The Matthew Turner tall ship– seen here under construction– will be ready to launch Saturday in Sausalito. (Courtesy photo)

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Martinez News Gazette

A labor of love that began nearly four years ago with the laying of a brigantine’s keel will take an important step forward Saturday when the “Matthew Turner” is launched in Sausalito.
Named for the famous shipbuilder who constructed record-setting vessels in Benicia, the Matthew Turner is patterned after the “Galilee,” the ship that covered the distance from Tahiti to California under sail at such speeds that the produce it carried arrived fresh enough to sell to awaiting customers.
The Galilee still holds the speed record – 22 days – for ships under sail from Tahiti to San Francisco.
Alan Olson, who founded the Call of the Sea and Educational Tall Ship education programs, has been dreaming of the day a ship built along Turner’s own designs would become the San Francisco Bay Area’s tall ship.
At one time, the Hawaiian Chieftain held that honor. That ship is an original design that recalls the packet ships that delivered mail and cargo along the Pacific coastline and inland via rivers, or outward across the ocean.
But that vessel was sold in 2004, leaving the Bay Area which became its home after it left its Maui birthplace. _
A Cape Cod, Mass., owner moved it to the East Coast, and a year later it was sold to Grays Harbor Historical Seaport in Washington. _
Since then, the Hawaiian Chieftain visits the Bay Area periodically, sometimes joined by another Grays Harbor ship, the Lady Washington, with whom it exchanges projectile-less gunfire during offshore cannon battle demonstrations.
Meanwhile, sloops and schooners have done their best to remind residents and visitors of the times great sailing ships would seek out the area’s ports.
Olson has seen how ships on the water can educate children about ecology, teamwork, California’s maritime history and other subjects and qualities in ways land-based classes haven’t done.
So in 2003, he started his nonprofit organizations and launched his dream to build a tall ship that would provide educational programs on a variety of subjects for primary and secondary school children and youth. His “classroom” would be a traditionally-rigged sailing vessel that might also inspire the children to develop a love of the sea and sailing.
The area’s economic downturns, including the great recession, slowed contributions, so Olson revised his plans and employed the 80-foot staysail schooner, “Seaward,” to get his classes started.
Children from fourth through 12th grades found themselves on board, seeing the ocean from a viewpoint they hadn’t had before. At the same time, they wear learning science, technology, engineering and mathematics – those now-familiar “STEM” subjects in the Teach for America and Amgen Foundation’s collaborative initiative – from the deck of the Seaward.
Before long, more than 5,000 Bay Area children, as well as those up from Monterey and even from Mexico, were rotating through the Seaward’s stations for the educational sails each year. And Olson realized he needed more space.
It was time to build the tall ship.
Olson had long admired Turner’s designs, and he found a place to build his ship in the Sausalito shipyard owned by Skip Berg at the Bay Model Visitor Center.
He secured his permits, found investors and began assembling volunteers, some of whom are longtime sailors and boaters, and others who were experienced carpenters. Those with no experience in either field also found themselves lured out to Sausalito, where they soon learned how to contribute to the project.
School children and others were invited to come see the ship take shape. Youngers – and even adults – were welcome to pry loose wooden plugs that had been partially drilled into boards.
Hundreds were needed, and many were excited to lay down dollar bills for the chance to use screw drivers and other tools to wrest a wooden disk from the board, sign the disk with a permanent marker and toss it into a bucket.
Those plugs cover bolts on the ship’s hull. Not only do they make the ship look more “authentic” and “historic,” they serve an important purpose. Salty oceanic waters rust unprotected metal, so the bolts are installed so they are recessed. The plugs are inserted into the hole to cover the bolts, sealing them in so they are much less likely to rust.
While youngsters and casual visitors signed hundreds of little plugs, major donors signed planks, and while the ship was unpainted, their names could be read by those visiting the shipyard. In fact, investors often are called “plank owners.”
In the end, the names on the plugs and the names on the planks are all sealed into the Matthew Turner’s great hull, making them part of the ship forever. What the public will see in the finished ship is a gleaming white hull, a color Turner often put on his commercial sailing ships.
The ship is a blend of vintage and new. A 1938 ship saw has been cutting the sustainably-harvested wood that is being used to build the Matthew Turner.
