LITTLE CURRENT—The pirate ship Liana’s Ransom stole into the Port of Little Current early last week and made off with a treasure-trove of Sea Cadets and their officers.
Liana’s Ransom, and her pirate crew, are the nicest kind of brigands as, after a fun-filled six hour cruise, they brought everyone back to port safe and sound…and well fed.
Everything about Liana’s Ransom, whose home port is Halifax, is somewhat whimsical: she is named for example after owner/captain Joe Tilley’s wife Liana and her childhood dog, Ransom.
The ship’s hull is steel, but is cleverly clad with wood and her impressive wheel was part of the décor in a Texas restaurant that was converting from a seafood place to a steak house. Captain Tilley, who retired from the Royal Canadian Navy after a career of more than 20 years, decided he wanted to remain on the water and so, in 2005 he bought an 85-foot schooner hull in Texas, rigged the craft with two large outboard motors and sailed her home to Halifax in 2006. The big ship’s wheel, acquired at the same time, was the start of the transformation to pirate ship.
Captain Tilley himself created the gaff rigged, square topsail, shallow draft schooner pirate ship in 2006 and 2007 and she’s been helping to create happy memories ever since.
This summer, she’s on a cruise of the Great Lakes and has taken several other Sea Cadet groups out for adventures.
Last Tuesday’s group of 16 Manitoulin Sea Cadets, two corps officers, two Navy League members (one of whom brought along two grandchildren for the experience), was in this tradition and the first thing the young people were invited to do was don “pirate’s” long coats festooned with lots of brass buttons and also classic three-cornered hats.
They helped raise and lower the anchor, raise the sails and swung from ropes.
The cruise happened to be on a rainy day but no one’s enthusiasm was daunted, nor was anyone’s appetite as all hands were treated to an all-you-could-eat hot dog and hamburger feast. And, yes, it’s true: one Manitoulin Sea Cadet downed seven full-size hamburgers before he declared himself satisfied.
The cruise took everyone as far west as Louisa Island where all Sea Cadets and their officers (and sundry other hangers-on) opted for shore leave to explore the locally-popular beach, not minding the steady rain.
Approaching Louisa Island, Manitoulin Sea Cadets Training Officer Lieutenant (N) Denis Blake spotted a bald eagle perched in the branches mid-way up a pine tree on a northeastern headland. The good eyesight of the young people was a match for Lieutenant Blake’s and the young men and women packed the appropriate side of the bow of Liana’s Ransom to take in this added bonus to the trip. Everyone was rewarded when the bird soared from its perch and displayed its enormous wingspan as it moved to another spot across the water.
The Sea Cadets opted to be below decks on the return trip to Little Current in an attempt to not get any wetter and only Lieutenant Blake remained on deck, sharing the bridge with Captain Tilley.
Captain Tilley is a man who clearly enjoys what he is doing.
He built his boat himself and, like the eighteenth century pirates he and his crew conjure up for the young people who come aboard for a fun experience, he goes where he wants. Every fall, he and his wife make the trip from Canada to the Caribbean where he bases himself at a particular port, like Roadtown in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and gives local residents and tourists the same kind of experiences (but in a setting where nearly 300 years ago, actual pirates did ply their trade).
He hires local crews there, just as he does in Canada in the summertime. Of the three barefoot youths that were the crew on the Sea Cadets’ trip, the lone young woman, who is from Nova Scotia, has just completed a two-year course towards her welder’s ticket and, in the fall is heading west to gain hours and practical experience towards realizing this goal. She described herself mysteriously as “a pirate’s daughter” and the back of her neck was proudly tattooed “East Coast”.
Another member of the good natured barefoot crew in period dress was from Jamaica and had crewed last winter aboard Liana’s Ransom during her Caribbean cruise, coming north to explore the Great Lakes. The lone lucky central Canadian crew member is a second-year pirate from the Niagara Peninsula who met Liana’s Ransom at lock five on the Welland Canal and jumped aboard for another season, suitcase in hand, according to Captain Tilley.
