Article
7-21-02
The Spirit of South Carolina…It’s
All About Education
by Charles Sneed, Executive Director
South Carolina Maritime Heritage Foundation
(July 15, 2002) Why build a traditional ‘big timber’ pilot
schooner, reminiscent of a well-known pilot schooner built on Charleston
harbor in 1879 named the Frances Elizabeth, for the people of South
Carolina, and in particular, the young people of South Carolina?
Why build a re-creation of the Samuel J. Pregnall & Brothers
Shipyard on the Charleston peninsula? Why build an outbuilding inside
the shipyard, made of recycled shipping containers, and call it the "first
home" of the South Carolina Maritime Museum and have it chock
full of maritime related exhibits, art and historical information?
Why recruit and train an enthusiastic volunteer corps to tell visitors
to the Spirit of South Carolina Shipyard about South Carolina’s
maritime history? Why develop maritime walking tours along Charleston’s
waterfront? Why broadcast, via the internet, the building of our
State ship to the entire world? Why publish a book for the school
system about South Carolina’s maritime history? And maybe most
importantly, why ask for the financial support of individuals and
businesses across the state of South Carolina to help build and endow
this beautiful, fast and able tall ship named the Spirit of South
Carolina?
It’s all about education—the education of ourselves
and our children. It is about who we are as a people and how we got
here. It is about what skills, talents, crafts, professions and trades
we developed and what role we and our ancestors have played in the
grand scheme of South Carolina and the United States of America and
indeed the world.
It’s about educating ourselves about how resourceful, inventive,
persistent, and determined we have been as a people to have persevered
against all manner of natural and man-made adversity including: hurricanes,
earthquakes, plagues, fires, devastating droughts, intolerable heat,
bugs, insurrections, revolts and wars.
And persevered, South Carolinians have indeed done. The people of
South Carolina have much to be proud of. Perhaps few peoples have
endured more and yet have accomplished more than South Carolinians.
We come from all walks of life. We are a melting pot of peoples from
all the continents. In addition to the indigenous peoples, we are
from England, Scotland, Ireland, Africa, Spain, Portugal, Barbados,
and many more. We have all these cultures and their various religions,
traditions, skills, hopes and dreams as part of our history. From
the earliest ‘harbor pilots’, who were the ‘mosquito
fleet’ fisherman, to the plantation owners, to the shop keepers,
to the artisans and craftsmen, to the lumbermen, and the shipwrights,
we have the common thread of being from the earliest of times—South
Carolinians. And it all started with the huge tall ships finding
their way to the South Carolina coast.
The name Spirit of South Carolina was chosen for
our magnificent new tall ship to reflect this long standing ‘spirit’ of
a people who have persevered, met the challenges, and, in many cases,
prospered and thrived.
And that’s where the Spirit of South Carolina comes into our
lives. The Spirit of South Carolina is more than a modern day tall
ship. It is a symbol of our maritime connection to our past. South
Carolina’s maritime history has unfolded for almost 400 years.
From the early trade routes to the old world, Bermuda, the "Islands" ,
New York, the American coast, and to the arterial river system across
South Carolina, South Carolinians have chosen to persevere and overcome
an ever changing and challenging world. Maritime life has played
a paramount role in this history.
The ‘spirit’ of South Carolinians is real, important
and vital, and will ‘sail’ aboard the Spirit of South
Carolina, wherever she may voyage. The Spirit of South Carolina will
represent the very best in the nature and character of the people
of South Carolina. Building the Spirit of South Carolina will demand
of us that we use the knowledge and skills of generations past and,
in turn, pass on this knowledge to the next generation of South Carolina
young people.
While South Carolina’s maritime history has in many ways been
ignored, the Spirit of South Carolina is rekindling an interest in
the maritime history of South Carolina. We are already discovering
extremely interesting family histories related to the Samuel J. Pregnall & Brothers
Shipyard as well as other families related in one way or another
to the 1870’s pilot schooner Frances Elizabeth and the historically
rich waterfront wharves and businesses.
It remains a thrill, even today, to sail into Charleston harbor,
passing the relics of times past and looking west toward the peninsula,
which at a distance, looks as if the year could be any of the 1700’s,
1800’s, or 1900’s.
Some fortunate young people from South Carolina will soon be able
to experience the thrill of sailing into South Carolina harbors and
ports, and then on to the harbors of Boston, New York, Norfolk, Bermuda,
Puerto Rico, and beyond.
The Spirit of South Carolina will provide educational opportunities
for our young people to experience the sea in ways that only a ‘big
timber’ wooden vessel with billowing sails before the wind
can provide. This is "living history". These fortunate
students will be able to gain academic credit while learning sailing
and seamanship skills as part of a student crew. They will see whales
blow and dolphins roll. They will see the crystal clear, deep purple
waters of the gulf stream and the sparkling aqua waters of the ‘islands.’ They
will be learning real responsibility and getting along with others
as a team. They will be learning about weather, marine ecology, astronomy,
geology, history and knots and rigging. They will learn about other
peoples and other places and how the world was once connected only
by these magnificent sailing vessels. They will return to South Carolina
in many ways different from when they left. They will have had an
experience of the sea and our maritime past that only a few have
enjoyed.
So, why? Why has the South Carolina Maritime Foundation undertaken
to do all that it has and is planning to do? It’s all about
education—the education of ourselves and our young people and about
who we are as a people and how we came to be who we are today as
South Carolinians. It is about our extinct maritime forests and our
almost forgotten shipbuilding skills. It is about individuals and
families and their traditions and dreams. This wooden sailing ship
will be a catalyst for education at many levels. Ultimately it is
hoped it will lead to an annual South Carolina Maritime Festival
and a permanent South Carolina Maritime Museum as the Spirit
of South Carolina sails our youth into their futures.
We invite people to join this effort and help develop all the educational
opportunities that it can over the next two years.
Individual and business sponsors are needed to help build the Spirit
of South Carolina.
For more information on becoming a sponsor, contact our web site
at: www.scmaritime.org or call the Foundation office at 843-856-0392.
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