Tall Ships for the Tricentennial

In the spring of 1718, Jean Baptiste le Moyne de Bienville established the highest ground his expedition could find near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a port city for France. Almost exactly three hundred years later, New Orleans is celebrating its maritime legacy by inviting monumental historic sailing ships known as “tall ships” to Woldenberg Riverfront Park at Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and Pontchartrain Landing on April 19–22.

"We’re very happy that New Orleans is having a 300th birthday so that we can use that as an excuse to come here and bring the ships,” said Captain Bert Rogers, Executive Director of Tall Ships America, who are partnering with the nonprofit Tricentennial Tall Ships Committee to bring the magnificent and historic vessels to the Crescent City. “New Orleans is a maritime city, and it’s proudly celebrating 300 years of its maritime heritage, and we’re just really pleased to do our job and help celebrate it.”

“...whenever we give them supplies, they give us a party, and we give more supplies, then the party’s bigger next time. So we’re in debt to the islands, and we never can really erase that.”

The ships, which will open their decks to public tours, are coming to New Orleans as part of the Tall Ships Challenge 2018 Gulf Coast Race Series, and are traveling from Galveston to Pensacola to New Orleans, before finally charting a course for Philadelphia. One ship, however, will embark from the port of New Orleans on a much longer journey: its seventh complete world voyage. Named the Picton Castle, the traditionally-operated 179-foot sailing ship was designed for deep-ocean voyages and will also carry supplies and educational materials to remote islands in the Pacific. 

“We like giving back as much as we can, but we get rewarded far more than we can provide anything,” said Captain Daniel Moreland, who has captained the Picton Castle for more than twenty years, through all six of her previous world voyages. “‘Cause whenever we give them supplies, they give us a party, and we give more supplies, then the party’s bigger next time. So we’re in debt to the islands, and we never can really erase that.”

During the voyage the Picton Castle will be manned by a crew consisting predominantly of volunteers, who will be literally “shown the ropes” by a comparatively small handful of professional sailors. While Moreland said that of course there are challenges to circumnavigating the globe via centuries-old methods with a mostly inexperienced crew, the lessons gained from such a journey are invaluable. 

“Putting the ship first means that you’re putting your community first. Which is good for the community, which is good for you,” said Moreland. “Which is sort of a good metaphor for life on the planet. If we did that everywhere, the world would be a better place.”

The crew is international, gathering representatives from as many as fifteen different nations beneath the same sails, which Moreland said contributes to the harmony aboard ship. They will travel from New Orleans to Panama and out into the Pacific, to the biologically unique Galápagos archipelago, another 2,700 miles to the remote island of Pitcairn, then back out to the South Pacific island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and on to Polynesia’s only unconquered kingdom of Tonga. Fiji follows, and then the Picton Castle will navigate out to the islands of Vanuatu, where WWII bombers still lie wrecked in the jungles following their final flights. 

The massive vessel will then thread the Torres Strait into the Arafura Sea westward to Bali, which provides a new plethora of sights, sounds, and tastes. It will continue to Rodrigues, Réunion, Madagascar, and south around the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town, South Africa. After a brief reprieve in the diamond-rich country of Namibia, the Picton Castle will set out for the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where Napoleon lived his final days in exile. The journey will cross the equator then continue to the Caribbean islands. One last tropical passage will bring the ship and its crew to Bermuda before the final stretch of the journey to the Picton Castle’s home port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. 

[You might also like: The Art of the Science of the Folklore]

But before all of that, the Picton Castle and its equally awe-inspiring sister vessels will dock in New Orleans in celebration of the historic port’s three-hundredth birthday, and all are encouraged to come and appreciate their historic majesty for free. 

“New Orleans became fully formed in its identity during the age of sail,” said Captain Moreland. “And there’s an inescapable link between sailing ships at sea and the spicy mix that is New Orleans. Without ships, there is no New Orleans. These are those ships.”

For the full schedule and information about free ship tours and other events, visit tallshipsnola2018.com.

This article originally appeared in our April 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.