal discoveries, that trainees are often home several months before than can adequately discuss their time aboard.

This latest voyage – set to get underway from the ship’s home port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada in May 2008 – will see the Picton Castle traveling close to 30,000 sea miles as she explores the ports of the Atlantic World. From her first call at the volcanic islands of The Azores to ports in the UK, North and Central Europe, the islands of the Western Atlantic, the Mediterranean, North and West Africa, a stunning studdingsail passage back across the Atlantic – and equator – to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil, then island hopping in the West Indies and ultimately home to Lunenburg, this is sure to be a voyage every bit as epic as the ship’s well-known world voyages.

Again, no previous sailing experience is necessary; Picton Castle’s crew will teach you everything you need to know.

For more information about the Picton Castle, her sail training voyages and how you can become a trainee, visit the ship’s website at www.picton-castle.com or call 001 902 634 9984.