When vessels come alongside to dock, they need to get lines ashore in order to tie the vessel to the wharf. Big ships need big lines. It’s not possible to throw these lines because they’re so heavy, so a lighter weight line is tied to the mooring line. These lighter weight lines, called heaving lines, […]
Students at Picton Castle‘s Bosun School have been learning to splice wire this week. Captain Moreland started by demonstrating the method, then the students paired up to work on splicing their own wires together. After each pair had completed their splice, Captain Moreland did a second demonstration of the technique, now that the students had
October is usually beautiful in Nova Scotia, with all the leaves changing colours. This year, October has also been warm, sunny and wonderful for being outdoors. Bosun School is taking advantage of the weather to spend some time aloft on Picton Castle. Students learned yesterday how to lead “up and overs”, the process of taking
From the mid 19th century until the mid 20th century, sailing ships were the incubator and hatchery for almost all deep-sea steam-ship mariners be they naval or merchant marine. This is what came to be known as “trained in sail” or later, “sail training”. This training service came about due to the extraordinarily rich seamanship
On Monday, the Bosun School students went to the Lunenburg Community Centre to use the gym floor to lay out a sail. Actually, this is the second layout for this sail – it had its first layout back in 2015 when Picton Castle was in Cape Town, South Africa. As Picton Castle sails to various
For the past week or so, Bosun School students have been focused on learning sail making. Picton Castle is fairly unique in that we make all of our own sails on board the ship, so depending on which vessels our Bosun School students work aboard in the future, they may or may not have the
One of the best things about sailing with an international crew, and having an international group of students at the Bosun School, is celebrating different national holidays. This past weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada and the Bosun School students marked the occasion with a sit-down turkey dinner. We have so much to be thankful for
One of the main things we focus on at Bosun School is small boat handling. Students will practice handling boats of all kinds by rowing them, sailing them and driving them with motors. It’s one of the essential skills of a good mariner, being able to handle small boats. The best way to become proficient
How can one person beat seven people in tug of war? By using mechanical advantage! Okay, maybe it’s not truly tug of war, but the Bosun School students staged a powerful experiment this morning to demonstrate how mechanical advantage works. By rigging tackles properly, one person was able to pull seven others across the floor,
Although elementary and high school students in Lunenburg started school a couple of weeks ago, today is the first day of school for another group of students in Lunenburg. Picton Castle’s Bosun School begins today and we have a group of eager students ready to sharpen both their pencils and their knives. The Bosun School
