The Summer of 1999 I had the wonderful opportunity (privilege) to go for a day sail on the U.S. Brig Niagara thanks to the generosity of my fellow Hobie friends Sue and Greg who offered me the open slot they had. Needless to say it was quite a great experience for someone who loves to sail.
The day started out looking not too promising because of the very dark clouds hanging over us. The captain warned us that because of the chance of the storms our trip might be cut short. After we were aboard (there were about 40 passengers plus the crew of about 25) we set sail with the topsails reefed because of the wind and seemingly imminent storms about to hit.
Leaving her berth and sailing across the the bay, past Dobbins Landing and the Perry Monument, we sailed through the channel into Lake Erie. By the time we got out to the lake the skies were clearing and things were looking a lot more promising. After we were out for a while and the skies continued to clear the captain decided to run up some more of the ship's sails.
It was quite amazing to watch the crew raise the sails and work together as a unit. We were offered a chance to join in and help the crew, but I was too busy just trying to stay out of their way. After more of the sails were up we started to really clip along at a pace that suprised me. I can only imagine how fast she would have been going if all the sails were up.
We sailed out into the lake for a few miles, then the captain sat down with us to talk about some of the techniques of sailing the ship such as tacking and wareing. He had a small model of the ship that he used to show us how the sails are set in different situations to change the ship's course.
While trying to absorb and understand everything the captain had explained to us, I heard someone say lunch was ready. We were served lunch buffet style down in the galley which we ate topside. After everyone had finished eating the delicious stew (which was prepared over a woodburning stove) and salad, we were treated with the rare experience of the shooting of a live cannonball. The cannons are shot off regularly during sails, but they usually use blank charges; however, this day they were shooting off a live charge. The crew demonstrated how the cannons were packed and loaded, and then after we all were clear they shot the cannonball. Everyone jumped from the blast, but the coolest part was hearing the sonic boom from the cannonball as it ripped through the air breaking the sound barrier.
We sailed in toward shore and back out a couple of times before we had to head back to port. I was amazed at how quickly the ship could turn, especially when wareing the ship (setting the sails so the wind blows the aft of the ship around). The crew brought the sails down on our way back towards the channel and we used the ship's diesel engines to power us back through the channel and back into her home port, but not without one last blast of a blank cannon charge in the bay. After the captain and crew docked the ship with precision, we all thanked them for a wonderful day as we went ashore.
We all had such a wonderful time and we were able to get a lot of good pictures.
Here are more of the great shots taken.
Just click on the thumbnails to see the fullsized images.
I will post the rest of the great shots we got as I get them scanned in.