Class Ahoy! : Fifth-Graders Test Their Sea Legs Aboard a Tall Ship

“Ease your brails, haul away on your sheets!” First Mate Jon Freidberg ordered the crew of the sleek tall ship as it slipped past the breakwater of Ventura Harbor into the Pacific.

The crew members, positioned in two lines along opposite sides of the ship, snapped to comply. They pulled on ropes like combatants in a one-sided tug of war, even though none had ever heard of the small ropes and lines known as brails or sheets.

But Freidberg had made allowances for the greenness of his crew. They were a class of fifth-graders from Oak Park. Until they had boarded the schooner--the Californian, a majestic replica of a 19th-Century Revenue Marine cutter--most of them had been landlubbers.

“Usually, whenever I go on a boat it’s all ready and you don’t have to do anything. Here you have to work,” said Farid Holakouee, a serious young salt who worried about how hard it would be to acquire his sea legs.

During a three-hour voyage Wednesday in calm, sunny waters, Farid’s class from Oak Hills Elementary School learned sailing lore, applied science and rules of sailing as outlined by Freidberg: Don’t yell unless you are over the side, and do what the ship’s officers tell you before asking why.

Capt. George Hill continually corrected students who called his helm a steering wheel.

And Jennifer Stothers quickly learned another basic rule as she and Lauren Roth struggled to coil a wet and dirty hawser.

“Never wear white on a ship,” deckhand Dana Woodruff told Jennifer, who was upset because the hawser left brown stains on what had been clean white jeans.

Only two of the 28 students in Roberta Pepkowitz’s class failed to make the voyage. By the end of today, all six fifth-grade classes at Oak Park’s two elementary schools, Oak Hills and Brookside, were scheduled to take a cruise.

And that suited the crew of the Californian, an educational vessel built and operated by the nonprofit Nautical Heritage Society of Dana Point.

Society President Steve Christman said the Californian is used to teach teamwork and respect for the coastal environment.

“We’re not trying to train sailors. We’re trying to train shipmates,” he said. “We’re all on this planet together. The better shipmates we are on the planet, the better off we’ll all be.”

The $1.5-million Californian was patterned after the C. W. Lawrence, built in 1848 to capture duties from ships leaving and entering the California coast during the Gold Rush period.

It is not an exact replica. Safety standards require an array of features that were not known in the 19th Century, such as radios, inflatable life rafts and electronic positioning equipment. The Californian is shorter and broader than the Lawrence to minimize side-to-side tipping in rough weather. And it’s a safe bet the Lawrence didn’t have a recycling barrel on board.

Still, sailing on the Californian imparted at least some of the feeling of the glory days of the tall ships.

Bosun Karen Balog displayed items that would have been found in a 19th-Century sailor’s sea chest.

Even an illiterate sailor would have a Bible to remind him of home, Balog said, and each one used a goofy-looking black hat. But the design of the hat, known as a sou’wester, is such a classic that it is still used today to keep off the rain.

Balog also displayed one of the less innocuous items found on board: a cat-o’-nine-tails, or a whip with nine knotted cords.

Student Josh Hyman lay on the deck, belly down, while Balog demonstrated how the whip was used to discipline sailors. It was dipped in seawater and lashed the sailor’s back while four shipmates held down his limbs.

“What happened if a girl got whipped?” Josh wondered.

Some of the students left with some unusual ideas about life on board a ship.

“They’d probably all be barfing,” fifth-grader Christine Bicocchi noted, after several of her classmates had gotten queasy from the gentle ocean swells.

The highlight was the firing of the ship’s cannon, which produced a satisfying boom even though the crew did not use the customary 3 1/2-inch cannonball, or the nails and scrap metal that served as nautical shrapnel.

The society teaches 11-day sea cadet classes on board the Californian for older teen-agers. But the thought of a longer voyage filled a few students with unease.

“For a trip it’s OK, but I wouldn’t want to stay on here forever,” said Lauren, whose face was still pale from an earlier bout of sickness.

FYI

The tall ship Californian, a full-scale replica of an 1848 revenue cutter, will offer three daylong cruises from Ventura Harbor to Anacapa Island. The voyages will last from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, and April 17 and 18. The cost per person, including lunch, is $85. For reservations or information, call 1-800-432-2201.