San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park - For Teachers (U.S. National Park Service)

Children on the sailing ship Balclutha hauling on a line to raise a sail.

NPS

Marseille Pope, seasonal park ranger and first grade teacher, helps her class raise the staysail on the historic ship Balclutha.

The park offers a variety of educational opportunities from lessons to use in the classroom to ranger-led programs aboard the historic ships at Hyde Street Pier.

A Field Trip Guide (1.2 MB) for the fourth and fifth grades is available. This guide contains information on the ships in the collection and pre-visit, on-site, and post-visit activities.

Two curriculums are also available:

California and the Sea is a series of eight lessons for the fourth grade.

The Voyages curriculum is for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders and is linked to the exhibits on display in the park's visitor center.

Turning the capstan on Balcluth's foredeck.

A park ranger leads the singing of a sea chantey while visitors turn the capstan on the foredeck of Balclutha. The capstan is a type of winch that was used on board to raise the anchor.