A pirate’s life for them

The first emotion that washed over Ashley Horton when she took the helm of the Spirit of Dana Point was fear. Not big, shivering fear. Just little fear, the kind that strikes you when you’re 10 years old and you suddenly realize that you’re in control of a whopping 118-foot vessel that is usually steered by a grown-up.

“I didn’t know if I was going to crash it,” said Ashley, a fourth-grader from Whittier. “And there’s nooooo way I could pay for this boat.”

Before long, her uneasiness melted and she began to have fun. With help from her 7-year-old friend Keana Beery, she cranked the wooden wheel one way, then the other, and carefully followed orders from the ship’s captain, Jim Wehan, who stood a few feet away and called for a course of 220 on the compass.

On this crisp winter afternoon, Horton was among several dozen kids who boarded the replica of the 18th century Baltimore clipper schooner with moms, dads and grandparents as part of the Ocean Institute’s “Pyrate” adventure sail, a 2 1/2 -hour monthly voyage off Dana Point.

The journey was barely underway when the young sailors -- many carrying swords and decked out in scarves, eye patches and black hats -- were summoned to line up, grab a piece of rope and raise the sail. Pointing to the assembly line of tugging kids, the ship’s second mate, Kristin Brown, joked: “This is original sweatshop labor right here.”

The thing is, the kids appeared to be enjoying it. A sight like this, of course, can be perplexing to parents accustomed to facing stiff resistance at home whenever chore time rolls around. But it’s familiar territory for the crew of this ship.

“Kids come here and they get a sense of ownership, a pride in the boat,” said Brown, 27, who quit an office job a couple of years ago to work at sea. “They want to wash dishes and scrub the deck and sweep. They’re here to work, and they love it.”

Apparently this holds true even on occasions when the sea is rough and stomachs are twisted. Brown said the intrigue of big swells tends to overshadow sick feelings. Nonetheless, precautions are taken. Early on this trip, passengers were given specific guidelines on exactly how they should throw up. To summarize: If you’re queasy, ask for a bucket so you don’t have to lean over the ship’s rail and risk either a return-to-sender experience or, worse, a tumble into the drink.

One young pirate was August Gordon, a 4-year-old from Huntington Beach. His adventure began the night before when his dad, Ken, took him to the beach with a flashlight and helped him find a pirate map with directions to the ship.

“He’s intrigued by all the other little pirates,” said Ken, who estimated that August has watched parts of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie 100 times. “He thought he was the only pirate in town, and now he’s not. He’s found more of his kind.”

If the pirate theme is a kid magnet, it isn’t entirely true to the history books, said crewman Jeff Rosaler, an Ocean Institute educator who is working on a master’s degree in marine ecology. He said the Spirit of Dana Point isn’t as much a pirate ship as a privateer, a vessel from the 1800s that was licensed by governments in wartime to rob and pillage enemy ships.

But by playing to the imaginations of kids who read about Captain Hook in picture books or recite lines from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Master and Commander,” the educational spigot is opened.

Brown, for instance, chased a joke -- “What’s a pirate’s favorite movie? One that’s rated ‘Aaaarrrghhh!’ ” -- with a lesson on the location of the bow, explaining: “It’s the pointy part of the ship.”

On a tour of the tight quarters below deck, she debunked a popular myth, telling kids that pirates didn’t bury treasure, they spent it.

Later, as the Spirit cruised toward the dock, Rosaler fired off the ship’s gun twice, then gave a brief account of how it would have been used to attack a larger man-of-war in battle. And when two young pirates shot him a series of “what if” questions, he answered, then pulled out a toy sword and said, “What if I sword fight both of you right now?” The kids drew, and the mock duel began.

On “Pyrate” adventure sails and many of the Ocean Institute’s other on-board teaching trips, kids are frequently singled out to be “the mate” and lead the crew. Brown said that kind of experience goes a long way toward kick-starting the confidence of someone who isn’t used to taking a leadership role on the playground or in the classroom.

“We’ve had a lot of kids who are made the mate specifically because they are shy,” she said. “When they’re directing the actions of other kids, you can see their chests puff up and you can see they have a look of pride in their eyes. They have a total sense of accomplishment, and it opens up a new world that they’ve never seen.”

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Don Patterson can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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‘Pyrate’ sails

Where: Ocean Institute, 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point

When: 1:30 p.m. March 12, 12:30 p.m. April 16 and 30, and twice monthly thereafter (see Ocean Institute calendar)

Price: $36 for adults; $19 for children ages 4-12

Info: Reservations, (949) 496-2274; schedule, www.ocean-institute.org