Tall Ships A Page Out of History.

The age of the clipper has been called the most remarkable ten years of sail in the history of the world. From earliest Colonial times shipbuilding was an important occupation on the Atlantic Seaboard. The clipper was the result of American design and craftsmanship. Built for speed as well as trade, these ships were the pride of the seas during the 1800s--carrying goods between east and west coast cities as well as to foreign ports such as China and the West Indies.

Ships in History

The majestic beauty of the tall ships and their role in history became the focus of an art project that tied into our fifth grade studies of American History, Exploration, and the Westward Expansion.

We began the project by looking at a map of the world, and turning back time to before the Panama Canal--when ships regularly traveled the dangerous route around Cape Horn from Boston to San Francisco, and to foreign ports in the Mediterranean and China Seas.

For resource material we had photographs of the Tall Ships from "Operation Sail," library books on clipper ships, a three-dimensional model of the USS Constitution, and a seascape by Winslow Homer. With these simple resources and a supply of construction paper, we opened our shipyard. Our slogan was "A ship is built from the bottom up." Our young shipwrights began by designing a shape for the hull, then adding masts and sails. A box of donated graphics art tape became prized material for creating the ropes and rigging.

Shipbuilding

As we sailed through our project, we listened to sea chanties, and read excerpts from books about "life at sea."

Once the ships were completed, it was time to create the scenery. What type of weather would each ship encounter? The students either selected skies from construction paper colors or created them by blending colored chalks on white paper. Next the water--would it be calm or stormy? Oceans were created by layering torn or cut paper waves in varying shades of blue.

Setting Sail

As their scenery neared completion, the students set their ships to sail in the water and then added final details with marker and cut paper. Flags, lifeboats, whales, portholes, people ... each ship took on its own personality as the pictures evolved.

When all the Clipper Ships were ready for display, we launched a "Parade of Sail" in the halls and classrooms of the school.

Our voyage on the high seas was over, but its educational impact remains. For both teacher and students, this project brought home the dramatic power and beauty of the Tall Ships both as a product of American craftsmanship and a significant factor in the growth of American commerce and communication.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students identify connections between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum.

Resources

Lasky, Kathryn and Knight, Christopher, Tall Ships. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Lyon, Jane D., Clipper Ships and Captains. New York, American Heritae Publishing, 1962.

Alexander, Kay, Learning to Look and Create: Spectra Program, Lesson #11. California, Dale Seymour, 1988.

Joan Cassidy is an art teacher at Main Dunstable School in Nashua, New Hampshire.