Replica of 18th Century Merchant Ship Sails Into Harbor

Priscilla Rainey, who turns 26 Saturday, left behind family, friends and school to become a sailor on an 18th century-style schooner.

“I’ve wanted to do this since I was a kid,” said Rainey, a deckhand for the Hawaiian Chieftain, a 103-foot square-mast tall ship that sailed into Newport Harbor on Wednesday.

Making its first visit to Newport Beach, the Chieftain is anchored at the Cannery Restaurant on Lafayette Avenue and will be there through Jan. 15.

Built in Lahaina, Maui, the ship made its maiden voyage in 1988 from Honolulu to California. San Francisco became its home port in 1991. Since then, the Chieftain has traveled up and down the California coast.

During its stay, the Chieftain will offer one-hour dockside tours to give people a taste of life on the California coast in the 18th century.

“It’s an opportunity to experience aspects of Spanish sailors’ lives,” said Capt. Ian McIntyre, 36, who has been living on the ship for four years.

McIntyre and his eight-member crew will take children from seven Southern California schools on tours of the city’s coast next week.

Students will have a chance to raise a sail, learn how to fire a cannon--even merchant vessels of the past were armed--and use 18th century methods to survey the coast. For $40, adults may be sailors for an afternoon or part of a weekend.

The Chieftain, patterned after typical merchant vessels of the 1790s, is reminiscent of storybook pirate ships. Only a handful of the tall ships exist on the California coast. Two others, the Argos and the Pilgrim, have Newport Beach as their home port.

Crew members say there is a sense of community among sailors of the tall ships as they visit various ports. That was one of the attractions for new sailors like Rainey, who joined the Chieftain crew less than a month ago at Morro Bay.

“Things move at a much slower pace when you are out at sea. It is an opportunity for reflection and inner discovery,” McIntyre said.

Life at sea also teaches discipline, he said.

First Mate Derek Esibill, 24, who has lived at sea for the past two years and has served on nine vessels in five years, puts it this way: “Life on a boat is like life on the planet, where every resource is finite. You are ultimately responsible for every action and consequence.”