Adventure Sail On The Hawaiian Chieftain

Step Aboard A Replica Early 19th Century Trading Vessel

Jul 23, 2008

Sailing aboard the Hawaiian Chieftain on a windy day offers a glimpse into the world of yesteryear's wind-ship sailors.

The Hawaiian Chieftain is part of Washington’s Gray’s Harbor Historical Seaport, which seeks to provide visitors both educational and vocational experiences promoting and preserving Pacific Northwest maritime heritage. Programs vary, but include dockside tours, day sails, and charters, as well as multi-day exploration sails for groups of youth-at-risk. The Hawaiian Chieftain homeports in Aberdeen Washington, but sails regularly on her missions of education and goodwill. Each year she serves as a teaching and training vessel in ports in Washington, Oregon, California, and British Columbia.

American and European Coastal Traders

The Hawaiian Chieftain is a replica of the standard European trade ship around the turn of the 19th Century. Similar coastal traders of the late 1700’s and early 1800’s played a valuable role in developing commerce along America’s seaboards. With their solid sailing ability and shallow draft, small coastal packets could easily enter small harbors inaccessible to larger vessels. Theirs proved a major role in the development of America’s early mercantile traffic, strengthening community ties, and building a young country's national identity.

Topsail Ketch

The Hawaiian Chieftain’s hull and rig resemble the vessels used by Spanish expeditions to California, Oregon and Washington in the late 1700’s. She is a two-masted vessel known as a gaff-rigged topsail ketch, meaning her topsails on the mainmast are square sails—not rigged fore-and-aft, as are her other sails—and her smaller mast, the mizzenmast, stands aft. This configuration improves her ability to sail before the wind, as compared to a pure fore-and-aft rig like a schooner, which sails best with the wind on her beam.

The Hawaiian Chieftain was built in Hawaii in 1988 and was originally intended for inter-island trade. Almost 20 years later, she was purchased by the Gray’s Harbor Historical Seaport in 2005 and began recreational and educational operations in the Pacific Northwest in 2006. She is typically manned by a crew of eight, and can carry as many as 45 guests.

Pacific Northwest Maritime History

So step aboard, put out to sea, and let the sights and sounds of a live sailing ship surround you. Listen to the rolling thump of crewmen running to their stations, the long snap! of a jib tightening in the wind, the hiss of a hull driven by wind rather than propeller. Watch as the crew, dressed in much-loved and ragged-patched period garb, speak in traditional maritime vernacular (slang!), and help passengers—at least, those that want to—tend the rig during maneuvers. And don't be surprised if the sailors break into shanties as they work.

The copyright of the article Adventure Sail On The Hawaiian Chieftain in Boating & Sailing is owned by John Pohl. Permission to republish Adventure Sail On The Hawaiian Chieftain in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.