The Picton Castle’s Homecoming
Sunday, June 18th, 2006
Location: Home! Alongside in Lunenburg Harbour, Nova Scotia!
At about 0710 this morning the Picton Castle passed the buoy called “Fig” and by 0730 we had reached White Point, where the mates had us loose all sail to dry. After a hearty breakfast of bacon and cheesy scrambled eggs the crew got to work pulling heavy hawsers and Samson braids (dock lines) out of the chain locker and off of the top of the galley house, where they had been flaked to dry after their use in Shelburne during Alberto.
We flaked hawsers on the forecastle head and forward on the well deck to be used as head lines and bow springs; we flaked two hawsers amidships to be used as after-leading and forward-leading ‘midships springs, and we flaked hawsers aft on the aloha deck to be used as stern lines and stern springs. Bites from each hawser would be sent ashore to be made fast over bits on the dock and then the slack would be taken out of the hawsers aboard and made fast around big cleats on the deck called “bits.” We have done this many times throughout our voyage, but this day would be the most nerve-racking because there would be an enormous crowd of friends and family waiting for us there. Captain warned us that it would be easy to lose focus in those circumstances, and our priority was to get the ship safely tied up.
At 0845 we braced the yards to heave-to long enough to launch the skiff. We put Zimmer, Brent, and John in the boat to clean the topsides and make the ship’s steel bright white for our homecoming. At 0935 all hands were called to hoist the skiff back into her starboard davits and again make way for Lunenburg.
At 1035 we set all fore-and-aft sail and all hands were busy painting seizings, rust-busting and spot-painting white on rusty spots. Some hands had turned-to to do a major domestics (house cleaning) of the ship’s living spaces, and Kolin was leading the hose in a thorough deck wash. When the Captain told the mates “That’s well!” we cleaned all the brushes and packed away the painting supplies for the last time.
At 1100 we had reached Rose Point, Cross Island, and Battery Point. All hands were called to set tops’ls, t’gallants and royals. We had a nice sailing breeze and therefore did not need our engine. We had set all of our flags and our pennants and we looked quite beautiful with all of our sails filled in the breeze and bright colors flying at the tops of our masts. There was no more work to do, so we sat there in kind of an electrified state—tired from turning-in to bed late and from rising early. I was a bundle of nerves, completely wound up like a cheap watch! We were only a few hours away from reuniting with our families!
The day was been so exciting that I forget what lunch was, but I remember eating soup and a beautiful fresh fruit salad.
When lunch was all cleaned up, it was close to 1300 and we were due to make our arrival in Lunenburg Harbour at 1400. I was sitting on the cargo hatch when a whale-watching boat roared up from abaft our starboard beam. The people on board were cheering at us and waving signs. A handful of my shipmates and I were trimming the foreyards and taking slack out of the starboard sides, and we carried on doing so while the boat paced alongside us and the passengers aboard cheered. We didn’t pay them much mind.
Through the hauling and marrying of lines I learned that one of the ship’s major investors, and a close personal friend of Captain Moreland, was aboard the whale watching boat and he was going to cruise into Lunenburg aboard the Picton Castle. Then I heard Drew shout that his parents were aboard the boat. Kathleen’s parents were aboard also, and they got to see her bringing the ship towards Lunenburg from her position on helm! When she discovered they were there she became emotional and distracted and handed the helm off to Becky, who was standing by.
We are used to boats cruising alongside us and cheering because we are likely the only real pirate-looking ship the majority of people have ever seen up close and in person. So I did not pay much mind to the passengers aboard the whale watching boat; I merely waved politely and smiled for my shipmates who had family aboard. Drew had even managed to kiss his mother when the whale watching boat got close enough to let Edgar Crocker board the ship. I had a hold of his waistband so he did not lose his balance over the rail. It must have been very nice for Drew to be the first to kiss his mom after joining us in Cape Town about four months ago.
I was standing by on the cargo hatch trying to get warm in the sunlight when I heard someone shout, “Erin! You’ve got someone on the boat too! What do those signs say?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked to no one in particular because I did not know who spoke to me first. I looked over the rail. Sure enough, the first thing that caught my eye was a bright white sign with blue letters waving high above the passengers’ heads, and it read “100,000 Welcomes!” in Gaelic, a traditional language still spoken in parts of Cape Breton. Then I saw another sign that read, “What’s yer father’s name?”—a classic Caper phrase often asked when you are first introduced to someone new. Chances are good that if they run through your list of relatives, they will know someone in your family. There was another sign that read, “Holy mackerel! Oh, me nerves!” This one baffled the crew, but I knew it just read that they were excited. There were two more signs and on the end of the pickets holding the signs high were the arms of seven of my family members! “Oh, me nerves” is right! I was shocked and cried to see my family whom I had missed so much, and laughed hard at the fools they are! You can be sure wherever you take a Caper they will steal the show!
Our crew and our families on the boat had a short time to shout greetings back and forth over the rail before it was time for the boat to leave and for us to concentrate on sail handling. We had to focus on getting ready to bring the ship past the familiar foghorn on Battery Point and into the mouth of Lunenburg Harbour.
