My name is Hank Wiest. I wanted to write about my thoughts and experiences with Niagara, though I’ve never considered myself good at putting thoughts to paper, so I ask that you bear with me. This may ramble a bit.  

A little about me: I was raised in Erie and have lived here my entire life. Amusingly, Niagara’s sea trials took place the day I turned one (18 July 1990), but I’d be lying if I said that Niagara was anything more than a background presence for most of my childhood. That’s not to say she isn’t special, believe me she is; just as a child, my thoughts and attention were largely directed elsewhere. 

I started to really get into naval history and tall ships shortly after meeting my now father-in-law in 2012. An amateur historian, he loved the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian, and I slowly but surely started to take more of an interest in the maritime history of Erie. In hindsight, I wish I had gone more in depth sooner, started earlier, all that stuff, but one can’t change the past, only adapt for the future. At the time I was working manufacturing, first for a plating company, then a fabrication facility, then a winery, of all things.

Things started in earnest for me when I was between jobs in the summer of 2019. I spent a fair amount of time down at Dobbins Landing, and took a great amount of joy watching Niagara and Lettie G. HowardThe Lettie G. Howard is a historic schooner currently operated by the Flagship Niagara League(FNL) in Erie and owned by the South Street Seaport Museum(SSSM) in New York City. Buil... sail. Something about seeing the ships was very soothing, and made me forget about the other worries I had, if only for a little while. I would often go down just to watch the ships, and one day happened to be at the dock at the same time Niagara was there. By some stroke of luck, I got to introduce myself to Captain Christopher Cusson, who was gracious enough to take a little time to speak with me, and he suggested that I get involved with Winter Sail Training.

This was a game changer. Before then, I didn’t even know that was a thing you could do. I made a mental note to look into that, but what really cemented my interest was attending Tall Ships Erie 2019, and my first daysail on Lettie G. Howard that October. I could write an essay on what the sail on Lettie meant to me personally, but that isn’t the topic of this particular piece. Suffice to say, I was determined to get involved and sail Niagara, especially since I, at this point, had heard about her voyage programs and thought those sounded like the coolest thing in the world. 

Come January of 2020, I started volunteering in the rig shop. The original plan was to do maintenance on the rig, uprig the ship, and then volunteer as much as I possibly could (since by this point I was back to work in the aforementioned winery). I had a lot of fun in the first few months of the year, painting, staining, sanding, learning all I could. And then COVID hit, and everything shut down. I was devastated, but continued to participate in whatever capacities were possible. One of the things that was set up was virtual sail training over Zoom, and while not the most ideal for hands on skills, it was very important for the camaraderie it instilled. My fellow volunteers became very dear friends. 

In May of 2021, I found myself in between jobs again. Unfortunately, Niagara was still unable to sail in 2021, but I hadn’t given up on that particular goal and decided to volunteer as much as I could and learn the ropes (pun intended) on Lettie. That August I was hired by FNL as Captain William Sabatini’s Executive Assistant, and for the first time I felt actually happy in a job. Manufacturing was always just a thing I did to pay the bills, but being involved with Niagara through my work at the League… Never before had I actually been excited about getting to work. 

The real magic hit in June of 2022 when I was assigned to Niagara as an Ordinary Seafarer. Finally, after three years of waiting, I would get to actually sail her! We had taken her to shipyard in late 2021, true, but just under motor.  Now we could actually use the wind. I got to see the voyage programs first hand, witness a group of teenagers step on board knowing very little about the ship, learn and grow over the two weeks they were there, and by the end of it have a greater understanding of the ship and themselves. I sailed both Lakes Erie and Huron that summer, along the way discovering what has now hit the top of my list of places to visit again, Alpena, MI. My favorite part was always the night watches. Having been interested in astronomy from a young age, the opportunity to observe a literal sea of stars with zero light pollution was awe inspiring, and I can’t remember the last time I was able to actually see the Milky Way. 

My time on Niagara in 2022 was brief since I was needed to help on the organizational side of Tall Ships Erie 2022, but I was now doubly excited for what 2023 would hold. Captain SabatiniFleet Captain William "Billy" Sabatini is the executive director and fleet captain of the Flagship Niagara League. Sabatini grew up in southeastern Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and ... had also been shifting me to more of a hybrid office/ship role, as he knew my passion was to sail the ships and he wanted to encourage that. So I split my time between the office and the rig shop helping out with maintenance and getting Niagara ready for the 2023 season. I was excited because I was slated to be an Ordinary Seafarer again. I loved being aboard. The way the hammock swayed with the ship to rock one to sleep, the quiet and peaceful watches at night, even things that were stressful in the moment turned into fond memories after the fact. 

I was on two voyage programs in 2023 before being shifted over to help uprig Lettie, with the plan being I would rejoin Niagara for the College Science program, which was particularly exciting to me since we’d be going back to Alpena, Michigan. Unfortunately, Niagara lost her starboard prop and with it, the rest of her sailing season. The seasonal crew were dismissed and dispersed to other ships while the staff stayed on until the end of 2023, when PHMCThe Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the state agency that stewards the U.S. Brig Niagara and Erie Maritime Museum. The PHMC is responsible for the collect... declined to renew the service contract with FNL.

All of this is to say that while things took an unexpected turn for me, my current career (and what I hope to do for a good long while yet) all started with Niagara. True, my first sail was on Lettie, but seeing Niagara fully rigged and all canvas spread is what ignited the spark that this is what I want to do, so much so that I’ve studied and put in for a Mate’s license. I want to see these beautiful ships preserved and used to their fullest potential in teaching arts and skills that would otherwise be forgotten in a world that no longer requires them. I’ve seen young people literally transform after a voyage program, discover more about themselves and what they can and want to do, and I don’t want that experience to be taken away from future generations. To do so would be a travesty beyond my ability to describe. 

As I stated before I was in manufacturing for nigh on a decade, and I didn’t like it. Sailing and sail training fulfills me in a way that I’ve never felt before, and I’ll never stop being grateful that I got to experience that. It put me on a path . Now all I want is for Niagara to continue to inspire people the way she inspired me, and I feel the best way that can happen is under sail. Niagara inspires people wherever she goes, and to have her confined to one small area of the Great Lakes would be a tremendous loss. She carries with her the story of the War of 1812, the tale of the Battle of Lake Erie, and the goodwill of the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Erie.

While I’ve admittedly been involved with tall ships for much less time than a lot of my peers, I’ve heard and been witness to so many stories of what Niagara means to those who sail her, and all of those stories have a common thread: the experience of sailing. Tall ships are magic, there’s no other way to put it. You don’t truly understand until you hear the wind in the rigging, feel the callouses form on your hands from hauling lines, adjust to the sway of the ship as she moves through the water, and get a view from the fighting top with not a speck of land in sight.  

I don’t harbor any notions that anything I could say could influence the course of how things are currently going with the Brig. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t express in no uncertain terms that Niagara deserves to sail, and more than that, deserves to be sailed by those who understand and respect what she is and what she is capable of. And what she is capable of is transforming lives. I know, because she transformed mine.  

DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP.