GALVESTON HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
June 23, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
409-765-7834

Free Elissa Seamanship Training Program, One-of-a-Kind in U.S., Begins Saturday

This year’s annual Elissa Seamanship Training cycle will kick off with an orientation on Saturday, July 18, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at the Texas Seaport Museum, Pier 22. Everyone is welcome to attend and learn about this unique program of free instruction that allows area residents to learn the skills of a 19th-century sailor, and ultimately to take Elissa, the Official Tall Ship of Texas, to sea. After the three-and-a-half-hour introduction and instruction session on Saturday, new and returning Elissa volunteers will have a chance to meet and exchange sea and storm stories over beer and soda at an informal gathering on the pier.

Last year’s Seamanship Training was interrupted by Hurricane Ike, but only for a single scheduled session. Ike’s infamous storm surge severely damaged the piers and workshops of the museum, but Elissa herself suffered relatively little damage. Elissa volunteers logged over 1,664 hours in cleaning the site, and 598 hours on repairs to the site and the ship in the three months after the storm. One of Elissa’s square topsails was destroyed in the wind, but a new replacement was built and installed by sailmaker Jim Brink, with help from senior volunteers, in time for the ship’s spring day sails, or “Sea Trials,” in March. Brink is now building two more replacement sails in the former exhibit area at the Texas Seaport Museum, and welcomes visitors to inspect his work.

More than 200 volunteers are registered with the Texas Seaport Museum, helping to keep the Scottish-built 1877 iron sailing vessel, restored by Galveston Historical Foundation in 1982, in sound repair and ready for sea. Each year more than 100 people, about a third of them new recruits, sign up for seamanship training where they learn not only how operate her sails and maneuver the ship at sea, but the hand-skills and techniques required to keep a 19th-century sailing vessel in seaworthy condition.

John Schaumburg, waterfront manager for the Texas Seaport Museum, urges all interested area residents to attend Saturday’s orientation, which is free and does not obligate a person to join the Seamanship Training program, which is also free of charge. Schaumburg stresses that ELISSA and TSM offer a variety of volunteer opportunities for those whose schedules do not permit them to complete the full seamanship training program.

“Our seamanship program is the only one of its kind in the United States,” said Schaumburg. “It is the only program in which an all-volunteer crew is fully prepared and given the opportunity to operate a 19th-century sailing ship. And in return, they do what it takes to keep the ship alive,” he said.

For more information on joining the volunteer crew of ELISSA, contact the Texas Seaport Museum at 409-763-1877.