A fresh breeze blew up then, giving us an extra knot of speed or so, just when we did not really want or need it. We began to clewing up all sails in rapid succession and the Main Engine was fired up to bring us in under control, with Cape Breton native and assistant engineer Brett at the engine controls on the bridge. Even though we arrived at the dock under motor power, our families and friends had seen us come home under full sail and witnessed the skill and speed we’ve mastered at taking in sail.
At 1400 we launched the skiff with Zimmer and John K. in the boat. They were in the water to stand by to receive the Captain’s orders to push the ship by her bow in one direction or the other. We approached the dock among a deafening racket of Scottish bagpipes and horns blasting from the Primo, Zebroid, other local vessels and also from the Atlantic Fisheries Museum. For every horn we answered three horn blasts back. It was so loud that it was difficult to receive and relay instructions from the Captain.
We approached so that the end of the dock was forward of our starboard beam. At 1408 Chief Mate Sam tossed the first line ashore to shipmates Brent and Jack who were waiting on the dock to make lines fast. We warped around on the headline until our starboard beam was parallel to the dock. Susannah got a forward-leading and after-leading ‘midships spring on the dock and surged or took up on the lines smartly until the Captain decided the ship was where he wanted her. At 1416 the Main Engine was secured and the ship was officially alongside at Lunenburg Harbour.
Hundreds of people lined the docks of the Picton Castle and the Lady Janet and others still had climbed up onto the decks and the rails of the Primo, who shares a dock with the Picton Castle. There was the clapping of hundreds of hands and voices cheering and calling out to loved ones. It was really an overwhelming moment. Our hearts were pounding and more than one of us whispered our knees were shaking.
The Captain kept us focused by snapping us back into reality with the order to square the yards—gear, sheets, tacks, lifts, and braces. I think we had those braces squared and trimmed in record time. When the yards were square and the lifts and braces were made fast, the crew got the order, “Up and stow!” Our crew sang out, repeating the order together, many of us already partway up the shrouds.
Following Captain’s orders, Pania Warren (from Pitcairn Island) and I ascended all the way to the Main Royal yard to stow our favourite sail. Pania and I are the same size and we work well together aloft, often having to take breaks to recover from fits of laughter. It was my pleasure to stow sail for what may be the last time with my shipmate and cabin mate, Pania. Directly below Pania and me on the T’Gallant yard were Andrea M. and “Baby” Jack, and so on down the mast. The Picton Castle’s sails were stowed in record time with especially neat and lovely harbour stows, some of the finest of the voyage!
When we were finished stowing the Main Royal, Pania and I leaned our bellies against the yard from where we were sharing the foot rope on the Starboard Main Royal yardarm. We looked below and down to deck and saw that our shipmates were already returning to deck because the sails were stowed. We looked down upon the heads of the hundreds of people standing on the dock and they stared upwards at our crew working aloft. We waited together aloft for as long as we could get away with before the Captain called the muster on deck.
When all hands were down from aloft, Captain Moreland called, “All hands, muster midships!” His crew gathered around him on the cargo hatch and he told us to go get our cameras and hand them to someone ashore because we were going to pose for our official crew photo. We have never taken a picture of all of our crew posing together before because it is bad luck to do so before the voyage is complete. I sat between Doc Jeremy and Pania, helping to hold up our ship’s white and red life ring with her name stenciled upon it. Our crew stood around us and behind us with arms wrapped around one another and big grins on their faces as we all faced the crowd on the dock. We are the picture of the healthiest and happiest crew that ever went to sea on this old barque out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
After the last photo was taken, Captain Moreland waved his arm toward the crowd and told our crew, “Get out there and see your families!” There was absolute chaos It was a blur of crew dashing over the rail and onto our old and familiar dock, pushing our way through the crowd and calling out the names of our parents. I found my family standing in front of the Primo.
After we had a chance to reunite with our loved ones, we began branching out to meet each other’s families. It happened quite naturally. Fathers and mothers approached their children’s shipmates and finally touched the hands of someone they had never met but felt they knew so well. My shipmates and I embraced people we had only seen in one another’s photographs from home, but were quite familiar with all the same. “How is so-and so? Where is the dog today?”
Shortly thereafter the crew scattered from the ship to spend time with our families and to take hot showers in their hotel rooms. After dinner with our folks, the entire crew and all their loved ones met up at the Knot Pub, where we watched the hockey game (the Oilers won! The day just kept getting better and better), and shared cold drinks and hundreds of laughs. We have thousands of stories to share with anyone who is willing to listen! It was around 1:30 in the morning before many of our parents had an opportunity to leave and turn-in to rest!
Already the ship feels empty because shipmates have gone to stay ashore in soft beds and warm rooms with bathtubs and hot water showers. One by one bunks are stripped of the familiar printed sheets and photos are taken off the overheads. Taxis to the airport have begun making their rounds and contact information has been exchanged.
Tonight is Picton Castle Awards Night at the old Fish Factory. This promises to be a very light-hearted and playful event and I expect we will expose quite a bit about our lives and relationships aboard to the family and friends. But they will never really know the half of it.
Job well done, Captain, Mates and Crew of the Picton Castle’s World Voyage IV! It’s been a sincere pleasure sharing the last 28,000 nautical miles with you.
Photos of ship arrival by Barry Schnare
Portrait of crew and Johanna by Erin Standing