News - distance education Students will trade walls for trade winds Boston University's Maritime Education program launched under the aegis of Metropolitan College sailed into distinction, winning the prestigious American Sail Training Award for its maiden voyage. Along with a daily sail training session in which professional crew taught everything from navigation to knot tying, students stood watch eight hours of every twenty-four. They steered, set and stroke sails, raised the 2,000-pound anchor by collectively training the capstan, washed down the deck with saltwater, performed exhaustive boat checks, did the dishes, and cleaned the heads. Into this demanding daily schedule, course instructor, Tim Walker, incorporated two-hour lectures on Maritime History. Students studied travel and trade among Europe, Africa, and South and North America from the early fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries.
People tend to forget that sailing once tied everything together.
Two hundred years ago, the London and Liverpool docks each employed 50,00 people. A hundred years ago, this Inner Harbor looked like a forest with all the masts. At 179 feet, spar to stern, and 500 tons, the Rose is the largest wooden sailing ship in the world. Walker was instrumental in conceptualizing and bringing to fruition, Boston University's unique maritime education program. Teaming up with the crew of the Alabama , the Maritime Education program is poised to provide the adventurous and passionate student with an unprecedented learning opportunity.