On her return to port in Little Current, the Sea Cadets had another opportunity to quickly travel nearly the entire 85 foot length of the ship, pirate style, grasping a rope that was firmly tied high overhead to one of the masts and then pushing out over the water and, acting as the pendulum weight, flying quickly from stern to bow.
One Sea Cadet, Tim Vanvolkingburgh from Mindemoya, like the champion hamburger eater, repeated the trick a half dozen times. Nearly all of the cadets (and one nine-year-old Navy League grandson) had more than one ship-long swing, dockside, with a small onshore audience looking on.
Another bit of whimsy that is part of a Liana’s Ransom cruise is the “firing of the cannon”. She is fitted with four miniature cannons and, returning to Little Current, the town received a four-gun salute after the tiny barrels were packed with black powder, the ramrod driving down paper to hold it in place (no shot) and a crew member poured a little powder on top of each cannon barrel leading to the detonation hole by way of a fuse. The four adult members of the party (two Navy League board members and the two Sea Cadet officers) were recruited to each fire a cannon and sing out the memorable and classic line “fire in the hole!” when the fuse powder was detonated.
Another special event was the welcoming aboard Liana’s Ransom of Sea Cadet Quinton Cosby’s brother Josh when the ship docked in Little Current. The young man is confined to a wheelchair which was slightly too wide for the gangway passage so the chair’s wheels were removed and two of Captain Tilley’s young salts deftly lifted a smiling and delighted Josh in his wheelchair onto the ship.
Liana’s Ransom had most recently visited Collingwood where she had taken a capacity group of 70 Barrie Sea Cadets and Navy League members for a cruise and the Little Current visit was initiated by Manitoulin Navy League president Bob Jewell when he learned that the pirate ship would be passing through the North Channel en route to Sault Ste. Marie (and another Sea Cadet cruise) from Collingwood.
The Manitoulin Sea Cadets who were able to participate (another seven were away at various military camp experiences) earned their passage, fundraising through the sales of car wash tickets for Hill Top Shell in Little Current. (The company provides this ongoing support for the Manitoulin Sea Cadets fundraising efforts.)
At the end of the day, after the Sea Cadets had posed for photos with Captain Tilley and his pirate crew, Manitoulin Sea Cadets Commanding Officer Lieutenant (N) Maggie King formally thanked Captain Tilley and his crew for providing the fortunate group of young Manitoulin Sea Cadets with not only a sailing experience but one that was fun-filled as well. Captain Tilley responded by saying how beautiful the North Channel is and how much he and his crew were enjoying this, for them, new sailing experience.
While the Liana’s Ransom captain and crew give the impression of a fun-filled, laid-back whimsical group, a life and death experience in which the ship and her crew played a pivotal rescuing role only a few days before the Little Current stop demonstrates how businesslike they are in their seamanship.
Nothing was mentioned of the event last week, but The Expositor subsequently learned that Liana’s Ransom had played a heroic part in a rescue at sea only a few days before her Little Current visit.
During a pirate adventure cruise out of Collingwood on July 12, Liana’s Ransom had come upon a man and a woman who were in the chilly waters of Georgian Bay, each in the early stages of hypothermia.
The woman had gone into the water from a sailboat with the idea of a refreshing swim but quickly had begun to succumb to the cold temperatures. A man had jumped in to help her but the cold water quickly took its toll on him as well and other people on their sailboat were inexperienced sailors and didn’t know how to use the emergency gear they had aboard.
The crew of Liana’s Ransom quickly had the ship’s seaboat in the water and raced to pick up the distressed pair who, fortunately, did not require medical attention.
Captain Tilley said when he and his crew saw what was going on, they immediately initiated the emergency drills they practice every week, giving his crew accolades for their quick thinking that interrupted what could easily have been a tragedy.
