"The Adopt-A-Ship plan dates back to the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. The plan provides the opportunity for a school to 'adopt' a ship of the American Merchant Marine and exchange correspondence with it.
"The purpose of the plan is to teach young Americans, the citizens of tomorrow, the need for an adequate American Merchant Marine for domestic and foreign operations. The term 'Merchant Marine' embraces not only the fleets of ocean and coastal vessels, but also those vessels on navigable rivers, lakes, bays, and sounds, and harbor craft as well.
"In addition to patriotic implications, the plan fosters interest in geography, history, transportation, foreign and domestic trade, and English. It affords children with an outlet for natural interest in the sea and teaches them something of the staunch character of the men and women of the American Merchant Marine."
After reading several of the letters I became so fascinated that I took them home so I could read them at my leisure. Unfortunately, once I got them home, the letters became buried in my own boxes of files. Here they remained until recently, when I stumbled upon them while cleaning out my own office. Curious as to why I had saved these in the first place, I began to read. Once having finished reading them the value contained in the children's queries along with the ship master's replies struck me as being of particular importance for the children of our state.
Alaska is a maritime state whose primary economic engine wholly depends on the waterborne commerce that visits our state each year. Oil, fish and tourism are the three major shipping cylinders of that engine. Given Alaska's relationship with the sea we would do well to do all that is in our power to encourage our children to leave behind for a moment their computers, TVs, cellphones, Facebook and Twitter. Instead, give them the opportunity to try their hands with pen and paper and let this age-old combination carry their natural curiosity down to the sea in the form of a hand-written letter to an unknown ship's master whose vessel sails somewhere along Alaska's 6,000-plus miles of coastline.
With luck perhaps one of those "old" ship masters will respond with one of the oldest traditions of the sea -- the observance and telling of a sea story. Sea stories provided sailors with their earliest form of entertainment. Not only did they entertain, they also passed on information, facts and wisdom. They were around before books, movies, television and radios. Even today, they are still revered, and on any ship or boat, whenever anyone says, "Now this is no bull...," everyone stops what they are doing to listen. The sea story engages people in the dance of life and in one-on-one communication. Speaker and listener. Story teller and audience. Me and you.
Bottom line: The Adopt-A-Ship program affords the shipping industry an opportunity to share with our citizens of tomorrow the important work they do along with the men and women who perform this work. By implementing this program it would enrich our schools, educational curriculum by offering our children a glimpse into an invisible world that impacts each Alaskan's life far more than most would realize.
And, who knows, maybe someday a few of those curious young minds who prove adventurous enough may choose to go discover for themselves one of the most mysterious and beautiful places left on our planet. The sea.
Capt. Pete Garay has spent the last 20 years of his career working in the remote waters of Western Alaska as a state-licensed marine pilot.
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