But the plants are shaped with modern steaming techniques, and in many cases, the pieces are made of wood that has been steamed into shape and laminated together instead of being carved of a single piece. The glued layers become stronger than a single or segmented wood piece would be.
The ship’s builders have been environmentally conscious in other ways, and they are seeking “Living Ship” certification for the Matthew Turner.
They will be recycling vegetable oil, prepare meals with induction cooking, use light-emitting diode low-energy illumination and back up the wind power with battery powered propellers. When the ship is under sail, the action of the water turning those propellers will recharge the batteries.
“We’re combining the best of the 19th century with the best of the 21st century,” Olson said.
And next year, the Matthew Turner is expecting to increase to 15,000 the annual number of students who can take classes aboard an area sailing vessel.
During Saturday’s launch, viewers will notice something is missing. The Matthew Turner will enter the water “topless.”
That’s because the building in which the ship has been under construction can’t accommodate installation of the masts and rigging, said Sylvia Stewart Stompe, the administrative assistant who has been busy organizing Saturday’s celebratory event.
“The ship has to be launched to put the rigging on,” she explained.
That’s expected to take through fall, and by then, it will be too late to welcome school children aboard. Those classes take time to plan, and most school districts would have had their calendars filled too quickly to accommodate such field trips and off-site lessons.
Instead, Stompe said, the Matthew Turner will start offering educational sails in spring of 2018, during the April through June window, and again in September and October.
During the summer months of 2018, the volunteers who have spent countless days and weekends assembling the ship and the donors and investors who have contributed much of the money the project has taken finally will benefit.
They’ll get to sail aboard the ship they have helped bring to life. Eventually the public will be able to charter sails, and the Matthew Turner will be capable of going anywhere in the world.
Right now, Stompe has been busy with arranging food and entertainment for Saturday’s celebration. Bigge Crane has been contracted to take the ship to its launch. The Waterfront Pickers, a popular Sausalito band, has been hired to entertain the sold-out, post-launch party.
The latest version of a documentary being made on the building of the Matthew Turner will be shown. That documentary isn’t finished, but then, neither is the ship, she noted.
The launching ceremony begins at 4 p.m. Saturday with blessings of the ship, the latest in a series of commemorative events that began with the laying of the keel, the blessing of the bones – the ship’s “skeleton,” and the laying of the whisky plank, the last board affixed to the hull, was installed in June 2016.
Those blessings will be by Lama Palzang, a Buddhist monk, Luta Candelaria, a Rumsen Ohlone and Mescalero Apache, the Rev. Phillip Ellsworth, rector of St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Belvedere, Imam Abu Qadir Al-Amin of the Pacifica Institute, and Rabbi Henry Schreibman of Dominican University.
Christening of the vessel will be by Eileen Hunt and Claudia Hunt-Putnam, the great-great granddaughters of Matthew Turner. And those prepared will hoist champagne for a toast.
The launch will start at 5 p.m., and Stompe said between 2,500 to 3,000 may be attending the event. Overhead, drones will be filming the launch.
“The enthusiasm is very high,” she said.
Volunteers who used to turn up at about 25 a day now are showing up at nearly double that number.
The Marin Brass Band and the Sewer Band will play maritime music and the United States Coast Guard honor guard will present the flag.
The post-launch celebration at the Bay Model, sold out. “We finally had to say no,” Stompe said. “We were busting at the seams.”
But there is no ticket required for public viewing the launch at the Bay Model Corps of Engineers ramp at the base of Testa Street in Sausalito, she said.
Public viewing is available at Marinship Park and the Bay Model Parking Lot. Parking is available at 2330 Marinship Way and 10 Libertyship Way, Sausalito.
Those interested in getting a different perspective of the launch have two on-the-water viewing options.
Five Stars Yacht of Sausalito, 415-332-3150 or by email at lisa@fivestarsyacht.com, will provide on-the-water viewing. The ship is at 85 Liberty Ship Way, Sausalito. The yacht is the last one at the end of Finger C at Schoonmaker Point Marina.
The schooner Freda B, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/launch-of-the-matthew-turner-spectator-sail-tickets-32072883859, is offering launch day entertainment that includes two drink tickets and a meal of hot clam chowder, east coast lobster rolls, cole slaw and cupcakes. Tickets range from $99 to $150. The schooner is at Slip 907, 100 Bay St., Sausalito.
Educational Tall Ship’s website, which has a link to the documentary underway about the ship’s build, is http://www.educationaltallship.org.

Sharing is caring!