HMS Bounty arrives in Halifax on Thursday July 16, 2009 to participate in Tall Ships Nova Scotia Festival 2009. Organizers are expecting up to 50 historic and unique vessels during the two week event. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
HALIFAX, N.S. - Capt. Jack Sparrow look-a-likes swagger next to rows of fully-rigged schooners and barques as officers wearing feathered hats and cropped jackets call out to women in corseted dresses.
But it’s not a Pirates of the Caribbean convention.
The Tall Ships Nova Scotia Festival swung into high gear on Saturday as tens of thousands of people gathered on the Halifax waterfront to get a close look at 40 vessels from 13 countries.
Organizers expect 80,000 visitors to pump $40 million into the province’s economy during the two-week festival.
On Monday, most of the ships will take part in a parade of sail through the harbour, with some of them leaving for other ports around Nova Scotia.
Among the ships on display are the Canadian schooner Bluenose II, a replica of the HMS Bounty, made famous by a Hollywood film about the mutiny against Capt. Bligh in 1789, and the Amistad, a copy of the famous slave ship.
But one of the most impressive ships is the 114-metre Kruzenshtern, a giant Russian barque that loomed out of the fog that shrouded the waterfront.
With 56-metre masts, the Kruzenshtern is the second-largest sailing ship in the world and one of the fastest in its class. Its sails have an area of 3,900 square-metres, which could cover two-and-a-half hockey rinks.
The ship typically has four masts, but the front one snapped in half in a gale off Bermuda last month.
Victor Saleev, one of the ship’s 121 cadets, says he’s enjoyed the rough weather since he first came aboard in April.
"It’s very interesting - new countries, new ports, many interesting people," says the 17-year-old, who grew up in Kaliningrad, the ship’s home port on the Baltic Sea. "It’s been a very long journey."
At first, having to scale the tall masts was frightening, but now his duties are routine. He doesn’t complain about living under the deck in small quarters shared with 15 other cadets.
Visitors can’t see the living quarters, but they can tour an ornate wood-panelled chapel, lit with candles and decorated with gilded paintings of religious figures.
Below deck, narrow halls lead to the museum - a carpeted room where the Kruzenshtern’s history is documented in glass cabinets lined with photos, signed logs and gleaming trophies.
The ship’s chief navigator, Romashkin Evgeniy, says the ship was built in Germany in 1926 as a cargo vessel, but it also served as a hospital ship during the Second World War.
She was given to Russia after the war and renamed after a Baltic explorer.
After major repairs, the Kruzenshtern became a training ship in 1973.
Evgeniy says the ship is famous for circumventing the globe twice and winning two transatlantic races, including the Race of the Century in 2000.
"That was my favourite when we won," he said in an interview.
When the Kruzenshtern leaves Halifax on Monday, it will head to St. John’s, N.L., and then back to Russia before starting a South American tour in October.
