This is an open letter from Muriel Curtis. Muriel is the director of the Station Maine, a youth rowing & leadership development program which operates near Rockland, ME. Station Maine formed a collaborative partnership with the FNL to bring some of her students aboard Niagara for a week long program. Her letter speaks to the good Niagara and her crew was able to accomplish

https://www.stationmaine.org/

Station Maine

Station Maine
75 Mechanic Street
Rockland, ME, 04841
207-691-2037
www.stationmaine.org

To Whom it May Concern,
I am writing to express my deep concern for the brig Niagara and the apparent dissolution of her professional and volunteer crew.

Every spring, from 2012 until Covid cut so many things from our lives the young crew of Station Maine traveled from Rockland, Maine to Erie to work and sail with the crew of Niagara. Most years we were privileged to sail, sometimes with local high school students as passengers. Some years we just worked. It didn’t seem to matter. The completely absorbing welcome that my young crew received from Niagara’s crew pushed and encouraged them in ways nothing has before or since.

Several of my young crew members who sailed Niagara have gone on to maritime careers. Lily Van Steenberg attended Annapolis, graduating in the top 1% of her class. In her freshman year she was voted by her classmates as the person from whom they would most willingly take orders. She remained with the Navy for seven years. Aiden Thorpe sailed Niagara two years after Lily. He joined the Coast Guard upon graduation. Chris Manks attended Maine Maritime and subsequently joined the Navy. Zach Manks joined the Navy immediately after high school. Both are still serving. All of these young people learned so much about leadership from Niagara. They learned to be shipmates, an elusive yet worthy skill that can only be learned by sharing the very close quarters of a ship.

Willow Guild did not move on to maritime glory. But she grew in more important ways. She gave a presentation to her entire school about her week on Niagara. It was the first time ever that she found the courage to talk in front of her peers. Her principal told me that she would never attribute such a life change to a single week’s experience. Until now. Niagara genuinely changed Willow’s life.

Clearly from the coast of Maine I cannot understand the divisions that surround Niagara. I do need to express how very important the training on Niagara has been in the lives of the young crews of Station Maine, and certainly in the lives of hundreds of others. It would be a great loss to the growing movement of experiential education and the growing tall ship fleet if Niagara was no longer permitted to sail, and
work, and interpret her history for this next generation. I hope you will keep her alive.

Sincerely,

Muriel Curtis,
Director, Station Maine