HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA | Wednesday June 14, 2006
South Sea treasures on the block
Picton Castle hawking everything from teak tables to brain forks
By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/509994.html
LUNENBURG - A few dozen teak sea chests with mother-of-pearl inlays,
a
sprinkling of brightly coloured umbrellas, heaps of sarongs, a couple
of leather armchairs and a bowl full of eyeball forks - why, it's
enough to wear out even the most hardened customer.
"I am so sick of shopping," says Lynsey Rebbetoy, who oversaw trading
for these marvellously exotic goods as bosun on the barque Picton
Castle.
The ****p - the last square-rigger on the planet to engage in trading
while under sail between more than 20 ****ts around the world -
returns
to Lunenburg on Saturday from its fourth circumnavigation.
The ****p's giant South Seas Cargo Sale will be held on the historic
sea town's waterfront from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5
p.m. Sunday.
There are intricate model boats made in Indonesia, exquisitely carved
sea mammals made by the descendants of Fletcher Christian on Pitcairn
Island, aromatic kitchen bowls inlaid with cinnamon, mother-of-pearl
pate knives, hand-loomed ikat fabrics from the Indonesian island of
Sumatra, hand-beaded bowls from Bali and brilliantly woven cottons
from the Galapagos.
It was Ms. Rebbetoy's job, often with skipper Dan Moreland and ****p's
purser Kimberly Helms along for sup****t, to find and barter for these
treasures.
"We start with just going and looking and looking, and when we get
sick of looking we go back to the places where we found the stuff that
we like a lot and we start to deal," she said.
While there's a lot of bartering involved, Ms. Rebbetoy said merchants
are often happy to haggle when there's a large sale at stake.
"Some of them scream and shout that they're broke," and one side
usually walks out for a while, then comes back to resume negotiations.
The results are some of the gorgeous finds that will be on display
Saturday under a tent or in the red warehouse beside the Picton
Castle's berth.
New to this year's sale are large furniture items, including teak
dining tables inlaid with mother-of-pearl and huge leather-bound
armchairs with footstools that swing out from under the armrests.
Ms. Rebbetoy said this sale is possible because the goods were ****pped
back in an 18-metre container before the Picton Castle's return.
The proceeds of the sale will go toward keeping the Picton Castle
afloat. The three-masted ****p provides deep-ocean sail training and
long-distance education, distributing donated Nova Scotia school books
and supplies to needy villages.
The vessel has a partner****p with World Wise, a non-profit education
foundation, and the Mystic Sea****t museum in Connecticut. The
northeastern U.S. museum is home to the Charles W. Morgan, the world's
last surviving wooden whaling ****p. The Picton Castle is retracing the
Morgan's voyages, and Erin Standing of Cape Breton is writing a
journal for schoolchildren explaining the similarities and differences
in colourful detail.
Trainees, who pay $36,000 US, learn the art of tall ****p sailing and
take classes in seaman****p, navigation and boat handling while
immersing themselves in the unique cultures of exotic locales.
And for shoppers with a taste for the exotic, you can pick up a brain
fork, once used - actually these are new, not used - by cannibals
in
Fiji. Or, if you're just looking for an appetizer set, there are
smaller eyeball forks for those with more defined tastes.
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