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About the Erie Maritime Museum About the Flagship Niagara League About The Flagship NiagaraFlagship Niagara is recognized in the United States and abroad as the premier sail training ship and as the most authentic early 19th century replica naval vessel. Since she first set sail in 1990, this reconstruction of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s victorious 1813 warship and flagship has served as a setting for education–and adventure. Through a blend of modern wisdom and carefully preserved tradition, Flagship Niagara has touched thousands of adventurous people of all ages with original and illuminating life experiences. Flagship Niagara educational sailing programs were developed on a centuries-old model, time-tested and ocean-approved. Trainees reap the best of enlightened, modern teaching techniques while learning seamanship skills and language. They also come away from the challenge with new insights, knowledge, and self-confidence. Few people have the opportunity to test themselves in the unique environment of a wooden naval warship, and leave with valuable lessons in teamwork, leadership, discipline, and communication. We offer a wide range of public and private educational and leadership programs. These include: Day Sails, Complete Tall Ship Adventure Program (3-4 weeks), Concentrated Tall Ship Adventure Program (1-2 weeks), Customized School Programs, and Corporate Team Building Program. The Flagship Niagara is owned and maintained by the PA Historical and Museum Commission, which is an agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The maintenance of the ship is subsidized by the state, and the Flagship Niagara League, Inc. (a private non-profit corporation) manages the ship on their behalf. The sailing program is made possible largely through the contributions of private individuals, charitable foundations, and earned revenue. Due to the ship’s large network of support, the FNL is able to offer our sailing programs for very low tuition fees. The Flagship Niagara is certified by the U.S. Coast Guard as a Sailing School Vessel, not a passenger vessel. As such, she is not permitted to carry passengers for hire, but is instead designed and constructed for educational programs and the carriage of students. The US Federal Regulations that govern sailing school vessels are different than those for passenger vessels. Therefore, sailing school vessels such as Niagara do not meet the same safety standards required for passenger vessels. Sailing school vessels must be operated by non-profit organizations with educational missions. Educational PhilosophyFlagship Niagara is a non-profit educational program serving people of all ages through unique adventures that contribute to life in the classroom, workplace and society through hands-on, active learning experiences onboard an authentic 19th century wooden sailing ship. Through the Tall Ship Adventure Program, participants are challenged to learn enough to be a useful member of a seafaring community and the world of wooden, square-rigged sailing ships. A maximum four-week enrollment is but a start. Importantly, it often is the catalyst for future or different education paths. It is a valuable experience that will foster and develop social confidence, leadership skills, and good citizenship. Customized courses of varying scope can be developed for teens, adults, corporate (or other group) team building programs, and educational institutions. Though the challenges and education are rooted in another century, Flagship Niagara’s philosophy and techniques aren’t draconian. The values embodied in our sail training are ones that encourage excellence, integrity, a supportive environment, discipline, responsibility, leadership, and service. We strive for positive outcomes that students can use throughout their lives. Organizational HistoryThe present Flagship Niagara is the fourth ship to bear that name. Earlier restorations and reconstructions, thwarted by funding shortfalls and the passage of time, failed to preserve the warship. Early in the 1980s, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, an agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, combined efforts with a group of Erie citizens whose vision was that of building the Niagara as a working ship that would sail again. The ship and a new museum would be significant attractions for the revitalization of Erie’s bayfront. In 1984, the state legislature authorized the building of Niagara, the cost of which, by the time of her launch in 1988, amounted to about four million dollars. Naval architect Melbourne Smith was chosen to lead reconstruction. Demolition of the old Niagara was completed in 1987. To preserve the spirit of the 1813 vessel, some conserved timbers were use in nonstructural parts of the new hull. The keel was laid on May 7, 1988, at an Erie harbor construction site where work was done by the Pennsylvania Conservation Corps, a state organization reminiscent of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps. Work progressed quickly. On September 10, the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie, the hull was launched in Erie harbor. The ship first sailed for one daysail in 1990, and in 1991, Senior Captain Walter Rybka was hired to train a primarily volunteer crew to sail the ship. In 1992, engines were added to facilitate the ship’s first voyage to the East Coast, and Niagara has been in active operation, sailing all over the Great Lakes and East Coast, ever since. In 2001, a long process to convert the ship into a USCG inspected sailing school vessel was launched. By 2005, four watertight bulkheads were built to compartmentalize the ship for stability improvements that were needed to meet SSV requirements. Many other improvements such as state-of-the-art electronic navigation equipment, emergency alarm systems, updated engineering equipment, etc… were added as part of the USCG inspection process. 2006 was the ship’s first opportunity to earn revenue (from student tuitions) while underway. Collectively, the Flagship Niagara sailing programs have been growing by nearly 50% per year.
