Articles by Larry Chase - Internet Publisher, Speaker, Author and Consultant

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Hard Work, Long Hours, No Pay

Let me make a suggestion to you. Get offline. That's right. Make a commitment to spend significant amounts of time away from any sort of connection -- email, Web, cellular and beeper. You may experience withdrawal symptoms, but it'll be worth it for the perspective you gain in the long run. We've become so inert, and in some cases so isolated, due to all the online knowledge work we do. I decided to push back from the desktop and help restore a ship in NYC's South Street Seaport.

Hard work, long hours, no pay. That's the motto of the volunteer crew at the South Street Seaport Museum who plan on making the WaverTree (built in 1885) seaworthy again. Stem to stern, this iron hull three-mast ship is 179 feet, with a 40 foot beam. She's docked at Pier 16 waaay down in lower Manhattan, next to the steel hull German-built Peking (constructed in 1911). You can see her, and the other ships already restored, from the Brooklyn Bridge and the lower FDR Drive. The WaverTree was commissioned by Leyland Brothers of Liverpool, who were the predecessors of British Leyland. She was built in South Hampton, England, and was initially used to transport jute from East India (now Bangladesh) to Scotland. She lost her main mast whilst sailing around Cape Horn in 1910.

What is that mysterious feeling of greater purpose felt all over -- and especially in the pit of the stomach -- when one's eyes peruse certain ships with such graceful and majestic lines? Such a feeling I've never had online.

The WaverTree needs volunteers of all stripes to help get her out of her slip and into OpSail 2K on July 4th. There will be 243 tall ships and between forty and seventy thousand leisure crafts participating in the event. For those of you around the NYC area who are attracted to such things and people, do check in with the museum.

While volunteers don't get paid, they do get to learn how to sail her and help crew her for the big event. Every time I've joined up with such endeavours, I wind up meeting and knowing people for the rest of my life. People who turn out in six degree weather to sign on for such a mission are people worth knowing.

The stern of the WaverTree sticks out into the East River. I poked my head out to look around. POW! The right side of my face was flash-frozen from a 30mph gust of wind barreling up the river with a wind-chill factor of 30 degrees below. The profoundly numb feeling felt like I had just come from the dentist.

Dacron sails are being prepared, new masts are being made, decks are being torn up and re-laid, ratlines brought back to life, and ballast being distributed down below. WaverTree's net tonnage is 2118. When resurrected, the main mast will be 160 feet. So the WaverTree won't be going under the Brooklyn Bridge, as it only has 135 foot clearance. The yards that will hang off the mast are 90 feet long. Imagine yourself aloft up there pulling sails through and looking down. Not for the faint of heart, that.

My carpentry skills are less than minimal. I will probably help lay in the ballast, sand decks, paint, polish brass and the like, all for a shot at sailing her and meeting others similarly inclined. I've been a lousy sailor for over 30 years now. There's something about crewing on a square- rigged ship. If this sort of thing is of interest to you, and you can commit to some hard work down at NYC's Seaport, call the South Street Seaport Museum at 212-748-8600 and ask to speak to Amy Gilbert. She coordinates all the volunteers.

If you've got lots of money sloshing around Silicon Alley from a recent IPO, and you wish to donate a few hundred grand to the project, call the number above and ask to speak to Peter Neil. He's the charming and charismatic president of the museum. Getting this beautiful tall ship seaworthy is a tall order and I give Peter much credit for taking on such a challenge. While you won't find much about the effort to make the WaverTree seaworthy online, you may want to visit http://www.SouthStSeaport.org and take a gander at pictures of all the ships docked at South Street and under the museum's care. There's more tonnage of restored ships here than anywhere else in the US. If you're nautically inclined, South Street Seaport is well worth a visit when coming to NYC.