Barque Picton Castle News

Picton Castle ‘booked up’ for fifth World Voyage

April 23, 2010

The crew of the Barque Picton Castle is hitting the books these days.

That is, crew members are busy sorting through cases of recent encyclopedias and textbooks, gently-used novels and storybooks, pencils, notebooks, looseleaf and crayons all kindly donated by schools, shipmates and community members for the coming World Voyage V.

During her travels, the 179-foot square rigger and her crew will distribute these materials to needy schools and communities in the South Pacific and Africa.

“It’s a very gratifying endeavour,” says Picton Castle’s captain, Daniel D. Moreland.

Many of the island schools have very limited resources and so are thrilled to receive these seemingly simple items. To show their appreciation, teachers and students often treat the ship’s crew to special assemblies featuring music and dancing.

 “It’s an amazing cultural experience,” says Capt. Moreland. And it’s also a way for the ship’s Nova Scotia supporters to get involved with the voyage.

“We know a lot of people follow our travels through our website. This gives them another way to feel connected to the ship’s program,” he says.

The Picton Castle also conducts some medical clinics in the islands, and so the crew has also collected supplies like gauze, bandages, disinfectants, simple antibiotics, antifungals and first aid books that can be used in these clinics or left behind with islanders.

The Picton Castle will depart Lunenburg on or about May 1 with a full complement of 38 sail trainees and 12 professional sailors. The 30,000-mile voyage – the ship’s fifth in 15 years – will see them visit more than 20 ports of call including stops at Panama, the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Mauritius, South Africa, Grenada, the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda.