Old Ironsides Old ships need lots of good friends to keep them afloat. Wooden ships, in particular, are perishable, just like fruit and vegetables. The wood in the frames and…
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By Richard King For five wet, cold, lonely years in the early 1800s, a young Irishman named Ross Cox traded for furs among the First Peoples of the Pacific Northwest.…
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Deck Officer, US Merchant Marine Wes Heerssen is a deck officer in the United States Merchant Marine. He currently serves aboard a transAtlantic commercial roll-on/roll-off car carrier, or “Ro-Ro.” Ro-Ros…
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Who in the world…is a nautical archaeologist? By Stephanie Allen Seventy percent of the earth is covered with water. It’s no surprise, then, that people have been traveling by boat…
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Did You Know?
The Age of Sail was said to be the domain of “wooden ships and iron men,” but sailing ships also had boys on their official crew lists.
Today, you have to be 14 years old before you can get a job in most states in the US, but in the Age of Sail both merchant ships and navy vessels signed on boys as young as seven years old as regular members of the crew.
What were these kids doing on board sailing ships?