Special ceremonies, as is the maritime tradition, marked these significant milestones. Last June, the final plank, called the “whisky plank,” was put in place. The keel was laid, and in due time, the laminated framework or “bones” were blessed. He pursued his educational program Call of the Sea using the schooner Seaward, which gives 5,000 children and youth unique learning opportunities every year.īut Olson is not one to give up on his big goals.īy 2013, construction of the Matthew Turner in Sausalito was underway. Olson had to set part of his dream aside when donations declined during the recession. He kept that dream even when the Hawaiian Chieftain was bought by Grays Harbor Historical Seaport and was brought to a new West Coast home in Aberdeen, Wash. When the Hawaiian Chieftain, built along the lines of an 19th century merchant ship, was sold in 2004 and taken from Sausalito to Cape Cod, Mass., Olson also longed to get a new vessel constructed so the Bay Area to have its own tall ship again. Since the 1980s, Olson has wanted to offer classes on a larger ship. His design for his record-setting Galilee, built in 1891, is the inspiration for the new Matthew Turner, built by volunteers under the watchful eye and guidance of Alan Olson, executive director of Educational Tall Ship, which with its partner Call of the Sea, has been offering scholarly, on-board programs to school children on the smaller 2-foot schooner Seaward that was decorated in signal flags the day of the launch. The brigantine is the first wooden tall ship built in the San Francisco Bay Area in 100 years, and it’s named for the legendary prolific American designer and builder whose shipyard for years was in Benicia. This vessel is patterned after Turner’s record-holding “Galilee.” (Photo by Donna Beth Weilenman/Martinez News Gazette)įirst wooden tall ship built in San Francisco Bay Area in 100 yearsĪs bands played an estimated 1,000 people watched on land and on watercraft in Richardson Bay, the Matthew Turner finally touched water, leaving the shores of Sausalito Saturday afternoon. The name “Matthew Turner,” given the first wood tall ship built in the San Francisco Bay Area in 100 years, honors the prolific Benicia ship builder.
The new tall ship “Matthew Turner” sets sail for its inaugural launch in Sausalito on Saturday.
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