In a Cloud of Sails

Built in the shadows of the Second Narrows Bridge, in North Vancouver, the Monte Cristo sailed proudly out to English Bay, then nearly capsized!
The three-masted barque looked wonderful, but there were many flaws in her construction. Shortly, she found herself sitting in a Washington state drydock beside Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso. With more ballast and major re-rigging, the ship was ready to hit the Pacific. The young crew barely made it down to San Francisco.
There, after real sailors correct a number of her faults, she took a boatload of folks to Alcatraz Island, recently decommissioned as a prison. It wasn’t the new captain’s fault that a native jumped overboard to re-claim the island for his indigenous tribe.
Nevertheless, the authorities were furious.
The Monte Cristo escaped. She sailed out to Tahiti where Marlon Brand was enamoured with her sleek lines – before a hurricane toar her sails to shreds.Next year, with new rigging, she sailed westward, changed her name to Endeavour II, and became the feature ship Australia’s Bicentenary Celebrations. The Queen and all the world’s dignitaries marvelled at the wooden wonder from Canada. Then things got worse.