by Eric Tolton
Marine Heritage Society
On Thursday morning, the TS Playfair sailed from Port Elgin Harbour to Southampton. The crew and students were met at the harbour by Eric Tolton and Wayne Kaufman of the Marine Heritage Society, who escorted them to the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre, where they were given a tour of the exhibits.
They showed a great deal of interest during the visit and, of most interest to the participants, was the Museum’s life-like exhibit of the HMS General Hunter. Both the General Hunter and the TS Playfair are two masted, square sailed brigs of similar size so the crew and students were right at home handling the rigging of the exhibit and, in fact, re-rigged the sails on the General Hunter to the way that they should be.
After the tour, Eric gave them a presentation on the Imperial Lighthouses of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay using the Museum’s Fresnel Lens to explain the features. Wayne then explained to them about the Signal Baskets and explained how they were used to communicate weather forecasts to passing ships.
After the tour, the crew returned to their ship in the Harbour and set sail for Kincardine where they will remain until Sunday. The ship is part of the ‘Youth at Sea’ summer camp program for teens 13 – 18.
