Dreamers before the Mast: The History of the Tall Ship Regina Maris

• Main Author: Kerr, John
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@Linfield 2023
• Subjects: maritime history; tall ships; sailing; Linfield College; alumni; Regina Maris; Cultural History; History; United States History; Arctic; Greenland; Humpback Whale
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/lca_alumni_books/1; https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/context/lca_alumni_books/article/1000/viewcontent/DreamersBeforeTheMast3rdEdRevPublishedVersion.pdf

Dreamers before the Mast chronicles the epic story of Regina Maris, a tall ship built, owned, sailed, and loved from 1908 to 2000 by people who had big dreams of ships and the sea — and who made those dreams come true. Each chapter of Dreamers before the Mast recounts the hard work and hair-raising adventures experienced by Regina’s owners, captains, crew members, scientists, and students, often in their own words through extensive interviews and excerpts from diaries and journals, letters, and the ship’s logs. All material is fully documented, and the book includes a complete index and detailed appendices. The dreams Regina helped realize varied widely, and the ship experienced several reincarnations. Launched as a top-sail schooner in 1908, Regina (as she was called until 1966, when her official name was changed to Regina Maris) carried cargo in the Baltic Sea and fished for herring and cod off the Grand Banks. In World War II, she allegedly rescued Jews fleeing the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Re-imagined as a private yacht, she was rebuilt in 1964 and rigged as a barkentine to fulfill her owners’ dreams of rounding Cape Horn and sailing the world’s oceans, inspiring cities and nations to obtain their own tall ships. And, in 1969 she re-traced Captain James Cook's route of discovery to Australia for the bicentennial of that historic voyage, representing the Queen of England and her Royal Navy. Turned into a cruise ship in 1970, she sailed around the Pacific, visiting French Polynesia and Mexico many times and surviving two hurricanes a week apart. In 1976, Regina Maris was once again reincarnated, this time as an oceanographic research vessel. As such, she was instrumental in documenting the “singing” behavior of the humpback whale and cataloguing these whales’ unique fluke patterns, making it possible to document their migration through the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, from the Arctic to the Galapagos and Greenland to the Caribbean. At many points in this varied career, Regina was featured in movies and ...