A Constitutional Lesson at Sea

Modern teen-agers with soft, young hands began learning the hard way Monday about what life was like for Americans 200 years ago, when the U.S. Constitution was born.

Sixteen students from Estancia High School in Costa Mesa sailed from Dana Point Harbor on the state’s official tall ship, the Californian, on a fantasy mission to discover a non-existent island off the coast and to prepare a “constitution” for its eventual inhabitants.

“Life was not easy when our Constitution was drawn up,” they were told by Steve Christman, founder and president of the Dana Point Nautical Heritage Society and the driving force behind the construction of the Californian, a replica of a 19th-Century revenue cutter.

The high school seniors--most of them unaccustomed to the sea--soon learned what he was talking about.

They became crew members on the 145-foot fore topsail schooner and were put to work doing everything from hoisting a 100-pound anchor to raising and trimming the huge sails, their hands chafed on rough halyards and sheets. Before day’s end, there were plenty of blisters and sunburns.

Between chores, Christman told them that a person’s daily existence--and sometimes even his life--depended upon the skills he had learned, whether he was a seaman or a farmer in the days when America was young.

“Coming out on this ship may help project you back 200 years and show you how easy we’ve got it today,” he said.

The seniors were expected to return to their classrooms with ideas for a constitution for the make-believe island they “discovered” Monday.

“I think my constitution will have a boy and a girl with equal powers as presidents,” mused 17-year-old Patricia Santoyo.

Karen Egan, 16, said she wasn’t sure what she would write, but she didn’t believe that the equal powers arrangement would work because “there would be too many arguments.”

“I’m going to read our own Constitution all the way through before I write anything,” Tim Smits Van Oyen said.

Christman said the school trip will be repeated on Wednesday for students from Costa Mesa High School, on Monday for Newport Harbor High, and on Sept. 29 for University High in Irvine.

“It’s a public service program marking the 200th anniversary of the Constitution,” he said, adding that corporate contributions were being sought “so that we can have similar programs for students all up and down the state for the entire bicentennial year.”