School PartnershipsFlagship Niagara offers the perfect laboratory for developing young minds, bodies and souls. Our programs are tailored to meet the objectives of partners such as athletic clubs, Sea Scouts or other maritime groups, and educational institutions ranging from high school to college. Daily life in a sailing ship offers an appealing place for everyone to work toward common goals, where students fit the same mold that shapes them into efficient workers, where they speak the same historic language common onboard the ship. Beneath the sails and within a square-rigger, the crew binds together as shipmates. They grow trusting and respectful of each other, their leaders, and the ship. The supportive leadership of skilled and well-trained officers insures that the bonding experience occurs quickly and has lasting effect. The formative days during the first week onboard present many new challenges, but together, the students share in the experience. Staff BiographiesCaptain Wes HeerssenCaptain Heerssen has been sailing since the age of six, volunteering on a tallship at 15 and becoming a professional deckhand at 18. Three years later, he earned his first captain’s license and ended his college education to work his way up the sailing chain of command. Beginning as a volunteer on Elissa in Galveston, Texas, he went on to sail on many tall ships and returned as Ship Manager in 1999. Capt. Rybka was an early mentor to Capt. Heerssen on Elissa. He has sailed around the world–Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Baltic Sea, English Channel, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan, China Sea, Panama Canal and the Great Lakes. His 22-year [???] career includes sailing on a dozen sailing ships and half a dozen modern commercial vessels. Capt. Heerssen now teaches and shares his knowledge to all who sail on Niagara. Captain Walter P. RybkaCaptain Rybka was the Niagara’s captain from 1991-2000, and in addition to being Senior Captain, he now is Director of the Erie Maritime Program. He began his career sailing on the 1885 schooner Pioneer at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York in the 1970s. His next post was directing the research, design and supervising the complete rebuilding of the 1877 iron bark Elissa from 1977-82. During the 1980s, he sailed as one of Elissa’s officers, served in other sail training ships and consulted on numerous museum ship restorations. He joined Niagara in 1991 where he started its sailing program from scratch, hiring and training crew, and readying the Brig for its role as a living history exhibit in port and underway. His extensive service to maritime history has taken him from New York to Sydney, Australia, and ports in between. As director of the Erie Maritime Museum’s program, he is responsible for developing and implementing long-range plans for both the facility and the ship. Recently, he oversaw the Niagara’s five-year process for U.S. Coast Guard certification as a Sailing School Vessel. He was named Sail Trainer of the Year in 1994 and again in 2006 by the American Sail Training Association in Newport, R.I. In 2008, he was given ASTA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Tall Ship Adventure ProgramThe Tall Ship Adventure Program is sail training at its best, and is sure to provide the adventure of a lifetime while will building new marketable skills and confidence. Trainees live onboard as bona-fide members of the crew, learning history, seamanship, good citizenship, and leadership skills. Sail training draws lessons from the past in the hope of helping those now present to think wisely for the future, and through this experiential learning, it is our hope and belief that all participants will emerge as better sailors, but also as better human beings. We custom-design our programs for:
Sailing on a ship of such size and stature, within a crew made up equally of professionals and novice trainees, is virtually unheard of in today’s world. The staff to trainee ratio of 1:1 exceeds all other American experiential education providers. Also, due to the ship’s network of government and private support, the FNL is currently able to offer our sailing programs for very low tuition fees. About Erie Maritime MuseumContent Coming...About the Flagship Niagara LeagueThe Flagship Niagara League is a 501(c)3, non-profit educational associate organization of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), chartered to facilitate citizen participation and operation of the Flagship Niagara and its homeport, Erie Maritime Museum. The League was conceived in the late 1970s, incorporated in 1982 by a group of local historians. With assistance from local educators, politicians and representatives from the business community, the Flagship Niagara League supported PHMC in the restoration, sailing and interpretation of the ship. The League has expanded from the original grassroots group to an annual membership of 600.
League Support Activities include:
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