Duluth, MN, on Lake Superior, had a Tall Ships weekend. Some of the ships that came included the Pride of Baltimore II, HMS Bounty, Roald Amundsen, Rosewood, Denis Sullivan, Europa and Niagara.
There was a great turnout for the event, but the crowds were too long to get aboard.
It was great to see these magnificant ships. Just give me a tall ship, and a star to steer her by…
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Also got a couple of shots of the Ryerson, which is now laid up by Fraser Shipyard in Superior, WI.
I got into going to sea working tallships. Best time of my life, but the wages are just too low (150/week for deckhand) to attract anyone but tallship gypsies. If you ever want to know anything about rigging and marlinspike though, just talk to a tall ship sailor.
[QUOTE=seadog6608;40689]They are wonderful to look at. I only wish that Professional Mariners were manning them. (I’m a GreatLakes guy).[/QUOTE]
There are some professional mariners on them, but the wages are way to low on most of them. There are a number of people from Maine Maritime working on the boats. Tall Ships are a great way to get people started in the industry, that’s where I started too.
If your are interested in doing some work on tall ship you might want to look t the gazella based out of penns landing philly. I spent a summer on her as a volunteer deckhand, learned tons of stuff that got me started. Had a great summer sailing the east coast main to philly back to maine then back to philly. Love the tall ships but they do not pay much, you can sail on most for a week or 2 for free if you are willing to do ships work for a couple of hours a day and the other time you get to hang out in the rigging 120 feet above the deck, getting high has a whole different meaning on a tall ship, had a fun summer all for the price of insurance on the ship, 35 dollars a year. The Niagara is a state job i think that works year round, several are sail training vessels that take on paid cadets and always need someone with experience
On the news tonight they stated that over 200,000 people attended the tall ships event - the biggest event in Duluth’s history. It is great that tall ships are such a draw!